By bmlee18
Waking up at 6 o'clock in the morning... you could definitely call that a challenge. After futilely trying to dismiss the notion that my clock actually displayed "6:00," I pulled myself out of bed to get ready for the day. I hurriedly put on my long-sleeved training clothes, slipped on my green sneakers, and grabbed a banana to munch on for breakfast on my way to the boathouse.
This was my first day of rowing (crew) - a sport that seems to be a quintessential part of Cambridge. I had never done anything remotely close to rowing, never used an ergometer (rowing machine), and never personally witnessed a rowing race. But given the overwhelming popularity of the sport here (rowing seemed to be the focus of perhaps half of the conversations British students had), as well as my desire to experience something new and understand Cambridge's culture better, I signed myself up and somehow found myself walking through eerie alleys and splashing through muddy puddles at an ungodly hour of the morning.
The town was still deep asleep, shrouded by a pitch black veil. I trekked to the boathouse for a good 30 minutes, accompanied by my friend (another GW student), who was an experienced rower and thankfully gifted with an excellent sense of direction that guided us to the boathouse.
Soon after our arrival, we spent the next half an hour or so trying the ergs (short for ergometers), which was possibly the most confusing thing. You apparently needed to separate the movement of your arms, back, and legs to properly row, and consciously thinking about how my body should move only made me look all the more clumsy and awkward. "Legs, back, arms. Arms, back, legs. Now repeat. Ok... Why is my brain thinking one thing and my body doing another?"
We then moved on to actually rowing on a real boat (oh my!) on the small and narrow River Cam. By this point, the sun had started to wake up and had coloured the blue sky with patches of red and orange. Absolutely stunning. This made waking up at 6 o'clock SOOOO worth it. Rowing on a real boat on an actual body of water made the task all the more challenging, as I had to make sure to keep a steady pace with everyone and to somehow implement a series of movements that I had learned no longer than 10 minutes ago, all without falling off the boat to be captured by the freezing cold current.
And although that hour I spent on the boat did not suddenly equip me with phenomenal strength and coordination (I am still very much a confused and blundering novice), I will say that I came out from my first practice with a sense of real excitement. Excitement for learning something that I would otherwise not have the chance to back home, for watching the sunrise and feeling the crisp wind brush against my face, and for becoming united as a team with my fellow rowers. And perhaps these are all good enough reasons to help me get up at 6 o'clock again next week.