Water. Falling. A long Distance.

today was my day off!!!!! which means i went to niagra falls. Not because i wanted too initially. but because i owed catherine a tank of gas. canadians are peusdo europeans and put things in km and liters. i have no idea how much gas 60 liters is. but i bought roughly 30 pepsi bottles full of gas. that is revolting. and it cost a lot too.

so i went to niagra. I now know why this is a honeymoon destination. one look and basically you are done. back to business. I was more excited to be where Wonderfalls the ill fated tv show starring Lee Pace was set.

The rest of the town is a garrish amusment park type place/mixture of carnival. ferris wheel and expensive parking included.

so that was niagra falls. and i know to cross it off my list of places to go to. I think TV and the internet has taken most of the mystery out of nature and tourist traps.

"are you going to dance your way to the finish?"

first off. today at the race course i learned that ballet flats equal high fashion. my teammates thought this was the most rediculous/funniest thing ever that i showed up wearing them. I would like to say that sopping wet tennis shoes from flipping or ballet flats? i choose ballet flats. it was a nice distraction from nerves.

Racing:
My double, the team of Pitts/Smith-Staines (yes, its Pitts Staines) made the semifinal!!! we thought we were 5th and we turned out to be third so we advanced! we had a powerful sprint and now i just need to NAIL it tomorrow and I'm golden. we battled it out, attempting to steer straight, not hit the boat in the lane next to us, keeping on it with the legs, we did Not having ANY crabs (a major improvement), coming out with a time 45 seconds faster than our club nationals race. I had the worst case of nerves but I prayed, tried to focus and stay calm and we didnt have our greatest race ever but so much better than Tennessee. With a little determination and LEGS we can hopefully make it into the final tomorrow afternoon.

tomorrow we have the quad race and the semi final. and hopefully it will go well.

sometimes i do fall in the ocean

so. I did it again. for the eighth time this summer. and the second time with a partner. I flipped a double. yeah. there are times like these that there are no excuses. its just a, "yeah i did that..again" moment. this is one of them. Afterwards my coach asked, "so have you flipped on every waterway we've been on?" no actually i avoided the waters of tennesee. but i have flipped with everyone I've rowed long term with. Helen escaped.

canada just gets better and better.

I have a doubles race in 3 hours.

Lord Jesus Christ have mercy on me.

The goals:
keep calm
set a good rythm immediately
stay on the legs
be aggressive
go straight
quick catches
finish top 2 in a tough heat.

Picture Post!

These are pictures! of my summer. The last picture is of the guest cottage and the lady who i met who made my summer more enjoyable. I sadly did not get any pictures of the church.

There is the double wide as seen from the gravel road. the bushes cleverly sheild most eyes from the fact its a cedar clad trailer.

There are some pictures of the interior. This was on the day we cleaned. usually it was not that clean and clutter free.

There is a picture of the road i biked/dragged my body by foot to get to practice.

some good memories. some trying times, and a lot of lessons on endurance and preserverance.

Another cell service announcement

So. imagine my shock and horror after riding in a car for 12 hours to get from Indiana to Canada to discover that I HAVE NO CELL SERVICE. well. thats sad. but you know i spent lots of time in indiana with out my cell. so hey. one week big deal. even though i have five bars I'm on roaming. whats with that? Being forced off the grid by canadians.

I would also like to point out that canada is NOT the USA. no it is not. I went shopping at a grocery store and tried to check out only to discover that they didnt take VISA. who doesnt take visa? who???? canadians! at least those canadians that were celebrating civic holiday at the No Frills Grocery. Food is expensive here.

This morning when i tried to get on pandora, i found out pandora is not availble in canada due to legal reasons.

and then the mighty internet giant hulu was not avalible because i was outside the US. and my world was shattered. This is how i escape my teammates from time to time. and canada was looking to be very miserable.

But all is NOT lost! Daniel Rupert saw my facebook status and sent me a link which gives you a fake IP address for the US and fools these websites into thinking you are in the motherland. Thus i am listening to pandora as we speak.

This doesnt solve my cell problem. Everyone who I said i would call? yeah thats not happening. Sorry. and due to this fake IP address I cant access my email at the moment.

I miss you America States. I will be back in less than a week.

Cell Service and internet. and guns.

I have been on count down. I am ready to come home. really really ready. I have 8 more days. So now I am in canada. to finish out racing at the canadian henley.

Back Up:
I finished out the last week of practices, moved out of the doublewide, returned the bike to my friends who own the guest cottage. Missy had made me cookie bars. Unfortunately they didnt turn out but we salvaged part of them and my teammates were glad to see them after a long day of cleaning. I moved into our coach's condo for the last two days (our landlord wanted $500 for the two days in august we would be here) It was nice to only have to share a condo with another teammate and a coach. I am so excited to be out of indiana. so excited.

After a practice 2k on saturday (which i and my doubles partner nailed) we ended up going to a movie, My fourth one of the summer. So far I have seen Star Trek, Year One, Transformers, and The Proposal. Movie addict much?

My coach does not have internet, but after roving around the yard of the condo complex, finding internet, had a deer with antlers sighting, lost the internet, went searching again and thanks to unprotected internet found another connection. Its a good life, even if I look like a complete idiot carrying a laptop around hitting refresh wifi every five seconds.

Sunday:
I was now 9 miles out of unionville but a family offered to help me out if i needed anything. They ended up coming and getting me and taking me to church. I got to have family dinner with them. Their daughter is my age and we hung out playing cornhole with involves throwing beanbags at a board with a hole in it. this may sound lame. it is not. and I throw terribly. after losing we got board with that and ended up shooting guns. hand guns, and bigger guns. in the backyard. that was my first time doing that. I definately like throwing knives better but guns are cool too. Its a little less easy to kill or injure someone with a throwing knive in my opinion. It was such a great time to hang out with a complete family. Kids, Grandparents, cousins, aunts, uncles, the food was the first homecooked food I'd had since i came out here.

I was able to talk to a few people while in town. Amy, Chloe, Parents, Blackhorse, Ellen. I will never take cell service for granted again. until next time.

Not a bad way to leave indiana. I loved the church, the people, disliked the lack of cell service, watched too much tv and hulu, didnt read my books, and didnt write as many letters or send as many post cards as i planned. All in all if i had to rate this trip so far. I'd give it a 7. the guns alone bumped it up a point and half.

FREEEDOM! (almost)

I moved out of the double wide and into my coach's condo on friday. I am staying here until tomorrow morning and then i am leaving for the canadian Henley Regatta. Holla! Yes. and I have NINE days until i am at home. I have a longish update for the past few days but i am going to write that when i get to canada. Right now I am sitting outside the condo complex with my laptop using the mickey network. Thank you unprotected internet user. I am being eatten alive by mosquitos but this is a small price to pay after been internetless since friday afternoon. I have taken pictures and here is a teaser of the amazing update that is to come.

Yes. It is real.