today's quest

Our big goal for today was to buy a bike. Another bike to replace the "lost" one. We've spent a lot of time discussing this quest. The main issue at hand is, are we going to buy another new (expensive-ish) bike, which will probably be stolen in another week? Or are we going to buy a used (i.e., previously "lost") bike? There are pros and cons to both. With the new bike, it will be more expensive, and it will probably be stolen again, but I won't feel like I'm contributing to the vicious cycle of stolen and re-sold bikes that is so prominent here. On the other hand, a second-hand bike will be cheaper, and will be less likely to be stolen, but probably once belonged to someone who was almost as upset to find it "lost" as I was when mine was "lost."

I've tried to convince myself that, by contributing my brand new bike to the steal and re-sell system that is so pervasive here, I have earned the right to buy and ride someone else's stolen bike. Sort of like a pyramid scheme. I've paid in, even if it's just at the very bottom. I should get something out of it. But unfortunately, I am not easily convinced.

With that in mind, I refuse to buy a second-hand bike. Ben, on the other hand, is much more comfortable with the idea of moral relativity, and thinks buying a second-hand bike is just much more practical. He's probably right, but we decided that if we were going to buy a second-hand bike, it was going to be his.

So, we set out today to buy a bike. That's all well and good, except it turns out that I don't really know where to buy second-hand bikes. I thought I knew where some guys were selling them, but it turns out I was wrong. Then Ben thought he knew another place where we could buy one, but it turned out that they were only selling second-hand electric bikes, which wasn't really what Ben had in mind.

After many hours of walking around, sort of looking for bike sellers and sort of just strolling, we bought this:

No, I don't know what it is. Something some guy was selling on the street. It's kind of like a sweet sticky rice-cake thing, with dates in it. We walked by the guy selling it, and Ben's face lit up. I asked him, "Do you want to buy some of that?" and he got so excited, like a little boy at an ice cream shop. So, we bought some. The only problem is, now we don't really know what to do with it all. I mean...there's kind of a lot of it.