Confessions of a Broken Starboard
Words of Wisdom From an Injured Rower
Putting a fresh, new spin on the typical injury blog, Confessions of a Broken Starboard is dedicated to providing insight on rowing related rib injuries through the eyes of an injured athlete. Speaking to expert sources like coaches, trainers, and national champion rowers on topics ranging from different exercises and stretches used to sped up the road to recovery, to various proactive measures to prevent rib pain.
Market Update: Electric Trucks
Tesla Unveils Shocking New Product
Imagine cruising down the highway late at night and seeing one of these driving behind you.
Say hello to the newest producer of semi-trucks: Tesla.
The luxury car company plans to unveil their “Tesla Semi,” a heavy-duty all-electric semi-truck, this fall on October 26, 2017, bringing a new flare to the transportation business.
Though the upfront cost will be expensive, Tesla’s product is full of perks when compared to an average over-the-road truck. The Tesla Semi is 70% cheaper to run, uses less fuel, and has lower insurance and maintenance costs – plus with no tail pipe or fuel emissions, they are environmentally friendly. Being a leader in autonomous driving technology, the Tesla Semi also has the potential to become self-driving trucks. In the meantime, Tesla predicts their advanced technology will help companies manage their manpower costs.
It sounds promising, but there are conflicting opinions among transportation experts as to if the industry is prepared for electric trucks.
Mama Kaduma & Mrs. Giblin
Two Sides of The Same Coin
It’s -43 degrees Fahrenheit – too cold to snow, but not cold enough to cancel Monday classes.
At 9:30 a.m. students trickle into the fluorescent-lit room, faces frost bitten from the brutal wind and frigid cold. Complaints about cold car, bus, and moped rides fill the room as each classmate tries to one-up the other.
When 15 minutes pass and there is still no instructor in sight, everyone begins to pack up, anxious to leave and crawl back to the sanctuary of their warm beds.
Then, as if the blustering wind blew her in, Blandina Kaduma Giblin barges through the door, though none of her students referred to her by that name – in fact, none of them actually even know it. To them Blandina Giblin is Mama Kaduma, a Swahili professor at the University of Iowa born and raised in Tanzania.
“Hujambo!”
“Sijambo, Mama!” the class replies, obediently nestling back into their seats.
For anyone outside of the class, it seems like an odd way for students to address their professor. But in this Swahili class, calling your teacher Mama Kaduma, meaning “mother,” and “little leopard" in Swahili, only makes sense – because Blandina is not just a professor to her students.
She is their Tanzanian mother, treating them like they are her own children and teaching them about the language, culture, and respect associated with Swahili and Tanzania. Blandina even asks her oldest friends call her Mama – that is just who she is.
Confessions of a Netflix Addict
4,140 minutes.
That translates to 69 hours, which is three hours short of three days.
Know what you can do with three days time? You could go on a trip to Chicago, take a picture in front of the Bean and still make it back in time for class – bake hundreds of vegan chocolate chip cookies, then brighten someone’s day by handing them out to strangers passing by – and could hit the books hard, completing enough homework in all your classes to be six weeks ahead of schedule.
Or you could invest all that time into figuring out which Salvatore brother Elena Gilbert chooses to date in the love triangle that is Vampire Dairies.
Well, thanks to the Internet streaming media known as Netflix, I did just that.
Impressive, isn’t it. I’ve been on Netflix for approximately two months and already I’ve finished three in a half seasons of Vampire Diaries, two seasons of Scandal, six episodes of Buffy The Vampire Slayer, and four TED Talks. It is safe to say in the short time I have had Netflix, I’ve developed a habit of putting everything in my life on hold in order to see if the lives of the fictional characters I have grown to love and care about change for better or worse.
There’s no use in denying what I have become. The facts are there right in front of me in black and white, staring me straight in the eye…
I am a binge-watching Netflix addict.
Zing IT
The Troubles With Being An International Athlete
It was a Thursday afternoon in October, just a few months after the start of the fall semester. Brisk autumn air flowed from cracked windows, slicing through the thick humidity created by 45 sweaty bodies pushing themselves to their physical limits. The rhythmic, almost-soothing swooshing sound made by the indoor rowing machines was drowned out by the bass line of Mackelmore’s newest hit Can’t Hold Us – all while coaches and teammates yelled critiques and encouragements at working rowers, fighting to be heard over the noise.
The week had been challenging – pressures from midterms and group projects had taken a toll on the team. However, for the international athletes the stress was magnified tenfold.
“It was hard for me to express myself in English my first years [at Iowa],” said Nina Hendriks, a junior at the University of Iowa and a varsity member of Iowa’s rowing team. Hendriks came to UI in 2013 from Delft, the Netherlands. Having studied English for four years in high school, Hendriks was proficient enough to have conversations and read at a high level, though lacked the experience to apply it to daily life in America.