Route change!

As some of you may know, I was originally signed up for the Providence to Seattle route, which goes, as one would expect, from Providence, Rhode Island to Seattle, Washington. However, I recently switched to the Southern U.S. route, which starts in Jacksonville, Florida and ends in San Francisco, California. The new route is about 200 miles shorter (3534 instead of 3765 miles), but we'll be spending a week rebuilding houses in areas hit by Hurricane Katrina. And we get to bike along the Grand Canyon and across the Golden Gate Bridge! yay!

So, besides my obvious love of 100+ degree weather (hahaha), I had signed up for Bike and Build with my roommate and best friend Rebecca Bainbridge. (She's awesome, you should support her too!)
Unfortunately, it is apparently not easy to access fax machines while studying abroad in Berlin. Long story short, we were not placed in the same trip.

This made us . Then I switched trips. Now we're .
Hooray cross-country bike trips for charity!

Also, I guess that means this picture is outdated:


Hm . . .


There. Much better. :)

Welcome to my Bike and Build blog!

Hi there!

Here you shall find the online journal of my preparation and eventual trip with Bike and Build this summer. If you're wondering what Bike and Build is, here is a brief synopsis:

BRIEF SYNOPSIS (warning: may contain spoilers)
Being an easily excitable 20-something college student, Nina felt that her standard student schedule of work, schoolwork, and more work was not demanding enough. By chance meeting, she comes across a bright, young non-profit called Bike and Build. Bike and Build makes her a proposition: she can go on the coolest summer trip of a lifetime, biking across the United States in two months and stopping to build houses along the way. The catch? She must raise $4000 for the cause of affordable housing before the summer begins. No problem, Nina says. Comedic hilarity and dramatic training montages ensue.
***spoiler***
You, the reader, help Nina raise more than $4000 for affordable housing, and lots of people get new homes! Yay!
Also, Roger Ebert gives the film "two thumbs up" for feel-good family fun! Shocking.

Want to learn more or help out?
Learn!
Help!

Who is this Nina person anyway?

   Official Bike and Build bio!

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Award-winning recipe for Double Chocolate Chunk Ninas:

Preheat oven to 350 degrees.

2 cups New York University (junior edition)
1 (12 oz) bag semi-sweet chocolate chunks
4 ounces obsessive music listening
2 to 5 tablespoons of indecisiveness
1/2 cup all-carb diet
3500 miles of biking
4 continents traveled
3 ounces chocolate covered espresso beans
1 teaspoon sarcasm with hints of cheekiness
1 dash adventurism
(optional) 1 teaspoon occasional laziness

Mix haphazardly. Add biking miles 65 miles at a time over the course of two months. Put in oven before oven is done preheating. Bake for 20 years, allowing 1 year for cooling. Sprinkle with chocolate covered espresso beans.

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What is Bike and Build?

General Highlights:
 Bike and Build is a 501(c)3 non-profit corporation that organize cross-country bike trips to raise awareness and funds for affordable housing.

 Bike and Build has raised over $1.6 million over the past six years, with almost half a million from the summer of 2008 alone!

 Bike and Builders bike upwards of 4000 miles over the course of two summer months while stopping to build affordable houses in communities all over the country.

Learn more from Bike and Build's own About Us page.


The Southern route (my Bike and Build trip):
Who: Nina and about 30 other cool people!
What: A total of 3534 miles and 11 build days
Where: Jacksonville, Florida to San Francisco, California.
When: June 10th to August 17th
Why: To raise money and awareness for affordable housing! And because it's awesome!

Why is affordable housing important?

In light of the United States' current (and completely problem-free) housing market, affordable housing is more important than ever.

Affordable housing (aka Fair Market Rate): housing for which rent or mortgage payments (plus utilities) does not exceed 30% of the family's income.

There is no county in the country where an individual can
work 40 hours per week at the minimum wage and afford even a
one-bedroom apartment at the local Fair Market Rate.¹

Problem: About 27 million people spend more than 30 percent of their monthly income on housing (with half of these people spending more than 50 percent).

Problem: People who work more than 52 hours a week on minimum wage would still end up spending more than 30 percent of their income on housing.

Noticeable gap between Renter's Wage and minimum wage (even when working 52 hours a week)

Renter's Wage: the wage required for a single individual to be able to afford the Fair Market Rate working 40 hours a week, 52 weeks a year (no vacation or sick days).

Want to help make a difference? See How can I help? for more information.

¹http://www.nlihc.org/oor/oor2008/introduction.pdf

How can I help?

Donate to Bike and Build!

Pick my name from the dropdown list if you'd like to support my efforts this summer.
Proceeds go to affordable housing organizations and communities around the country, yay!

Not sure how much to contribute? Sponsor a day of my trip for a dollar a mile! We average at about 65 miles daily, and it ranges from as little as 36 miles to as much as 110 miles in a single day. However, any amount is greatly appreciated!

Fun fact:
Not one to talk the talk without walking the walk, the highest contribution so far is from Nina Chen with a donation of $200. (Yep, that's me!)
I wonder if anyone will challenge my position as top contributor . . .

(6/3/09) Holy cow, thanks to Y. Ma and S. Cheng for matching my $200 donation! And thank you to all of you for supporting Bike and Build! $4770! Better than I could have imagined! :)

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Still looking for more ways to help? Volunteer with your local affordable housing group! Habitat for Humanity and Rebuilding Together are some awesome non-profits driven by volunteers and supported by Bike and Build.

Alternatively, if you are between the ages of 18 and 25, you could always try inspiring people by doing something wild and adventurous, like biking across the country for charity, hehe.