The Miracles of Modern Air
As my 1:30 AM alarm beeped, for a moment I considered not waking up. Then I remembered, "We're going to England" and suddenly, I did not feel tired at all. The rest of the squad rallied around the bus at 2, and we started on our 3+ hour bus ride to JFK airport. One additional perk of being the smallest guy on a team of 6'2" to 6'4" goliaths - if I curled up into a ball, I could stretch across two bus seats and doze off to fast dreams of powerful crews.
We garnered more than a few looks as we walked through JFK at 5am, decked out in our Henley finery, carrying fourteen twenty foot oars to baggage check. We were, by far though, the best dressed early morning travelers, even including Erik Bovino's Cubs hat. The escape from New York would not have been complete without a little bit of drama, including medical bags left at security, and a general lack of food and charging stations. Eventually, however, the half-asleep Henley Squad made it to their seats aboard Virgin Atlantic's Flight Number VS26, direct to Heathrow.
7 hours and several Oscar nominated films later, we landed in the UK. The coxswains tried their hand at steering the plane - thankfully we steer our boats straighter! Upon landing, disaster nearly struck again as one rower struggled to find his passport (it was in his pocket). We staggered out of the plane, through Border Control and Customs, through a confusing food court-esque thing (what on earth is marmite?), and onto another bus for Henley-on-the-Thames. Though our bus driver drove on the wrong side of the street, seemingly everyone else in this country made the same mistake, so we managed to make it to out host's house, Janine, in Henley. Within an hour, everyone had claimed a bed and had passed out, ready to begin our final accent to the top of the mountain we had set our sights on this fall, when the possibility of Henley was first raised...
-Jamie Sullivan, '18
We garnered more than a few looks as we walked through JFK at 5am, decked out in our Henley finery, carrying fourteen twenty foot oars to baggage check. We were, by far though, the best dressed early morning travelers, even including Erik Bovino's Cubs hat. The escape from New York would not have been complete without a little bit of drama, including medical bags left at security, and a general lack of food and charging stations. Eventually, however, the half-asleep Henley Squad made it to their seats aboard Virgin Atlantic's Flight Number VS26, direct to Heathrow.
7 hours and several Oscar nominated films later, we landed in the UK. The coxswains tried their hand at steering the plane - thankfully we steer our boats straighter! Upon landing, disaster nearly struck again as one rower struggled to find his passport (it was in his pocket). We staggered out of the plane, through Border Control and Customs, through a confusing food court-esque thing (what on earth is marmite?), and onto another bus for Henley-on-the-Thames. Though our bus driver drove on the wrong side of the street, seemingly everyone else in this country made the same mistake, so we managed to make it to out host's house, Janine, in Henley. Within an hour, everyone had claimed a bed and had passed out, ready to begin our final accent to the top of the mountain we had set our sights on this fall, when the possibility of Henley was first raised...
-Jamie Sullivan, '18
Ask Aaron Finder, aspiring brewer, about marmite.
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