Day 52: Rower on Land

I already told you that the university offered different sports activities to students and I had signed up for rowing, in German Rudern. I chose rowing from a huge list of sports because I wanted to practice a sport that I couldn't do in Spain (at least in Salamanca).

I didn't go the first few days of training: I was afraid that without knowing German, my sporting uselessness would be compounded by the uselessness of a guy who doesn't understand anything, and that if they shouted at me: RUDERE!! (row!) I would throw myself into the water thinking that they had sent me to do it. I also didn't know where I had to go, all the university buildings are marked on the map with only three letters and the three letters I had to go to, BOO, didn't appear on the map:

It turned out that a German who came with the Spaniards (Germans only approach Spaniards for two reasons: to practice their Spanish or to flirt with the Spanish women) also practiced rowing and told me that BOO came from Bootshaus and that it was on Heinrich-Schütz-Straße, next to the Blaueswunder. It was a pier that the university had next to the Elbe River (it was opposite where we had the barbecue with the TUDIAS) and it took a little more than 45 minutes to get there from my house with the 61 bus.

When I arrived it was dark and it was closed, there was no one there, so as I was ready to do some sport, I ran for a while along a dimly lit promenade that was on the bank of the river. When I came back walking (crawling) I saw that there was light in the little house and I went in to ask. There was an old man, very big and hunched over who was putting a boat in place. He explained that the water in the river was frozen and that he had to go to train at a gym.

But as I don't know German, I didn't understand where the gym was and as I didn't meet again with the German who helped me (I suppose that the Spanish woman on duty would give the poor guy the runaround), well, I haven't been able to row. My umpteenth problem for not knowing German.

Now I have to quickly find a sport, because the, let's say, lack of a Mediterranean diet, is killing me. Another day I have to tell you about German food...

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