Graduation!

Hello Friends!

A little news on the rowing front. The Pan Am group candidates have been finalized. There are 8 girls vying for 5 spots. I have a good chance to make one of those 5 spots but it won't be easy. I'm going to have to row really fast!!

Last weekend I went to my graduation in Seattle. It was a great weekend of fun and laughter! My parents came to Seattle as well. It was wonderful to see them! On Friday evening, June 10, there was an athlete graduation ceremony. At this ceremony all the athletes were given a purple sash to wear at the Convocation on Saturday. This sash represents that you are an athlete and spent 4 years being on a varsity team.


This a photo of most of the athletes from all sports graduating this year.

Convocation was on Saturday, June 11. All the students filed in to the football stadium and family and friends sat in the bleachers. The ceremony was really long, about 3 hours, but I had a couple sudoku puzzles to pass the time and I was sitting with a few rowers to keep me company too. There were about 5000 undergrads which is about half the actual undergraduate student population. They organize the seating by which college department you are in and each department gets a different coloured tassel. Mine was white for the College of Arts and Sciences! I graduated with Bachelor of Arts in Psychology.
Here are some photos of the ceremony.


Thank you to my parents, family and friends for helping and encouraging me through my time at the University of Washington. I wouldn't trade it for anything!

God Bless!

Summer is here!

Hello,

Summer is here but Spring was skipped! It was fairly cold here in May and now that June is here it seems as though the temperature jumped 20 degrees. It is very hot here in London! Bit of a shock to the body as there wasn't really an adjustment period, but I seem to be managing the elements well so far. It is nice to be wearing shorts and tank tops though. It saves on laundry and I get a little tan as well! Don't worry Mom, I am wearing sunscreen!

Rowing is going well! Still gaining more speed! I am much closer to the lead single now. Our training group, the Pan Am candidates, is very small right now. On a good day there are 5 of us, but other days there are only 3 of us (due to injuries). We are only rowing singles right now as the Heavyweight scullers are doing selection and using all the doubles. Later this week, once selection is done I think our group will be growing and then we might do some selection ourselves! The Pan Am group is not a high priority right now, as we don't race until October, which gives me more time to get more speed before selection happens.

I thought I would give you a little information about the lake we row on. I have provided here an image of Fanshawe Lake, the body of water we row on. It is a great size lake and usually we can find some flat water somewhere. The star at the top left of the image is the beginning of the lake and we do row up there to get longer endurance workouts in, but we usually spend most of our time on the 2k course. The land around the lake is primarily a camp ground and conservation area. The water is not clean enough to swim so we don't have any problems with power boats, just fishermen and sail boats. The full distance around the lake is 10km, so we can get a lot of kilometers rowed in one workout! The 2k course is buoyed which is great as I can go straight!




This coming weekend I will be going to Seattle for my Graduation! Commencement is on June 11! I will be meeting my parents in Vancouver then we will drive down to Seattle for a fun filled weekend! Monday I will fly back to London. It will be a quick trip but I am looking forward to the break and seeing friends and spending time with my parents!

Well I need to go now, off to do a weight workout!

Happy Rowing