Head of the Housatonic

It wasn't really a success, but we still did better than we, our coaches, or anyone for that matter had expected. I'm in two-seat (second from the right, for those of you not up on your rowing argot).

And afterwards, a picnic with the family atop East Rock, and ice cream, and running into old friends on the street, and a long nap, and all in all the best sort of weekend, when nothing especial happens and everything that happens is good, like a lazy Saturday afternoon in a happy dream of childhood.

Photo credit: My sister.

At the Games, I

On Sunday I went to the rowing races at Shunyi, I got there a bit late but I saw more or less all of the quad races. The picture at left is of China beating England by a fairly comfortable margin.

Apart from the races with China in them, the only thing that got the mostly Chinese audience excited was the appearance of the Fuwa, who are really unavoidable these days.

The Chinese would have enjoyed the last race on the schedule, in which America and China were to face off in the eights, but unfortunately the races were canceled due to a thunderstorm. It was some consolation to watch the Chinese basketball team lose to the US later yesterday night, but I would still have liked to see some eights races.

胡萨汤尼克河上

It's very rarely that I write something in Chinese that I'm proud of. My vocabulary is far too small to express any actual emotion or impression, and my command of the grammar, enough for stringing words together, is far from being secure enough for me to produce the subtle and intricate sentences I like to think make for good writing. But today, with plenty of help from the teachers here, I wrote an essay I'm moderately proud of. The similes are a little on the ridiculous side and in a few places my word choice has missed the mark, but it's the first thing I've written in Chinese that I've been very pleased with. I'm not sure if there are many Chinese-speaking readers of this blog——in fact I'm not sure this blog has many readers at all——but since one can't be sure of anything in this sublunary world, I post it here for their entertainment.

天上都是层层叠叠的云；地上都是灰蒙蒙的雾。在那个秋末的周四傍晚，天气很冷。在山坡上的房子里，人人都躲起来，在享受温暖的热气。山上的树叶已经凋零了，有的像赤裸的人一般显出尴尬的样子，遗憾自己不能穿上像样的服装。有的显出悲痛的样子，像丧失了孩子的父母默不作声地站着。然而在这莽苍的情景中，连最近的树也模糊不清，只能看到其阴阴的影子。


山谷里，胡萨汤尼克河慢慢地流着，其平静的水面下蕴藏着无穷的力量。南边有水坝；河却对此视若无睹，继续往海洋悠游自在地流动。当时，我们八个疲劳的人坐在小船上。我们已经训练了一个小时，把船划到离码头最远的地方。教练喊叫了，我们开始划船了。薄薄而狭长的船体看似一触即碎，但是它像剪刀一般划过水面。船上的运动员用尽力气，有如战场上的士兵，咬紧着牙，拼命前进。我们划得越快，天上乌云堆积得越厚。我们总算完成了这次运动，终于能休息一会。我们喘息着等待教练的下一道命令。


在那一刹那，轰隆隆的雷雨声突然充满了空气，在山谷里回响。下大雨了，两边的山也遮住了夕阳，我们像盲人一样看不见周围的水与山。教练又喊叫了，我们无奈地开始划船。雨越来越厉害，我们的衣服湿透了，雨水与汗水混杂在一起。船飞也似的往船房里的安全去。这回胡萨汤尼克河恨不得露出自己的力量，翻滚的波浪忽然来临，攻击我们的小船。那里的河水，雨水，闪电，我们都视而不见。我们一心一意的划船，舍不得关注别的事。我像狂人一样盯着前面，脑子里却很安静。我问自己，这种运动岂不是荒谬的极端？只当这个问题没有浮现在我的脑海里。此时，我奋力地划船，我感到莫名的快乐，非常满意。

Parting Glance - 6/3/08

"Nice? It's the only thing," said the Water Rat solemnly as he leant forward for his stroke. "Believe me, my young friend, there is nothing—absolutely nothing—half so much worth doing as simply messing about in boats."

"Simply messing," he went on dreamily, "messing—about—in—boats; messing—"

Practice Video Post

Just to see if I can put video online, some footage from yesterday afternoon's practice (I'm in the 4-seat):

Carnegie Cup

It was not a great weekend for Yale Heavyweight Crew, but I'll let the YDN carry that story.

The 2F had a better time of it, with a lead of 3 seconds or so over Cornell. Due to injuries this was the first time the 2F raced an eight this season, making us technically an undefeated boat. The 2F still has plenty of problems to work on, and the team as a whole didn't have much to celebrate, but it was still nice to take home a Cornell shirt.

In the picture on the right we're a couple hundred meters from the finish line. Our form (and especially mine) doesn't look great, but a win is a win.