Exams and Games

Posting for Monday, June 25th



Test # 2.

So I woke up early this morning to study a little more before class. I felt a little ill prepared, but I suppose I was ready. I felt like the exam was fair and I did alright, but we’ll talk about that more when I find out my grade.

Lunch at Churchill college yet again. The lady working the cashier office I officially do not like. Everyday I have got the same amount of food and I have never gone over. Somehow today I went over by 4 pounds. 4. I just started handing her things off my tray. I was like here’s the milk back. Now how much. Here’s the banana back. Now how much. Here’s the granola bar. Now how much. I ended up having to pay her money on top of my lunch voucher. UPSET.

We didn’t have any homework assigned to us, so a group of us went to go punting. Well first, people did some old homework that was assigned last week and I went to buy stuff for people. This is where I am losing all of my money. Then I went inside Cafe Nero on King's Parade and sat and blogged.

Cafe Nero.
Then I fell asleep in the cafe. Then I met people for punting.

For those of you who don’t know what punting is, it does not involve kicking any sort of ball. Punting refers to boating in a punt. A punt is described as a flat bottomed boat with a square cut bow designed for small rivers or other shallow water. Originally used as cargo boats, punts today are almost exclusively confined to pleasure trips on the rivers mainly in Oxford and Cambridge. The punter generally propels the punt by pushing against the ground with a long pole. I know it seems inefficient when you think about it, but it actually works quite well once you get the hang of it.

here's an expert punter we saw.

So it was me, Bryan, Kacie, Jennifer, and Laura. Bryan had gone once before, so he was our experienced instructor. Kacie got a coupon from Layla for renting a punt, I think it saved us a couple pounds or something. So we get the punt for an hour and everything after that is pro-rated. You can either rent a punt or hire a "punter?" Bryan took us out first to show us the technique and everything. Then Jennifer, Laura, Kacie, and I went last. It was actually really fun and relaxing. I had a great time. It’s a little tricky at first, but eventually you get the method down.


Getting started. Me and Jen

Bryan, Kacie, and Laura.

Bryan ducking.

He likes to duck.
Jennifer's turn. Notice the mouth.
Moving trees out of the way

touching the bridge

Laura giving it a go.

Kacie.

This Japanese guy had no idea what the heck he was supposed to be doing.

Here’s what you do, now that I’m so experienced. So I hold the pole against the back of the punt and let it slide through my hands downwards until it hits the bottom of the riverbed. The movement of the boat forward should drag the pole across the bottom and you use your weight to lean on the pole to propel yourself forward. Bad descriptions I know, but think about it logically. So what about steering? Couple ways to approach this. You could just push off the river bed on a certain side of the boat to steer yourself. But what I like to do is use my pole as sort of a rudder and move it across the water in the direction I want the boat to go. It’s actually quite difficult to do this, but surprisingly, it works very well. Also, since so much of th epole goes in the water, when you pull it out, a lot of the water will get on your shirt, don the sleeve, and on you pants. Deal with it.


Interestingly, I was told that there was once a road underneath where the river runs now. So the center of the riverbed is hard rock as opposed to the side, which is dirt. In the event that your pole get’s stuck into the dirt, you may have trouble getting it out and it could pull you over the side. You are supposed to twist the pole loose.


Me. Pro.We had relatively no problems other than a couple collisions with other punts and the side of the river. Everyone did really well.


Post collision with some people.
Apparently while we were in Paris, a group went punting. Of a boat of 4 people, Garrett, Susannah, and Diane all ended up in the river. It's realy quite dirty, so it's not advisible to get in.
We got a couple of great photos, including some in the back of King’s College which look exactly like some of the post cards we’ve seen. As the group that went before us last year, I highly recommend punting to all who visit Cambridge.

King's College, from the back.

By the river.
Bridge.
Sky
After punting we headed back to our respective homestays for dinner. Simon made sausages and mashed potatoes and black pudding. It was good as usual.


sausages and mash, notice the black pudding at the top of the plate.

Simon wearing my hat and glasses

Harry Betson.

However there is something I must address about the English and "pudding." It never really is pudding. Black pudding is actually some type of blood sausage. Yorkshire pudding is bread rolls. Pudding is not what they say it is. Don't believe them.


After dinner, some people went to hang out at Chili’s. But Rebecca, Clair, Natalie, Susannah, Diane, and I decided to attend a piano recital held at Clare Hall that Dr. Diller invited us to so I could culture myself more.

Action shots riding over: Clair
Rebecca aka supergirl

The featured pianist was a girl named Li-Chun Su from Taiwan. I forgot how old she was, but she was amazing. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been to a recital like this, but I had a great time.

Rebecca and Susannah at intermission.

Natalie and Clair

Me and Clair

Rebecca

Diane

She played Bach, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, among others as well. It last about an hour and a half with a 15 minute intermission and 2 encores as well. Most of what she played was from memory, which was incredible. I suck at the piano I have concluded.

The soloist Li Chin SuWhere it all started. An old piano at Clare Hall.
After the concert, it started raining and got really cold while we were riding home. I took a nice hot shower and did nothing. It was nice. The end.

- James