Mange Tak

Here's a quick note from Karen Hewell reporting live from Denmark!

I raced today. In a boat! But I will not sing "I'm On A Boat"! But I did... really. I was in one.

I raced three times back to back, and barely had time to dry off from the enormous waves that kept slamming into the rigger frames and showering me with freezing cold water. I spent most of the day shivering, and since I had begun the day with a bad taste in my mouth - ah, hello homesickness! How I didn't miss you - I was sure that this would put me in an even more sour mood. Luckily, it did the opposite. I need to make the effort to get out of my apartment even when I have no motivation. Laying around on the random double bed in our front room watching re-runs of House and eating frozen chocolate is a bad, BAD idea.

I thought it was funny when I found that there were even MORE differences between Danish rowing terminology and American rowing terminology. For example: We'll preface this with an explanation of the American saying. When a rower "catches a crab", it means that the oar gets caught under the water and is made especially difficult to get back up to the surface. Now, this saying is ODD - whatever - but it vaguely makes sense when you think of it in terms of, 'yes, crabs are water creatures. If a crab for whatever reason decided to latch onto your oar blade, it would probably create a somewhat similar response**. Yes? Yes.

In Denmark, people don't catch "crabs". No. They catch owls. SERIOUSLY. "Careful, you could catch an OWL. With your OAR." Do owls in Denmark frequently dive underwater? Do Danish owls have a fish fettish? Rather, how do people not laugh when someone says that?

Additionally, I was told that when I said our boat was 'walking' on another boat (this one means that you're gaining on another boat - i.e. you're 'walking through' a boat) it made it sound as if we were prancing down the lane, splashing water and singing. Frolicking? Maybe. Anyway, I need to entirely reassess my calls during races here. Don't want to conjure up any more images of us with bonnets and pink baskets, picking flowers. All in all, it was a good day. A great way to shake
off some of the crap that the week had muddled up in my brain. Tomorrow morning I'll be off to the gym with new fervency, seeing as I've had much too much fun this week, and it's beginning to show around my waistline.

**I told my friend Rebecca that we lost by a tenth of a second because we had caught a "baby crap" during the last 100 meters of our race. Later on, she told me she was so sad that we had lost because, and I quote, "a creature had somehow
gotten caught on our oars". My life is complete now.