Back to the Start

Seems that I have returned to where this journey started. About a month and a half ago I left Stanford for Princeton, NJ, and spent some time in a hotel on Route 1. Then I went to Camden, then Hanover, then Stanford, then Hanover, but alas, I am back in a hotel on Route 1. We left Hanover yesterday about 4 and had a long drive to Princeton. I went in the truck with the pair and the coaches, which was fairly fun considering the conditions. Could have been worse, had I been in the back seat of one of the other small sedans that drove. We made it, many hours later, dropped the boat off at Lake Mercer, and came to the hotel exhausted and cranky. Got to my room, got a bag ready to run out with for 7am practice, and passed out. Practice this morning was mostly just intended to kind of stretch us out and get back into the swing of things. My back was definitely tight from the drive, and it was kinda crazy for everyone to be on the big lake with all the senior team guys. We'll have to learn how to relax and let things flow some more. It didn't help that Mike Callahan and Matt Imes (a senior team coach) were talking loudly between launches about who was in our boat, how we were rowing, and the major problems with our boat's rhythm. That threw everyone for a loop for a bit and the boat only got worse. Maybe it was intentional. Either way, things got a little bit better towards the end of practice. It's extremely hot and humid here, even at 9 in the morning. Sweat doesn't evaporate so you just stay hot. Luckily the hotel is nice and well air-conditioned so it's a bit of a haven from the badness. We don't have kitchenettes or even microwaves, so the food situation is a pressing issue that we should figure out soon... no one wants to eat out for every meal, but we can't really keep much here besides cereal/granola bars/etc. Hmmm...

The hotel also only has wireless internet, and my wireless recently broke so I'm writing this from their "business center," a little closet with a nice computer set up and all that. Hopefully I can figure out what's wrong with my wireless and get a new card if necessary... if it's not the card, I may just be proper fucked and have to come down to this little cave any time I want to use the internet. I much prefer to browse emails and YouTube from my bed... argh.

Anyways, here starts life in Princeton for a bit. Still some things to be figured out... food, computer, rides (we have 11 people and 2 cars... hopefully we're getting a van today). We have practice at 6 tonight so hopefully it will be... well, a little less like the burning depths of hell. We're doing some speed work tonight and pieces tomorrow, not sure if it's with the senior team or not. Guess I'm going to go get some good reading/music listening/sleeping done... there's a lot of time between 7am and 6pm practices.