Hello from Marianna, Florida!

Hi Bike and Build friends!

I am presently in a public library in Marianna, Florida on my day off. I have limited access to internet throughout the trip, but I will try to update the blog when I can. In the meantime, you can follow the main trip blog at http://www.bikeandbuild.org/rider/route.php?route=SUS&year=2009. There, you will be able to see where we are, how far we've progressed, photos, and the group blog, which is updated every day by a different rider.

Presently, the group blog does not have the most recent posts because we camped out in state parks for the first two biking days of the trip (June 13th and 14th) and did not have access to internet. (We have nice air conditioned hosts for a while now, so no more camping for some time.) All newer the posts should be up soon, and then you can check for daily updates there.

I'll try to post more about what I've done specifically (and pictures of course!), but I have two minutes left on this computer, so more news soon!

Thank you all again!

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

Past Bike and Builds

Check out the new video that Bike and Build made: learn a little more about Bike and Build, and see some of the cool things I'll be doing this summer!



If for some reason the above video does not work, you can also watch it through the direct link here.

"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.

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.

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