Its all fun and games until...
Rachel face-plants on the concrete.
To be accurate, they were bricks, but the damage is the same. I've got a roughed up face and a slowly healing puffy lip.
Luckily all of my teeth are in place and the bruising is limited to one side of my upper lip and one knee.
I'd been hesitant about this tall Dutch bike situation the whole time, but I thought I'd adapted. And I had, until Saturday night.
Last weekend was our last weekend in Amsterdam.
Today is our last full day.
And I'll spend it the way that I've spent the last two days - trying to avoid encountering too many people. (This hasn't actually worked out, as I've had a lot of errands to run).
Saturday, Katie invited Dre and I over for a Greek dinner. (She's Greek). What fun. Dre, Maggie, Katie and I drank wine, ate delicious food and rallied for an outing to De Nieuwe Anita. Turned out an indie band from Oakland was playing and the vibe was great I was making friends with the contact improv dancer from Slovenia and Dre was making friends with everybody and we were riding that wave of buzzed conviviality when we realized it was time to go home.
We thought maybe we'd follow those other two girls to the dance party they'd invited us to that at one point we thought we would go to, too. But then we were out in the night air, close to home and we headed that way.
And everything went swimmingly until it was time to get off the bike.
You see, the bike is too tall for me, so I have to sort of hop off the seat - but something went very wrong during the hopping off and I ended up face first on the ground with a bleeding lip and a broken ego.
Dre holed up with me on Sunday while I alternated between icing my face and napping it off (hoping extra sleep would translate into faster healing). Plus nothing is open in our neighborhood on Sunday so that meant no ibuprofen anywhere in sight and I had a terrible headache from the port + whiskey + face-plant combo. One great injustice of European life (that I actually totally support and envy) is that the world (outside of tourist areas) shuts down on Sundays.
This leaves me to return to the states with a beat up face and a bruised lip.
It has however, taught me about the miracle of zinc for wound healing. This is a lot like last week, when an infected pore (we'll call it that to keep things polite) taught me about the miracle of baking soda. Do you know that you can use baking soda as a a cleanser? And it really speeds up healing. Baking soda is also great for teeth whitening and fighting gingivitis. I'm now committed to keeping in both the kitchen and bathroom cupboards.
Okay. I have bags to pack and apartment to tidy and a country to say good-bye to.
I can't believe this beautiful place has come to feel like home. The last few weeks have really been amazing and I'll miss it so much when we're gone.
On the bright side - back to ARIES!!!
To be accurate, they were bricks, but the damage is the same. I've got a roughed up face and a slowly healing puffy lip.
Luckily all of my teeth are in place and the bruising is limited to one side of my upper lip and one knee.
I'd been hesitant about this tall Dutch bike situation the whole time, but I thought I'd adapted. And I had, until Saturday night.
Last weekend was our last weekend in Amsterdam.
Today is our last full day.
And I'll spend it the way that I've spent the last two days - trying to avoid encountering too many people. (This hasn't actually worked out, as I've had a lot of errands to run).
Saturday, Katie invited Dre and I over for a Greek dinner. (She's Greek). What fun. Dre, Maggie, Katie and I drank wine, ate delicious food and rallied for an outing to De Nieuwe Anita. Turned out an indie band from Oakland was playing and the vibe was great I was making friends with the contact improv dancer from Slovenia and Dre was making friends with everybody and we were riding that wave of buzzed conviviality when we realized it was time to go home.
We thought maybe we'd follow those other two girls to the dance party they'd invited us to that at one point we thought we would go to, too. But then we were out in the night air, close to home and we headed that way.
And everything went swimmingly until it was time to get off the bike.
You see, the bike is too tall for me, so I have to sort of hop off the seat - but something went very wrong during the hopping off and I ended up face first on the ground with a bleeding lip and a broken ego.
Dre holed up with me on Sunday while I alternated between icing my face and napping it off (hoping extra sleep would translate into faster healing). Plus nothing is open in our neighborhood on Sunday so that meant no ibuprofen anywhere in sight and I had a terrible headache from the port + whiskey + face-plant combo. One great injustice of European life (that I actually totally support and envy) is that the world (outside of tourist areas) shuts down on Sundays.
This leaves me to return to the states with a beat up face and a bruised lip.
It has however, taught me about the miracle of zinc for wound healing. This is a lot like last week, when an infected pore (we'll call it that to keep things polite) taught me about the miracle of baking soda. Do you know that you can use baking soda as a a cleanser? And it really speeds up healing. Baking soda is also great for teeth whitening and fighting gingivitis. I'm now committed to keeping in both the kitchen and bathroom cupboards.
Okay. I have bags to pack and apartment to tidy and a country to say good-bye to.
I can't believe this beautiful place has come to feel like home. The last few weeks have really been amazing and I'll miss it so much when we're gone.
On the bright side - back to ARIES!!!
Sorry about your banged up face- blech. But bravo for the natural fix its: baking soda and zinc. Add hydrogen peroxide to that list- it is an unsung, low cost hero. Also, arnica gel with reduce your puffiness and speed healing.
ReplyDeleteHave fun in Cali!