In the future: contemporary dance, tikits, alleycats

Good afternoon, friends and family,

I just got back from a brisk ride around the Bois de Vincennes. I met Jacques, the vice president of my cycling team, Paris Cycliste Olympique, at 10:15 and we rode a few laps around the track together and gradually added more people to our group until I lost track of Jacques. Malik, another member of PCO joined us and I rode with him for a while and listened to him talk about the race that he's doing next weekend in the Bois de Vincennes that PCO is organizing. I talked with Jacques a bit about helping him with registration at La Cipale (PCO's headquarters) so I think that's how I will be spending next Sunday. Phillipe joined us a little later, around 11, and then we came across the other woman who I had seen at PCO meetings, Stephanie. Malik and Stephanie are going to do the race next weekend as a team.

Tonight I am going to a contemporary dance performance with Mme C. Despite reading the description about it in a magazine she gave to me, I am not sure really what to expect. This will be my first real outing on the town (that isn't just walking around all night) and I am very excited.

I heard back from Bike Friday last night and found out that they'll be shipping my tikit on Monday! I hope it arrives before Friday so I can take it with me to La Cipale on Sunday where there will be many people to show it to.

This past week was quite exhausting- my late night classes are wearing on me. I'm really enjoying my figure drawing classes but it's difficult to spend a full day at school and then draw for three hours. On Wednesday night I didn't get home until 11pm! So late! We had a different model this week than last week who used different poses and had a much different style to modeling than the week previous.

I searched around on the internet last night for cycling associations (not necessarily clubs, but organizations active with promoting cycling as transportation, etc.) in Paris and found several that I hope to get connected with. I had been curious about the presence of Alleycat races in Paris- if they even exist here- and found a few links to past races.

(Clarification: An "Alleycat" is a bike race that usually happens in an urban setting, often in the downtown areas of cities, and are often dominated by bike messengers or cyclists who know their way around the city very well. It can involve stopping at various locations along the way from start to finish, like a scavenger hunt, and the races are not usually sponsored or organized by cycling clubs or teams- but they can be.)

Alleycat races are very popular in Minneapolis and the biggest indicator is the presence of "spokecards," a post-card sized laminated flyer that people weave in their spokes of their bicycle wheel, often the rear wheel. After reading last night about Alleycats that happened in Paris this summer I saw a man with a spokecard this morning, but it was a different kind of card- the kind that clips onto the frame and hits the spokes as they go by, making a rather obnoxious buzzing/clicking sound. I'm going to try and find out more information about Alleycat races in Paris today, not necessarily with the intention of doing one, but just to see what the urban cyclist climate is like in Paris. In Minneapolis, there is a huge variety of cyclists, ranging from commuters to roadies to mountain bikers to those who practice doing tricks on their fixed gears... After having discovered road bike culture, I would like to see what else there is.

Lastly, I would like to send out a big congratulations to my cousin Joe and his wife Brenna as their first son, Charles, was born on Monday. Welcome to the family, Charles.

C'est tout!