The Day I Walked Up The Hill.

It's not Sunday, but I decided I would update my blog anyways. Plus, I am leaving for my short-study tour tomorrow so I really have nothing better to do. The homework can wait. Anyways, today doesn't exactly rank at the top of my "Day's In Denmark" list, but I figured that most people (well, I know my Dad will) would really appreciate this post or at least get a good laugh out of it.

My host family so generously supplied a bike for me to ride during my stay here. It just came last week, so this week was the first time I used it. Usually, I take a bus to Ballerup station, about 5 km away and either take the bus home or get picked up by my host family. Since the busses only run once an hour, this can be pretty inconvenient sometimes.

Yesterday, my host mom showed me the route to Malov station, which is a bit closer -about 2.5 miles. I decided that I would run the route in the morning to make sure I knew it and then ride my bike there today. Now, for those of you who haven't ventured to Denmark yet, it is virtually flat. If you want to ski, you go to Sweden. My host sisters build thier own hills in the backyard when it snows to "sled" down. Besides some gradual inclines, the only hill this country has is on the route from my house to Malov (wish I were kidding). Basically, if you are in Smorumovre and look left, all roads lead upwards. Not surprisingly, running the route made it seem much longer than 2.5 miles. But I knew it would go faster on a bike and probably not be as bad as I thought it would be. Wrong-o.

This morning, after getting dreadfully lost on my run (Google maps is a lot more difficult to follow in Danish), I was already a bit pressed for time. I wanted to have extra time to catch the train because I didn't know exactly how long it was going to take me to ride there. So of course, it took me five minutes (not exaggerating) to lock the front door. As I got more frusterated, the key got more stubborn. Finally I was off though.

First challenge: gradual hill out of my neighborhood. I forgot how hard biking is and how it never fails to make me feel completely out of shape. I thought running worked your leg muscles. Apparently not. After a slight gradual incline all the way to the base of, "the hill" I started the trek upwards. The hill was probably Denmarks equivalent of "the hill" at Core Creek, or Mummasburg for those of you in Gettysburg. Taxing to run up, but not impossible. If I was in the proper attire, there would be no need for this post (I hope). But to get the best mental image, you should probably be reminded that I was wearing my backpack with a computer in it (which is not light!), a huge winter coat overtop multiple base layers, a huge scarf, hat, snow boots, and jeans. Oh, and spandex underneath my jeans (which I do not recommend, unless absolutely necessary. It is very uncomfortable and makes your jeans fall down, especially while attempting to ride a bike). Not surprisingly, my range of motion was essentially zero.  So here I am, struggling to get up a hill with my pants halfway down my butt, panting, legs burning and Taylor Swift not providing anything to "pump me up" like usual. My thoughts went something like this:

"Comon' you can get up this hill. Stop being ridiculous. Complainer."
"Feel the burn, feel the burn. Oh my god, this really hurts."
"This is so embarassing."
"*#&$@*"

etc..

Most of you probably know that I don't like to take the easy way out and I'm a bit of a perfectionist. I always finish things completely, I get angry when Coach has me stop a workout before I do the maximum number of repeats, and I have never walked up a hill on a run, race or bike ride -no matter how slow I am crawling up it. It's just not my style. I absolutely refuse to do it. Well, that changed today. I walked up the hill. It took me way too longer than should be acceptable to get to the train station, and I arrived exhausted and sweating way more than I should ever sweat in February (in case you were interested). My train was going to be there in about 6 minutes. I searched desperately to find the built in bike lock to no avail and had to call my host dad for help (good thing he always answers his phone!). Apparently, locks just weren't working for me today and it took me at least another 5 minutes to actually lock the bike up (its a tricky mechanism if you've never seen it before). Needless to say, guess who missed her train? This one. Thankfully, I didn't have class today and was just going in to meet a friend.

Fortunately, the bike ride home went much smoother, seeing how it is downhill, for the most part (except the beginning and end, but thats besides the point). Hopefully my bike riding skills will improve by the end of the semester. They could certainly use some help!

Hope all is well back home and at Gettysburg, and that everyone's day went a little more smoothly than mine. I'll update again after my study tour to Arhus and Ebeltoft!

P.S. I am officially going to Paris the first week of May! I'm super excited!