Getting Wet

I realize I’ve been slacking a bit on my reporting here. My bad.

Saturday was a busy, busy day. I was finally scheduled in a boat with the college crew team. I’m in with the novices, and there are two novice men 8-boats, each with a roster of more than eight people. They shuffle us in and out, and I’ve been mostly out. But the weather was perfect, between a morning and evening of rain, so maybe I should count myself lucky.

The river Isis is mainly for crew teams. There are, at any given time, probably eight crews out, maybe more. The coxswains know the river etiquette and do their best to avoid the other boats, but it gets really interesting when boats need to turn around. Usually, someone with a bullhorn and a bike rides alongside a crew, to watch and coach. There is a small path on either side of the river leading to the many boathouses and beyond. Some of the Oxford colleges have their own boathouses, but some, like St. Catz, share a divided building with a few others. The University College boathouse is p-i-m-p. Ours doesn’t look like much, but it has a comfortable rec room with kitchenette and bathrooms. We also have a mostly empty trophy case. I wonder what some of the older college trophy cases look like (I bet they’re awesome).

Our novice boat went out and did our thing. The balance was fairly shaky, but we rowed “all eight,” which is an achievement for novices. My hands took a beating and I got splashed a few times, but I was none the worse.

I had less-fun crew obligations later. To row officially, you need to pass a ‘swim test’. There are 38 colleges, each with a crew team (I think), and they all have this test together in the pool at the Iffley Road sports complex. This was, as you may imagine, a wet mess. Groups of six at a time, dressed in shorts and shirt, had to swim normally down the lane, then backstroke on the way back, then pick up a brick, then tread water for a minute. Water is not my environment, so this was a bit of an adventure, but I succeeded, the last of my group. It really killed me though.

I had little time to feel sorry for myself, or spit out the water I swallowed, because immediately after that there was a small party with the baseball team. It was hosted by Tom, the British grad student who drove us to the tournament. It was a nice time, and I got to meet some of the regular players who weren’t at the tournament. They are mostly non-Brits. Some awards were presented for this year’s season, among them Best British Player, which went to Tom. A good time was had by all, and although I was rained on some trying to get there, it was a nice place to be for most of the bad weather.

After that, I met up with some of the Americans from my program to celebrate a mate’s birthday. That was fun too.

And that was my very busy day.