A Sporty Nathalie?

I've been lucky enough to get to enjoy most of my favorite sports on a daily basis at St. Andrews. I always have been into kind of less-widely available, less "schoolish" athletic activities (not soccer, volleyball, track, etc.), so the club system they have here works great for me. Between kayaking, dancing, and biking/ walking around town I feel like I'm getting a lot more exercise than I was at home!

Here are some notable things (both athletic and non-athletic) I've done in the past few days:

The Freshers' Trip 2012 (photo credit to: Fredda Humphreys)

• I went on the Canoe Club Fresher's Trip over the weekend, which was frightening but really exciting! We met up at the Boat Sheds on Saturday morning, split into groups to gather our gear, and set off in a large caravan up to Loch Tay. When we arrived, it was pretty blustery and cold, so I started to worry a bit, but it soon cleared and the weather was fine. After changing, we did some warmup games, then got into our boats and onto the lake. The groups were planned very well- there were several large groups, and within each group were smaller pairs or trios of leaders and learners. We played some games in the harbor area, paddled across the lake and back, then headed towards the beginning of the river. The leaders were all very helpful and easy to understand, they explained everything before we did it and made sure we didn't have any questions.

Map of Trip

The Tay was pretty flat at the start and it kind of felt like being on a Lazy River at a theme park. The air was crisp and refreshing and the water was surprisingly not very cold. Most of our rapids on the first day were fairly minor, like something you would encounter on a family river rafting trip, though there was one wave-train which was a bit more tricky. I learned many new techniques, such as ferry-gliding and edging while leaving an eddy (basically, an area of water that flows less quickly). Much of kayaking feels like skiing to me, except on a horizontal rather than vertical surface. We did activities as we floated along, such as forming rafts or tossing a ball back and forth down the river.

In the evening, we arrived at a town where we got out, changed, and packed everything up to go to the Grandtully camp site. Once everything was set up, we played more games while dinner was cooking. After dinner came the drinking, of course. Luckily, there were a few of us who either didn't drink or didn't drink much and we sat around the fire. After a few hours everyone was so tired that we went to our tents/ cars. There were so many of us that each tent was completely full- mine was meant for about 6 people but we had 13! It was so packed, we all had to sleep on our sides (I was on one of the edges, so didn't get too squished). In the morning it was raining, and nobody in our tent really wanted to get out, even though it was raining a bit inside the tent too.

Going down the rapids with my leader
(Photo credit to: Emily Stratton)

Eventually we got up and went on our way back to the place where we got out of the river. We did a warmup of blob tag (that's what the awkward footage of me running around is in video below), then got into our kayaks. All the groups joined up in a giant ring raft in the center of the river and did some standing-up/ running around type games (see video). We split back into our groups and continued on our way downstream. We encountered some more rapids, and I got completely soaked when a giant wave crashed on me (I couldn't stop myself from smiling afterwards!). Soon enough, we got to the area where the Grandtully rapids start. We all got out of the water so we could look at the rapids, hear a plan for going down them, and decide whether we wanted to go or not.

I knew I would be upset with myself if I didn't try, so I went ahead and got back into my kayak. We ferry-glided across to an eddy, then went down the rapids! It's hard to describe how it felt- it was thrilling and terrifying, yet strangely calm. I was very excited when I got to the bottom, as I had not capsized. For a basic view of what I did, see this video: http://www.youtube.com/embed/244Sl5ma2UM?rel=0 (not our club, but did similar path). After the rapids, we got everything packed back into the vehicles, drove to Dundee to get some dinner, then headed home.

A nice video of the Freshers' Trip:

I also went to an ocean kayaking session on Wednesday (I got to go off the pier in my kayak!) and a pool session on Thursday.

• I went back to ballet class Wednesday night, which was pretty nice. Unfortunately  we can't wear our pointe shoes because the floor is too slippery. I wish we had more than one class a week- I am afraid I'm falling out of "ballet shape".

• I started a graphic design project for Design Team. I'm working with the SRC Accomodation group on a poster for the "Your Right to Rent" event. Once it is finished, I'll post it on the blog for you all to see!

• I've been on the lookout for more warm clothing as the days get shorter. My favorite store to look for needed items is H&M, just because it is cheap and usually has exactly what I need. I do like a lot of the smaller chains (like Ness) or local stores too- but usually just shop at them for items I want to be high quality, such as rain boots. I am still looking for a "perfect" jacket (rainproof, windproof, warm, comfortable, not flashy in color, and not too bulky).

I guess that's about it, sorry to keep you waiting for the post for so long!

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