Day 40: Princeton

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After another lazy morning we all went into town for brunch at PJ's Pancake House. We had to queue for quite a while in the rain which was a chore, but the pancakes definitely made up for it. I had crepes with strawberries and cream 😊

Afterwards I headed off by bike to the house of the head coach of Princeton's men's crew. By the time we arrived I was soaked to the skin and must have looked like a tramp. Despite this we had a really good chat about his take on Title IX and the future of US rowing. Given he coaches men, who haven't done so well out of Title IX, I expected him to be a little bitter like the boatman at Cal. On the contrary, he spoke about Title IX as a "necessary evil": ok, there may have been many sacrifices, but without legislation there is no way women would have got this far, and the small problems along the way are worth it.

I then cycled back into town through a massive rainstorm to meet up with Judith and Maria. Perhaps cycling someone else's bike in a foreign country whilst wearing a miniskirt and flip-flops in a rainstorm was asking for trouble: I slid off and now have a gash on my ankle. Great. I arrived in town looking like a drowned rat; we all sat in a coffee house to dry off and then went to the cinema to see the film of The Help which released last week. It was amazing and we all sobbed lots, although they missed out some of the best bits of the film. We then got Chinese takeaway and a taxi back (we were so cold and wet we couldn't face the walk) and sat around watching House and eating. So today was moderately more constructive than yesterday, though not much!

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