Expedition to Europe: Athens and Prague

Welcome back, ladies and gentlemen, to my much-neglected account of my spring break.


Basically what happened is that I'm on the rowing team (which you knew) and our big race was this past week (which you didn't know). Now that rowing is over for the term, I should be back on top of life in general and my blog especially.


We last left our intrepid adventurers, Jacque and Joy, in Venice being very, very wet. Our next stop, on Monday, March 30, is the lovely, the thankfully sunny, Greece!


At first, I was pretty uncomfortable with Greece. Jacque and I arrived in the evening, and when we went to get dinner, we saw no women on the streets and large groups of men who made suggestive comments to us (at least, I assume they were: it was all Greek to me. Ha.). I went to bed pretty unhappy on our first night, but the next morning dawned bright and warm and with exciting things in store.



We started our day at the Acropolis. The Acropolis is quite large and includes many, many more things than just the Parthenon. First, we saw the Theater of Dionysus:




Which is pretty amazing. Just think: the god Dionysus acted here! Okay, that's a lie, Dionysus doesn't actually exist. But equally as cool: ancient Greeks acted here! Here is the Theater from above:




And if you think the Theater of Dionysus is impressive, wait until you see the Odeon of Herodes Atticus:

That little red dot in the bottom right-hand corner? That's a person. This theater was HUGE. (On a side note, I had no idea what this theater was called until I looked it up on Wikipedia. On another side note, there's a chain of movie theaters here in England called the Odeon Theaters, which makes so much more sense now.)

And of course, the crowning glory of the Acropolis:

Me! Just kidding. The crowning glory is actually the Parthenon, which is behind me.

Here is a view of the southern part of the Acropolis, including the Theater of Dionysus and...some other stuff. It's not that I'm too lazy to write about it, it's just that I don't really know what it is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acropolis,_Athens



The Parthenon is a temple to Athena, who was the patron goddess of Athens (hence the city's name, which is Athina in Greek. Actually, it's αθήνα, but whatever). Next to the Parthenon is the Old Tempe of Athena, which has some very famous columns:

These are the caryatids, and they are columns shaped like women. There are six of them here, and none of them are original. Five of the originals are in the Acropolis Museum, and the sixth original is in the British Museum. I saw the sixth original two weekends ago, actually.

The Acropolis was pretty amazing: it's very, very big, and there were many, many tourists. There were also, surprisingly, many, many dogs. Actually, there were dogs everywhere in Athens:

Jacque and I began to suspect that dogs actually run Athens because they are everywhere and no one seems to care. They sleep, they eat, they go in and out of churches, they herd people, and one even led us from the place in the photo below (more on that soon) to the Ancient Agora. Where would Athens be without dogs? It would, if you'll pardon the pun, go to the dogs...(please don't pardon that pun. It was awful).

Okay, so this photo is of Jacque sitting on the Areopagus. According to legend, the apostle Paul preached from this hill and converted a bunch of Athenians. It's kind of neat to think about Paul spreading the truth of Christ in the shadow of a huge complex built to honor non-existent gods. Light shining in the darkness, and all that.

Jacque and I ate lunch at a McDonald's. This photo is a pretty good representation of Athens: old, lovely religion and society surrounded by slightly ugly modernity, with a little bit of American capitalism thrown in.

And now we come to one of my favorite parts of Athens: the Changing of the Guard. Whoever designed this ceremony based it primarily on horses. The guards kick their legs like horses, paw the ground with their foot like a horse with its hoof, and prance:

They even have nails in their shoes, so they clip-clop like horses. They also wear the greatest costumes ever:

Please note: the pleated skirt (400 pleats, one for every year Greece was occupied by the Ottomans); the long tassel (which the head of the guard uses to brush the face of the new guards); and the gigantic pom-poms on their shoes. Jacque and I watched the changing of the guard twice because we liked it so much.

Also in Athens is a large park, sort of like Hyde Park in London or Central Park in NYC. Among other exciting things, this park had a small...well, let's call it a zoo. I think they called it a "Bird and Animal Sanctuary" or something, but it was too bizarre to be a sanctuary. In one cage, they had pigeons. Pigeons! As if there are not enough pigeons in every city in Europe, the Athenians felt a need to display the flying rats.

The "sanctuary" also had cages with the oddest assortment of animals. In the cage pictured below, there were: rabbits, chickens, roosters, cats (cats?), peacocks, and peahens. The rabbits were caged in the little house, and the cat was just sitting there not realizing that it had a wonderful feast of small animals in front of it.

Other than the pigeons and the oddly assorted cage, there was a cage with geese and ducks (again, as if you can't see enough of those in the wild...) and a cage with goats with the creepiest eyes I have ever seen. Imagine Lord Voldemort's eyes staring at you from under a pair of large horns. Quite scary.

Across from the park was the 1896 Summer Olympics. I am a huge fan of the Olympics, so this was pretty exciting for me. The very first modern Olympics were held in this stadium! This was the Opening Stadium, and the event stadium, and the spectator's stadium...everything, all in one! I was pretty psyched.

The next day (by now, we are at Wednesday, April 1), Jacque and I "hiked" (when I say "hiked," I mean we walked the paved pathway) up Lycabettus Hill, one of the large hills in Athens. I won't lie to you, it wasn't the most exciting thing I've ever done, but we did see a nice view! Here, in the distance, is the Acropolis:

After we "hiked" down, we went to the Temple of Olympian Zeus. Now, when you hear that name, you think, "Man, the Greeks were so hyperbolish" (and then you think, "Hey, is hyperbolish a word? Probably not"). I mean, "The Temple of Olympian Zeus" is an impressive name, and probably must be said impressively in your best James-Earl-Jones-as-Mufasa imitation, like this: THE TEMPLE OF OLYMPIAN ZEUS. And then you get to THE TEMPLE OF OLYMPIAN ZEUS and you realize: it deserves James Earl Jones' voice.

There are only 13 pillars left of a THE TEMPLE OF OLYMPIAN ZEUS, and they are 55.5 feet tall. There were meant to be 104 of these columns! Wow. Just wow.

My second WOW of the day came when we went to the 2004 Olympic Stadium. Did I mention that I am a huge fan of the Olympics?

Here is the pool--THE VERY POOL--where Michael Phelps became truly famous!

Let me reiterate: Michael Phelps, the frog-man himself, swam in this pool!

And here--right behind me!--is the Opening Stadium!! !! !! Also, I'm dressed like a stoplight in this photo.

So that was Athens, Greece. I enjoyed Athens a lot (Olympics! Ancient buildings! Gyros! Which, apparently, are pronounced not "jyros" nor "heros," but something like "jyieros." Yeah, good luck), and I especially enjoyed my time with Jacque. Also, a quick shout-out for children's literature, I enjoyed Athens so much more having read the Percy Jackson series. Check them out, they're amazing!

Sadly, my time with Jacque was at an end. I spent April 2 travelling alone (nothing interesting happened: I sat on a bus, then sat in an airport, then sat in a plane...you get it), and then I met Erin on April 3 in Prague!

Erin's description of Prague I feel is apt: she calls it "Soviet chic." Prague is on the border between Eastern Europe and Western Europe, and it is so cool because it doesn't really fit into either category. It's got the Soviet influence, definitely, but the chic influence (I hope that doesn't offend any former Soviets...) of Western Europe:

Prague was just lovely:

It was getting near Easter, and Prague was appropriately decorated:

Seriously, aren't these buildings cool?

One of Prague's main attractions is the Astronomical Clock, aka the Orloj. According to Wikipedia, "the Orloj is composed of three main components: the astronomical dial, representing the position of the Sun and Moon in the sky and displaying various astronomical details; 'The Walk of the Apostles,' a clockwork hourly show of figures of the Apostles, and other moving sculptures; and a calendar dial with medallions representing the months." It is super-cool looking:

In this photo, the Astronomical Clock is on the left, and the church where Erin and I spent Palm Sunday is on the right:

Prague has a river. Across the river from the Astronomical Clock, there is the Royal Palace (where, incidentally, Obama was the day after I took this photo):

Prague has lots of great architecture. Prague also has lots of odd architecture (read: Gehry's Dancing House):

While exploring Prague, Erin and I chanced upon (are you ready for this) a Swedish high school marching band! Not even kidding. To make it even better...they were playing ABBA! And the world seemed right again:

That night, Erin and I went an orchestra concert, and we learned two things: first, that the inside of buildings are as gorgeous as the outside (see below); and second, that orchestra rocks. The concert was phenomenal. There were ten musicians, all playing string instruments, and they were playing "The Best of the Classics," which meant we recognized most of the music.

The next day was Palm Sunday, and Erin and I went to that church from the picture above. At first, we were two of ten people in the church, and Erin commented on how it was sad that churches just didn't fill up any more. Five minutes later, there was a PARADE down the church aisle of about 200 people carrying branches and singing and chanting. It was, if you'll pardon the pun, enchanting. Also ensinging...oh wait, that pun doesn't work. Anyway, the parade was joyful and solemn at once, which is pretty appropriate to Palm Sunday, and it just went on for about ten minutes. I loved it.

Before we left Prague, we stopped by the Easter Market in the square outside the church. There were all sorts of crafts and jewelry, the best pastry-thing I have ever eaten (a cross between a pretzel and a cinnamon roll...mmmmm), and this guy:

Yeah, he's a real-live blacksmith blacksmithing right in front of everyone. That is real fire. So cool.

Prague, for me, is really more about pictures than stories. Erin and I spent our day-and-a-half there just wandering around and looking, because there is so much to look at. Prague is gorgeous all over, and the people are so nice, and the food is great, and the exchange rate means that you feel like you're spending fake money ("Go straight to the yummy pastry things that cost 250 cronar-thingys, do not pass Go").

Well, kids, we have now gotten through half of my spring break! I promise to be more on top of updating this with photos and stories, and then we'll move right on to...France!

I've recently been accepted to a study-abroad program in France, which starts the day after my Oxford term ends. That means I'll be in Antibes (in the south of France), soaking up sun and hopefully the French language, until July 11, and I'll get back the States July 14!

But before France part 2 comes Berlin and France part 1. Coming soon!

Expedition to Europe: Italy

Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears.

Couldn't resist, sorry. Anyway, when we last left my adventures, I was on my way to meet Jacque in Rome.

I did, in fact, meet up with Jacque (who you will meet in the photo nine photos down). Monday was our first day in Rome. We decided to take the subway to the Vatican Museum and St. Peter's; the tube was absolutely insane. When the train finally pulled up, 15 people squeezed into a space large enough for three people. I kid you not. There was no way I could have been pick-pocketed, because no one could move enough.

We finally got off the subway (launched out of the car by people desperate to get some breathing room), and made our way to the Vatican Museum. On the way, we saw six gelato places and decided that gelato was going to be a necessary part of lunch.

I'd never been inside the Vatican Museum before, and I really enjoyed it. Here is one of my favorite things:


That is not a carving: that is a painting painted to look like a carving. How cool is that?

The Vatican has roughly 45 rooms (when I say "roughly," I mean I'm totally making that number up. But there were a lot of rooms), including the Sistine Chapel. Unfortunately, photography was prohibited in the Sistine Chapel, but if you Google Image "Sistine Chapel" you can pretty much see what I saw.

The amount of art in the Vatican Museum borders on overwhelming:


That's just one room, with ceilings, walls, and floors covered in art. There was so much to look at. Most of it, unsurprisingly, was of a religious nature. I enjoyed seeing the different representations of Christ and the Bible and other religious subjects:

After the Vatican Museum, we sunbathed in the Piazza San Pietro for a while, and then we went into St. Peter's Basilica:

St. Peter's pretty much lives up to its hype. It's huge and beautiful and awe-inspiring and solemn and worshipful, all at once. It's historical and religious and political and current, and I just really like it.

Across the road from St. Peter's is the Castle St. Angelo. Romans sort of apologize when they talk about the Castle St. Angelo: "We're sorry, but it's the only castle we have," they seem to be saying, as if they don't have enough other ancient stuff to keep you occupied. My family visited the Castle when we were in Rome in 2004, and I got my picture taken with a performance artist all dressed in white. I decided to do that again:

We then made our way to the Spanish Steps:

The Spanish Steps are a seething mass of humanity. We even saw a wedding party taking pictures.

To round off our Monday, we visited the Piazza del Popolo, the Villa de Medici, the Fountian of Triton, and the Piazza de Republico. I'm not going to lie to you, while those places were neat, I did not take any photos that you can't see via Google Image.

The next day was Tuesday. Tuesday was Colosseum Day:

The Colosseum is such a cool place. We went on a tour with this Italian tour guide who spoke like an ideal Italian tour guide: "This-a statue was-a ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY METERS TALL."

This lady tour guide would deepen her voice and attempt an American accent to emphasize words, which was pretty funny.

Fun fact: the word "Colosseum" does not actually refer to the amphitheater. Instead, it refers to the ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY METER TALL bronze-a statue of Nero that used to stand in front of the amphitheater. People called the statue the Colossus, and...well, the rest is history.

That is the inside of the Colosseum. Did I mention it was huge? Well, it is huge, seating about 50,000 people. Before you say, "Well, Joy, Arrowhead Stadium seats 77,038 people [I did not make that number up], and Arrowhead isn't even that big," let me remind you that the Colosseum sat 50,000 people in an age before cranes, hydraulic lifts, steel, or plastic. Also let me remind you that the Colosseum housed a game even more dangerous than football: the Chiefs have neither swords nor lions, which makes the Colosseum slightly more hardcore.

And that's Jacque and I. We do not play football or have swords, but we are still pretty hardcore.

On Colosseum Day, we also visited the Tomb of the Unknown Solider, housed in a building with the Romans call the Wedding Cake. See why?

This is a view of Rome from the Wedding Cake:

This is what Rome is about: tiny streets, hills, and basilicas.

We also visited the Forum, where we got a tour from a Scottish guy. As part of that tour, I learned the story of the founding of Rome. If you want to know the full version, ask me, but the summary goes like this: Wolf-raised child chooses hill on April 21, 753 B.C. and puts a city on it because of vultures, then conquers most of the known world (which mainly consisted of...six other hills). Anyway, the Forum:

We finished our day off with some more churches (Rome is just crawling with churches) and a delicious Italian dinner. Have I mentioned the food yet? It was great. Great. I could eat in Italy every day.

On Wednesday, Jacque and I visited the Trevi Fountain. The Trevi Fountain is my favorite place in Rome. There's a legend about the Trevi Fountain that says if you throw a coin in, you are destined to return to Rome, so...

We also visited the Pantheon, which I personally think is over-hyped, and we did laundry (not at the Pantheon). Then we had a picnic and ate gelato. It was a good day. That night, we re-visited the Colosseum:

Lovely.

So that was Rome. We trained to Florence, and got in around sundown:

The next day (we are on Friday, March 27 now), we crossed Florence's river and climbed this large, steep, intimidating hill. This view was worth the climb, though:

On the left, you can see the Duomo (which translates as "dome," which tells you what to look at), and on the right you can see the mountain range that surrounds Florence.

Florence had a lot of street artists, and this one was my favorite:

They drew that with chalk. I was so impressed, I gave them money, which is probably what they were going for.

We saw Michaelangelo's David (no pictures allowed again...), and one of my favorite statues:

It's called the Rape of the Sabines. While it's a violent and tragic story, the statue is just amazing. It was innovative in its design, which is on a helix: when you look at it, you just keep walking in a circle around it.

On Saturday, we trained to Venice:

Venice has a lot of water. On the Sunday we were in Venice, there was even more water, because it poured all day. It was a little miserable:

Those are people standing on tables in San Marco Square. Apparently Venice floods on a regular basis, so they just keep tables ready for people to walk on. We didn't do much in Venice because of the rain, which was a shame, but we still enjoyed ourselves. We met some Americans from Vanderbilt in our hostel, ate dinner and gelato with them, so that was fun.

Thus ended our week in Italy. I learned that Italians really do the pursed-hand stereotype (picture a chef saying "Is-a good!" and that's the hand gesture I'm talking about); also, Italians sometimes make a large hand gesture and then forget about their hand, leaving it hanging in front of all the Smart Cars zooming down the street.

I also learned that Italians vendors are very friendly, and that they like to flirt with blondes, like Jacque. One vendor told Jacque, "Senorina! I look at you so long, I hurt myself! See, look at my knee..." Another told Jacque she dropped something, and when she looked back to see what it was, he placed his hand on his chest and sighed, "My heart."

Italy was a pretty amazing place to visit. Coming up next: Athens and Prague!

Expedition to Europe: England and Ireland

My parents and my sister, Abbie, came for the first week of my break. Let me just tell you how excited I was to see them: whilst waiting for them in the airport, I was bouncing up and down, talking to myself, and gulping back tears of excitement, and I scared quite a few people away.

They got here on Saturday, and I was happy. We ate lunch:



(Mom was still jet-lagged), and then we took a grand tour of Oxford, which included a tour of Regent's Park:







It was wonderful to take them to church on Sunday, and they also got to see me row, which was a surprise! This is from my church:





On Monday, we went to Salisbury Cathedral:



I know, isn't it gorgeous? The cathedral is in a great setting: there's grass everywhere, and therefore picnics and dogs and flowers and frisbees and happiness. We were lucky to be there on a sunny day, so we ate lunch sitting on the wall surrounding the cathedral:

We drove on to Stonehenge. We'd rented a car, which was quite the experience. Dad, Mom, and I all got to drive on the wrong side of the road, which is bizarre. On the way to Stonehenge, we saw a Texaco, which was...apparently wonderful, because there is now a picture of it on my computer. Don't worry, I'm not posting it; I figure you know what those look like.

Driving to Stonehenge is neat because you crest a hill and see it spread out before you:


It's smaller than you think at first glance, but when you get close, you realize that people who did not have hydraulic lifts or tractor-trailers created it, and then you are amazed. Inspired, even. In fact, Mom and Abbie and I were so inspired that we tried to recreate Stonehenge using our bodies:

A resounding success, I think. Actually, we initially tried to make the part of Stonehenge that looks like a door frame, but Mom and Abbie dropped me.

The Monday that we were at Stonehenge was my parents' 24th anniversary (my parents rock (hey, a pun!)):


On Monday, we continued on to Bath, where we visited the Roman Baths. If you ever go to the Roman Baths, do the audio tour as it is fantastic. I do give this warning, though: Bill Bryson contributes to the audio tour, and as much as I love Bryson's books, his audio tours are sentimental and pretty pointless. I don't know how many times I heard him say, "It's so moving to think..." and then explain how he is moved by an interesting but not tear-jerking part of daily life, like throwing coins in the water or walking down steps. Anyway, the baths were very cool:

We all tried the water at Bath, which is supposed to be healing but was mostly gross.

Yep, Abbie and I felt the same way about it. We ended the day in Bristol, at this B&B. It is called the Coachhouse because, well, it used to be a coachhouse:

The next day was St. Patrick's Day, so we headed to Ireland! But first, we stopped at Cardiff Castle in Wales, which was really neat. It still had the ancient keep:

Plus a bunch of newer buildings that made it this a hodge-podge of different castle styles:

That's Mom and Abbie and me. After the castle, we took a ferry, because there is a large body of water between England and Ireland:

Once in Ireland, we stayed in Waterford, which can proudly claim to have the creepiest and most out-of-place billboard I have ever seen:

Seriously, why? There are no words, no explanations, just a 100-foot-tall elf-child looking depressed. In addition to this billboard, Waterford also has a fast-food restaurant called Supermac's, outside of which they had a stabbing! What a day.

The day after St. Patrick's Day, we kissed the Blarney Stone. You were wondering why this post is so eloquent, weren't you? It's because I kissed the Blarney Stone. Kissing the Blarney Stone was, by the way, terrifying: no one ever tells you that you have to lean out upside-down over a hole in a wall five stories high! Mom will demonstrate:

After Blarney, we went to Dublin, where there is an amazing pizza place and weird television shows about men who wear pink, sing, and drive Barbie cars on their way to build sets for a ballet. Very odd. We spent a while in a bank that used to be the House of Lords, saw Trinity College, and bought souvenirs.

The next day (which was Thursday, March 19, in case you've lost track), we took another ferry from Dublin to Holyhead, and then went to Chester. That pretty much took the whole day. On Friday, we visited Chester's cathedral and wall:

Chester's wall was pretty neat, mostly because it was big and old (not that England has a shortage of big, old things).

We went to London via Stratford-upon-Avon and Oxford. In Stratford-upon-Avon, we were forced into a tour (okay, okay: I forced everyone else into a tour) of Shakespeare's birth home given by a man with a head the size of a watermelon and no sense of humour, unless it came to the "to be or not to be" joke ("So the question for dinner always was: 'to eat, or not to eat?'"), which he told three times. We also found this cool statue:

Our Saturday in London consisted of the London Eye:

We saw Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, which was great, although Joseph was roughly the color of the orange spray-on tan. We also rode double-decker buses:

Pretty much, my trip with my family was amazing, mostly because it was a trip with my family! We missed Reid a lot, but he was acing tests and winning basketball games (or something like that) instead of traipsing around England with us. We all got to see things we'd never seen, we stayed in great B&Bs (never underestimate the power of a good full-English breakfast), and we got to see each other!

Coming up next: Italy!

Expedition to Europe: exposition

When considering where on earth to begin in this most epic series of posts (which I have alliteratively and attractively entitled "Expedition to Europe"), I wondered to myself, "Where do I begin?" The answer to my question is found, of course, in that movie which has a wealth of ethical, moral, and philosophical answers: The Sound of Music. As Julie Andrews so aptly sings, "Let's start at the very beginning: a very good place to start."

In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth. And then, I got to see the earth that God created.

Let's start with the cities I visited: Salisbury, Stonehenge (okay, not really a city, but I'm counting it anyway), Bath, Bristol, Cardiff, Waterford, Blarney, Dublin, Chester, Stratford-upon-Avon, London, Rome, Florence, Venice, Athens, Prague, Berlin, Monte Carlo (not just a casino!), Nice, Paris, Palma Mallorca, Brussels, and Amsterdam. If you're counting, that's 23 cities in 11 countries: England, Ireland, Italy, Greece, Czech Republic, Germany, Monaco, France, Spain, Belgium, and The Netherlands.

It was amazing.

I want to tell you everything about it, but the logistics are difficult. Thirty-nine days, 23 cities, 11 countries, ten travel companions, 1032 photos, five buses, eleven trains, seven planes... My goal is one post per week of travel, but we'll see what happens.

Spring break!

Prepare to be jealous:

My spring break is six weeks long.

And what will I do with those six weeks, I hear you ask?

Travel. Lots and lots of travel.

Saturday, March 14 is a red-letter day: my Mom and Dad and Abbie fly into London! I am beyond excited to see them. I'm sad Reid won't be with them, but I know he's excited about being at MU while they're here and going to Colorado the week after.

While my parents and Abigail are here, we are taking a tour of England and Ireland! We're hanging out in Oxford until March 16 (shout-out to my parents' anniversary on that day: 24 years! Way to go, Mom and Dad!), and then we leave to visit Salisbury, Stonehenge, Bath, and Bristol. March 17 (St. Patrick's Day) is Cardiff and Waterford, Ireland. March 18 is Blarney, Ireland, and Dublin, Ireland. March 19 is Dublin and Chester, England. March 20 is Stratford-upon-Avon and London. My family flies out of London on March 22, and I cry.

It sounds whirlwind-ish, and is, but it's going to be a ton of fun. Even though I've lived in England for five months now, I haven't made any trips to any of these great places, so I'm excited about that. Most importantly, I get to see my family! Happiness is sure to abound.

The rest of break is spend travelling with friends. Jacque and I fly from London to Rome on March 22, and we're in Rome rocking the ruins until March 26. Then we go to Florence until March 28 and Venice until March 30. Thus ends the Italian portion of our trip.

Jacque and I will be in Athens (rocking some more ruins) from March 30 to April 2, and then we go our separate ways. I am meeting Erin...somewhere. April 2-5 is a little up in the air right now. The original plan was Prague, but it takes a long time to get there. We may go to Germany, maybe Switzerland, maybe somewhere else!

On April 5, I meet Ashton and Madison in Berlin. We're there until April 8, when we leave for Nice. I leave Nice on April 10, and meet Bill in Paris. We'll be in Paris over the Easter weekend, which means I get to go to Easter services in Notre Dame!

Bill and I meet Sabrina, Nicole, Erin, and Jacque in Majorca (one of the Spanish Canary Islands) on April 14, and all six of us hang out on the beach until April 18. April 18, Erin and I go to Brussels, and then we get into Amsterdam on April 20. We return to Oxford on April 23.

That's 39 days of travel in a row, and I'm pretty excited. I'm also slightly intimidated. Please pray for safety and health every one who's travelling. Also, please pray for no stress and lots of fun enjoying this great world that God has given us! I'd really appreciate it.

Row hard, row strong

I have been promising a post about rowing for a very long time now, and here it is!

Last term, I joined the rowing team. We didn't do much last term (which I why I rarely wrote about it) because of the weather. When it rains, the river rises, and it becomes too dangerous to row. Since it rained most of the autumn, the river was generally too high for us to row.

This term, though, we did a lot more! The weather was better, except for the whole snow thing, so we actually got to practice.

Rowing is pretty physically demanding. After our first practice this term, I woke up so sore that I didn't get out of bed, I fell out.

To draw the blade (that's what the oar is called) through the water, you have to push with your legs, then lean with your back, then pull with your arms. Then, to get the blade ready to draw again, you have to straighten your arms, lean forward, and bend your legs. To make that clearer, here's a video (shot by my lovely friend Madison, who was awesome enough to come cheer us on at our timed trial to get into Torpids--more on that later) (as a reminder, to play the video, hit the sideways triangle in the bottom left-hand corner of the picture below):






I'm the one with the bright red sleeves, second from the right.

As you can see, the eight rowers are facing backwards. The ninth person in the boat is the cox (short for coxswain, pronounced 'coxen'). The cox has several important jobs. First, he or she is facing forward and can actually see where the boat is going, and steers accordingly. Second, he or she directs/encourages/yells at the crew. For example, our cox in that video, Ray, would yell things like, "LENgthen those strides, LOOKing ahead, BACKS are straight, PUSH with the legs, enGAGE with the water, HEADS in the boat." Whenever he would emphasize something (as indicated by the caps), that would be when we were drawing through the water. During races, coxes yell when you're getting close to another boat and tell you when to push harder.

Getting the boat in and out of the water is pretty fun. We lift it onto our shoulders and walk it out of the boathouse, and then carry it onto the raft:



Then we lift it above our heads. I don't have a picture of my team doing this, but here's a picture of the boys' team:



Then we sort of roll the boat from above our heads into the water:



Here's what the inside of the boat looks like:



We sit on those seats, which roll back and forth, and put our feet into the velcro-strapped shoes.

What are these pictures of, you may ask? (Or, if you are being grammatically correct, "Of what are all these pictures?") They are from Torpids!

Torpids is the Hilary Term race. Now, at Oxford, races are not like normal races where everyone lines up at the start and then tries to get to the finish first. Instead, this is what happens (to watch this video, hit Play):



What you just saw is the beginning of the Women's Division I race (Regent's Park was in Division V, which is why you can hear Erin and me in the background--we weren't racing). There are 13 boats in each division, and they line up along the bank of the river to begin. A gun goes off (which you may have heard at the beginning), and off they go!

The goal in these races is not to reach the finish line first, but to bump another team. Bumping can be accomplished one of three ways: you can actually physically bump the other team's boat with yours; you can get close enough to the other team's boat that the other team's cox can see you and then the other team's cox concedes; or you can totally pass the other boat. The whistles that you may have heard in the video are coaches warning their teams that they are either about to get bumped or are about to bump. This may make no sense, so let's use a picture (from Men's Division I):



In this photo, the white boat is trying to bump the yellow boat, and they are getting very close. You chase the boat directly in front of you. If you bump another boat (for instance, if the white boat runs into/overtakes/forces to concede the yellow boat), you are finished with the race and you get out of the way. If you are bumped (if the yellow boat is run into/overtaken/forced to concede), then you have to finish the race or bump another boat.

Please don't worry if all of that makes no sense. I didn't understand it until I actually raced.

Torpids was four days long, and started last Wednesday. Regent's Park women did alright overall, but not great. We didn't bump or get bumped Wednesday and we got bumped twice Thursday (which was absolutely depressing). On Friday, though, we finally bumped! This was a literal bump: we didn't run into the other boat, but we did accidentally hit their cox and three rowers with two of our blades. The cox had to go to first aid. Oops. Then, on Friday, we were bumped again.

Though we didn't do just amazingly, I absolutely loved it. I can't wait for next term's race, Summer VIIIs.

Here is the amazing Regent's Park Women's Boat Team:


Ailsa (co-captain), Holly, Erin, Joy, Becky, Ula, Lottie, and Kathryn (co-captain)

And here is the equally amazing Regent's Park Boat Club: