The Kickoff

Though we are now done with a full four days of our Henley adventure, we have decided that it is high time to get our blog up and running...and so the baton has passed to Ari (me...thanks Coach!) to kick things off! I'm not one to sugarcoat, so prepare yourself as I air our dirty laundry for the world to read. But really, we haven't done any laundry yet, so fortunately for the readers, you don't also have to smell it...

Now, it is totally unnecessary, but I am going to draw you away from Henley for the moment and introduce myself! A picture says 1000 words though, so a selfie will suffice:

Well, that's enough about me! Since we are now acquainted, I feel comfortable sharing with you my innermost thoughts. We'll start on the first morning...

Monday
We kicked off our trip with a quick bus ride to Boston at the budding hour of 4:45 AM. As a morning person (I'm not), I decided it would be an excellent idea to shower and get ready well in advance of that, so I hopped in the shower at 3:30...and hopped out around 4, I think I fell asleep in there. My gracious and timely host, Becca, was all too eager to help me pack up last odds and ends as I finished my hair and we headed out the door around 4:30 to drive up our baggage. Yes, this is all relevant because it marked the first big moment of our trip: I was the first one to the bus!! After the last stragglers rolled in coughpaulcough, we were on our way! Sadly, I did not save any of my snapchat story to enthrall you with, but believe me, I was ready to go and really enjoyed my bagel at breakfast. Of course, however, being women, we took a picture before boarding the plane:

Oh wait, guess I took a picture in the airport. You're welcome.

The plane ride was largely uneventful. Since you were probably wondering, I spent my six hours by watching The Secret Life of Walter Mitty, napping for a few hours with my tiger pillow pet, and starting The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel. Yes, I recommend both movies, very entertaining. Upon arrival at the airport, we all split up into our cars and were taken to the house we are staying at. Obviously, my car enjoyed the ride the most, since I was in it providing the entertainment. Once we reached the house, we got settled in our rooms, ate our delicious dinner cooked by our wonderful hosts, and passed out into a glorious food coma to prepare for...

Tuesday
We didn't have practice until 2 PM, so there was plenty of time to get up and explore beforehand. We kicked things off with a walk into town. It only takes about 15-20 minutes when walking through the woods along the public footpath, so it isn't bad at all on gorgeous days like the ones we've been spoiled with (until you have to walk back and up the hill). Of course, we paused for a group shot by the bridge right before we crossed it into town:

After roaming around for a while and taking pictures with actual phone booths...

 ...we found the grocery store, grabbed food, and went back to the house for our meeting with Coach at noon. Our boats didn't actually arrive in time for our first practice, so Paul gave us a light, easy hour-and-a-half-long workout (we were dripping sweat) and we got a tour of the boathouse and took another group picture!

Dinner was at an Italian restaurant called Zizzi's, and was followed up by dessert that we grabbed afterwards at the grocery store (shh, don't tell Coach). Hypothetically speaking if I had wanted dessert, I may have had chocolate mousse, and it could have been amazing. Cue the food coma and bed time...

Wednesday
6 AM: House wakes up, gets ready, host prepares breakfast
6:30 AM: Liz, Julie, Ari, Anisa, and Eli wake up, realize everyone didn't wear pajamas to breakfast (crazy people) and change for practice before appearing in public. Except for me, I am proud to rock my bright blue pajamas with apples.

This was an incredibly exciting day because...our boats were here! Which meant about 2 hours of rigging before our first quick row in England. I'm sure I have a selfie somewhere...

Oh and here's the 1V (yes, that's Paul's first celebrity rowing appearance as their stroke seat):

 Then we all went our separate ways (in groups of 5 or more) to grab lunch before heading out for our second row. Dinner was at The Catherine Wheel, which was pretty delicious. It was a beautiful day out, so instead of taking the footpath, a few of us decided to walk back along the road...not realizing it would take 50 minutes instead of 20. It was a very trying trek for us, but we did manage to return home. Sitting that night was glorious.

Thursday
Our last day in Henley before our row to Reading! We hit a routine by now (yes, after 2 days)...up at 6:30 when the rest of the girls came down the stairs (actually, 6:27...don't people understand the value of a little sleep?! Those three minutes are integral). Then  a morning serenade from me (gotta share some Miley with the world!), practice at 8:00 AM, lunch/nap, practice again at 2:00 PM, dinner, showers...packing for Reading! We are all stocked up and ready to go with our snacks and water for the row.

I have been too excited about the row to be able to sleep but now that I woke up everyone in the room and Julie has killed the spider that LEAPED ONTO MY BED, along with another one lurking on the wall, and my hands have stopped sweating (I'm not a bug person)...I'm going to bed! The stress of that ordeal has exhausted me.

I will leave it to the others to post trivial things like the food, the house we're staying in, our walk to practice, beautiful sunsets over the River Thames, and generally things that don't involve my face in a picture. I am privileged to have honored you with my selfies, so make sure you follow the blog as we hopefully post more frequently in the future (well, blog posts, not necessarily my selfies). Can't get enough of me? I post some sweet pics on instagram every day (@aniro13).

Cheers!! (I'm so refined now)