Magdalen Boat House:


On Thursday and Friday, we bumped again! Hooray! Both were pretty quick bumps. Wednesday was St. Peters II, then Regents Park on Thursday, and St. Catherine's II yesterday. Torpids is hilarious. A boat concedes if the coxswain puts their hand in the air. And there is tons of fowl play to get them to do so. Whenever we get close to another boat, Taz, our cox will tell us if we're half a boat length, quarter of a boat length, etc. away. And then the girls in our bow, which is closest to their boat start screaming "concede!" It just makes me laugh; I can't get myself to yell it. It's just silly. If they don't concede early enough, the chasing boat is allowed to hit their boat and try to damage it. Rosie, our captain, kept telling us to just whack their boats and they'll concede, but Magdalen never concedes because we're rich so we can buy new equipment. Hilarious. Yesterday, it was taking a little while for St. Catherine's to concede, and the girl in our bow, little Imogen, actually hit their cox in the back with her oar. I don't think Imo actually meant to, but we were so close, and she was still rowing, so it just happened. But that made them concede. And it's all perfectly legal.

W2 pushing off up the river.

Down the river:


We found out on Thursday that during the W1 race on Wednesday, a girl from a different college was flung out of her boat by catching a crab (improper rowing technique causes your blade to go too far under the water, so it's too strong to pull through, and your blade can get caught, so it pulls you out of the boat). On Thursday I managed to catch one. Sometimes they aren't bad, but I had to duck to get out of the way of my blade, and then it was parallel with the boat, and I was just like ummm now what? But I got it back and we bumped, so it was no big deal. At least I didn't fall in the river.

Thursday photos: http://www.bigblade-photos.com/rowing/events/2009/ot09/thursday/Magdalen%20W3.html

Thursday after our race, I was convinced to stay and be a marshall for the next two hours. That really sucked because I had an essay to write, and I ended up staying up late to finish it. But no matter. Marshalling was lame though. Basically, they just line about 15 people up the river with radios to make sure the coast is clear for the start of each Division. It was pretty boring, but I got to see some good rowing, so that was neat.

The rest of the Boat Houses:


Then yesterday, it was supposed to be a really long, tough race, so we were pumped full of adrenaline, and Rosie, who sits in front of me, fell off her seat during the start. She pushed back so hard that her butt was in the air and the seat rolled forward. She was so surprised and struggled to get her seat back. I had to concentrate so hard on rowing so that that wouldn't distract me. Hilarious. Then we bumped. These other crews must be terrible because we have made so many ridiculous mistakes. Everyone does though I guess.

Friday photos:
http://www.bigblade-photos.com/rowing/events/2009/ot09/friday/Magdalen%20W3.html

I didn't get to go to the Gordon Brown lecture on Friday because of racing. But I think it was worth it. Ryan went, so he'll have to tell me all about it. Amanda and I are missing a trip to Cambridge today. But, oh well. I am so happy to be a part of this team. It feels really great to be competing again. It's funny because even when I was on OWU's soccer team, I didn't really care if we won or lost, but now that I am really a part of it, I care about Magdalen a hell of a lot. It's fabulous.

Unfortunately, we didn't bump today. It was really sad. We thought that we were going to be chasing a really terrible crew, but it turns out we were chasing St. Peter's I, and they have been training for two hours every other day for the past few weeks. We hadn't even been in a boat with everyone before Sunday. So we still did really well. We got bumped by St. Catz III, which was lame, but then we were being chased by Trinity throughout the whole course, and they never caught us, which was awesome. How exhausting to have to row the entire course! When it had only been a few minutes, it wasn't bad. But to row as hard as you can for about eight minutes.. that is painful.

W3 from Left: Imogen, Amanda, Kaci, Me (duh), Rosie, Clare, Alice, and Ruth holding our coxswain, Taz. Love them. We're in rowing order.


We ate lunch at the Head of the River pub after our race today. It was nice to spend non-rowing time with the girls for once. I am so excited to spend next term here as well, because I feel like I'm finally starting to fit in and feel perfectly comfortable. Since this term has been amazing, I can't imagine how fabulous next term will be. I am so excited for punting and croquet and blooming flowers in the botanical gardens! I'll never want to come home.

Torpids dinner tonight! The entire boat club rents out a place to have a fancy meal. I haven't gotten all dolled up in a while, so that'll be fun.