faaaaast blades

Im pretty excited about how the boat is going right now.  We did some 750s last night, with all of them being just under or just over 2 minutes.  We did a 2k this morning and pulled a time of 5:34 on the speed-coach.  An okay time considering the conditions and the non-taper, but I am not convinced that times mean a whole lot on the Connecticut river. However, the boat is feeling quick and light, and when we take moves, you can feel some big time bangarang.  

We also painted our blades this morning, which was unexpectedly a lot of fun. They look like this, only not old and beat up:

 

Somehow it made it more real in my mind that I am representing the United States of America.  Patriotism is a strange thing for me, particularly because I grew up in one of the most liberal places in America.  As a friend from home describes it: "Sonoma County is for people who think San Francisco and Berkeley are too conservative".  Country is not something I grew up being proud of, the flag was a symbol of hubris and arrogance.  Yet here I am, representing my country in a demonstration of athletic might.  I remember last summer it was a strange adjustment to realize that when people chanted "USA, USA!" they were cheering for me.  I am proud of my country, and proud to be an American, but at the same time I am ashamed of some of what are country is and does.  This creates some serious cognitive dissonance.  Anyway, go chew on that.

In other news, Stanford frosh beat the Cornell lightweights at Henley this morning, which was pretty unexpected by most, and very exciting.  I havent heard anything about the race outside of the result, but good job fellas.  

Ottavio, my stanford teammate, is coming to pick me and Osborne up, and we are going to hang out at the Siani cabin, which is about an hour away.  The cabin is on an island, and Ottavio lost the key to his boat, so I am waiting for him to find the key so he can drive here get me.  good times.  I am really looking forward to getting away from Dartmouth for the weekend, life is beginning to drag here.  After we painted blades, we bar-b-qued for lunch, which represents about the 8th time we bar-b-qued at the boathouse since we got here.  On our afternoons off, thats about all we know to do, given that we are really tired, have limited transportation, and dont know the area very well.  Its been nice, but I am a little sick of it.  Some of my teammates are also starting to get under my skin a little bit, so I think it will be nice to get away.  On tuesday we head down to princeton, where we will piece with the Olympic team.  It should be fun to go against a really good boat, and also to see if they are going to win me $10 (I bet charles cole that Canada would beat the US in Beijing, clear evidence of my patriotism).  We then leave for Germany on Saturday, to fight against the fallen world in the good and noble name of the United States of America.  Happy fourth of July to all of you!