Theory on Personality Traits of the Different Rowers of an Eight

I found this theory on the Internet and found it quite hilarious !!!

Cox:
It's pretty obvious what traits a cox must adopt and tries to learn to do a good job in this most unique position in the athletic world. I'll pass on the leadership stuff, napoleon complex garbage, and point out a secondary characteristic or two that coxes unintentionally inherit after riding in the box for a while.
They can't drive a car anymore. They take 10 miles to change a lane, over steer, can't find the brakes, and yell to the car a lot. This has nothing to do with the coxes' former driving ability. Stick Richard Petty in a cox seat for awhile, they'll take his driver's license away. Coxes also begin to squint a lot, no loss in vision, they just squint.
Stroke:
'It's a tough job but only I can do it.' The meekest, most frightened non-rower in the world; when plugged reluctantly in the stroke seat, stays meek up until the first few strokes. The first few paddle strokes, a thought grows in the wimps' sniveling little mind that this job is his/hers for life. Back on the shore, the real personality will percolate back to the surface. 'I hope you guys could follow me OK.' In the boat they're thinking: 'stop rushing, you weenies!' Strokes are born and made to be the most competitive person in the boat by far, and if they stroke long enough, become overly competitive in everything they pursue, or don't pursue. Don't expect to finish a game of Monopoly, Risk, or Golf with a stroke. The only one that can beat him to the chow line is the three man (more later) because the stroke was delayed trying to put more oars away in the rack than anyone else.
Seven:
This seat is the Bitch Niche. I don't know if whining, overly bossy, big-mouthed complainers are born, and I can't believe that the cosmic effect of this seat could possibly be so instantaneous, but you could teach Mother Theresa to row in a tank, stick her in an eight at seven for the first time, and as the stern four is rowing away from the dock, she'll turn around and yell at the bow four to 'set the f*cking boat.' The longer one rows at seven, the more sophisticated and complex the bitching becomes, changing from a crude verbal rowing suggestion to the six man in the early stages to long winded level- voiced reasoned treatises after every piece explaining why the crew is slower now than last week. Ever wonder why when a coach drives up shell-side to ask how a piece went he says: 'So how did that go, fellas? -not you seven.' I was a team captain, looked up to leader of my college crew, kept my mouth shut and did my job. I raced one week at seven, my coach told me to 'shut up Sullivan' in a post race meeting. Women who deal with severe PMS mood swings will find those swings totally disappear after some time at seven. Permanent OTR.
Six:
If you bred Arnold Swartzeneggar with a Golden Retriever, you get a six. Six is also Seven's yin. The gentle giant, gorilla in the mist. Six absorbs most of Seven's bitching and keeps it from moving through to the rest of the crew. Six nods and agrees a lot. It is a hard thing for a normal person to row Six. It seems like such a great seat, you're in the stern, the boats more stable here, but you are done with a rowing career at six, you find you been used. Sixes are characterized by great competence in execution of rowing and life, but poor self confidence and a propensity to self-flagellation. Take your 3 year stroke out of the stroke seat and stick him/her at six for a week. This will be the first time you ever hear him/her say: 'My fault, fellas,' at the end of a poor piece. Sixes meditate. Sixes marry, go to work for, and lend their power tools to sevens. This support system keeps sevens with thriving businesses, mates they can walk all over, and a garage full of power tools at their disposal that they don't have to fix when they break.
Five:
God. Yahweh. Allah. Buddha. It's not that the five seat IS those things, its just that's how (s)he gets treated. Five's stool don't stink, the catches don't hang. They're the older brother or sister that gets special treatment, and has no idea. If a photo is taken of the crew, five will look great, everyone else is caught with shirttails out, and snot on the lip. At heart and soul, five forgets to change oil, pay phone bills, and turn in forms to the IRS. Five is an example of what happens to a bum that is treated like a king, they act like one. Five has the greatest delta between image and reality. The fortunate thing is that the unearned unabashed worship lasts only as long as the time on the water. Five's on his own back at home. Five wears aviator glasses.
Four:
The Amnesia-seat. Take a genius with a photographic memory. Row said genius at four. Listen to him ask for the third time in the same warm up, 'How many of these 500s are we doing?' Four seat is not stupid, just has immediate and catastrophic memory loss. At a start and 20, four settles at 21 because in the time the cox yelled 'settle in two,' he forgot. In a Novice boat where the seats have been removed and cleaned, it'll be four's that went back in backwards. Four will forget to tell the boatman about his(her) stripped rigger nut - usually from the time he is told by the coach, until he arrives at the boatman's bench wondering what he's doing there. On that first day on the water as the ice is breaking up, who is rummaging around the back of the boathouse looking for a sweatshirt? Four is why racing shirts are handed out on race day.
Three:
Late in the water. Late to practice. Late to class. Late to work. Late out of the water. Late to his date. Late to the team bus. Late for everything but chow line. There is no competitiveness involved here, just an uncanny knack to have the first three rowers into the dining hall stopped by friends for a brief discussion while three breezes on by to the tray stack. Three generally gets assigned a sitter.
Two:
Lean to the left, lean to the right, stand up, sit down, fight fight fight. Cheerleader. What is amazing, is to sit at four or five after a particular piece - seven is whining about the balance, the spacing, no swing, rushing: two is back there with pom poms saying: ALL RIGHT GUYS! LETS DO THAT AGAIN!... Two calls out names of power 10s. 'Awright guys - OAR CLASH TEN!' If he says something funny, he repeated something the bowman prompted him with.
Bow:
Comedian. The bow seat creates a strange fatalism. They know that in a catastrophic collision, they'll be the only one to die or get paralysed. Consequently there is a constant quiet stream of one-liners that two or three could probably hear if two were not cheering loudly. If the bow is joined by a cox in a front-loader, this trait completely disappears, since someone is now likely to hear him joke about three being late, five not pulling hard, or the cox's course looking like a signature. (S)he can be humorless and witless off the water, but on the water when there is breath to spare, you're sure to catch a chuckle if you listen.

Crew Progress !

We got into the racing shell yesterday and today for the first time on the Schuylkill River !!! :D
However, the two days were starkly different.

Monday, was our first day actually going down the river in a racing shell; because, although on Friday we got into the shell, Coach Tom's motor boat did not work. Therefore, because we are novices, we could not go on the river alone, i.e. without a coach near us.
On Monday, however, the motor boat was working, so we actually went out on the river.
There was some serious issues with balancing. Half the time I could not get my oar out of the murky water to take a stroke. Being in the bow seat, I needed to take strokes in order to control the boat in the correct direction at the beginning, end, and during turns, but was unable to.
Let's just say by the end of the practice, I was frustrated to say the least. I will not go any further with as to why because what happens at the boathouse, stays at the boathouse.

Today, Tuesday, was quite different though, thankfully. The boat was actually stable ! I actually rowed with my oar in the water ! Thank you crew-mates !!! We need to work together in order to succeed this season :)

Let's go Mawrters :D !!!
Crew love !

First Crew Trip to the Boathouse

I woke up at 5AM this morning, you may say why would you ever do that, but today was the first day to the boathouse for crew. We were supposed to go last week, but torrential rains prevented us from gaining access to the parking lot.

Well, technically I woke up at 4:30 AM and flipped out because I thought it was 5:30 AM, which would have meant I had missed the vans to the Schuykill River. However, thank goodness it was only 4:30 AM, so I rolled over until 5 AM when my alarm went off.
Apparently waking up early on the first day to the boathouse is not uncommon :P

How can I forget the crazy man running outside that early in the morning with a random light on his head which made him look like a big white marshmallow !!!

I just have to say how beautiful our boats are ! Absolutely gorgeous, even when coated with mud :) We made then clean, pumped water out of Gaby's boat, did erg pyramids !!!

Unfortunately the river was too high and flowing too fast for us to be safe on the river, especially many of us newbies being inexperienced.  But that does mean a sleep-in tomorrow, but it also means erging again tomorrow rather than actually getting in boats :( Tomorrow may even be our timed 5K :O

I cannot wait to get in the boats on the river on Wednesday :D
Excited for crew season too :D
<3 !!!

Taking the Train to UPenn

Today seven of us Denbigh 2nd hallmates traveled to UPenn to the Penn museum. It was fabulous !!!

Firstly we rode on the SEPTA train, which was quiet bumpy and rather late :( But it was my first train ride up here in PA :) I have to say it really did make me smile, especially when we were laughing the whole way up there and the lady in front of me kept staring at us. Heck she was jealous of how much fun we were having :P Actually I think she wanted us to be quiet so her bay could sleep, but he did not wake up the whole journey.

The Penn Museum was quite nice. With plenty of interesting exhibits like the Egyptian golden figurines, the Buddhism room with tons of golden Buddhas, and of course because it was the 10th anniversary of 9/11, there was a special exhibit on 9/11. In the 9/11 exhibit there was a photo reel, places to sit and just reflect, places to share our experiences on that day, and objects rescued from the Twin Towers. The objects were squished and burnt from pressure and flames, but still identifiable. One that stands out to me is a Christmas ornament meant for 2001 Christmas and a stuffed animal with someone's name on it.
God bless America and all those who died that day ! We will never forget your sacrifice !

The sidewalks in Philadelphia steam :P  Plus some of the drivers are rude and do not acknowledge pedestrian right-of-way >:(

Haha counting off d-e-n-B-i-g-h !!!

You would have thought that by UPenn there would be plenty of restaurants to eat at, but we had terrible difficulty finding one. Besides several of us were getting grouchy due to hunger :P So we ate at  Japanese restaurant; however, the sushi chef was not in for lunch at 2PM :( So no sushi . . . I was disappointed ! Had a rather nice Spicy Calamari Rice Bowl though, despite the fact that it was far too big for one person !

Some of us then proceeded to stride ahead to the SEPTA station so we would not miss our train ! Would not have left anyone behind, but it turned out the train was still late from the morning, about 12-13 minutes late too. So we did not really have to rush but we did :P !!!

I love my Denbigh hallmates :D 
Hopefully we will have more explorations in the city !!!
This next four years at college will be great, I just know it :D

Parade Night at Bryn Mawr

I have only been at Bryn Mawr for a week and a half , but it feels like I have lived here an eternity. The campus is so welcoming to everyone and on top of that I am having a blast.

Here's a shout-out to traditions !!! Parade Night and Taft so far, but apparently they get even more fun :)
Parade Night is when the frosh run through Pem Arch as the Sophmores pelt us with mater balloons, spray us with water guns, and throw buckets of water on us. Although kind of disappointed I did not get super wet, only my feet :( But then we ran past the Juniors, our sister class, who threw candy and roses at us :) But, I'm pretty sure a lot of the candy got squished by everyone's feet :P The Seniors just watched from the seniors steps, many of them were quite wasted by the end of the night, and had bottles of alcohol in their hands as they sang.
We say our class songs, our class song is "You've Got a Friend in Me" from Toy Story. It is really beautiful to be surrounded by women singing songs like "Lean on Me" in the dark with glow sticks and lanterns.
The most beautiful part was the "Good Night" parade. The upperclasswomen with their lanterns in hand and singing "Good Night" make a row, and the frosh walk down it to the words of
"Good night, good night.
Time sends a warning call,
Sweet dreams descend on all,
Time, time sends a warning call."
It is extremely sweet and beautiful as everyone hugs all the upperclassman they know, and even those they do not. This whole night is sort of the welcoming of frosh to Bryn Mawr and Bryn Mawr traditions. 
There is an unofficial tradition that after Parade Night you go skinny-dipping. This year it was at Taft because Thomas Great is closed for reconstruction, therefore so are the Cloisters. Hopefully they will re-open soon, but rumour has it they will still be closed when the next academic school year starts :(

I'm loving Bryn Mawr and cannot imagine going anywhere else. These next four years will be fabulous and I am excited for everyday I wake up on this campus with a fireplace in my dorm and a bell tower outside my window. Dorms like palaces has never been more true :)