Hopes and Aspirations for the class

 I can’t believe this trip is right around he corner! Just a few days ago I was in (what seemed to) be a never-ending cycle of being a student on campus. It is nice to finally be able to break away from that and to shift all of my attention towards my awesome study abroad class that is upon me! 

Anyways. In terms of hopes and aspirations… if I were to sum it up into one sentence I guess you could say that I want to ‘understand the hype’ about what bikes are really like.

I love riding bikes already. I was an occasional bike rider at home, and when I started my first year of school in Eugene, I got completely hooked on the bikeshare system that is offered for practically free (called PeaceHealth rides). While I have been to Europe already, I really have spent no time biking around. When I visited Japan years ago for an exchange/research trip, one of my favorite things was navigating around via bikes in a very remote town in Japan. I noticed so many things that were different about biking over there. (The fact that they drive on the wrong side of the road over there was half the fun!). So needless to say, I find it super awesome that this study abroad is specific to bicycles. I am hoping it will make me re-think how I view bicycle transportation, and maybe eventually help me to make some changes to make our cities more bike friendly in the states.  

As much as I want to know the big things that make the US stand out from Europe’s bike infrastructure, I also want to know all the little things they do as well. Some of my questions are in my previous post about the pre-class assignment. I will be posting those moments on this blog in the days and weeks to come!

If you couldn’t tell already, I love to explore cities that I have never been to before. I hope to spend most of the time in the cities I visit by being out and about, exploring what they have to offer. (I am also especially interested in transportation so I will definitely be checking out the transit networks in these cities as much as I can). 

All in all, I feel very lucky to have this opportunity, and I hope to take full advantage of it! Time to ride some bikes!

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