Doin' Time at the Course

Your US W8+! Reppin' our colleges: Syracuse, Notre Dame, Yale, Yale, Radcliffe, Stanford, Ithaca, Northeastern, Washington!

We’re hanging out at the course between practices and working on adjusting to the training schedule and the time zone change! Essentially all federations have a 30-45 minute drive to the course from their hotels; most, like our team, are trying to minimize bus time by fitting both practices into one trip. This morning, we rowed a bit harder than we have since getting here, and if felt really good to open it up for the first time in a few days.

We’re eating lunch at the course every day, and the food is really delicious. There are lots of fresh fruit and vegetables. New Zealand cuisine seems to be very "farm fresh"—lots of produce, especially beets and tomatoes, beef, and delicious whole-grain bread. I shot a quick video of the athlete dining tent—nearly every federation is eating in there, and it’s fun to see everyone from the different teams off the water and socializing a bit.

Unfortunately, it’s been very difficult to get any internet at the course. For some reason, only a few of the computers can connect through, so most of us are taking advantage of the comfy bean-bag chairs and foam mats in the athlete lounge and relaxing between lunch and our next practice.

We did, however, get word of the Head of the Charles results. Nice racing in the Champ 8+, Harvard! And a shout-out to our teammates from the USRowing Training Center in Princeton who went 1-2-3 in the women’s Champ 2x yesterday.

There are a bunch of photos from our row upriver today, as well as adventures around the course and into town. This grocery store display is a make-your-own yogurt machine—all the packets are powdered yogurt cultures!

Really cool, although I’m not sure it would clear customs back to the USA. Elliot Hovey (M4x) shows our excitement of finding NZ kiwis for NZ $1.99 per KILO!