it's like riding a bicycle...

when i was 9 years old, i had a pink huffy bicycle that was (like all my stuff at the age when i sprouted what seemed like 2 inches a week) too big for me.  my parents always thought i would "grow into" things.  and so, the 2nd or 3rd time i rode that bike, i fell on a turn and scraped my knees.  badly.


i refused to get on the bike after that.


all these years later, my family still makes fun of me for having never learned to properly ride a bike.

this sunday, i'm going back to germany after 6 years.  the stars shifted and the planets of "vacation time from work," "cheap plane tickets," "enough money for a trip" aligned.  i booked my ticket two months ago, and have felt like a little kid who knows she's going to disney world but has no concept of time.  mentally, i've had my suitcase packed and have been sitting on it with my coat and shoes on, swinging my legs as i wait.


i know heidelberg like the back of my hand - i've done the trip from here to frankfurt to heidelberg enough times to be a pro at it.  yet there's this underlying apprehension as well.  my german's been residing in a dusty corner of my brain, not completely unused, but not in good shape either.  i have no euros, no bank account, no german phone with a t-mobile plan which i can just switch on when i get off the plane.  the strassenbahn linien have changed since i was there, and parts of the city have undergone minor face-lifts as well.  beloved faces of familiar friends have moved on and out, to berlin, munich, bonn, and no one's at the university anymore....


one summer day, 2 years after i came back from germany, my brothers and parents and i went to a nearby park so they could practice riding their bikes.  again the mild familial teasing about never learning how to ride a bike.  but that day something in me was set to prove them wrong.  i grabbed a bike and got on.  pushed off once and failed.  pushed off twice and set off, wobbling dangerously.  i steadied myself and sat up in the seat and found that i'd never actually forgotten how to ride that bike - as my family watched in surprise, i rode two circuits around the bike track before stopping in front of them in triumph. 


you never really forget.  certain things - important things - are just like riding a bike.