I arrived in Lancaster, England a couple of days ago, and I\u2019m staying with some girls on the rowing team who have a flat off-campus during their pre-term training week. In England, universities call their rowing teams \u201cboating clubs\u201d and it is even considered a \u201csociety\u201d at Lancaster. This means that anyone interested can try it out for a couple of weeks before fully committing to the sport \u2013 a little similar to our Rowing team at Rollins. One of the main things that I was considering for my study abroad was whether or not I would be able to row while I was away for the semester. When I found out that Lancaster Univ. had a boating club, I reached out via email and messaged one of the Senior Women\u2019s Captain explaining that I would be there for the term and interested in joining the team to keep up with the workouts that my team was doing at Rollins. The interaction was very positive, and I was invited to come to their training camp a week before orientation started.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Going into this experience, I want to say that I didn\u2019t really know what to expect. I knew that the sport started in England, so I had this preconception that the workouts, intensity of practices, and facilities would be pretty high-level. One thing that I\u2019ve learned after two days of training week is that English Universities (besides very few) actually fund and tend to their sports teams. As a result, a majority of this team is student-led, and gear\/regattas are paid for by members. Although the Lancaster University Boat Club is one of the \u201clargest societies\u2019’ on campus and fully functioning with an executive board of student members, there are many differences that I have recognized. The women\u2019s team does not have an actual coach to work with them during practice, their equipment is a little old which also means that it does break easier, and their boat house is pretty far from campus as I\u2019m investing in a used bike from a girl on the team. It\u2019s different and I\u2019m still adjusting to the different terms and drills that they do here, but it also reminds me how grateful I am for the athletic community at Rollins and my rowing team. I am very glad I have this opportunity because it allows me to understand a greater appreciation for the resources that are distributed to various sports teams and clubs on campus. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Just being immersed in this experience these past two days has reminded me how thankful I am for the sports facilities that are available at Rollins, as well as a full coaching staff, transportation to away races, and a boat house where our equipment is carefully maintained and stored. With that, I\u2019m very grateful for the structure in our practices and the proximity it is to campus \u2013 even if we are running to and from the boathouse every day lol. Having a coach to lead practices, teach and correct techniques, and solve any issues in a boat reflects how much the United States prioritizes collegiate sports. Given the popularity of collegiate and professional sports events, I think it allows schools to invest in high-end equipment and facilities for their sports teams to succeed. I am looking forward to starting the semester and am hoping to apply lessons from my study abroad to my life when I get back to America!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
I arrived in Lancaster, England a couple of days ago, and I\u2019m staying with some girls on the rowing team who have a flat off-campus during their pre-term training week. In England, universities call their rowing teams \u201cboating clubs\u201d and it is even considered a \u201csociety\u201d at Lancaster. This means that anyone interested can try…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":811,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[55],"tags":[408,372],"class_list":["post-22184","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-lancaster","tag-lancaster-2","tag-studyabroad"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22184","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/811"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22184"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22184\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22185,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22184\/revisions\/22185"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22184"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22184"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.rollins.edu\/letters\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22184"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}