Well, I just finished the first of the three (possibly four) swims I'm doing this summer - one mile down the coast of Crescent Beach in St. Augustine. Or, I should say, UP the coast, since they changed the direction at the last minute due to currents and wind. It went pretty well; I got third place for my age group (Ashley Carusone, a UF swimmer, got first) and finished in 32 minutes. It wasn't the most fun in the world - we were swimming, like I said, along the coast, and not all that far out, so there were breakers and the water was really choppy; it was hard to see the buoys or even the other people around you until you were on top of them. (I've been assured that Key West will NOT be like that, thank goodness!) But it was okay; I passed a lot of people, which I was really pleased about. The only part I hated was the exit from the water - it was a beach start and finish, so we had to swim into shore, run onto the beach, and cross this blue mat which would record our time (we had transponders on our ankles). But the same current which helped us go forward also pushed us too far; most of us ended up a little ways too far up the beach and had to run back to the finish. I had been pacing this Australian guy almost the whole way - I was a little faster than he was, but I kept trying to pause and get a look at where I was in relation to the beach (I kept getting pushed every which way, and couldn't always see the shore due to the waves) so we stayed basically right beside each other the whole time. I was planning to edge him out at the end, and while we were still swimming, that worked fine, but unfortunately, when we both finally stood up and tried to run into shore (through knee-deep water), he ended up beating me. My body felt absolutely dead - jelly-legs and all - and after I stopped, all I could do was reach out my hand to the guy at the water table and gasp, "Please." I seriously thought I was going to throw up; I walked a little ways away from the crowd just in case, but it passed quickly. I would have been fine if it had been a water finish, but the whole running-through-the-surf, trying-to-beat-someone thing just didn't do it for me. Ah, well, Mr. Australia wasn't in my age group anyway. :)

In other news, Fabienne and Hanna are gone, and it's just Renate and me still here in the apartment. That suits both of us just fine; we've both been here all year and have a tighter bond with each other than with the other two, plus they were really starting to get on our nerves - whining about tiny cockroaches and so forth. Fabienne will be in the air now, and Hanna's traveling the state for a few days before coming back, getting the rest of her stuff, and flying home herself. I'll be leaving at some point tomorrow, and that's really starting to hit both me and Renate hard; she keeps saying things like "You're the best roommate I've ever had," and "Go to Lowe's and copy your keys; then you can still come in whenever you want," and "I'm gonna cry on Sunday." I think I will, too... I'm really going to miss her. We got to be really good friends as well as roommates, and after Kristen in '03 and Scott in '04, that's a really great change. I'm working on one of my little notes to her now. (For some reason, that's what I always end up doing when I have to leave someone I care about: write them a letter, part jokey - stuff we shared, etc. - and part sentimental. At camp in 2002, I had to write no less than TEN letters, there were so many great people!) But anyway, I'm glad I'll be back in this apartment in the spring.

Off to take a much-needed shower now.