Rowing and freshers

The new academic year is upon us.  I've been completely MIA to my family and non-Cambridge friends as I first spent a week rowing twice a day (see blistered hands, left and right) then a week welcoming all the new grads to Trinity Hall and trying to recruit freshers of every level to try rowing.  Practical results:

• Drank a bit much on Saturday (MCR welcome drinks), Wednesday (boat club cocktails followed by MCR fun), Saturday (MCR cocktail night), and Sunday (first evensong of the year, yay choir friends!)
• Didn't sleep nearly enough
• Hundreds of emails sent and received
• Did ZERO work
• At least three fits of exhausted sobbing, mostly over organizing boat club stuff
• Now have a sore throat

But the thing is, it's all completely worth it.  I admit, it's becoming more difficult to work up the enthusiasm for new people since they come and go so quickly, and I'm realizing that the ones worth knowing will continue to be around; a blitzkrieg of friend-making probably isn't necessary.  Nonetheless, a week of sociality is never a bad thing.  And the weather has been glorious for the most part.

Being women's captain has proved every bit as stressful as I'd feared, but I'm fortunate to be surrounded by people with better strategizing skills who loyally help me.  Adding to my discomfort (both emotional and physical), I have switched to rowing stroke side (blade on my right, not my left).  This feels odd, but it was necessary, and it's becoming more natural.  But the best thing about rowing lately is that we were honored by a visit from Tom James, who was an undergrad at Tit Hall not so long ago and just won his second gold medal in rowing.  See here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/olympics/18911517 (he's sitting at the 3 seat with the cap and sunglasses).  He brought both medals and passed them around, and he hung out for the afternoon chatting with everyone.  AWESOME.  He also gave a little speech, and I was struck by the fact that when he rowed for Cambridge, he lost three out of four boat races against Oxford.  It just goes to show that a) results don't tell the whole story, and b) rowing is truly a team sport.  No individual can win a race for everyone else.