Pack Mentality

So today was my first day in Amsterdam. There are bicycles everywhere, like pollen in the spring; I cannot get over how many there are. A few bike tours, but mainly locals who use them as their daily mode of transportation. They are trendy, complete with basket or a knapsack on the back, a makeshift seat for friends, and most importantly a bell to alert me that I'm about to be run over. The confusing thing about Amsterdam (to me, at least) is that in order to cross the street, you can't walk to what appears to be the edge of the sidewalk, but rather 4-feet prior to the edge because there is a bike lane that bears a striking resemblance to the sidewalk. So, I quickly learned to mirror my fellow pedestrians and cross when they do. The tram, car, or bike can't fatally injure us all--and I always make sure to be on the inside so that I am merely knocked down and not run over. This strategy is very similar to Manhattan, which I often refer to as a daily game of frogger--except I feel that this is an advanced level that requires much more effort. Either way, I'm begining to get the hang of it, but my strengths at "dodgeball" has convinced me that a bike tour through Amsterdam is not in my cards. I fancy myself as an athletic person and I remember learning to ride my pink flowered banana seat bike on the paved sidewalk in front of my house in Chicago; and as they say, it's just like riding a bike, you just get back on, but me and bikes just don't seem to mesh anymore. Megan Walsh can vouch for me, as our bike tour in 2001 through Brugges and Munich seemed to turn me into a complete klutz--broken sunglasses, knocking over my fellow tour members (including my cousin) all because I forgot how to hold a bike steady (while stopped mind you), going down the wrong way of a two-way bike path and causing the local to veer into the grass (while using words I thankfully didn't understand), and the only one to be covered in a wall of water when the bus drove by. I feel my ability to no longer be seriously injured on a bike may have run its course (and lets face it, I'm not a spring chicken anymore ha-ha). I would prefer to avoid the label of the tourist that took out the pack of locals because I used the bell instead of the break. Looks like more museums tomorrow. Lastly, my punishment for being lame and going to see a movie in Amsterdam is that the theater had mice, one that was a chair over to my right. I fled to the back (I really wanted to see the movie) and managed to develop a nervous twitch in my leg that kept my chair shaking the entire time, in an effort to scare the mice away from me. It seemed to work, although I haven't checked my bag yet. Sweet dreams.