Bird’s-eye view of the Head of the Charles Regatta

It’s the 47th race weekend for the annual Head of the Charles Regatta, the world’s largest regatta!

This year I found probably the best viewing site – the 18th floor of Boston University’s Student Village residential complex. Eh, it’s probably not as exciting as being on one of the Charles River bridges where you can actually hear the coxswains’ commands and see the tension in the crew’s faces, but it certainly offers a breathtaking view of the entire river and the city of Boston.

Head of the Charles and the Turkish Regatta

 

Boston University's DeWolfe Boathouse during Head of the Charles

 

Today was the second day of the 46th Head of the Charles regatta.  This is a 3.2-mile rowing race on the Charles River, between Boston and Cambridge, and is the largest 2-day regatta in the world.

I watched it from Boston University’s DeWolfe Boathouse (BU crew official website), where the start line is. The finish line is near Northeastern University’s Henderson Boathouse. I saw the most prestigious races, the Championship fours and eights for men and women, and of course, cheered for the white-and-red Boston University teams.

But as you have already found out, this is a blog about cultural differences, not about sports, so let’s get to my point:

My Turkish friend’s joke was very suitable for the occasion:

There was a rowing race between the Japanese team and the Turkish team. The Japanese team had four rowers and one coxswain (the person in front of the boat in charge of navigation) in charge of them. The Turkish team had one rower and four coxswains telling him what to do. The Turkish team lost by one mile. They decided they needed to do things better. For the next round, the Turkish team had one rower, two coxswains telling him what to do and two chief coxswains in charge of the other coxswains.  The Turks lost by three miles. They decided they had a problem and needed to do things better. They kicked out the rower and redistributed his salary as bonuses for the chief coxswains.

I thought this joke was very applicable to all of Turks, Bulgarians, and Eastern Europeans! Go BU!  :)

If you liked my Turkish friend’s joke, check out the Polish driver’s joke about the Soviet elephant.