Hello readers!
At this moment, I am sitting on the floor of a beautiful hotel, wearing a bathing suit in sunny Puerto Rico. It’s that time of year: Wellesley Swim and Dive training trip!
I arrived back at Wellesley on Thursday morning, when our double practices began. During Wintersession, varsity teams that are in-season (right now swimming and basketball are on campus) are housed and fed at Wellesley at no cost to the students. In return, we get to hang out with all of our teammates, eat, and swim two two-hour practices a day. It’s a pretty excellent life :).
Further, you know how we’ve been teaching swim lessons all year? That money goes toward our annual training trip, a weeklong adventure in a tropical location. This year, we are in Puerto Rico, where we arrived yesterday. I’m loving the Spanish (it’s such a beautiful language—I especially like the tongue flicks that accompany the r’s), the team, and the warm weather. Yesterday night, most of the team went to eat dinner at a local restaurant, and it was delicious. I’ve attached a picture of my aranchini con camarones. Funnily enough, there was a group of guys sitting next to us from Cornell, and one of them, Tim, was from my year in high school! We also saw Cornell again this morning, as they had the practice time slot before us at the pool. Gabby, our sophomore diver, has reported seeing Dartmouth, the swimmers have seen Babson, and basically you can walk along the streets and see swimmers (you can spot them by the broad shoulders) from any Northeastern school. It’s great that not only am I here with my team, but with a larger swimming college community as well!
Risotto with shrimp and fried spinach. Yum 🙂
We had our first swim practice here this morning, and when I tilted my head to breathe I was met with sunshine and palm trees :). The rest of the four people in my room are currently hanging out at the beach, where the water is warm and the waves are magnificent. Tanning is incredibly easy here—despite my best efforts to remain pale (I’m strange that way), I have been remarkably unsuccessful, despite 70 SPF sunblock. Ah well; swimming in the 10am-12pm slot will do that no matter what I do :).
Anyway, I’m sorry to inform you that this will be a short post, for somewhat obvious reasons :). I’m also doing work right now besides having fun, since Yiing and I are still working for Professor Conway on our research project, and our poster is due January 10th. I think I have some strange fixation with always doing work along with my play. Don’t worry though—it’s just me, and not Wellesley, whose members are currently looking good playing in the waves and sand :).
Best to you, and I welcome comments and questions!
Sun’s shining,
Monica
ps, Here are some photos from our adventures in old San Juan :).
Charlotte and Maria
Tiffany and Ika
Maria, me, and Erin