A Random Smattering of Events

Today I went to my first lecture, which is the first of a four-week series on Classical Mythology. I figured it might behoove me to learn about all those crazy gods before I try to take the GRE. I checked a couple of secondary sources on Chaucer out of the library. I'll have to read those this weekend along with finishing up my Yeats paper. Then I went to my first formal hall, which is Friday-night dinner, when all the students and professors dress in their academic regalia. This formal hall business is all about tradition -- I mean, bowing at the table of professors if you have to excuse yourself during dinner, bowing again when you reenter the room, waiting for the Principal to strike a gavel on the table before you can begin eating, then again before you can leave. No kidding.

In other news, I managed to ride to formal hall on my bike, while wearing -- wait for it -- a dress, so I guess I am officially an Oxonian. Yay for initiation!

with several of the international students before formal hall