Windsurfing in England?

October 1st

I never would have thought of trying windsurfing, but somehow I found myself on the sandy shores of Pool Bay early Saturday morning. Clad in a smelly wetsuit I entered the water, trying to figure out how to stand on my board without falling. Laughing each time I expertly fell off, mimicking an action hero’s fall during an explosion with arms flailing, my hair in wet salty tendrils, and a huge smile on my face. After many attempts of just standing on the board I got the hang of it! Next skill I needed to conquer though was turning the board around, since I kept going away from the group mostly towards the direction of the sea. Turning around on the board requires you to actually move your body around the sail while holding the mast and with a more advance board like I accidentally ended up with (which was slightly narrower) falling off was much more likely to happen. Despite how decent I got at turning around on the board, I continued to go a different direction than where I intended to go. Eventually one of the club members told me that I should just mount the sail on my board, lay on my stomach and start paddling towards the shallower water. I was amazed at how efficient that method was, though I am still trying to understand exactly how to turn on the board to get me pointed in a direction that I actually want to go to; I figure there will be plenty of time to get the knack of it in the future. I was able to meet a few international students, and practice my French with the ones from Paris! It was a spectacular trip, and I would love to continue with it, though I am trying to figure out how often I would go once the water is cooler and my poor circulation kicks in. 

Later in the evening I went to the V Block in Monty (residence halls) for a BBQ. Quite amused I watched as roughly 7 guys stood around the grill with coal and lighter fluid, trying to figure out how to get the coals hot enough. One of my friends remarked something along the lines of ‘we can light a trash bin easily, but we can’t seem to light a grill’. After it was getting dark and the lighter fluid wasn’t doing the trick with the grill, we moved our BBQ indoors and used the ovens in two kitchens. Luckily that worked out just swell! Around 10pm most of the people went to get ready for the freshers event, Wonderland Ball; where many of them were very creative in their costumes, complete with face paint and clothes that were probably purchased at a costume shop. 

As they took off, I stayed with 3 other guys to watch the finale of Doctor Who. I was really psyched about watching it as I really have been missing the show (I usually get too scared to watch it when by myself, so I have always watched it with friends… might as well out myself now of being a Doctor Who nerd- My family has one of the seasons on DVD, and I even started a Doctor Who club with my friend back in Seattle for our dorm which I named, ‘The Exclusive Society of the Blue Box’. Before I left, my brother made me a 3D paper cut out of the Tardis, though sadly I had to leave it behind. Well that is enough of that, back to Saturday night). I discovered that one of my new friends even has a toy sonic screwdriver, the new and improved Matt Smith edition of the sonic screwdriver!!!! It is so cool!!!!! The best part about watching it too was knowing that my friends back home have to wait at least 6 hours later to view it on BBC or whatever channel we have back home.

Once the show was over, we went up a few floors and played darts while talking about theories, current scientific findings, and physics. I must say it has been one of my favorite days that I have had so far!! I ended up winning the game of darts out of the four of us, and headed back home around 3 am. 

Joel got a bullseye!