Jersey has the Thunder, We bring the Lightning
IRA Blog by senior Alicia Kapjian-Pitt
After our exciting day at the helm of the gostanford Snapchat, I didn’t know how Wednesday was going to matchup that kind of excitement. I was not let down for as a result of the “weather,” we only had one practice Wednesday morning (talk about that elusive taper) and were presented with an entire day of freedom. Wednesday morning also signified our last practice rowing at Princeton. We loaded our boats and sent them off to Lake Mercer, the location of the championship racing. I spent much of the day in bed with Jordan (Duval-Smith) and Christine (Cavallo) watching the Bachelorette (we are totally team Shawn) and numerous Vine videos.
After our time off we all gathered back together and headed out for a team dinner at a local family’s house. We were all seated outside enjoying the food when the rain started. We stayed outside, but out of the rain, and I witnessed one of my few East coast thunderstorms/downpours. We made it back to our hotel just in time to catch game 5 of the West Coast Conference championships.
It was exciting to watch Steph Curry and the Warriors top the Rockets, giving me motivation for our upcoming races this weekend. To add to the excitement, Thursday morning we arrived at Lake Mercer. After the boats were fixed up and ready to row, we took them onto the water for a couple of laps with the intention of returning in the afternoon.
Being on the course for the first time since last June’s racing brought a mixed bag of emotions; today I was mainly feeling nerves and excitement for Saturday racing. On deck for the time in between practices? Pitch Perfect 2 of course. A group of us headed to the movies in between practices and it was “Ac-amazing.”
After taking advantage of our leisure time, we headed back to the course. On our way to heading back out on to the water we were stopped by race officials, informing us that there was incoming weather (East coast talk for a thunderstorm) and the water was being cleared of all boats.
Back to the vans and the hotel we went, but not before a spirited dance party. In closing, Jackie (Huddle) has now mastered the opening five lines and chorus to “Trap Queen” (which was made apparent during the dancing.) Stay tuned to find out whether she comes through on her promise to memorize the whole thing. Tomorrow is our final day of practicing before the racing begins and we could not be more ready.