Come Rain or Shine

I got up this morning to volunteer at the neighbourhood cycling lessons (now a weekly event in my agenda) and looked out the window at the grey sky and rainy weather. Brrrrrr. I walk into the kitchen to put on the coffee ask Pdot if he thought that the cycling lessons (fiets les) will be cancelled because of the weather. 'Oh no', he says, 'this is the Netherlands and people go out in all types of rain unless it's storming. That is the only time that people will cancel things'. Thus, despite signing up for this activity one warm sunny morning (at least that's why my memory serves) a couple of weeks ago, I found myself climbing on my bike under three layers of clothing to cycle the couple blocks to the buurtcentruum.

Indeed, there were 10 - 15 women who came out for the lesson despite the rain. We even had 3 new participants who were coming to try it for the first time. When I spoke to Luke later and told him that I was surprised at the number of people who came, he made the point that learning in the rain was probably a good thing for those who will be cycling in this kind of weather more often then not. So apparently I was the only one who was a little fearful at the idea of riding in the rain. You'd think I was afraid of melting in it!

In the end it was good that I went since I will be away for next Friday's lesson. Another good thing to come from this morning is that I've made an appointment to meet some ladies from our fiets les on this coming Monday afternoon so I won't miss my cycling lesson afterall! It remains to be seen how the lesson will all turn out since my Dutch (and some of their Dutch) is still in the learning stages. Regardless, I'll be there come rain (but hopefully not! I don't care what anyone says...rain is never better!) or shine.