My bike got a good workout today

   Today I had one important mission, to ride my bike into work. I needed the bike so that Tony, Oliver and Tina could take me to a Korean restaurant for lunch that was too far away to walk. So I set out this morning 15mins earlier then usual and took a route that I was a little familiar with but took me way out of the way. I was amazed at the traffic that I had to fight to get to work...it wasn't all just car traffic, it was also bike and motorcycle traffic. By the time that I parked my bike and got settled at my desk it took about 1 hour from when I left home. I think that if I find a more direct route that I could cut off about 15mins so the commute would be about the same as taking the Metro. And since riding in was way more interesting then taking the subway I think that I will try to ride in a couple more times while I'm here.

Tony (Production Manager), Oliver (Team member) and me

    Tina doesn't own a bike and neither does Oliver so we had to come up with a plan. Oliver borrowed a co-workers bike and Tina rode on the back of mine. This was my first time riding with a person on the bike so it took a couple of blocks to get used to the extra weight and balance shift but soon I got the hang of it. After about 4 blocks we ended up riding alongside this old Chinese man with no teeth (or barely any teeth). He thought that the sight of Tina and I on the bike was SO funny...he kept telling Tina that he liked my "hat". Somehow this old man knew some English and was just spurting out whatever he could think of. We rode with him for at least a kilometer and the entire time we were all laughing (including the old man). We must have been quite the sight to others too b/c everyone was staring. I guess it's not often that people see a Westerner wearing a bike helmet (bike helmets are pretty much nonexistent in China, even though millions of people in Shanghai commute by bike everyday) with a Chinese women on the back hanging on for dear life. I'm happy to say that we made it to our destination without any hiccups.

Even my co-workers think that my bike helmet is funny!
Oliver wore it the entire time we weren't on the bikes.

    This korean restaurant (no English name available) was down the food street that I was at on Sunday. It was not one of the chain restaurants there but a little standalone place. It was packed when we walked in but somehow managed to gets four seats within 5mins of standing around. Then Tony and Oliver went off to order. Food started showing up right away.

Left, Tina showing off the homemade, handwritten menu. Right, we sat at the bar.

This was my view of the busy restaurant.

Tony called these fried noodles but I'm not sure that they were
actually fried. They are in a spicy kimchi-like sauce and served hot.

Kimchi fried rice

Left, we got a big bowl of fried stuff. All of which was pretty good.

Fried pork with a paper umbrella. I hear that the umbrella is a true Korean touch ;)

   Left, part of the atmosphere of this restaurant is that the walls and all other surface areas are covered in customer comments/reviews. Everyone wanted me to write one so I did. Tony hung it up for me. Right, my review. Iris, you will have to look for this the next time you come here.

Outside the restaurant with full stomachs. Good thing we had a bike ride ahead of us.

Isn't this picture cute? Tina and I getting ready to ride back to the office.

    On the way back I rode side-saddle on the bike and Tina drove. I was a little concerned b/c I weight more then Tina, probably by more then 40lbs. I definitely flattened the back tire quite a bit when I sat down. I offered to take over several times but Tina insisted that she was doing just fine. I was a little nervous at first b/c I like to have control of things but I trust Tina and soon was able to relax. I could get used to riding on the back of a bike, there's a lot less sweating that happens.

The sea of bikes at the office basement parking.

Then it was back to work...