I don’t think I mentioned, but my first bike got stolen. Yes, she was in my care for less than a week and then one night disappeared from in front of the building. Bike theft is a common problem in China. Particularly (my teammate said) around this time of year when freshmen are coming in and buying lots of new bikes. So after a really long time (at least a week – it seemed long) of being bikeless, I am finally back on the road again. My new bike is a more conservative (and hopefully less stand-out-ish) dark blue. It appears to be slightly better quality (the previous chain kept falling off at inopportune times – like in the middle of a big intersection), but it was still about the same price (around $30 US). The brand name is Phineas, which I think is a good name for a brand. (Phineas was the main character in A Separate Peace, which I just finished reading). (Wow, I need to lay off the parentheses thing.)
Actually, I have decided to call my bike Tess. Firstly, because I was thinking that I enjoy having a bike almost as much as I liked having a car, and my car’s name was Tilly – similar. Secondly, it made me think of Tess of the D’Urbervilles, which isn’t related to much of anything except that I liked the book. Thirdly, and mainly, “tess” is part of “tesseract,” so it seemed appropriate for a mode of transportation. In case you haven’t read A Wrinkle in Time (tisk, tisk), tesseract is a dimension of space in which the fastest way to get from point A to point B is to bring the two points together. A tesseract is the wrinkling of time to bring the two points together.
So now Tess is resting quietly in my office/storage room. I think I will keep her inside until the main season of thievery is over. I like that I managed to bring in references to three different books, which all happened to be related to my bike. She must be a literary bicycle. Here is a picture of Tess in my messy office.
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