Happy Birthday, Lena! (Part One)

Today is Lena's thirtieth birthday! This is a picture of Lena today in a punt on the Thames. We'll get to that part in a minute.

The celebration started last night as a crowd gathered in Heather B.'s room (next door to mine). Pictured here (clockwise from left) are Heather B., Heather's visiting friend Mike (in England this summer on an National Endowment for the Humanities grant), Steve (friend of all of ours from past summers; his partner lives in London and works for the British Museum), Heather L., Lena, and Alison.

Lena's longtime friend Ilja came to visit from Berlin for Lena's 30th. This afternoon, Lena, Ilja and I walked down to Magdalen Bridge to hire a "punt" (boat) for a trip on the Thames.

Here's a definition of punting, as described at the punting ticket booth: “The long and narrow pole-propelled punt originated on the Thames as a work vessel made of oak for ferrying, dredging, fishing, and light river transport. However, as the river trade declined in the mid-1800’s, some riverside residences built lighter, mahogany versions for pleasure cruising. Today’s punt measures 25 feet in length and will accommodate up to four seated passengers and the punter, who stands at the rear wielding the 16 foot pole.” Lena wields the ol' pole in this photo.

Basically, punting is funny, and awkward, and sometimes frustrating. And funny.

Lest you wonder, "Whaaa? They're sitting in the boat someone pushes with a pole...?", this photo of one of the many baggy-pants'd high schoolers (Oxford is overrun in the summertime with high school kids taking language classes) giving the "bumper boats" a whirl should help clarify. To their credit, the high school kids punting (and probably swearing in fifteen different languages) are enthusiastic, pretty good at it, and somehow don't kill one another or fall in the water.

Lena demonstrated excellent effort in punting, and launched us on our two-hour tour. Ilja took over and continued the journey admirably. I took pictures. It's almost impossible to capture the green of the Thames and its surroundings in the summertime, but the photo above comes pretty darned close. I mean, it is just SO GREEN.

Smart ducks (Oxford educated ducks, I guess) swim up to the punts hoping you have some crusty bread for them. We did not. (We did go for cream tea afterward, which is of no use to this duck.)

Above, another view of the jaw-droppingly gorgeous punting route.

Now, we're resting up back and Lincoln College before a crowd of us (I think we're up to twelve) meets at 9 PM for late dinner at a Latin American restaurant about ten minutes away on foot.

I'll take plenty of pictures there, and post them sometime tomorrow.

Have a great Friday, all!

Melanie