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January 25, 2006

Row for Humanity

Today marks the fourth annual Row for Humanity event at HWS (this photo is from the first annual RFH), and I find it important to note that I have never completed the fundraiser in the proper manner. Freshman year, the event fell on the day after my surgery, so I spent all day watching the ergers rather than joining them. Sophomore year, I was under special direction from December through February to train per heart rate, and thus rowed for two hours at a controlled heart rate instead of the required one hour, which is notably more intense. Junior year, I was off studying in South Africa, so I had to run for an hour instead of erg. And this year, my back is not strong enough yet to be able to erg for an hour, so I biked on a trainer in the atrium of the library for an hour and a half as an alternative. Regardless of the equipment I was on, however, I got to participate in the event this year, which was the goal anyway. I got some rather confused and bizarre looks as the atrium of the library is a busy place, and there aren't usually two dozen ergs and a bike set up in the middle of it, but no one actually asked me what was going on. It was a good thing, anyway, because it's not that easy to explain anything when you're in a very hot room trying to train...

Posted by rgutwin at 12:58 PM | Comments (3)

January 17, 2006

Back to Geneva

Anna and I arrived in Geneva safely on Sunday afternoon. The roads were pretty icy in Vermont, but the driving was all clear once we hit New York. Anna is now lucky enough to experience all HWS has to offer for a few days...entirely from within my unit. She ventured onto campus with me yesterday for a few minutes, but other than that she's been sampling quite a few different forms of entertainment: namely, a) the internet, and b) DVDs. She's probably fairly bored, but I'll drive her back to Ithaca tomorrow morning and it will no longer concern me.

Classes have been going well. My two mathematics courses sound interesting: an introduction to wavelets and mathematical modeling. From math modeling on Tuesday and Thursday mornings, I head directly to ancient philosophy, which should be quite the transition. And then I finish my Tuesday and Thursday afternoons with Tibetan mandala painting, taught by an incredibly interesting, real-live Tibetan monk. Hopefully I'll find some remnants of an artistic side before the end of the semester...

Posted by rgutwin at 07:20 PM | Comments (1)

January 11, 2006

Camel's Hump

Owen and I snowshoed up Camel's Hump yesterday, which was more of a hike for me because I ditched my snowshoes less than halfway up. It was a beautiful day, albeit somewhat cloudy when we reached the summit, and there was plenty of snow on the trees to get Owen nice and snowy when I felt like it. Unfortunately, he did succeed in knocking me down at this clearing, but he might have hurt his hand doing it, so I guess we're even...

Posted by rgutwin at 09:36 AM | Comments (5)