Pictures!

My hundreds of Bike & Build photos are now available online, hooray: http://picasaweb.google.com/zenithguitar.

Additionally, my study abroad pictures from last fall in London are also posted there, for those curious about my other cross-country, er, cross-continental adventures. (For the extra observant, the "10-17-08 london, stonehenge, and bath" album documents Becca Bainbridge's visit, so you'll be able to see pictures of both of us not biking. Shocking, I know.)

But wait, there's more! Videos to come soon! :)

Hills galore and "stock" photos

So now that school's been over, I've been back at home in a suburb of Philadelphia, biking mostly in Tyler State Park, which is right near my house. Now while it's quite nice having somewhere to bike where I don't have to worry about traffic (like the bike path around Manhattan), I quickly learned that I had been spoiled by the flatness of New York City. What? Biking 30 miles in Manhattan? No problem.

Tyler Park, on the other hand, is apparently Hill Capital. Its own website says, "If you’re riding a bicycle, remember that nearly all of the trails on the west side of the creek are hilly." The first time I went biking there, I discovered that, yes, sometimes I do have to use more than just the middle 2 of 27 total possible gears, hehe.

The good thing about having uphills, though, is that there are downhills. Wheee! I also discovered that it is best to keep one's mouth closed when traveling at high speeds through heavily wooded areas with lots of little, flying bugs. Unless one likes the extra protein.

One of the very few stretches of flat bike path

I did my best to take lots of nice pictures, although everything was so picturesque that I feel like some of them look like stock photos for some kind of park advertisement, haha. In order to include myself in the pictures, I had to pull some Survivorman-esque tricks. For those who do not what that is, it is a TV show where one guy goes out into the wilderness to survive on his own and does all the filming by himself. This means that if he wants footage of himself crossing a river, he has to set up the camera, cross the river, come back across the river he just crossed, pick up the camera, and cross the river a third time to get to his destination. In that same vein, the photo below is staged:


I set the camera precariously on top of sign that said "Caution: Steep Hills" (figures :P) and carefully set the 10-second timer. Then I had to hurriedly get onto the bike and then bike extra slowly past the front of the sign. After biking at a snail's pace for a few seconds, I would bike back to pick up the camera and see if the picture turned out okay. The resulting picture is actually a result of the third try, since on the first try the camera overexposed, and all the picture showed was a massive ray of sunlight. Then on the second try, I didn't get on the bike fast enough and accidentally ended up taking a picture of a passing jogger instead.

I mean, behold! Breath-taking action shot! :D

"Bike, bike, bike . . . "

First off, apologies for not updating more often . . . however, finals are finally (pun not intended) over! That means more time for biking, building, and blogging! And other things that begin with "b" . . . er, baking?

Anyway, before school was over, I had gone biking in New York City a number of times. I lived right in the middle of Chinatown, so my friend Becca and I decided to try biking along the south side of the Manhattan Waterfront Greenway, which is a bike path that runs along the edge of Manhattan, separated from traffic. Unfortunately, there was construction along most of that side, including the lovely signs that accompany said construction, "Bikers must dismount and walk bicycles." Becca and I pretty much walked down to the south end of Manhattan before encountering any open bike routes, and even then, we had to bike really slowly to avoid running into the massive swarms of tourists visiting the Statue of Liberty and South Street Seaport.

What? Lots of people would be outside on a sunny Saturday afternoon in New York City? What a silly notion... :P

After that, I would only go biking in the late afternoon/early evening, which actually turned out to be quite nice since there were less people around, and it was cooler outside.
You can see a tiny Statue of Liberty on the left side of the picture to the right.

I also discovered that if I went north instead of south on the greenway, there was no more construction and only miles and miles of beautiful straightaways. While biking, I was not wearing headphones and listening to music as I did all winter at the gym (since it's unsafe). So with nothing to listen to as I biked up the west side of Manhattan, I found myself thinking "bike, bike, bike, bike, bike..." as I spun away on the pedals. At one point I caught myself and briefly wondered if I was going crazy. Naaah.

Riverside park, which I didn't even know existed until I biked straight into it. Cool, huh?




"Bike, bike, bike..."

Adventures at the gym

Adventures at the Gym
A story told in pictures
by Nina Chen

(Click on the pictures to see the full-size versions)


Nina is excited to go to the gym today. NYU and the Coles Sports and Recreation Center get some free advertising.


Nina is excited* to be at the gym today. Bemused bystanders scratch their heads and wonder why people are taking pictures in the exercise room.


Nina documents a day's exercise at the gym.


Nina then proceeds to have a snack, thus negating any caloric benefits of having biked for 45 minutes. :D

*Note the careful use of the same face in each picture, in order to create an instantly recognizable "Nina" expression. Also may or may not be an excuse just to make a silly face at the camera.