When I first arrived in US, I had a very traumatic experience while I was trying to find an apartment to stay. I was used to much smaller distances, the ones we have in Greece, and it was quite a shocking experience the fact that I had to walk so much. Thinking that period now, I guess I was too stressed since I wasn't speaking the language so well and this constant feeling of insecurity was always there and was distorting things. In the end I managed to find an apartment but my conclusion was that without a car I might die in US. I guess I can be such a drama queen sometimes.
I bought a nice new car and I still have it. It is a nice Honda Fit quite small for the US standarts but I was and still am very happy to drive it.
The purpose of this post however, is not to talk about my car, or the awful experience of apartment hunting but to write down my experiences from my first week of bike commuting to school. Of course the point is the future me to see how much I changed the last two years and from "without a car I will die" to commuting by biking to work. Therefore, this is just a checkpoint-post.
My commute is pretty brief; it is around 3 miles. The route from house to university is easier since the road is slightly downhill. When commuting from home to school I develop an average speed of 19mph and the time I spend to cover this distance is around 9.5 minutes. On the way back from school usually am kind of tired from work so my average speed is lower, around 15mph, and I cover the distance in around 12 minutes. Some things I have already noticed this first week of biking is that MD drivers don't like bikers that much and can be aggressive sometimes when they are passing next to you. A second note is that MD is not Switzerland therefore, there are no dedicated lanes for bikers in the most streets. The quality of the asfalt is not great but is not terrible either; however, I fear that the area around the university will cause many flat tire situations in the future.
My bike is the white Bianchi Vigorelli that I have posted here. It has a frame made of steel and a carbon fork, it wears the 2011 Shimano 105 and probably its name will be Charlie or Maverick. My helmet is the red-black helmet of the picture. Interesting fact the name (given from the company, Giro) of the helmet is Ionos and probably comes from the greek word "ιονός" which means sign but with a twist of mysticism.
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