One of my classmates who was previously studying in London before coming up to Oxford was once asked for identification for attempting to purchase scissors.....you need to be 18 years old in England to cut paper apparently. I've yet to be ID'd at the pub, but buying scissors...that's another story all together!
The other night was the first time I got to dress up in formal attire for dinner at Linacre College. Here is a photo of the action in our dining hall. That's right - at Oxford you sometimes wear gowns to meals....one of the traditions still kept up by my otherwise more progressive college (we have FairTrade and Carbon Neutral status, rare among the colleges of Oxford). This was one (of many) welcome events that have been going on for the past week. I met my college advisor (mostly a 'if you need me' kind of relationship with an established member of the institution), the food was good, and the wine was free as always at these types of events.
Also around town for the next couple of months is an art exhibit called 'Earth from the Air'. It's an environmental themed aerial photography collection that features hundreds of images from around the world. The display is currently set up in the area around the 'Oxford Castle' - a surreal location for these portraits which depict the massive impact of human activity on the natural landscape. I visited this site earlier in the week, but I figure I'll likely return again this weekend when a friend of mine from Guelph is popping through town for a brief visit. It will be nice to see a friendly face from home!
Speaking of a face from home....the other day I was sitting in a 'fire and safety' lecture at my department. Sitting in front of me was a girl from High School in Toronto. We haven't seen each other in over 6 years! I suppose it's not all that surprising really that we ran into each other here, we are both really keen on environmental issues (it was a geography class we shared together years ago) and Oxford seems to have a high proportion of Canadians. Last night I met another Canadian with whom I share a mutual friend from Guelph....small world indeed!
5 comments:
enough of the dreary banquets and formal attire, no one wants to hear about dank castles and bourgois art... where are all the stories about frosh keg parties and hazing... tell us about how you puked for four days because you and your new English mates went on a week long pub crawl and sang 'Home for a rest' the whole time?
hope you get SOME work done over there... goodness knows if tomorow turns out to be a blue day we'll need awesome people like you even more so!
<3
That art exhibit sounds really interesting, much like the work of Edward Burtynsky.
Who did you run into from Leaside?
When the hell do you finally start your classes? :)
Happy Thanksgiving from a fellow friendly Canadian! I miss you, but am enjoying following your blog. Keep it up! (more embarrassing photos soon to follow, I hope?) ;)
hey folks....
Thanks for the support?!
Got to keep this PG mostly...never know who is out there! Maybe Facebook will serve as a location for other shots....stay tuned.
TK - Great to hear from you!
It was Tiffany Vogel from Leaside, remember her? Were you in Mr. C's 'World Issues' class...I think we were in that one together.
Started class this week....looks like it's going to be heavy, but really good as well. Plenty of reading and writing (go figure?!)
Thanks again for the notes!
D.
ahhah Colin. It's Bourgeoise. You would screw that up frat boy.
Pieper that entry was hilarious free wine and gowns. You could write a Brysonesque novel about this.
Hey remember the time that Odin ran past our window and you were like "Welp, graeme's home." And when I said you just mistook a jack russel terrier for our roommate, without even so much as a blink you replied "Well he did get a haircut."
That was funny.
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