A Day in the Life of Brooke and Corre

Hello from Henley! Here we are in the above photo. As we are not the best with words, we've decided to take a step back and show you some context via pictures for these crazy stories other rowers have shared.

Here is the lovely house all 18 of us athletes have been calling home for the past two weeks. It is technically three houses connected and we live in the two on the left.

We wake up for a 6:30 a.m. breakfast (the a.m. is pretty important here).

Then, we commute via foot to practice. The roads are very narrow as you can see! It's somewhat terrifying when a trailer of boats flies by.

A lovely trek through the forest on one of the many public foot paths.

The hilllllls are alive with the sound of muuuuusicccc!

Mooooooooo!

                                      

Finally we've arrived at the venue for the Henley Women's Regatta where we've been rowing out of for the past couple of days.

A view of how the boats travel (in 2 pieces). 

Here is the Henley Rowing Club which our boats called home for the first week.

A shot of the Thames from the Henley Rowing Club - check out those clouds!

                                     

Heading into town between practices.

Don't let Coach see us buying desserts at the weekly market!

Don't worry, we also got some fresh fruits and veggies!

                                     

It's cool to casually pass another part of English Culture on our way back from town.

And so ends our day by a meeting with the coaches, preparing for this weekends races.

Speaking of races.. here is a link to the live feed!  http://www.hwr.org.uk/spectators

Both boats will be racing the senior eight - here is our bracket (don't forget we're 5 hours ahead here)

http://www.hwr.org.uk/UserFiles/Files/competitors_instructions/2014/S8.pdf

Cheers!

Corre and Brooke

New adventures in Henley

Wednesday

 Hi this is Liz!Today we started our day walking to the boats at the Women's Henley site. This meant that when we walked to practice in the morning we walked through  beautiful field that rolled by the river and has a beautiful view. We all enjoyed the walk  and sang the Sound of Music, because it seemed like just the right time!

View of our walk to the Henley Women's Regatta

Practice was busy with boat traffic from more crews arriving for the women's Henley! The Waddell boat has our first race on Friday around 4 and the Barolli boat has their first race on Saturday! After practice some of us walked to Leander to buy some navy and salmon merchandise! Then we walked to town and hung out at the center of town. Ari, Anisa and I decided to go to a Thai restaurant and it was DELICIOUS!! Best lunch decision of the day. After lunch we needed a little dessert and we headed over to the French bakery for truffles. After picking out the treats we headed back to our second practice!

Boat Club At the finish line of the Royal Henley Regatta

View of Henley-on-Thames from the river

Finish line of the 1908 Olympics

Relaxing at the center of town with some of the team

Table at the Thai Restaurant!

Anisa and Ari admiring the details on the wood pictures

Walking back from practice

We had another wonderful practice on the Thames and even scrimmaged a few schools. After practice we rushed back and got ready to go to an event at Leander! We all were excited about the opportunity to go inside this prestigious rowing club and speak with some of their Olympic members who also rowed for the Cambridge university's rowing club. We enjoyed some nibbles and checking out the Leander trophy's from as early as 1890 ( from what I saw)! After we enjoyed our stay at Leander we walked back up the path for dinner. After dinner we joined the other group of girls living next door to play soccer with the boy from the house. He schooled us at soccer since most of us don't have much coordination skills!

Wocrew with Sarah who rowed for Cambridge as well as was an Olympian

Leander's Library

Hanging out in the Eaton room in Leander

View from Leander

Julie and Kristen in front of Leander's recent Olympic accomplishments 

 Our days are mostly filled with rowing, walking and eating, its truly a wonderful experience being in Henley a second time and I am so happy that our women's program got this opportunity!Overall we had another wonderful day!!

Another selfie before the  Leander reception 

Leander and Laundry

Hey there! Becca and Rachael here, reporting on Tuesday's events.  We started the morning off rigging the boats after our very successful weekend in Reading, and then Paul led a warm up that left our muscles shaking and very warm. This was then followed by a morning row on the bustling Henley course.  There were many improvements made to the course over the weekend and it is really coming together! 

Many of us took a field trip to the well-known Leander Club in between practices. It is one of the oldest and most successful rowing clubs in the world, with incredible achievements from their members at the world and Olympic level. Their trademark pink hippo accented the beautiful building.  Leander is located right by the bridge into town and walking by the clubhouse is practically inevitable every day. When walking across the bridge one might see a single or two docking or launching from their dock, or if you are lucky you will see a full eight of gorgeous men preferably in their 20s. During our visit we spent most of our time in the gift shop contemplating which shirts and socks to buy. However walking along the halls the history is proudly portrayed in countless photographs and awards lining every wall. (We were only able to stalk, I mean spot, one rower through our journey. But he was a little over 2m tall and rather dashing.) After our trip to Leander we continued on our way, happily, a couple dollars shorter, but content with our many purchases.

The Leander clubhouse lobby...yes, that is a hippopotamus coffee table... 

Becca in front of just one example of the rich history of the club

Rachael with pictures from Henley Royal Regatta and the 2012 Olympics.

More Olympians produced by Leander...

The library in the clubhouse filled with books on rowing and the River Thames.

British Airways’ fifty pound weight limit for checked bags made it very difficult to pack enough clothes for two weeks straight so it was the inevitable laundry day!  The closest “launderette” as they are called on this side of the pond, is a mile uphill past the center of town.  Lucky for us, the coaches have been driving a rental  “seven passenger van” which is more comparable with a Toyota Prius than a Honda Oddessey, so we packed all of our smelly, dirty clothes into the car and made the trip up the hill. It was a rough start to get the washers going but we managed to fit all of the team’s laundry into 3 washers! However, as the owner so cleverly pointed out, they were “American made” and therefore less efficient.  As the neon spandex and sports bras swirled in the suds of the machines, we enjoyed our lunches outside in the gorgeous weather. We entertained ourselves with a card game that gave us lots of laughs but required no physical activity. Once our laundry was clean and folded we got back to our card game and waited for Coach to return, like a forgotten soccer kid waits for their mom after practice. Squeezing into the car once more we rode back to the house to drop off our clean clothes before practice. The entire experience was completed, when after our post practice meeting coach called for a hands-in specifically for the laundry-bunch. On the count of three the seven of us cheered “Laundry” and we got hands on our boat.

It is difficult to tell but there are, in fact 6 of us in there with a team's worth of laundry and the boat hardware suitcase!

Thanks for reading!

Becca and Rachael

Right Place, Right Time by Victoria Loehle

Aimless wandering through London (with the aid of a tour bus map that lacked street names and an underground map that merely labeled the stations) may not seem like the best way to see everything that you could possibly want to see, but Alexa, Kristin, Emily, Corre, and I managed to stumble into all the right places at the all the right times.

After that wonderful tour of Parliament (thanks, Rachael!), we set out in search of food...and 10 Downing Street, which we found. We took pictures of the buildings behind the gates and armed guards, not exactly sure which one belonged to the Prime Minister. Then we walked onward, our stomachs loudly grumbling, and came across St. James Park. The beautifully blooming flowers and vivid green shrubbery...and the prospect of a cafe in the center of the park...seemed to be calling us. So we headed into the park, toward the cafe. We found it rather quickly. I was shocked by the prices for the meals and was about to drag our little group toward a less expensive place when a couple of Canadian (or maybe American...apparently the polite thing to do in England is assume a tourist lacking the British accent is from Canada...) tourists mentioned to us that there was a nice selection of take-away sandwiches inside. So we went in. And we found more than sandwiches. We bought food (a chicken coronation sandwich and a scrumptious slice of carrot cake for me) and headed to the roof. We enjoyed a terribly delicious lunch while looking out over a pond of rather unique water fowl, including two very white swans (untainted by the Thames), surrounded by reeds and shrubs and trees. Emily tried Treacle Tart (Harry Potter's favorite dessert) with her lunch. She said it tasted like honey and brown sugar and was very dense...Not her favorite dessert, but not her least favorite either.

After we finished eating, we walked through the remainder of the park, taking pictures of some really cool-looking birds, watching ducks dive under water and swim around, enjoying the green beauty of the park in the middle of London. We ended up at the Horse Guards' Parade, and we got our first close-up pictures of 'fluffies' (the royal guards with the tall, fluffy black hats, as defined by Alexa). We walked through the archway to the parade grounds where beach volleyball was played during the 2012 Olympics.

We continued walking toward what we hoped would be Buckingham Palace and had just finished snapping pictures of the glimmering black and gold gates when we suddenly noticed a large procession of fluffies...

But they were wearing green checkered kilts and playing bagpipes and holding an enormous Canadian flag. We initially concluded that this was not, in fact, the changing of the guard and that this parade of people was just confused. After a few more pictures of the Palace (with real fluffies in the background) we followed the sound of bagpipes and realized that the procession was part of a memorial service to dedicate a monument to Canadians who fought along side the British during the first and second world wars.

So we walked on, along the Mall, this time with every intention of arriving in Trafalgar Square. Like the other swarms of tourists milling about the place, we took pictures of the monument with the giant lions and of the enormous blue rooster (Alexa suggested that someone had painted it that color as a prank...it sort of really looked out of place).

We wandered toward the National Gallery and were distracted by three men in matching blue jeans and maroon-red shirts who were spinning on their hands and heads. Turns out they were a break dancing crew from Spain, and we had arrived just in time for their show (they were warming up when we first saw them).

So we watched their show, which was pretty impressive, though they begged for money one too many times before their grand finale...32 consecutive head spins on concrete by one guy...in London, in Trafalgar Square, in front of the National Gallery.

Then we went into the National Gallery (free admission, and they boasted several of Monet's more famous pieces). The first painting that really caught our eye was of a regatta in Venice. We found Monet's works a few rooms over. Kristin and I were surprised that "The Water-Lily Pond" was so small. All five of us were particularly in awe of an enormous horse painting in another room...it looked like a real horse frozen stiff and trapped behind glass...

We then wandered out of the National Gallery and returned to the streets of London. We ended up in the equivalent of NYC's theatre district in and around Time Square. We walked into M&M World on a whim, were briefly suffocated by the smell of chocolate, bought nothing, and left. We also stopped in a touristy gift shop. Corre dropped a toy police hat with a blinking light on top...it didn't work so well after we left...which is why we left in a bit of a hurry...

We walked a bit further and ended up in Piccadilly Circus. We took a few pictures, but our feet were aching now, and all we wanted to do was sit. So we did...on the top level of a red double-deck bus. Turns out those all-day train tickets we bought also worked for the buses, so we hopped on a relatively random bus, enjoyed a really great vantage point of London for about three minutes, and hopped off near Charring Cross Station.

Then we turned toward what we hoped would be the Thames and ended up at Embankment Station (which we were looking for earlier after leaving Trafalgar Square; we took a wrong turn and ended up in M&M World and then in Piccadilly Circus). We were actually looking for a quality pub by the water...What better way to end a day in London? We crossed the bridge above the station and looked out over the Thames. The London Eye stood on our left, and Parliament stood on our right. The Thames stretched our before us, surrounded by the London skyline. It was the perfect place for some perfect pictures. We continued across the bridge. About half-way across, Kristin spotted a carousel and decided that she sort of really wanted to go on. So we headed over to the carousel, and Corre, Emily, Alexa, and Kristin climbed onto horses and prepared to enjoy the ride. I stood by the side and took pictures with Alexa's camera...I thought the horses were kind of creepy looking; the steeds employed by the Royal Guard and the London Police were much prettier. When the ride ended, we spotted a wicked awesome wooden playground and walked toward it.

And we all would have played on it, but we were deterred by the sign near the entrance that read NO BIG KIDS; ADULTS MUST BE ACCOMPANIED BY A CHILD.

We were ready for dinner now, so Emily busted out her phone and found a place called Benugo. It was a hip pub with artsy British patrons, not a tourist trap. It was located in the BFI (a sort of film museum and cinema for unique movies and documentaries, not main-stream rubbish), across the street from the National Theatre. The food was delicious (smoked salmon and goat-cheese asparagus ravioli for me), and the desserts were even better. I tried pistachio creme brulee...kind of like Emily and the Treacle Tart: Not my favorite, not my least favorite. But it tasted like pistachios, and I like pistachios.

Finally we headed back to Paddington Station to go back to Henley. We were exhausted but totally elated by our day in London. It really was wonderful.

P.S. Coach Jason is awesome...because he wanted me to mention him in a positive light in the blog...and because he brought us all on this awesome trip to England. Thanks, Coach!

P.P.S. Pat and Martha and Paul are awesome, too. Thanks for accompanying us to England!

The Dynamic Duo: Eli and Anisa Take on London

Hello from England!

It is us, one of your favorite dynamic duos on the WPI crew team, Elisabeth aka Eli aka Elizzabizzle and Anisa aka A-Swayze (that's my rapper name). Now, we know we cannot compete with Ari's kick off blog, but who is competing except on the water.

To start off this blog post, we would like to share a picture from the fall of our friendship picture to coach. Coach, here is photo evidence of our blossoming friendship (which began in October)....to explain why we are sharing this, a little birdie may have told us that coach didn't know we are the best of friends and the same person. He thought Eli is too focused and stern for Anisa's bubbly and outgoing personality! HE THOUGHT WRONG. 

For interest of what the pictures mean: the picture on the left is from working Head of the Charles putting up fences, we came up with a method of kicking the fences rather than lifting heavy things. We don't like to lift heavy things unless we are lifting with Paul. The picture on the right is an hour later and I (Anisa) was proposing to Eli because I was imitating someone. We had a good laugh. 

9 months later, here we are, in the great land of England and having a blast. As you know, we eat, sleep, row and when coach gives us a day off, praise the lord because it is a vacation. We started our day with a tour of Parliament (thanks to Rachael and her parents and aunt for navigating us there and arranging an awesome tour for us). I (Anisa) went on a tour with Jonathon, a lovely young fella (please say in a British accent, makes it sound official). In my tour group, it was Kayla, Becca, Julie, Corre and Ari. Jonathon told us it was okay to take pictures and being the tourists we are, we took so many pictures with the statues. I was also mesmerized by all the gold. I love gold and shiny! Making sure that we were representing the great U. S. of A. in a proper manner, I asked Jonathon whether he was used to Americans taking selfies with the old place, but he says it happens all the time. Later in the tour, we overheard him whisper to a coworker saying how this was his first tour. Even though we were his first tour, it was a lot of fun. He was also fascinated by the one and only beautiful 'Merica. 

I (Eli) had a different tour guide at Parliament who is a member of the House of Commons. When we first started the tour, our guide told us we could not take pictures inside Parliament and then I noticed  that Kayla, in a different tour group, was taking lots of pictures. Then, over the loud speaker, we heard, "Just a reminder, no photography allowed." Almost immediately, a security guard came aggressively tottering over, who is 5 feet, yelling and getting up on Kayla, who is 6 feet tall. Kayla and I (Anisa), totally oblivious, did not hear this announcement and Jonathon had told us that pictures were allowed. AcaAwkward!

One of the most interesting things I learned was that common American phrases are derived from Parliament. One example is the expression "it's in the bag." There was a huge green bag in the House of Commons where members of Parliament used to put items that they wanted to discuss, so they would say, "It's in the bag!" Another expression is "toe the line" which references two red lines that members cannot walk past. Although my tour guide was sometimes difficult to understand (he kept saying MP, which I FINALLY figured out at the end meant member of Parliament and not military police), I learned a lot and enjoyed the tour!

After the tour, we were very hungry and being the rowers we are, we were about to eat someone's head off. We went to a classic English pub and ordered fish and chips. Yummmmmm!! We lived the happy fatty lifestyle (shoutout to Sam Oc aka Mom). Then, the rest of the afternoon was comprised of walking, walking, some shopping and more walking. First, we started in Trafalgar Square where we posed with some gigantic lions being the classy tourists that we are (picture below!) 

As a wise person once said on a blog, a picture is worth a thousand words, so here are classic pictures of our day in London.

We walked to Buckingham Palace and tooled around that area. Of course, Ari tried to take a selfie with the guards, but they did not react at all! Then, we went to check out Primark, a giant store where H&M meets Forever 21 in an overdose of shopping and tourists (it was a little too hectic for us). After shopping and grabbing some snacks, including waffles and cupcakes, our fearless navigator Liz guided us to King's Cross Station where the notorious Platform 9 3/4 is located! We were slightly disappointed to see that it was a tourist trap with a photographer and a Harry Potter store! Having the worst bladder, I (Anisa) had to go to the bathroom badly, and strolling along with Becca, we found the closest bathroom. As we approached, we saw a gate saying that we had to pay 30 pence. In the great land of America, I would never have to pay to use a restroom. Not cool England, not cool. 

Finally, Liz guided us back to Paddington station where we met up with the rest of the team and returned to our home, Henley-on-Thames. Most of the team trekked back from town to the house we're staying at, but me (Eli), Ari, Liz and Brooke went to Cafe Rouge for what we thought would be a light dinner. Instead, we each got a 2-course meal! The food was amazing (or were we just really hungry?)! Our feet were sore and tired so we asked our waitress to call us a taxi. She went to the kitchen, came back and said, "there's a driver here already!" It turned out the driver was also the chef so we told him how amazing his food was and at this point, we were slightly delirious from exhaustion. That taxi drive was so worth it! Our day was wonderful but exhausting and the team was glad to go to bed!  

We hope this story and pictures have convinced Coach of our true, loyal, genuine, amazing, wonderful, fantastic, majestic friendship. 

With love <3,
Anisa and Eli

Reading Amateur Regatta: Day 2

Yesterday, we had another wonderful day of racing at the Reading Amateur Regatta and as a team we are now beginning to shift our focus to next week’s races at Women’s Henley.  Just so you know who’s behind the keyboard today, this is Maggie Freed with your daily blog update! 

As we entered our second day of racing at the Reading Regatta, both boats were ready for a battle.  We went out for a nice morning row to get stretched out and ready for the 1100 meter races later in the day.  After our warm-up row, the team ventured back to the hotel for another delicious breakfast (this time without collecting quite as much jam and Nutella).  The rest of the afternoon was spent napping, hydrating, and getting ready for some serious racing.

The 1V (better known as the WPI – Waddell boat) faced off against St. Paul’s in the afternoon.  WPI jumped off the starting line with a high stroke rate, preparing for a bow ball to bow ball race with the competition.  Stroke by stroke, and seat by seat WPI – Waddell moved through the opposition along the length of the race course.  I was rowing four seat of the WPI - Waddell and was excited to be a part of such a competitive and exciting race.  By the finish, WPI powered through the line for a decisive victory.

This victory set WPI – Waddell up against some serious competition for the final.  I’m talking about a boat full of strong, fast, and incredibly powerful women; we've seen them in action before.  I’m talking about… the 2V (officially known as WPI – Barolli).  The trash talking was dirty (not really), the stares were tense (mostly loving), and the hugs a little shorter than normal (probably cause we smelled).  The two boats sat on the starting line together, prepared for a WPI versus WPI final.  The red flag waved decisively, and we were off!  WPI – Barolli flew off the starting line, grabbing a few seats from WPI – Waddell.  Soon, however, WPI – Waddell gathered together and found their rhythm.  The clash of the titans ended when WPI – Waddell crossed the finish line, with WPI – Barolli not far behind.

I’ve always known that our team consisted of a wonderful group of women, but that fact was apparent yesterday. Facing off against your teammates means finding a balance between being friends and facing off as competitors.  On the race course the team may have been fighting against each other, but the second there was one foot on the dock all hard feelings are set aside for the sake of team camaraderie. WPI – Waddell may have been the boat to bring home some international hardware, but having a final of WPI vs WPI was a victory all on its own.

Below are a few pictures taken after the regatta!