Biking in Utopia

I went to ulpan for the first time since we left for vacation. Oy vavoy! I'll need to study and catch up because after missing eight lessons, I'm feeling a little rusty.

The spring weather is still pleasantly cool, but you can tell that hot, humid summer is just around the corner. I bike to ulpan in the morning, and I haven't decided what to do yet when it gets hot. I won't be a blessing to my fellow classmates if I arrive and plop down in the seat next to them all hot and sweaty. Biking in Israel is nothing like biking in the States, except for the fact that you're on a bike. The sidewalks are more bumpy and have many dips, lamp posts, bus stops, trash/yard debris piles, and parked cars to avoid. Many times, I give up on the sidewalk altogether and just head out onto the road, which is where I always ride in the States. Unfortunately, the roads were not designed for bikers and have no shoulder. Our bike trip has trained me to wear a helmet, and since I'm a good girl :-), I always do, but here, I feel the necessity of a helmet. There are some less handle-bar-gripping times that I look forward to on my ulpan trip. On the return trip, it is largely downhill - a delight to any biker(should I be saying cyclist?). There is one stretch where fields stretch out on either side of the road as if a claustrophobic person stood on the road and pushed away the city with all its buildings and high rise apartments for just a few hundred yards. On this downhill stretch stand sentinels at regular intervals: slender, leafy trees, bright green in the warm spring weather. These stand on the right side of the sidewalk with lamp posts set in the left side between every other tree. Gliding downhill, I cut left, right, left, back and forth between the trees and the lamp posts. The trees whoosh, whoosh, whoosh by me. That is my favorite part of the whole ride, when, lulled into the security of the sidewalk, I want to take my helmet off and let the breeze blow over me.