August 24, 2007 - Arrived

Well, we're here and, thankfully, so far it is not raining.  Actually, the weather is absolutely beautiful as is the course.  The venue was built for the now infamous Munich Olympics, so it is really spectacular.  The course is a perfect rectangle, with six docks for launching and returning lined up at one end.  It's a pretty cool view to be able to look at the docks and see the entire length of the race course behind.  Karen says it makes you realize just how long 2,000 meters really is.

Our last practices in Philadelphia went well, though it only stopped raining for the last evening and morning.  Isabel arranged a send-off party which was very nice.  I was especially pleased that Barb Engleking, Priscilla's and my trainer from The Seeing Eye, came with her husband Bill and oldest son Will.  They are essentially my New Jersey family, so it was a welcome reprieve from the rowing world to have lunch with them and to have them at our going away shindig.

Our flight over was uneventful, although we all agree that the flight attendants displayed an attitude that can only be described as "severe."  At one point I thought we were all going to die because a stewardess announced very firmly, "Passengers, return to your seats, buckle your seatbelts, and refrain from standing!"  It sounded to me as if we were about to encounter serious turbulence.  In reality, the flight attendants just wanted to be able to get through the aisles with donuts and juice.  Welcome to Germany...

Our hotel, the Suite Hotel Munich, is wonderful.  The rooms are distinctly European.  There is one queen sized bed and one twin sized bed.  There are dividers that you can pull across between the two beds like giant curtains.  The bathrooms look like nicely-decorated prefabricated plastic rooms that were put in as afterthoughts.  Actually, there are two bathrooms.  One has only a toilet and a sink and is about the size of an airplane laboratory.  The other has a sink and a huge tub that I think has jets in it.  The latter is exposed to the main room through openings in the door that are intended as handles.  It's a little funny.  Really, though, the hotel is very nice and my description probably does not do it justice.

I especially like this year's food situation.  We have a restaurant across from our hotel where we have lunch and dinner whenever we are not at the course.  Last year we had a buffet with an assortment of ambiguous and bland foods, mostly consisting of pasta.  This year, we have a set menu and it is truly delicious.  Yesterday we had basil pesto and spaghetti as our meals, along with some incredible soups.  We also had a traditional German dessert whose name I won't butcher here.  It consisted of vanilla cream with a fruit jelly mixed in.  It was pretty tasty.  Jesse and I risked missing the bus to try it, actually.  It was worth it.

We do not have internet access at the hotel (at least not for a reasonable price), so right now I'm writing from the course.  I was surprised to find that my cell phone works here for a paltry $1.29 per minute and $0.50 per text message.  Last night I used it to call Lauren just to ask her to call my hotel with our phone card.  I plan to keep it turned off for the rest of the week just to avoid the temptation to use it.  If anyone wants to call, the number is listed at the hotel's website, www.suite-hotel.com.  My room number is 109.  I suggest buying an international phone card for the best price and, of course, remember that I am six hours ahead of you so the best time to call is between 1:00 and 5:00 Eastern Standard Time.

On the good news front, during camp I told Aerial about my back problems and she said that my symptoms exactly matched some that she had experienced herself.  The catch is that her back was not injured, it was a muscle in the leg and buttocks that is often strained by rowers.  She showed me some stretches and did some rather uncomfortable massage work on my leg (Aerial is an RN and really knows her stuff) that seemed to help.  Here in Munich, we have  a team massage therapist.  He worked on me yesterday for a long time and will repeat the process today and tomorrow.  I actually have bruises from the massage, which the trainer predicted, but my leg feels much better. 

I'm frustrated that my doctors in Winston misdiagnosed my problem as a disk issue and so allowed it to continue unnecessarily for the past five months, but I am mostly grateful to be on the road to recovery now and to have decreasing pain.  Psychologically, I feel stronger just knowing what's wrong and knowing that I am not going to hurt my back by continuing to row.  It makes me feel more confident in my body than I did even before leaving North Carolina.

I would say that I am not jet lagged, but I did put Neosporin on my toothbrush this morning instead of toothpaste, so maybe I'm more tired than I think.  Fortunately, I realized my error before brushing.  Priscilla, who slept well on the plane and who sleeps well everywhere else, too, does not seem affected by the time change.

Other Notes:
*  The first thing I saw on German TV was a live performance of "Mombo Number 5" followed by a group of women with red Mohawks singing "Another One Bites the Dust."  The music in the hotel restaurant is similarly strange.  The world loves old American pop.

*  I had Coke in a glass bottle last night.  It was a little less fizzy than American Coke and a bit sweeter.
*  It's fun to be back in a country with push button toilets.  Often there are two buttons.  One is a regular flush for number 1's.  The other is a power flush for non-number 1's.  Now that's what I call practicality.