As many of you know, I have a slight commute (33 kilometers to be exact) to one of the places where we spend a lot of time. After spending a minimum of two hours one way on the very popular and beloved 98 and 170 buses, I decided that something must change. Thankfully, it did.
Allow me to introduce you to "the Hog." Yes folks, she's a beaut and totally electric. I make 50 km/hr in an easy 10 seconds and with a range of around 50k I am free as a bird. Here is a list of the top ten things I see on the road around here:
#10 - Five 98 buses, and 3-4 170 buses, all in my rear view mirrors and all full of people. For at least 3 seconds I feel sorry for them, and then I move on.
#9 - A dozen horse drawn carts, carrying anything from scrap metal to incredibly enormous pieces of foam.
#8 - 7.2 million people who are far from familiar with the rules of the road, American rules that is.
#7 - An entire generation of young men in incredibly tight jeans and David Bowie hair holding lacy sun-umbrellas over their girlfriends' pretty heads as they walk and chew on chicken feet.
#6 - Car, after truck, after horse drawn cart, after weird tractor-like vehicle, after Mian Bao Che (literally bread van, because it is shaped like a loaf of bread) stuck in traffic as I zoom past in the bike lane.
#5 - The beautiful mountains that are normally hidden when one is deep in the streets or between the tall buildings of our city.
#4 - Many old ladies, each of which uses her entire body to hock up a massive loogie that I must be sure to dodge.
#3 - At least twenty "smelly" dofu carts, frying away their shockingly smelly dofu (tofu), which I have tried once and can say with certainty that I have had my full.
#2 - The face of the shop owner near campus who so graciously lets me charge the Hog up for my ride home.
#1 - One massive, vintage, projected picture of Santa that covers the entire side of one building and totally weirds me out.
