Blog Archives: October, 2003
Matriculation
The Matriculand at Pembroke College This morning marked my matriculation at Oxford. Matriculation is a convocation of the University, but for the purpose of the opposite of graduation – it’s when entering students formally become members of the University.
This morning I had to be up and at college at 8:45 (after having been in London until midnight visiting Pat), wearing sub-fusc (black shoes, black suit, white shirt, white bow tie, gown, and cap) for a college photo. I’m willing to bet that the same photo (modulo the faces) has been taken for the past 50 years, at least, probably longer. While waiting to go over to the ceremony itself, the Pembroke MCR (middle common room, sort of like the graduate student body / government) had a champagne breakfast, a nice touch of class.
An alley on the way to matriculation After breakfast and our photo, we headed over to the Sheldonian Theatre as a group of 200 sub-fusc-ed students. We walked through Christ Church College and then through some back lanes. It was striking to note, as we walked, that students dressed in suits and gowns had probably been walking along these same cobblestone paths for several hundred years, and would probably still be doing this long after us.
Matriculation at the Sheldonian Theatre We arrived at the Sheldonian Theatre, where we joined hundreds of other freshers from all over the University. The Vice-Chancellor of the University, Sir Colin Lucas, admitted us as members of the University and have a speech about our lives at the University. He spoke about the opportunities we had at Oxford, but also spoke about the responsibility that a course at Oxford entails. He emphasized the sheer volume and history of knowledge at the institution. Oxford is, for example, one of five copyright libraries in the UK, which means every book published in the UK gets sent to Oxford. As part of our admittance to the University, we agreed to the Bodleian oath, by which we are bound “not to bring into the Library or kindle therein any fire or flame”.
Afterwards, of course, my fellow Pembrokians and I celebrated our new found status as members of the University, by visiting various local establishments for various refreshments, all in a matter befitting Oxford scholars.
Settling into a new place is always difficult, and sometimes it’s hard to tell when the preparation ends and the present begins. I guess that’s the purpose of matriculation.
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Update: Comment Spam
I previously wrote that I had installed a program into my weblog to counteract comment spam. I’ve received a few queries about it. The program I’m using is a Movable Type plugin called MT-Blacklist. It’s a very new piece of software and seems to be frequently updated. Note that you need to be using Movable Type to use the plugin. But all the more reason to switch!
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Comment Spam
I’ve been getting a few comments that are spam messages, so I’ve installed a filtering program on the comment system on the blog. If it causes you troubles, send me an email and I’ll look into it.
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Canadian Thanksgiving
Though this post is a few days late, Happy Canadian Thanksgiving! (for Monday 13 October 2003) Now you might be thinking to yourselves, poor Douglas, he didn’t get to celebrate Canadian Thanksgiving (I’m sure that’s exactly what those folks in Seattle were thinking).
Fear not, my friendly readers! For the University of Oxford, being the truly multicultural place it is (side note: in my MCR (middle common room, the graduate student body) at Pembroke College, in a room of 30 people, only 3 or 4 were from England, the rest from around the world), is home to a Canadian Club (not the drink, but an actual club). Of course, Waterloo’s most recent Rhodes Scholar and former home page model is a co-Prime Minister of the aforementioned Canadian Club.
Their party on Monday night was a truly Canadian Thanksgiving celebration: with pumpkin pie, Tim Horton’s coffee, Labatt’s Blue, a Newfoundland flag shipped over by the premier’s office, and lots of people saying “eh?” and “aboot”.
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Mobile yuppie-in-training
While in California, I prided myself on what I didn’t need. For two terms, I didn’t need a car. I didn’t need to eat out, and I didn’t need a cellphone.
But here in England, everyone has a mobile. And I mean everyone. Peoples’ grandmas have mobiles. And so I gave in: I now have a mobile phone too.
My phone is a Sony Ericsson T68i. By European standards, it’s a pretty basic phone. It doesn’t have a video or still digital camera, nor polyphonic ringtones, and no changeable covers. But it’s got a colour screen, text and multimedia messaging, email access, a calendar and to-do list (which I can wirelessly syncronize with my computer using Bluetooth) games, programmable ringtones (I punched in the theme to Close Encounters of the Third Kind to use as my ringtone, although I always have my phone on silent vibrate instead as a matter of etiquette). It works on some 5 continents, including such backward places as Canada. And apparently you can talk on it, too.
So I’ve given in. Am I a bad person? traitor? yuppie-in-training? (or perhaps a full-fledged yuppie?)
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More policy than you can shake a stick at
Ever thought you were a policy hack? Fancy that you know a bit about student government? Well take a look at this: the Bylaws of the Oxford Union, the debating society here at Oxford. 144 pages of policy. Wow. Imagine being on that BP&P committee!
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Start of Induction Week
Induction week has started here in Oxford. My schedule means that tomorrow, Wednesday, will be my big activity day; I’ll be attending some sessions at the Maths Institute, where I’ll have my first chance to meet the other people in my program, and in the evening I’ll be attending my first formal dinner at the hall in my college, Pembroke.
So far I’ve been dealing with mostly administrative stuff (bank accounts: ugh!) and picked up my lovely Oxford student card. Most interesting on the administrative side was, during Pembroke registration, I was handed a 2-inch thick book with Examination Regulations 2003, which details regulations for all of the courses at Oxford. Before accepting the book I asked if it was available online, and was informed that at Oxford they’ve been doing things in a particular way for hundreds of years, and in short it wasn’t available online. Fine then. And they claim to be civilized.
Speaking of uncivilized, let me rant for a minute about smoking in this silly continent. People smoke indoors here: how barbaric! They smoke in restaurants, in bars, there was even someone smoking while checking in to a hotel we stayed at in London. Granted, we only got rid of most indoor smoking in Canada in the last few years. Still, how crude!
On Monday my parents and great aunt attended a reception at the Master’s lodging in Pembroke. The Master of a college is something like the president or chancellor. The Master at Pembroke lives in a grand old house on the college property, with oil paintings hanging over the fireplace and a private library.
I’ve also learned a bit about my college. It’s right across the street from the best-known Oxford college, Christ Church, which features prominently in the Harry Potter movies. (The Hogwarts dining hall is based on the Christ Church dining hall, except Christ Church only has three long tables, not four; all shots of people walking through school grounds or hallways are shot in Christ Church as well.) As a result, Pembroke is viewed poorly compared to Christ Church, but it’s quite nice in its own right. It has a wonderful hall (the second largest in Oxford); the best rowers in town (both men and women won Head of the River last year); a beautiful chapel with rare painted glass windows. Pembroke was where JRR Tolkien spent most of his time at Pembroke and was where he wrote The Hobbit. Another famous Pembrokian, besides Douglas Stebila, was James Smithson, founder of the Smithsonian Institution.
Last but not least I’ve had a chance to meet my housemates: Caroline, Emily, and Jane. Emily and Jane are medical students; Caroline’s studying law. All are very nice and have been helpful in getting me acclimated to England. They’re trying to drag me into watching soaps, such as Coronation Street and Neighbours. Neighbours is a truly awful Australian soap, but Coronation Street isn’t too bad. At least there’s a channel with The Simpsons, Buffy, and Star Trek: TNG.
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In Oxford
Just a brief note to say that I’ve arrived in Oxford for start of term. Lots of things to do in the coming days: go to induction events (all of which seem to conflict, sounds like I should introduce Oxford to PACO); go to the bank and convert my decreasing US dollars into depressingly-few pounds; unpack and do laundry; review, organize, and label some 350 digital photographs from Paris and London, then post them online and write a blog about the trip; and sleep. On second thought, I think I’ll sleep first.
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