Formal dinner

[raven]

I have internet in my room. I'm going to spam till I get used to the novelty of it.

Anyway, tonight! Was not going to be much of the fun. I spent most of the afternoon wandering round the ghetto asking every girl I met what she was wearing for the evening. I panic when it says "dress up". Finally, I wore a pretty silver-sequinned skirt I borrowed from my mother, and a standard black top, and then I tottered across the back quad to the OCR. Meeting my tutors was an intimidating experience. To start with, it's hard to tell them apart from the graduate freshers, and even the undergraduate fresher boys seem to grow two feet when you put them in dinner jackets. They're really a charming bunch of people. I'm quite pleased to be counted among them.

I survived the hour, more or less, and was introduced to Adam Swift, who is a politics tutor and my personal tutor. He informed me that he has to meet me tomorrow afternoon. I didn't get the letter, and I didn't get the letter about the drinks, and I didn't get a letter hathy_col has posted, so I'm going to see the college secretary tomorrow morning in a panic, I'm sure. Anyway, at half past seven we filed into the hall for formal dinner. Balliol is famous among Oxford colleges for not going in for formal dinners, but tonight was an exception. To set the scene a bit, Balliol's hall is not the one that is seen as the Hogwarts Great Hall (that's Christ Church), but Balliol's isn't much different. It's beautiful, and tonight it was immaculately set with gleaming tableware and red wine glowing in glasses, and every seat on the long benches was filled. I was with the PPEists and the graduate international relations students along with the associated tutors. The food was very nice, but I was more interested in the conversation; one of the PPE Sams was keeping me amused, as was a graduate from Harvard who told me a bit about colleges in America (what gamesiplay is always trying to tell me!), and one of the politics tutors. I didn't get his name, but he knew who I was; he'd marked the essays I sent up back when I applied. A nice guy.

Adam Swift was on the other side of the table; he's also admissions tutor so he knows everyone and all their stats. He can tell you with confidence how many people applied for your place, and then relishes your look of horror. Amusingly, he was introduced by the Master as "the one man you all have to thank" and got resounding cheers. The Master's speech was actually really, really good. It was an official welcome to the college, after all this informal welcoming stuff, and was the first thing I've seen here that has all the expected formal grandeur. It concluded with everyone rising, lifting those glasses of red wine, and offering the traditional toast, floreat domus Balliolo, with its clear translation.

Written down here it seems a terribly pretentious, archaic ceremony, and perhaps it is; but written down here it's different. At the time it was in all the stillness and glory of the hall, with low lights and candles reflecting in wineglasses and rows of eyes, and for the first time, I feel part of something and proud of something, for one of those perfect moments.

Afterwards we went to the pub.

Well, not really; I ran up to my attic to change from my special pretty matriculation shoes to fuck-off boots and went running down again. Talking of matriculation, it's confirmed for a week on Saturday and will be at some obscene hour of the morning because Balliol is the first college in the alphabet, and we will apparently be photographed every step of the way by passing Japanese tourists. I've heard that if you're dressed in full sub fusc with gown and cap and ribbon, the Oxford sightseeing tours will let you on the buses free, as you're apparently a tourist attraction in your own right.

Where was I? We went across Oxford to a club called Bridge, which was sort of okay but charged obscene prices, and I have no money. I was all set to flounce off home and screw the money to get in, but I went to the loos first and ran randomly into the JCR president, Triona. I've seen her before and thought that no-one can be that cheerful and helpful all the time, but talking to her there in the loos I realised that she actually is. She's just a really nice person. I asked her what to do if you don't drink much, and how you can have fun in freshers' week. From her expression I saw that it was a real problem, and her advice was to go out anyway and just to survive freshers' week. After that it all gets better.

I decided to stick it out another ten minutes, and I'm glad I did, because I met a lovely pair of fresher historians self-described as resident indie-whores. They realied I wasn't drinking and brought me big glasses of water from the bar, which I thought was sweet, and when I left they walked with me across to college. It was nice and I had a good time. One of them (his name is, oh god, Sam) wants me to listen to lots of music he recommends, and I may take him up. It's all good.

Tomorrow I have to be up to meet my tutors in an academic setting and be set work (eeek), and I have to visit the college secretary and nurse before, so I need to wake up. Urgh. Should have gone to bed earlier. But the afternoon is the freshers' fair, the event, and I can't wait. Also, at the weekend I'm going to this, and I'm stupidly happy about it.

I actually belong here. I like it.

Comments

[rosariotijeras.livejournal.com]

You, my dear, have an absolutely fabulous life.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*blinks* Do I really? I suppose at the moment I do!

[clareyperson.livejournal.com]

Hey, glad you're having a good time. On a totally unrelated note, as you are aware I am doing an astrophysics course. Do you have any idea how often Galileo has been mentioned in the last 2 weeks? I have had the song stuck in my head for one week and four days so far, please, please find a way to send it to me? I think You Send It is allowed by evil people who hate downloading. Please? Thank you!

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Hey! You crazy physicist, you. While I would love to send you Galileo - I have it here - I am being watched like a hawk. You can't upload here at all. It's like Big Brother.

Try Hannah, I suggest. I'll see what I can do.

[clareyperson.livejournal.com]

Ok, thought I'd try. Am being slowly driven mad without it. I got American Gods from Hannah yesterday. Thanks! Have also finished Thud now. It's amazing! Will leave you in peace now...

[amchau.livejournal.com]

I'm glad for you. :)

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Hee, thanks. :)

[eternalwings.livejournal.com]

See Sam is such a popular name
We have a couch in the library now, and Mr.Lamb wore a toga for the staff olympics.
I think it was his own, as I commented he greatly resembled Hermes and/or Pan.
We couldn't see his friend/stalker Mr.Gill but he arrived very flustered to his next lesson and my mind is so not going there.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

*g* I love these little updates. Take pictures of the couch!

[emily-shore.livejournal.com]

Just wanted to say "hello"... I'm the Tolkien Society member (and Doctor Who fanfic writer) that you met at Fresher's Fair. Would it be all right if I friended you?

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Hi! Yes, that's absolutely fine. I'll see you on Monday!

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Hi. I'm the DocSoc person you talked to after the Tolkien Society person had returned to her table. Good to see that you are having an active 'freshers' week', which nowadays seems to live up to the name, being more of a week than a couple of days...

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Hey! Nice to meet you (again). How did you find me?

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

After you told me the name of the LJ community, it wasn't difficult!

[biascut.livejournal.com]

It's not my personal problem any more because I'm not James Dean, but I used to get SO CROSS with the JCR for making Freshers' Week revolve around drinking. Aside from the fact that it's incredibly alienating for students who just don't want to drink too much (which is what I was as a fresher - er, things may have changed somewhat since), hi, we are a university with a commitment to ethnic diversity and tons of overseas students, in particular an enormous number of Muslim students and Chinese students from Malasia, Singapore and China, very few of whom are known for being huge drinkers. It's not a deliberately racist policy, but it almost works out that way, because who drinks the most? Why, that would be white British students. JCRs and student entertainments revolve around alcohol, which means that it's the students who drink the most who get involved and organise the next generation of Ents, and they organise even more stuff around alcohol, and it really means that it's overwhelmingly the white British students who stay at the centre of the JCRs, with a few exceptions who have either come through student welfare (which attracts a much greater diversity) or who aren't white and British but who drink and party a lot anyway. And there's usually one lone voice saying 'um, we should have at least one event that's not about drinking', but it's tiny and ill-attended. So it ends up with all the overseas students being involved in the Overseas Society entertainments because it's the one place they can rely on to organise things that don't revolve around alcohol, and the Muslim students socialise through the Malaysian Society or the Islamic Society or whatever, and the home students and the overseas hardly mix socially at all. AARGH.

Sorry, that would be my own personal rant about York. I don't know whether the same things happen at Oxford, but it's definitely the case here. The graduate society is much better, but the undergraduate events are shocking, and I would get VERY ANNOYED because I'd go around asking freshers how they were settling in and there would always be a dozen who didn't like the fact that everything was about drinking. There's just this culture that STUDENTS = DRINKING, and so little recognition of the fact that that alienates an enormous number of undergraduates.

the lanky bugger

[(Anonymous)]

True, but don't forget for a lot of white birtish students it's the first time they've been away. And I did drink a lot last year.

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

There's just this culture that STUDENTS = DRINKING, and so little recognition of the fact that that alienates an enormous number of undergraduates.

That's how it works out in America, too. Not the racial element--at least not that I've noticed--but the absurd social emphasis on getting smashed all the time. I would enjoy college exponentially more if that weren't so.

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Do you reckon yours is worse because it's underage? I'm interested.

[gamesiplay.livejournal.com]

I would think so, though I don't know what the drinking culture is like for you. Here, people--especially in their first year--tend to go overboard, since this is the first time they've had so much access to alcohol and freedom to consume it.

And then there's me: I have actually consumed more alcohol at home (as in, a sip of wine or champagne every now and then) than at school (as in, none).

[loneraven.livejournal.com]

Word, word and word. I agree with absolutely everything you've said. It's exactly the same here. The JCR committee are aware of the problem and have made some half-hearted attempts to redress it, but as long as we're a minority we can't expect much to be done. It drives me mad.