Salocin

Crew and the very early morning

I talked myself into it, and joined a team of close friends who are getting up at the ungodly hour of 5:30am twice a week to get into a long, thin, unsteady and frankly flimsy boat, and rowing it up and down the Schuylkill river as dawn breaks. As temporary lapses of sanity go, it was particularly enjoyable.

This is not to say that it was without cost - I was so drowsy in the first lecture of the day that I felt the need to apologise to the professor at the end. I seemed to get a little better as the day wore on, but my attention span shrunk considerably, which doesn't help when you're trying to build financial models or preparing a course in business acquisitions.

Nevertheless, despite the blisters and the uncomfortable shifting in my daily schedule, I feel very proud of myself, for having finally taken on a little exercise, and trying a new sport, I just hope the blisters heal in time for me to go back on the water on Thursday. I'd most like to show you what the boathouses along the Schuylkill look like, especially at night - they're very pretty and magical, especially when you can't see the colour of the water.

I'd so much like to get back onto a boat - leaving the BVI behind was tragic, and I can't seem to shake the sea legs, every time I stand or sit still long enough, the surrounding scenery begins to pitch and roll as if on a boat, and the knowledge that this is purely driven by my brain does nothing to alleviate the sensation. What's more, when this happens in an enclosed room (like a lecture theatre, for example) it can make me feel quite ill. Irony is getting seasick on dry land after a week at sea. I was only on the water for a week, and expect the feeling will fade by tomorrow.