Tree Climbing, Building Scaling, and a Rowing Tournament!

The other night about four of us illegally played in some flat boats on the river. oops. No, they were tied to the dock- we didn't do anything that bad. And I climbed a willow tree. Those are excellent for climbing. I pulled myself up one of the stronger long branches and dangled a while from pretty highup- but I was in a skirt. a long skirt. Matt showed me up though when he bear hugged the trunk and shimmied up to the tip top. He was yelling down from up there- "Heather, I see a ____. what is it?" and I would answer him the building or spot and it's history if I knew it. Yes, I am that girl that hiked around the whole city and read everything about every college, church, and building as soon as I got here, so they all ask me questions. I like it. After the tree climbing adventure, we took to scaling college buildings. We have been told not to do this but we did it anyway- it was dark- nobody could see us. I did pretty well. I lept from one wall to the other and latched on securely and pulled myself up the ledge. Say, good job heather. gee thanks.
Last night I watched a rowing tournament! That was fun! We drove out to the country- my first time in a British car (the steering wheel is on the right so so sitting passenger on the left feels REALLY weird) and ate dinner at a cute pub. The river is deeper and wider out there and oldschool low wooden houseboats line the bank. Willow trees everwhere. and children running around in their pajamas-dont ask me why. In rowing you have a long skinny boat with about a dozen men sitting single file with a paddle each, alternating lefts and rights and the goal is to bump the guys in front of you. I would rather be a persuer than a persued. Whenever they bumped, both have to pull off to the side while the next set of boats pass. It is a tradition that if you win a bump, the whole team stuffs foliage down their shirts. ha ha. So lots of spectators bring knives so if a boat pulls up next to them they start cutting branches off trees and passing it to them. So if a team goes by you with leaves hanging out their armpits and collars, it is because they won a bump. There was a bicycle path on the other side of the river and bicycles would start off with the boats and race them down. so with ever set of boats, there were about a dozen bicyclists speeding down the path. that was funny too.