Rowing (and other Extracurriculars)

I think that upon seeing the title for this post, most of you will assume that someone else has stolen my blog password and is now writing my blog.  Rowing involves things that I have been quite against in the past: namely, exercising, getting up early, and watersports.  However, I decided that, since rowing is kind of a Cambridge thing to do, it would be nice to say that I gave it a try while here, if only for a day or two.

So on Saturday morning, I dragged myself out of bed and biked down to the boathouse to try Churchill rowing, and actually found that I enjoyed it significantly more than I thought!  Even the erging was kind of fun.  It really is a great sport because it's safe (and with my knee problems, that is pretty awesome) and really social and it works out your whole body.  It really is a big deal here.  The teams are really social with each other, and everyone I've met on our college team seems great so far.  Plus it is a way to get to know some undergrads, which I'd likely not have the opportunity to do otherwise.  I thought at first that I might want to try and be a cox (the person who doesn't do any of the rowing but sits and yells at people) but I think I'll try rowing first.  Being a cox is complicated and you need to know things, and I would like to try and get into shape for once.  We had a technical session on the erg today and I actually really enjoyed it again.  I've heard that rowing is addictive and I'm starting to see what people mean by that.  So, contrary to just about all expectations I will likely be rowing novice for Churchill this year.  Novice is a nice way to get into the sport but with very little expectations.  They put a lot of time into training you to do it right, and the coaches see quite nice.

So I think that rowing will be one of my main one or two activities here.  A couple of days ago there was a huge Societies fair (I mean huge.  I think at any one time the number of people there exceeded the population of Amherst College).  I signed up for a huge number of things (partly because I over commit, and partly because I'm weak-willed and lured by candy and guilt).  I think things like the "Bobbin Lace Making Club" and the "Bell Ringing Club" wont really make the cut.  There are a bunch of other societies that you dont really have to do anything in, but have great lecture series' (like the science societies) and I may try and contribute now and then to some of the science publications (think "The Element" but much more hardcore).  I also toyed with the idea of doing science tutoring, but that is a really big commitment, and I'd kind of prefer to do other things, so what I think I may do is volunteer much less regularly for these groups that go into schools and do science demonstrations.  Plus, there is a Cambridge Science Festival and part of it is at the Gurdon, so I can volunteer for that.  I also toyed with the idea of singing in a choir, but besides the fact that I can't sing, it is kind of weird to sing in a choir at a college that barely even has a chapel.  I'll just go to Evensong at Kings and Trinity to fulfill that need.

The only other big thing I'll likely be involved in is the Fitzwilliam Art Museum.  I loved so much working at the Mead at Amherst that I think it would be great to be involved in another museum, and give me some time off from all the sciencey stuff.  Their members get great guided tours of the museum by the curators, trips to museums in London and elsewhere, and learn how to give tours of new exhibits, so I'm super happy about that!  It's also right around the corner from the Institute, so it should be really convenient!