The Rowing "Incident"

I figured it was about time for a not so serious blog. My time here in Amsterdam really isn't bad. Actually it is quite good. I love living here! Despite the negative aspects, this is a beautiful city with a lot of wonderful people. I love my roommate and housemates (all 35 of them- no seriously I live in a really big house). The work itself is great and the managers here are also really great! It's a fun environment to work in.

A couple of weeks ago I got to have a uniquely Amsterdam experience....I went rowing on the canels. Okay....so maybe that isn't quite accurate. I attempted to go rowing might be a more accurate statement. Here's how it happened. It was introduction week for the universities in town so a lot of random events were occuring around the city for incoming students. Well, I look like a student and I heard that they were giving out free ice cream. Now as a poor volunteer anything free is worth looking into. So myself, one of our managers, and a couple of staff members headed over to Nieuwe Markt to check it out. One of our cleaners, a crazy english, french, middle eastern guy who I will call Bob, came with us also. Now "Bob" likes to talk....a lot, but he likes to listen not so much. He was actually the person who informed us that there was free ice cream, what he failed to realize is that there was a catch with the free ice cream....We had to take a rowing lesson with a member of the crew team. Those of you who know me pretty much at all know that I am about the least coordinated person ever. The idea of getting in a very wobbly boat on a very dirty canel (it's said that if you fall in the canel the police immediatly take you to the hospital for a tetanus shot) did not really appeal to me. But the ice cream depended on it and "Bob" really wanted to go. So "Bob", Manager Ben, Lindsey another staff member, and I headed down to the canel for our first rowing lesson. First we had to climb down a rickety ladder to a platform on the water. A pair of cute dutch boys were there to help me down...so far so good. Step two, get into the boat. Another cute dutch boy is there to help. Step three, listen to our teacher as he explains to us how we are going to turn the boat around. This is where the problems started. As I mentioned before, "Bob" likes to talk, but doesnt' like to listen. So these instructions were pretty much lost on him. Now rowing requires a lot of teamwork, otherwise you will a. run into something, b. hit another person with your oar, or c. capsize. Our lesson was only a 10 minute introduction to the sport and our goal was to turn the boat around and row to the end of the canel section and back. In our 10 minutes we turned the boat around....That's it....We spent our entire time trying to get the boat turned around. We also managed to run into a couple of other boats, the dock, and nearly the wall of the canel. I was nearly strangled by my oar when a certain non-listener was rowing at the wrong time. And we nearly capsized when the same non listener was posing for pictures and thought that standing up in the boat was a good idea (did I mention there was a photographer there for the school to capture this whole embarassing event for all time). I really felt bad for our poor instructor, although his facial expressions as we crashed into things were quite amusing. By some kind of miracle, we all made it back to shore mostly dry and in one piece (although I did consider shoving "Bob" back into the canel).
Back on land I was slightly more optimistic about my performance on the water so I asked our instructor when try outs for the team were. For some reason he just laughed at me. Oh well at least the ice cream was good.