#BlameTheNovices

            This title doesn’t really pertain to what I was planning on talking about today, but one of the novices came up with it after our little trailer ‘incident’ and I thought that it was worth mentioning. While an amusing thought to entertain, it lends itself to shed more light on the highly cordial relations between the novice and varsity teams here. But that’s ok, we’re all one team right? Now before I go off on some philosophical tangent, trying to make a point about togetherness and teamwork, I’ll try and think of something else which may be entertaining to talk about. Not to say that I don’t think that we should all strive to have better relations between the various different teams within out team, but I digress.

            “What dress are you wearing” is getting to be a more and more common sentiment around the team this week. It always seems to be followed up by a conversation which can only be described in one way: an insightfully interesting and engaging 20 to 30 minutes of your life, and no, you can not have that time back, it is gone, forever. Fortunately, I always am able to have a simple answer to this question, “I am going to wear my suit,” if people are really lucky, I might get myself a new tie! But don’t hold your breath.

            Tomorrow morning, many of us will find ourselves breathing in the nice clean air of the city of Hamilton, competing in the 2x4 erg challenge at MacMaster University. This has been discussed previously, so I don’t think I’m going to keep beating this dead horse. Some performances to look forward to from the ATC are: Jill the smoker, the seriousness of Alyssa will be present, our resident Dutchman will be there to increase the multiculturalism of the team, Kristen will be there – don’t worry she’s better at erging than soccer, I believe Jody and Claudia are going to be there too (and myself). 

Our Daily Dose of Vitamin D

           Monday morning started out with a nice surprise, an ultra sunny, yet still a little brisk morning. In general, spirits were noticeably higher around the ATC, until Dr Dan decided to announce the morning’s workout. We took out almost the same boats as yesterday, with the idea of people being able to work harder in a boat they are comfortable in. The actual workout consisted of 2x4km time trial style, open rate. Overall, it was a well run workout given that some crews are not too experienced skullers and none of us are very familiar with this course. At least a few good strokes were had by all, and we had Rob put himself in the lead for the dolphin award – he was later ousted from this position by Mr Boui.

            The men’s quad managed to get themselves thoroughly wet throughout the duration of the workout. They might possibly also have been beaten by at least one of the women’s quad. I’m not completely sure on this one, but rumors are circulating.

            Although we all pulled harder this morning, we were all much more ‘controlled’ at the all you can eat lunch buffet. Generally at lunch the team sits together at a large table. However, at this lunch Dan and Matt decided to have a man date at a separate table.

            After a quick reprieve at the hotel, we went back to the course for a nice steady state row. For this row, we decided to abandon the 2km course and head along the river. We rowed about 7.5km up the winding river until we decided to turn around. This proved to be a very nice place to row, with wide sweeping turns and upscale housing along the shoreline. The temperature was very nice allowing for warmth in shorts and t-shirts, but not excessive heat.

            A few of us went on a pre dinner run, specifically Jill, Claudia, Beth, Matt and I. However we accidentally left Matt behind about 5 minutes into the run. After we left Matt we decided to turn off the main drag onto a side street, a good idea in theory to avoid all the traffic. In reality, not so much a good idea due to the neighborhood we accidentally turned into. It was the kind of area which would make EOA back in London look like a fairly safe place to walk/run. Fortunately we found a way to get out of the area and back to the hotel safely.

            The most intense competition of the day occurred at dinner, when Matt decided to show up at the dinner table with a fairly aesthetically pleasing and fairly American sized ice cream cone. Five minutes later, Dr Dan showed up at the table with a ‘perfect’ looking ice cream cone, and upon sitting down says “one upped!” to Matt; who then decided to go and refill his cone. Gauntlets were thrown.

            Currently, an after dinner Wal-Mart run in taking place. It is beyond me what supplies from there are needed - except Guns and Beer obviously, but I’m sure it will prove to be a wild adventure.

            Another one of our fun Georgian adventures, today occurred in our room when ‘somebody’ (#blamethenovices) managed to break the toilet – and no he didn’t jam it, somehow the back managed to get broken, so that when flushed water would be poured into the bowl at such a rate as to cause the toilet to fill up to the point of spilling over the top. Fortunately, the front desk decided to promptly fix the problem.

            We have been learning some truly spectacular things about the cultural differences between Canada and southern Ontario in the last few days. For one, weather which we consider beautiful t-shirt and shorts weather, the locals are still found wearing long sleeves, pants and even jackets. Further, there is a different standard of advertising down here in the American south, our favorite thus far is an add for a local health facility, which shows a child on what appears to be a small sled and says “Hey y’all watch this!” then “urgent care facility” on the bottom, not quite what we’re used to.

That’s all for today from the ATC, except for the current Dolphin award tally. Also, see the pictures below.

           

Dolphin award points tally:

1)      Andrew Boui - 2

2)      Rob - 1

3)      Everyone  else - 0

A view from the Boathouse in the evening. (Photo courtesy of Jill M)

Jill M and Sara R after a cat VI in the 2x (photo courtesy of Jill M)

Matt and Dan on a man date at lunch

A wider scale, lower quality image of the rowing club in the morning.