monday night kendall and i went to roll practice for kayaking, which was at the northcote college (aka high school) pool, a suburb on the north shore. originally 2 other girls from IH had wanted to come, so when i emailed the guy i had said 4, but we figured it didn't matter, based on the lack of organization for any aucc events.
so we showed up at the quad at 6:30 like we had been told, and saw lee and a bunch of other american kids sitting at a table, and sure enough they were going as well. some of the instructors (exec members) showed up and told us to find a car, so kendall and i went with another ies girl molly, and another american jen, with a guy named nick.
when we got there, ross (my guide from the first day) was complaining about how many of us there were, and we were eventually split up into 2 groups. kendall and i waited, with a couple other girls, and watched everyone else. since there were so many beginners they were teaching us paddling and t-rescuing, rather than even trying to teach us to roll independently. 2 of the girls who had been in the club for awhile (kelly and sophie) already were working on rolling by where we were sitting though, and they made it look pretty effortless. then kelly got out and was like who want's a kayak, so i went over and took off my warm layer (it's an outdoor pool, and by the time it was dark it was pretty chilly). she gave me her spray skirt (we weren't using life jackets or helmets), and i got in and she was like "ok you roll over and tap 3 times (that's the signal for help) and i'll roll you back" so i did, only when she tried to roll me back she couldn't! so after a few tries i just went out the bottom and she was like 'i'm so sorry!' but it was fine.
so i got back in at the edge, and she took me over to a "real" instructor, colm. he had me do some basic paddling, and then had me hold on to the side of the pool and practice flipping my hips (with the boat) over and back. the most important part is to just flip your hips, without pushing with your arms, and keep your ear in the water until the very end. this is because a) it's easier that way (your head is heavy and adds to the amount of weight you have to shift) and b)
because in a real t-rescue you're pushing off another kayak, not the side of the pool, and you don't want to sink them.
then he had me flip all the way over, and use his arm to push back. i kept freaking out and just pushing really hard to get my head above the water but once i slowed down and thought through the steps it was better. we also 'borrowed' the front of someone else's kayak to try for real, and it's a lot easier with that than with his arm. then i was like 'wouldn't it take longer for someone to get to me in the river in real life though' and he said yeah, but the average person (resting) can hold their breath for a minute and a half, and even with the flailing around underwater i should be ok for 30 seconds at least. so he gradually started waiting longer and longer before giving me his hand, which was pretty traumatizing and did not go too well. the first time i was freaking out by 8 seconds, and when he made me go for 10 that was about my limit. i think the problem is either i blow out so i don't get water up my nose, which then uses up a lot of my air, or else i get water up my nose, which is just really painful. then at the end he told me to go under as long as possible, and then do a wet exit (detaching the skirt and just going out the bottom). i did not wait more than 5 seconds, before giving up, but oh well there will be more practice.
after everyone was out of the pool and dry, everyone decided on a pub to go to (what they do every week after roll training), and everyone eventually ended up at this little cafe/bar place that was cute. a lot of us just had free water, and some people got beer and potato wedges and kendall and i split a piece of chocolate cake. everyone was just kinda hanging out, and planning for the big trip this coming weekend to fulljames. also while we were there james, one of the ones in charge collected money from everyone for pool rent, and molly and i finally paid our $20 membership to really join the club. eventually we left (the place was basically closing), and nick dropped us back at school. we were again exhausted, and showered and went to bed.
the rest of this week i've just been going to classes and going to bed early for the most part. last night the girls (ej sophie and kendall) went to margaritas like we did last wed, but i was exhausted so i stayed in and watched a movie with some other kids. halfway thru it stopped working, but that was fine and we just went to bed.
tuesday i officially signed up with ross to go to fulljames, and i bought some bread and peanutbutter and granola bars for the trip. walking back from the grocer store was probably the sweatiest i have ever been in my life while not working out.
today i went to buy a polypro thermal shirt (recommended for kayaking this weekend-side note, i'm mad i didn't bring my thermal leggings bc those would have been nice too. oh well) and also some long board shorts to wear over my bathing suit. i went to r&r sport, a place far down k' road that people had recommended for camping gear, and got a shirt for $32, and then on queen street i went by kathmandu, where we had gotten our sleeping bags really cheap. against my better judgement i went in, and sure enough their polypro shirts were on sale, under $20. i didn't think i could return stuff at r&r though, so i just kept going. billabong and quicksilver and all those brands have stores on queen street, but they didn't have many girl's long board shorts. i eventually ended up at the mall/shopping center where the warehouse is, and there's a store called amazon with all those surf-brands in one place. they also did not have many girl board shorts, so i gave in and tried on some boys, and eventually decided on a pair that aren't TOO manly.
i took the free city circuit shuttle back to campus, which was nice, and on my way back sophie called me and told me she was at kathmandu and that they had cheap thermal and i explained that i had been there and was mad already. then i went back to my room, had lunch (surprisingly good spring rolls) and then went to the 'power hour' aerobics class at the gym. i was much better at the step-coordination than last week so that was good. after showering i called r&r and explained my situation, and dumbly told them teh reason i wanted to return was bc i had found it cheaper elsewhere, and the guy was like 'welllll we don't usually do that' and i was like ok it's fine.
but after thinking about it i decided to walk back over there and try in person, and when i got there i was sent to the manager, who remembered my phone call, but when i looked very sad he was like it's really not the store policy but since you came all the way over here i will. and i said thank you a million times and told him i would be back with more business and he was like 'that's kinda the idea' so then i quickly went back to kathmandu, got the cheaper shirt, and then went to computer science tutorial at 5 (my only class of the day).
we had to work in pairs, so i was just with the guy next to me, who's name i never got, and the problems were kinda hard but we eventually got some done. we're learning about sequence alignment in class, and were told to come up with our own algorithm to solve the problem, which was kinda overwhelming. we eventually came up with one that would work, but would take exponentially bad time, and the tutor said that it would work but it wasn't really what he was looking for. we eventually figured out more or less what he wanted us to say.
out of 7 problems i think most of the class finished 1 or 2. it doesn't seem like i'm at a huge cs disadvantage, although we haven't done any actual coding yet. but i understand most of what's going on, and all the cs majors seem extraordinarily concerned with not knowing any bio. so i have told them (the 2 who i have talked to/worked with) that i will help them with the bio if they help me with the cs. a good deal i think, since the bio knowledge required is pretty minimal. i was worried bc normally i have class during the tutorial time, and that seems like where we actually practice working stuff out, but the tutor said he's putting everything online, and we didn't really get that much done in the alloted time anyway.
after that i had dinner with alex (from france) and hannah and lucy (from nz) and now i'm doing this. also this morning i emailed a microbiology professor about volunteering in his lab, with a slightly modified cover letter and resume from dr. quivey. there are 2 that really sound interesting. this one is doing a bunch of stuff, the most fun of which is looking for bacteria that produce natural food colorants. the other lab i will email if this one says no is doing stuff that is remarkably similar to dr. sia (ie, mitochondrial dna mutagenesis and repair). i figured i'd go out on a limb first.
i also did my laundry again today, so that's now hanging all over my room. i need to pack for fulljames now, except nothing's dry yet. maybe i will cough up another $2 for the dryer. ick.
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