Greetings, England- Day 20: Punting and the Unsteady Paces

Today after class, upon stepping into my dorm, one of my housemates, Thilo, the guy who invited me to the Parks a while ago, was about to leave the house when he asked me if I want to go punting with him. It had been twenty days in England already. It was honestly a shame that I hadn't tried punting. Mostly because of the conflicts between my schedule and the time of the activities, so I didn't sign up. So, without further ado, I followed Thilo out the dorm once more, didn't even bother to leave my bag inside.

Turned out that there was only one vacant seat, and Thilo gave the seat to me, saying that he didn't want to go alone anyway. I felt so bad, for he was the one inviting me, but didn't get to go. Just then, Jemma, our activities leader, scrambled to catch up with us, and (almost miraculously) she told us that three girls just dropped out of their signing in so he could go!
Different from what I had imagined punting would be. I knew there would be a long metal pole and a small paddle. I thought both of them are used for rowing the boat, but in fact, the pole was used to being stuck to the bottom of the river, and instead of used for rowing, it was used for pushing the boat forward, and the different angle you push the pole affects the angle you're steering your boat.

Enjoyable day, enjoyable time

I did see the appeal of this leisure activity. It was a lot like canoeing or a regular boat rowing, and simply being floating on water is interesting enough. With the shining water and the sun peeking through the clouds, the afternoon passed without much fuss.

Look at the beautiful views. Charming.

I said that punting was a leisure activity, but that was from the perspectives of a passenger. Holding a steel pole with the length of more than double your height and guiding it in the water flowing in an opposite direction was nothing more than a toil. Still, I managed to bring the whole boat about without crashing into other punts or low-growing plants.

Today, I had a really tight schedule, judging that after punting, came dinner, then was ice-skating.
To avoid paying the bus fare, I walked down to the Center on my own and waited for the others to come. Last week, I fell ten times. But this time, it wouldn't be!
To be honest, I don't really like the disco skating nights they offer, as I would prefer skating in a bright space, where you can see the transparent white ice under your blades, along with the trails you make when gliding your blades in the rink.

Second try, here I go.

Disco... Ugh the quality.

Ultimately, I only fell for three times, and my speed improved. Last week, Melody also went ice-skating, and we had sorted it out that one day, when I got back to Taiwan, she, Candy and I are going ice-skating together.
Additionally, one last thing I saw in the ice rink as an ending (it's midnight now). Remember the guy I was writing a descriptive description about? He was there as well! It was not of massive surprise because an ice-skater like him must have visited the rink for hundreds of times. As last week, he was skating at his own pace, unsynced and unperturbed by anyone. With a series of shuffling steps, he silently took another slight tilt to the left and passing the others. It was a nice sight in the rink.
I walked back to the dorm myself, just as how I had gone over there. On my way, my thoughts lingered on tomorrow, for it would be the last day studying in St. Clare's. After one in the afternoon, I would be going to the London Eye and the Covent Garden for my last excursion. Excitement and bitterness I had tasted on my tongue, and I knew that tomorrow would be eventful.
This is all for today.