Here's a photo from the first formal hall of the term:
Friday, October 31, 2014
Dining In
Every night, we have the option of eating "in Hall" (think Great Hall in Harry Potter), and have the option of attending formal or informal hall. Informal hall means you show up in your jeans, scarf down your cafeteria food, and head back to the library. Formal hall means you put on nice clothes and your robes (it seems like 'gown' is the preferred term, so I'll switch to using that). It runs about an hour and you get a much better tasting three-course meal with nice cutlery and candlesticks. When those are your options, why on earth would you choose informal? The catch: everyone must stand when the president enters the hall and says some Latin, and then again when the president has finished her meal and says some Latin before leaving. I'm happy to put up with that.
Here's a photo from the first formal hall of the term:
Here's a photo from the first formal hall of the term:
Matriculation Day
On the Saturday before last, we had Matriculation Day. It's the opposite of Commencement. Matriculation admits you into the university; Commencement (graduation ceremony) sends you out into the world.
What this means: Us getting all dressed up in our robes and sub-fusc and parading into the Sheldonian Theatre, where the president, in fancier robes, speaks in Latin for a bit and finally switches to English, giving us beautifully-worded platitudes about embarking upon our studies. We then march back over the cobblestones in our stilettos and take a class photo in St John's College.
Waiting in Canterbury Quad of SJC for things to get started.
Getting debriefed on how the ceremony is going to work. The two people exercising their right to stand on the grass are Fellows of the college.
What this means: Us getting all dressed up in our robes and sub-fusc and parading into the Sheldonian Theatre, where the president, in fancier robes, speaks in Latin for a bit and finally switches to English, giving us beautifully-worded platitudes about embarking upon our studies. We then march back over the cobblestones in our stilettos and take a class photo in St John's College.
Waiting in Canterbury Quad of SJC for things to get started.
Getting debriefed on how the ceremony is going to work. The two people exercising their right to stand on the grass are Fellows of the college.
On our way to the Sheldonian!
Inside the Sheldonian Theatre. So beautiful!
All matriculated and ready to head back!
All Souls of the Faithful Departed
I fell a bit behind on my posts, sorry about that.
Shortly after my last blog post, the Medievalists' Society got together for drinks at All Souls College.
All Souls is short for The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed. It was founded in 1438 and remains the most exclusive college in Oxford. It admits no undergraduates, and graduates who apply are not students, but rather Fellows of the college. A maximum of two applicants may be admitted each year, but the college has no problem admitting zero. Up until a couple of years ago a person had to be invited to apply, and the application examinations are still held to be the most difficult in the world. In the world. I realize that's a bit subjective, but I don't see many people contending it. You must be a matriculated member of Oxford University or have been accepted into Oxford for a graduate program that hasn't started yet, and must have completed your Bachelor's within the past ten terms. (There are three terms per year: Michaelmas, Hilary, and Trinity. Think of them like semesters.) There are four exams lasting three hours each. Two of these are in the applicant's chosen "specialist subjects": Classical Studies (for which you must be proficient in Greek and Latin), Law, History, English Literature, Economics, Politics, and Philosophy. The essay question can be on any topic in that subject. For instance, if you chose "History", you would be trying to prepare for an essay question that could be on any aspect of any moment of all history, anywhere, ever. The other two papers are "general" and can be on anything at all. So the people admitted to All Souls are both extremely well-read and extremely lucky. The exams used to contain a fifth paper "in which they were required to write an essay in response to a single word", but they abandoned it because it was too difficult to distinguish the wheat from the chaff. Or in the case of All Souls applicants, the wheat from the other wheat. If they like your essays, they call you back for a viva, in which fifty Fellows of the college sit in and grill you about what you wrote and you desperately defend whatever you scribbled down. And no, you don't get to look over your essays to remind yourself what you wrote weeks ago.
Because of this, the college has quite the mystique about it. No one is seen entering. No one is seen leaving. It sits there, exclusive and dignified and forbidden, right next to the beautiful Radcliffe Camera. And I got to waltz in the front gate and say, "I'm here for the drinks party" to the porter on my way up to the Old Library. Cheers to being a medievalist.
This is a (blurry) close up of the 3D coat of arms at the end of the Old Library above the door. The common heraldic animals depicted on either side of the crest in the UK is the lion, representing England, and the unicorn, representing Scotland. This has the lion and the red dragon, representing Wales, because this room was built before England and Scotland were united. And I got to have a party in it!
So as you can see, the "Old Library" doesn't house any books anymore. It was where the library used to be, but has since been cleared out of volumes and shelving to allow for an event space.
Here is a photo someone else took of the actual All Souls library.
The perfect day: starts in an old library, ends in a pub.
Shortly after my last blog post, the Medievalists' Society got together for drinks at All Souls College.
All Souls is short for The College of All Souls of the Faithful Departed. It was founded in 1438 and remains the most exclusive college in Oxford. It admits no undergraduates, and graduates who apply are not students, but rather Fellows of the college. A maximum of two applicants may be admitted each year, but the college has no problem admitting zero. Up until a couple of years ago a person had to be invited to apply, and the application examinations are still held to be the most difficult in the world. In the world. I realize that's a bit subjective, but I don't see many people contending it. You must be a matriculated member of Oxford University or have been accepted into Oxford for a graduate program that hasn't started yet, and must have completed your Bachelor's within the past ten terms. (There are three terms per year: Michaelmas, Hilary, and Trinity. Think of them like semesters.) There are four exams lasting three hours each. Two of these are in the applicant's chosen "specialist subjects": Classical Studies (for which you must be proficient in Greek and Latin), Law, History, English Literature, Economics, Politics, and Philosophy. The essay question can be on any topic in that subject. For instance, if you chose "History", you would be trying to prepare for an essay question that could be on any aspect of any moment of all history, anywhere, ever. The other two papers are "general" and can be on anything at all. So the people admitted to All Souls are both extremely well-read and extremely lucky. The exams used to contain a fifth paper "in which they were required to write an essay in response to a single word", but they abandoned it because it was too difficult to distinguish the wheat from the chaff. Or in the case of All Souls applicants, the wheat from the other wheat. If they like your essays, they call you back for a viva, in which fifty Fellows of the college sit in and grill you about what you wrote and you desperately defend whatever you scribbled down. And no, you don't get to look over your essays to remind yourself what you wrote weeks ago.
Because of this, the college has quite the mystique about it. No one is seen entering. No one is seen leaving. It sits there, exclusive and dignified and forbidden, right next to the beautiful Radcliffe Camera. And I got to waltz in the front gate and say, "I'm here for the drinks party" to the porter on my way up to the Old Library. Cheers to being a medievalist.
The main quad
The Old Library, filled with my people.
Included in our raucous, dare I say Bacchanalian, festivities was a group quiz: "Guess That Medieval Portrait"! You're all jealous, I know. You wish you could have been standing around in sweater vests debating the visage of Gregory the Great. (Check out the guy in the cravat and tails in the back of the photo. The invitation said "casual attire".) But my group won! We won! And we all got a box of very nice chocolate out of it.
Closeup of the ceiling. Pretty fancy.
This is a (blurry) close up of the 3D coat of arms at the end of the Old Library above the door. The common heraldic animals depicted on either side of the crest in the UK is the lion, representing England, and the unicorn, representing Scotland. This has the lion and the red dragon, representing Wales, because this room was built before England and Scotland were united. And I got to have a party in it!
So as you can see, the "Old Library" doesn't house any books anymore. It was where the library used to be, but has since been cleared out of volumes and shelving to allow for an event space.
Photo from www.blogs.library.ucla.edu
Here is a photo someone else took of the actual All Souls library.
Photo from www.telegraph.co.uk
And here is a much better photo of All Souls College that someone from the Telegraph took. Isn't it beautiful?
After our official drinks party, we retired to the King's Arms, the pub right next to the Sheldonian Theatre and a student favorite. Its website boasts that it was built in 1607 and has the highest IQ per square foot of any pub around. I'm sure some of the pubs in The Other Place would disagree, but we know they aren't right.
The perfect day: starts in an old library, ends in a pub.
Monday, October 6, 2014
We're Not in Kansas Anymore
I just got carded at the home goods store because a butter knife is considered an offensive weapon and cannot be purchased by those under 18. This scone better watch out.
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