Dinner Party #3: October 22: Harvard/Princeton Football Weekend - Head of the Charles Regatta

Busy weekend in Cambridge. Not only is it the Harvard vs. Princeton football game, but it's also the "Head of the Charles" regatta, which has brought an additional 200,000 people to Harvard for this world class sculling event. (A few Canadian schools represented as well, including U of T, Brock, Queens, UBC, probably others). The Toronto Sculling Club took the gold medal in Masters 4's (both the men's and women's categories). Not completely thrilling to watch however, since everything seems to be run in time trials, with staggered starts every 20-30 seconds or so. So there isn't the head-to-head competition that you get in Olympic rowing events. But maybe the finals will be different (didn't stick around to see).

Here are a couple of pictures of the dinner yesterday, and of the races today.

Dylan and Catherine. (Dylan is from France, Cathy is actually from Toronto. We met down here, but she lived 2 buildings north of me on Bay Street, and worked at BCE Place for Morgan Stanley. Small world cliche comment implied).

Janet and Tanya on the left (both Aussies). John in the background preparing more food. Sam and Laura on the right, Sam from London and Laura from Dublin.

It dawns on me that there were no Americans at the party, and in fact, they are usually a minority (3/12 on average) when we hold these things. I'm not sure why that is. In fact I was completely unaware of it until I thought about it today--statistically it's unlikely (Americans are 70% of the student body) so perhaps internationals just get on with each other better? Or maybe we're more outgoing? Or, perhaps there's some sort of bias that I'm bringing to the situation without realizing it...not sure.

John puts the finishing touches on the nutmeg/baily's creme brulee...always a crowd pleaser (and a host pleaser too, judging from the expression).

These pictures don't really do the event justice. There were literally hundreds of boats entered, and a carnival-like atmosphere along much of the river. I was just too lazy to get some good shots. Next year...