Motorcycle diaries

Well Folks I am alive...That is all I can say...

Motorcycles are crazy pieces of machinery...Scary!!!

On Friday I had lesson number three on a motorcycle...to put it mildly
I was scared spitless...but I learned two important lessons....

1. Do not hold the accelarator on while trying to put the breaks on...(this will result in major skidding and loss of bike control)

2. Never....unless you are absolutely sure...pass an auto rickshaw on the roads here in india...

Normally I ride only on the campus... but today would be a different story... Kevin would be riding on another bike along side or behind me... he guided me and told me where to go...we stayed on campus for like two minutes and then he was like okay... now go to the gate and wait... I waited in fear of the words "now go out and I will tell you what to do next..." we rode for a little while on roads that were not congested much...then Kevin had me turn onto a main road...(Ben is terrified) and I stalled three times before getting onto the road....no more than one minute onto the ride on the road than I come up to a slow auto rickshaw.... I think "I will pass him"... I check to make sure its safe... well a truck is coming but he is a ways away... but I am still uncetain and not too confident... another bike passes through... so I go for it... the truck was closer than I thought... I nearly became a squashed bug on the windshield... the space between the rickshaw and truck was barely enough to fit the bike through... and I ducked out of instinct when I went through... if I had not ducked my head would have hit the truck's mirror and I would have flown off of the bike... I nearly killed myself...and all I could do was tremble and then laugh at how I had cheated death... Kevin thought I was a gonner... he tells the story better... he watched the whole thing in horror...

so now I await my next time on a bike... maybe I will not get as close to death this next time...