we gotta regatta

FINALLY, SOME SUBSTANTIAL PROOF THAT BRIANNA IS A ROWER:
Here we have them, the lovely Hippos, the Pembroke College Novice A boat at the Christ Church Regatta held last week. We are very proud in our pink, thank you very much. Despite a tragic loss (two rowers caught a crab), we gave Teddy Hall a good run that I personally hope they gained little satisfaction from. Tufts rowers will probably not be impressed to learn that the course only took about three minutes to row, but they must also admit that this was a wise decision considering that major collisions that occurred (one boat lost a huge section off it's front end). The rest of the regatta ended up being canceled, but we still got to attend the celebratory Christ Church Regatta banquet (black tie like always) that was absurdly fun with lots of sconcing and jokes and where I learned one of my new favorite terms: MASSIVE LAD. All caps are required to convey the emphasis of coining someone a MASSIVE LAD. A lad is the type of guy who walks into a bar and buys drinks and pats you on the back and talks about rugby. A man's man. A MASSIVE LAD is the laddiest lad of them all. Claire and I have adopted the (possibly irritating) habit of calling everyone/thing a MASSIVE LAD. This is really more fun then it sounds.


For instance, we decided that Fiyero in the West End production of Wicked that we saw last night was a MASSIVE LAD. This show was so breathtaking that I actually felt depressed when it was over and my only consolation was that I could come back and watch the songs again on youtube. Thank goodness for technology. The musical really Disneyfied the book though, which surprised me a bit. Our foray into London for the show also afforded a great opportunity to do some sightseeing including the London Eye, Millennium Bridge, Tate Modern, and more of those delightful German Christmas markets.