Week Seven - thrice bumped during 'Vindaloo'

Week Seven was pretty much consumed with rowing. The big four-day Torpids race happened this week -- what a blast! Torpids is a race where all the colleges compete to be the "Head of the River", or fastest boat. The race consists of 13 boats on the water at a time, one-and-a-half boat lengths apart. Each boat attempts to catch up with the boat in front of them. So, you get to the top by literally ramming into (or "bumping" as they call it) your competition in front of you. (And unless the cox concedes, you actually have to hit the boat in front of you or it doesn't count as a bump!) If you bump a boat all four days of the race, then you win "Blades", which actually means that every girl in the boat gets an oar to keep with all of our names engraved on it. Your college's position in the race is determined by your college's position in previous years, so for older colleges, this means that their position is determined by the hundreds of students that have rowed for the college in the past. They say that we are all part of a hundred-year tradition by participating in Torpids. Very cool.

So, as I described in the last post, I was supposed to row in Linacre's B-Boat, BUT, when one of the A-Boaters broke her sternum in the varsity Judo match (that gives you an indication of the hardcore type of chick in the A-Boat), I got called up. That's right, I made the big time: the A-Boat! So, I rowed insanely hard busting my butt for four days to help Linacre bump some boats. It was tough, and the water level was dangerously high, such that only senior coxes and 'experienced' boats could race. (The race planners even had ten different back-up scenarios to cope with the weather conditions. For example, when the water level rose the day before the race, we got an email saying: "We will now go into a contingency plan known as 'Vindaloo.'" Yes, they named the contingency plans; this one after a curry dish.)

Sadly, Linacre didn't really shine in the races, as we ourselves got bumped three times, but we had an amazing time doing it! And, at least we didn't get bumped all four days -- there is even a special award called "Spoons" for that. So we didn't really get the glory, but at least we didn't get spoons!

Racing on the Isis... I'm third from the back.

The A-Boat crew post-race...

During this week, we also managed to fit in a trip to Stratford Upon Avon to see the Royal Shakespeare Company perform King Lear. (I went straight from racing to the Stratford bus, so I wore spandex to the theater. Oh, and those striped socks. That wasn't embarrassing or anything.) We also spent a night hanging out and playing cards at The Vic with all our pals. And then on Saturday, the rowing team had a nice Russian dinner to celebrate completing Torpids sans spoons. It was so much fun to celebrate with everyone and feel like a real part of a team. I can't wait for the next race!