We WON!

We won the 2005 Christ Church Regatta! We had to race six different times yesterday in the span of five hours, but we won!

Thanksgiving in the UK

It's official. I have now spent my first Thanksgiving apart from my family.

About three weeks ago I received an invitation in my pigeon hole (Oxford for mailbox) to the Magdalen president's home for a Thanksgiving Day Feast. How nice is that? It also specifically said that we were allowed to keep our mobile phones on in case our families wanted to ring us, or we could have our families ring us at the president's private number.

The president's lodgings at Magdalen are exquisite. The college is quite wealthy and the most obvious example of this is the president's home. It has a set of tapestries that were a wedding gift to Catherine of Aragon. I walked through the door and before the president had the chance to greet me, he handed me a goblet of mulled wine. I think my family should start drinking mulled wine at Thanksgiving. Before dinner, we nibbled on cornbread. I have found that cornbread is a completely foreign concept in the UK, so it's presence tonight was a testament to the overall thoughtfulness of the organizers.

Dinner itself was fantastic. The turkey was perfect, the stuffing was just like home and the cranberry sauce was homemade. I usually end up mixing my whole plate of turkey, mashed potatoes, green beans, corn, stuffing and gravy together and tonight was no exception. I was the first person at my table to go for seconds! I didn't actually sit at the main dining table, but with some grad students at what at home would have been considered the kiddy table. It was great fun and great conversation.

Dessert. There was discussion before they brought it out if they would go for pumpkin or pecan pie. They went for both! And, fresh whipped cream and coffee. (Mom, I put the whipped cream in my coffee!)

As we were leaving, the president and his wife asked us to please take bits and pieces of the centerpiece home. The centerpiece was composed entirely of cabbage, broccoli, oranges, apples, grapes, zucchinis, plums and other assorted market goods. It was absolutely hilarious to see us all walk away with heads of cabbage under our arms and grapes falling out of our hands.

I certainly have a lot to be thankful for.

Christ Church Regatta, Day One

If you have been following my blog this term, you might have caught on to the slight bent towards the Christ Church Regatta. Well, fear not for it is upon us at last.

Day one was yesterday. Our first race put us up against another novice boat from St. Peter's College. We did well right off the start and were able to win without any problems. (The above photo is post-victory.) It felt great and it was a good way to start the week. The Regatta is meant to last four full days. However, bad weather today (it hailed!) and the prediction of the same for tomorrow, has thrown a spanner into the plans. Now the race course has been shortened and will proceed on Saturday in a sudden-death head-to-head format. The race was already a sprint and now even more so.

Onto Saturday!

Cambridge, II

We started the day so early, the morning mist was still burning off when we were rerigging the boat in Cambridge.



After the race we proceeded to The Eagle pub.



Our team with the Cambridge weekend market behind us.

Cambridge

I woke up this morning to a foggy and frosty Oxford. It seems like the ideal precursor to snow, but I fear I will be disappointed. It doesn't often snow in England and probably not until after the new year.

Yesterday was a long fun day. Our whole team was up at 5:30 am to catch a 6am coach to Cambridge. We rowed in the Cambridge Winter Head of the River Regatta. It was our first regatta and also the longest sustained sprint we have ever attempted. We fared well. It was a time trial, meaning we weren't actually racing another boat. It took us 11:01 and it was a 2.5 kilometer stretch of the River Cam. All of my limbs were burning when we crossed the finish line. I was told that I earned the "pain locker" or "locker" award for the day because as I rowed past our other teammates on the shore, somwhere near the finish line, I had a look of utter pain on my face.

After the race, we promptly packed up our belongings and headed to the pub. Why not? We went to The Eagle, the oldest pub in Cambridge where Watson and Crick announced they had discovered the secret of life, DNA. We stayed for about 4 hours, since we had time to kill and it was warm. The weather in England has been hovering around freezing all week.

Last night we all went out for bangers and mash at a place called "The Big Bang." I had never actually had bangers and mash, but it was really good. It reminded me of Christmas dinner at my house, cabbage/sauerkraut and sausages. It was a nice close to a really great day.

Photos to follow...

OUANZ

OUANZ=Oxford University Australia New Zealand [Club]

Last week was the annual OUANZ Ball and seeing as how the vast majority of my friends hail from Australia, I went. Also, the theme was 'A Night at the Races,' meaning we were to wear those fantastic Ascot hats. Unfortunately, I couldn't quite afford one of those fantastic hats, but I could afford a semi-fantastic hat from the Marie Curie charity shop, complete with a really large purple bow in the back. I think I am now over my Ascot/My Fair Lady fantasy.

T Minus Seven Days

Here's a photo from Saturday of our crew. You'll notice the lilies on our blades/oars. Three lilies is the mark of Magdalen College.

I might have to rename my blog "Elin's scrappy attempt at novice rowing" if I keep this up. Speaking of up, I was, this morning at 6am. It was a brilliant day of sunshine, so no complaints. Of course, it was pitch black at 6am, but the sunrise was worth it.

P.S. Happy Birthday Blake!

Yet Another Bop

The Rowing girls

Magdalen's JCR (junior common room) had a drag bop on Saturday night. Clearly a man was in charge of this one, seeing as how the men were to come in drag and the women as whores. Fantastic. Julie and I walked in from the theater, so we are both dressed a bit like school teachers in comparison.

Rowing, Part II

When I signed up for rowing, I had no idea that holding the boat over our heads would be included in the package.



I'm sitting in the second seat, in the dark red.



Things are really coming together for our team. These photos come from an actually sunny day, but today was a day of almost constant rain. We stayed out for two hours, under our coach's theory that when we do come out in good conditions, we'll be oh so thankful. We were all wet through and you can imagine the shower we got when we had to lift the boat up to heads at the end of the outing.

The big novice race is in the 2.5 weeks, the Christ Church Regatta.

Magdalen's Halloween Bop

Alright, I'll admit that my costume was definitely on the pathetic side. I couldn't seem to muster anything more than a pair of devil horns. If it counts for anything, I did have lofty ambitions to go at Jackie O. or even wear one of those plastic presidential George W masks, but I honestly didn't want to be stoned.



Dan came as a mad scientist, I think.



Here are Julie, Catherine, Joanne and Anna. They represent three different countries and three different continents! (Australia, Canada and Denmark.)

Bop=Party at Oxford. I definitely didn't anticipate this much by way of planned social events, I more anticipated planned marching to the library, but the moral of the story is that 20 somethings will be 20 somethings wherever they are.