The Joy of Joycing

I moved to the petite city of Tel Abiiib (Tel Aviv in Arabic) almost six months ago, and can say with a substantial amount of confidence that one of my favorite aspects of big-city life in this oh-so small city is joycing*. I bought myself a blue metalic beach cruiser that serves as not only a mode of transportation, but a therapy session. When I'm stressed from school and need to get some air, I joyce. I pedal my way from anxiety to pseudo-relaxation (the stress never really subsides until I finish my work, and no amount of joycing can alleviate that!). For the most part, my life consists of school, drinks with friends, and joycing. I love joycing more than I can begin to write in a short blog post, and I especially love my beach cruiser, though some of my Northern European friends beg to differ. 

One Finnish friend swears it looks like I'm pedaling a motorcycle when I joyce down my neighborhood street, Ben Yehuda. Joyce (the person) is a little more subtle with her critic, promising that it looks "cool" in a special kind of way. Then, of course, there is my most-trusted confidant and fellow blogger, Mie, who took one glance at my bike and exclaimed, "Wow! This is exactly the opposite of what I want in a bike! I want the super-thin, pretty one, you know?"

Owning a bike can be dangerous in Tel Aviv, because while the city is relatively safe to live in, the bicycle-thief industry is booming. Leaving your bike locked on a crowded street for over half an hour basically suggests you want someone to steal it. But owning a bike in Tel Aviv is especially risky for me because I'm apparently the worst joycer that ever joyced. Just this week I took three big spills. This is how a typical day has been playing out for me: Get up. Begin to joyce to school. Fall in some sort of embarrassing fashion. Eventually get to campus with a few minor scrapes. Limp my way through class. Joyce home. 

So you might ask: Why continue joycing? It is because you are hoping to one day be as tan (if not tanner!) than Joyce? Is it because you're too cheap to pay for real therapy? The answer is I just want to joyce. I choose to joyce! So, I guess, in conclusion, when you love something as much I do joycing, you should just go for it. Everything has a downside. There is no escape from that. But you love what you love, and chances are everything worth loving comes with a few scrapes and bruises. 

*Joycing (The one who joyces): To Joyce is the art of tanning and biking, named after my good Dutch friend Joyce, who somehow managed to get tanner as winter set in Tel Aviv. While Joycing typically applies to biking and tanning, you can Joyce while doing almost anything. For example, I joyced on the grass this morning, implies you tanned and lay on the grass, etc....