raven | Matriculation; and Balliol in photos, sort of (Reply)

Well, I've matriculated. It involved getting up at seven thirty in the morning, stumbling bleary-eyed through Oxford at the crack of dawn and best of all, being photographed mercilessly by the tourists up for the weekend, who clearly couldn't believe their luck at this genuine Oxford tradition (tm). It was wonderful, actually; I didn't mind the sub fusc or the cold walk to the Sheldonian or anything. Again, part of something; it was surreal and amazing to walk down Broad Street in full sub fusc and be shouted at in Latin. I am now a part of the university as well as Balliol.

Anyway, the pictures! I'm far too tired to do anything to these beyond upload them, so no cropping no matter how sensible that would be.

Firstly, I give you me in full sub fusc. The outfit in full consists of a white shirt, black skirt, black tights and black commoners' gown. The black ribbon goes around your neck and no-one has any idea how it's supposed to be tied. The men wear a white bow tie instead of the ribbon.

There is also a black mortar board that you never, ever wear unless you want to be at least fined and at most sent down. It is not for the likes of undergraduates such as us. It gets carried and nothing more. And you keep your pens in it come exam time.

Next, looking out from the hall into the garden quad. A mess of penguin colours.

They were doing the collgeges in batches, so we queued up on New College Lane, beneath the Bridge of Sighs. From left: me, Claire, Patricia and Liya.

And outside the Sheldonian we queued some more:

But it was worth it in the end. The inside of the Sheldonian, which I probably won't see again until I graduate, looked absolutely beautiful in the early morning light-

-and afterwards, when we'd listened to the Latin service and the Vice-chancellor's speech, it all seemed like a dream. Ignoring the sub fusc, of course. Afterwards came the hideously unhealthy pantry breakfast, which we all partook in-

-and a sudden realisation that we had to fill the rest of the day. I took the advice I was given and gave up on work for the day. Instead, I went out to the University Parks and walked and walked and walked. I managed to walk the length of the Parks and through to Marston. I did find the Cherwell-

-which, while not being the sea, was worth the journey. My camera is so nice to have with me, finally; I can show you all my lovely surroundings, and so I took the opportunity today to take lots of pictures in and around the college.

Here we have Balliol seen from Broad Street, with all the bikes rusting elegantly in the foreground:

The sum defences against the tourists:

The garden quad, usually called the back quad, facing towards the JCR:

Towards the front quad:

My room! Well, my attic. (The flowers are from the very wonderful

lady_of_asheru. I bought a jar to put them in and so they no longer languish in a bucket.)

My brand of decoration. Send me postcards and you, too, can contribue to this bastion of marvellousness.

The view of the Ashmolean. I have a porthole! It is amazing. It is also the only window you can recognise from street level.

The drawback, of course, is that I live very high up:

But all in all, life is okay here. Better than it was a couple of days ago, although I'm sure I shall begin to despair again when logic kicks in at the beginning of next week. So I will leave you with my favourite photo of the bunch. This sign was found stuck to the tumble dryer.