Check out my photograph, Erqi, in GUD Issue 6.

Today was the official date of the dragon boat festival and, along with the other teams that survived yesterday’s heats, we returned to Dragon Lake at nine this morning. After we signed in, however, we spent several hours waiting around while monks and nuns sang and released animals including fish, birds, and snakes. The students who accompanied us told us they were praying for the people affected by the Sichuan earthquake (indeed, some survivors of the earthquake, accompanied by nurses from a local hospital were in attendance) and the Olympics rather for the poet, Qu Yuan, the holiday is supposed to memorialize.

By the time the religious pomp was over, it was already noon, so after some trouble ascertaining the precise start time of our race, we went back to the same hotel where we ate yesterday for lunch (which an event organizer ended up paying for). Finally, at 2 PM, the races began. We competed in the third heat against one professional team and one team of bulked out athletes.

We managed to take five second off our time from yesterday, but in the end it was not enough. We finished third by a matter of inches and were eliminated from competition. The fourth place team was boat lengths behind.

Not bad for our third time in one of these boats, especially given that, despite racing in a lake, we started out completely at sea.

(image by Amy, who did not join us in the boat; more pictures here)

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