The Art of Not Drowning

Behold the Thames!:
When one comes to Oxford, one must row. It's a simple fact of life that I've come to accept since I arrived here exactly one week ago today. It rather holds hands along with drinking copious amounts of tea and breathing (okay, that last one may be a SLIGHT exaggeration- but only slight). Now, I'm not one to shirk away from what's been thrown at me, so off I went yesterday to the Crew Boating Day for Freshers (not exactly a try out- it was to get you in a boat and rowing with some semblance of technique). They threw me on an erg which I fought with for a good ten minutes (no comment on who arose the victor) and then put me on a team of novices to grab our own boat, put it in the water, and take off. Those last three tasks seem simple. They are not really. Those boats are very very heavy. It's like trying to do a ballet in sync with seven other people (that's obviously never been rehearsed) while carrying a very expensive piano on our heads. Somehow we got it into the water. And took off.

At this point in time, all I could think of was Billy Collins as the boat seemed very likely to capsize at any moment and my feet were strapped in. I've heard that it is almost impossible to capsize an eight- I believe we could have done it. From the strain I could hear in our cox's voice, I think that he was of a similar sentiment. However, I like to think that I was starting to catch on towards the end, although it's really rather hard to tell. Hmmmm, we shall see how this develops. JORDY I NEED YOUR HELP. I confess that I rather thought all the commands sounded the same.

Note on vegetarianism: It's very easy to do in England! As my British neighbors have said in response to this comment, "Well, it is an entire country. We don't ALL eat sausages for breakfast." We even went out to eat last night (no hall on Saturdays) and the pub we went to (the Royal Blenheim) had a half veggie friendly menu that was pretty darn good (I ate a melted goat cheese sandwich). It's also a very Pembroke friendly place with pink rugby shirts and stuff up as a lot of the patrons are students.

This is Brianna, rower and pubber extraordinaire, signing off!