22.10.06 studying...

Now it’s 23:24 Sunday night, and I’m studying again.  But I did get out a bit this weekend.  And I also went to my first rowing practice, but since the river is just about to overflow it’s banks, they aren’t letting novices row just now.  So, we went for a nice long run in the pouring rain.  And by pouring, I mean really really soaking wet running through puddles POURING.  It was kind of fun anyway.  Back to the books.

 

I was told that I looked like a “child molester” dressed like this.  

 

I felt that was a bit unfair.

19.10.06 NPV

[8:51 PM – Business School Library]

Net present value is crawling up my ass and trying to eat the lining of my stomach away, one discount rate at a time. Actually, it’s competing for space with his buddies Supply Curve, Discount Factor and Present Value of Annuities.

Most people who know me are aware that I am not a computational giant. Somewhere between my lack of interest in endlessly repeating math problems, my lack of attention to details (like decimal points, numbers, etc.) and my basic inaptitude, I suck at math. Sucking at math is really only a problem in 4/6 of my first term MBA courses. The other two courses, Developing Effective Managers, and Strategy are no problemo. I can talk about cases, and pontificate on psychological theories for endless hours with minimal effort. Unfortunately, Managerial Economics (just Economics, really), Decision Science (Statistics) and Finance (mean math with percent signs) are a big problemo. I will have to slog through these. The last course? Financial Reporting. This is Accounting by any other name. This has nothing to do with math, it’s just a bunch of totally random and crazy rules that change from country to country, company to company, accountant to accountant, and in my sorry little case: apparently from class to class as well. Sigh. One more day until the weekend and Ean drinking a lot of funny English beer. That sounds good, except for the part where I have to spend all weekend studying anyway, so the beer will just get in the way.

Sigh.

On a cheerier note: I am starting to get a vague feel for how to play the game here. Some, not all, but some of the professors give tons of reading (like hundreds of pages a week) that they really don’t expect you to absorb in any meaningful way. They also give you un-collected assignments that are basically what you’re going to see on the exam. The ONE exam you’ll get all term. That’s not brutal or anything, is it? There are also “exercise” sessions for the quantitative classes during which the professors actually answer questions about how to work problems, talk through issues you had with the homework, repeat things, etc… the type of stuff that you’d expect to have in the normal lecture, but in our case (maybe also true at other MBA programs?) don’t. The main lectures that everyone attends are more like big performances where the profs show fancy powerpoint slideshows, tell funny stories, give wacky analogies, and generally behave in the way that eccentric professorial types are supposed to behave. I often wonder if this eccentricity bit isn’t a show put on for rep reasons, and actually when these guys get home, they’re totally normal. Probably not, but then again, considering my friends and family, maybe the eccentric profs don’t seem all that wacky after all? In any event, the idea is (potentially) to skim through the monster reading assignments, do the homework problems backwards and forwards a billion times, and ask lots of questions in the exercise classes. Also, loose teams of MBAs are banding together to share out reading notes, in an effort to reduce the overall workload. We’ll see how that pans out.

Back to the shiz.

10.14.06 matriculation

“In the English universities of Oxford, Cambridge and Durham, the term is used for the ceremony at which new students are entered into the register (in Latin matricula) of the university, at which point they become members of the university. Oxford requires matriculands to wear academic dress with sub-fusc during the ceremony.  At Oxford and Cambridge matriculation was formerly associated with entrance examinations taken before or shortly after matriculation, known as Responsions at Oxford and the Previous Examination at Cambridge, both abolished in 1960.”

-“Matriculation” Wikipedia, 16 September 2006

 

I just love this picture

 

The Rundown

This was a pretty cool day.  After all the study-kookery of last week and the predictable whoopitup of MBAs on the Friday night prowl, today’s activities were pretty distinctive.  I finally wore my subfusc officially for the first time, and got to be in my matriculation ceremony at the Sheldonian Theater.  A (fairly shitty) photo journal of the highlights is at the end of this post.  The day started early, as I had to be up, showered, dressed, out the door, across the meadow and at Merton by 8:20 AM.  My bow tie tying skills were certainly put to the rush test this morning, but I guess I did OK, it didn’t fall off at any point.    Then, all the freshers posed for a group picture (just like in elementary school) in the front quad.  Next, we were carefully roll called by a fellow of the college.  This is a big deal apparently, because if you don’t get on his list on matriculation day, you aren’t officially in the university, and have to go through what was described as “all sorts of trouble”.  I made sure I got on the list.  Next, we all got to wear our “mortar boards” (square hat) as we walked from Merton to the Sheldonian.  The background here is that even though you have to wear subfusc for every written exam, you are not allowed to wear your hat except for Matriculation and Graduation, even though you are required to carry the damn thing with you!  Funny funny rules.  This scene was kind of neat: thousands of students in subfusc marching through the foggy AM streets of October Oxford.  Next, we filed into the theater, sat down, and waited for the officials to come in and run the ceremony.  Some bored looking professors in robes sat down on the main floor in fancy chairs.  After a few minutes, some guys in even fancier robes walked in holding these big golden staff things, and one went up to the (very fancy) podium.  One robed dude on the main floor said a bunch of stuff in Latin to the the guy up on the podium, who in turn replied in Latin, they both took their hats off to one another, and podium dude gave a short speech.  Apparently, floor guy was asking podium dude if he would let us into the university, and podium dude said “sure”.  Then, we got a brief lecture about working hard, being welcoming and tolerant of people from diverse cultures, and podiumdude/floorguy split with an appropriate degree of pomp and circumstance.  All done!

 

The Schmaltzy Part

I’ve been dreaming of coming to this University for years, ever since Reba and I stepped out of Holywell Street onto Broad Street and first saw the Sheldonian way back in 2002 on our first England vacation trip.  It has this massive stone and iron fence around it, with these big sort of classical Greek stone heads on the tops of the stone fenceposts.  The heads stare out at you with this fairly heavy look, like you’d seriously better have your shit together if you think you’re coming to matriculate or graduate here (both ceremonies occur in this building).  I was so blown away by the building, I immediately felt this longing to come here.  Of course, Oxford itself, the colleges, the history and everything else about this place just added to the pull, but it was those heads that first hooked me.  After all the time that’s passed and crazy stuff that’s happened in my personal and professional life since first meeting those heads: the growth and erosion of my career at wamu, the loss of interest in rock, the decision to reinvent my professional life and to start over in a new country, the gmat summer, the application fall, the weekend trips to England, the acceptances, the news breaking to friends and family, the Tasha meltdowns, the farewells and parties, the 1st summer vacation in 19 years, the trip with mom, the settling in, and the first week of class… I was semi-blown away to find myself finally marching into the Sheldonian.  Sitting there with a ton of bored and hung over freshers, the vibe in the room as the Chancellor (I think that was who podium guy was) was a little tense, but mostly the atmosphere said “yawwwwwn”.  Not for me though, I felt like I crossed a threshold sitting in that room.  Listening to that guy on the podium, I felt this shudder of emotion run right up my back and into my head and out to my eyes.  Today I sat in the Sheldonian Theater at Oxford University, a member of Merton College and the Said Business School, and was accepted in.  Tucked away in the combined drone of the Chancellor’s speech, the creaking of students shifting their weight on uncomfortable benches, and the whispered chatter of bored undergraduates, I sat quiet on one of the happiest days of my life, tears running down my cheeks.

 

 

heads at the Sheldonian

 

 

 up at 7:30 to dress and make it to Merton by 8:30

  

a pretty walk across Christ Church Meadow in the foggy AM

  

meeting at Merton

 

 

walking with the freshers (Greg pictured here) across town

 

more walking

 

and some more

 

 

porters letting us into the Sheldonian

 

that’s a lot of black and white outfits!

 

we all come pouring out

 

the streets fill with newly matriculated freshers

10.13.06 release

Friday was another 2 class day, and this was a doozie: back to back decision science (stats) and finance. There are a lot of concepts to this stuff, and the pace is very fast. The work is also fairly math-y. These two courses will kick my ass, but I will do my best. During the lunch break, I had a quick salad (thanks Reba) in the lunchroom with Brandon, who incidentally has his own web site at www.asskicking.com. He loves this photo, so I just had to post it…

 

“Brandon Stache”: Canadian Porn Star

 

Josh will be glad to know that I managed to spill my drink all over Brandon, something that seems to happen to people I spent time with during meals. As spilling goes, it could certainly have been much worse: I opened my bottle of carbonated water and it exploded all over Brandon, fortunately it was just water, and being the good outdoorsy type that he is, he was actually wearing a raincoat! Then I rushed across town to Merton to drop off a form applying for Reba’s associate membership to the MCR (Middle Common Room, i.e. grad student hangout) which gets her a key to Merton, dining privilege, into all the events, etc. Then, I rushed back to the business school and just made it to class as it began. Due to the relative humidity and relative out-of-shape-ity of my lazy ass, I was totally covered in sweat by the time I got there. After class, everybody went to the “common room” at the business school for a drink. “Common room” is really a fancy way of saying BAR. In the school. Seriously. The MBA folks had all just completed their first week of long classes, massive reading, and required bickering sessions (deceptively referred to by the school establishment as “case study groups”), and they were all ready to let off some steam. And boy, did they! The school sells mixed drinks, beers, and glasses (pronounced glosses) of wine at 1 pound each, which is unheard of in this town. We drank all the liquor, all the beer, and a lot of the wine before leaving to go out for more drinking. The place was a mad house: people getting loaded, hitting on one another, playing drinking games, standing on tables, and generally making a huge racket. You could feel the previous week’s stress level in the tone of the room, both by the level of debauch that people were treating themselves to and by the psycho-atmospheric tension humidity. We all went out to the Jericho Tavern, a pretty cool joint with continental beers and the honour of being the site of Radiohead and Supergrass’ first shows.

Naturally, we finished the day with the MBA dudes out drinking til 12AM.

Sasha and Patrcik playing drinking games (aka stupid human tricks)

Ryan gets in on the action

Sally Webb and Reba. Nice.

Jean and Renee and some dude

Koome and Jean

Eugiene, Etongi, Emma: drinky girls. Yahoo!

John Stanton stars in: Drunk Guy Eye

10.12.06 work work work

Things are off to a roaring start this week!

Classes are 3.5 hours long.  Seminars are 3.5 hours long.  We had two classes Monday, one seminar and one class Tuesday, one class and a 4.5 hour study group meeting Wednesday, and finally have today off.  Friday is another 2 class day.  Each lunchtime, I read while I eat, and then when the day is done, I eat dinner and then study until 1AM.  I slept in today to catch up on sleep a bit, that felt very very nice.  Reba is being great, really supportive, she’s taking care of all the domestic stuff while I’m in this cram mode.  It’s pretty hard to get time to run to the store or make a healthy meal when you’re so busy, so I’m extra grateful.  Of course, she just got a job so this will all cease shortly!  She went on just one interview and immediately got an offer.  This simply adds further credence to my theory that “everybody likes Reba”.  She got a research and lab management job with the Oxford University Radiation Oncology and Biology department.  These folks are working on experimental breast cancer cures, but once again, I really don’t actually understand what it is that Reba does.   

 

Electronic Note Taking

Despite the fact that Josh continues to gleefully point out to me that “in addition to reading and homework, note taking is also optional in grad school. Just ask your profs”, I plan to rely heavily on  my note taking method in the learning process this year. 

I use a fairly integrated system consisting of Microsoft Onenote, Microsoft Outlook Calendar and Microsoft Outlook Tasks to manage time-lines, course-work, notes and general information.  Most people are very familiar with Calendar and Tasks, but if you haven't yet used Onenote, it is worth a moment's description.

Onenote allows quick, autosaving note taking.  It provides collapsible hierarchical bullet trees and a customisable flagging feature that makes it easy to group and locate important note taking elements such as questions, important points, assignments, and "to do" items.  This is very helpful when reviewing for tests, referring to something from the reading, searching for things you flagged as unclear during the reading, pulling up past class notes, or simply capturing something important the instructor said on the spot.  Onenote provides simple drawing features, which can be helpful with diagramming.  Onenote also automatically creates Outlook tasks, and plugs directly into Microsoft Sharepoint, which we also use at the school.  Onenote's search functions are particularly useful when combing through an entire term's worth of notes.  And, Onenote is a great way to bring together disparate electronic data... articles, power point presentations, cases, etc.  If you hadn’t guessed, we have plenty of these.

It's nothing earthshaking, but the system I use is as follows:

• When reading in preparation for classes, I take notes using Onenote, flagging any concerns or questions I might have for the instructor.
• During class, I am then easily able to refer to and update the notes from my preparation with lecture points and clarifications, and also have any questions or concerns ready at my fingertips.
• After class, I am able to share notes with fellow students, study groups etc.
• Finally, before a test, I am able to quickly and easily pull important review points from one place.  This part is really cool.

The electronic note-taking issue relative to my professors is not as bad as I thought it would be based on class #1.  Out of 4 instructors, their responses have been:

#1 – “No way, no how, uh-uh.  Nope.”

#2 – “I don’t care, but my boss said I can’t.  I’ll check with him again.”

#3 – “I’d prefer not, but if you must, then OK.”

#4 – “That’s very polite of you to ask first.  Yes of course you may.”

Hehe.  I think that I may have learned a bit of an object lesson here… you may notice how they are being cooler about electronic note taking each time I ask a different guy.  My method has been changing, I think that may have a lot to do with it. 

With Prof #1, I just started taking notes in class with my computer.  He stopped the class, told me to close my laptop, and told me to take notes on the handouts with a pencil.  That was embarrassing, especially since it was class one day one hour one!  I guess that I attract attention everywhere I go.    I spoke to him at the break, and told him something stupid like “I take lots of notes with my computer”…  but by this time, I would have had to be quite a salesman (or liar) to convince him to change his mind, especially after he showed his cards in front of the whole class.  No dice.  I’ll be printing notes and retyping in for the rest of the term.

With Prof #2, I kept the laptop in my bag until the break, very politely introduced myself, and mentioned that note taking was a big part of my study habits.

With Prof #3, I kept the laptop in my bag until the break, very politely introduced myself, and briefly explained my process above.  I also promised that I would never surf the web, look at email, or check an IM ever in his class. 

With Prof #4, I kept the laptop in my bag until the break, very politely introduced myself, and briefly explained my process above.  I also promised that I would never surf the web, look at email, or check an IM ever in his class.  I also explicitly asked him if I may have “his permission” to take notes in class on my laptop.

Maybe #4 was an anomaly, but I seemed to strike a nerve with the permission bit, because it hit pay-dirt… of course, I still have #5 and 6 to contend with.  We’ll see.

 

The I Always Wondered How That Works Factor

I have to say that so far, every single course and every single reading so far has been interesting, and has brought me some degree of what I call the “I Always Wondered How That Works Factor”.  I.A.W.H.T.W.F. for me is when I’m reading, learning, listening, whatever, and find myself saying, “wow, that’s cool, I always wondered about that”.  That makes me feel really good, for whatever reason.  Another cool aspect of this course-work is there’s a lot of class discussion.  While this seems to get easily sidetracked, it also is a neat opportunity to share your ideas and get some ideas from others.  The biggest bummer from all of this so far is the crystal clear indication that I will never be able to spend all the time learning each subject that I would like to spend.  I’m going to have to dig deep within myself to be a successful student, but that will still only give me a skimming of the material.  That’s what I get for doing a 1 year MBA.  Honestly, I would have gone to Oxford if it had been a 1, 2 or 3 year MBA, just because I’m into this place.  But, 1 year is the only option currently so I’ll just have to deal.

 

Matriculation Rising

Saturday is Matriculation.  This is where all the new entrants to the University put on their subfusc, sit in the Sheldonian Theatre, and get read a bunch of medieval “welcome to the university” stuff in Latin.  I’m super totally down, but it’s a 7:30 AM Saturday type of deal, and that part will suck.

 

Rowing?

Anybody who’s heard more about Oxford than the preceding 6 letter word (that’s o-x-f-o-r-d Josh) knows about the rowing fetish.  There is probably a big long story about how this came about, but I don’t know what it is, and if I’m going to be researching anything this morning, it’s going to be Financial Reporting!  The upshot is that it’s a big deal, and there are a zillion levels of Oxford crews available so that you can get your row on at Oxford.  I am attempting to join something called a 2nd and 3rd Novice Crew, which is for bottom feeders like me who’ve never even sat in a crew boat (probably the wrong word for this type of boat, they’re probably “slingers” or “stickey-horses” or “queens-heads” or whatever else medieval goofball name these people came up with for them).  This should be entertaining.

 

Special to Frank and Josh: any comments posted about my ass sinking, punching through, or capsizing the crew boat are such cheap shots that you will get negative points for wasting cyberspace by even taking the time to type them in.  Fair warning.

 

 

10.09.06 day 1

It’s 8:29 AM and I’m sitting in the classroom before my first class at Oxford. I did a bunch of reading yesterday and the day before, and I’m more or less ready for day 1. Idon’t know exactly what to expect, but I had a fun time reading about economics (for the first time) and strategy (also for the first time) over the last few days. People are filing in slowly, but class doesn’t start for another 16 minutes. Gerard, the south african accountant from my study group and I are just realizing that the economics professor both reccomended a £40 book and provided the relevant chapters in a course photocopy book.

– – – – – More Later! – – – – – –

Ok, it’s 17:11 now, and two classes later, the day is done. It turns out that the first professor doesn’t like it when people use their computers for note taking, which really SUCKS, because that’s how I take notes. The second prof doesn’t care, but apparently the Dean (?) has mandated that students not use laptops for note taking during class, because of the tendency to surf the internet, IM people, and etc.

<deleted rant></deleted rant>

However, I accept that I’m here on Oxford’s terms, not mine, so I will have to adapt. For now, I’ll be printing out my reading notes before the lecture, taking written notes during lecture, and then typing them in later.

aaarrrrrgghhhhh.

10.07.06 naught week almost over

First things first.  There are officially 8 weeks of each term, and the terms have crazy old fashioned names: Michaelmas, Hilary, and Trinity.  Of course, just like everything else at Oxford, the official version is not actually accurate and has a bunch of odd caveats.  For example, last week was -1th week (two week before Michaelmas begins).  This week is naught week (zero week) also sometimes called zeroth week, and believe me there was plenty going at the university, school and college during this time.  Monday is the first week of term, which theoretically ends in 8 weeks.  But it doesn’t there’s a 9th week and a 10th week for exams too.  Ok, hopefully that’s clear.

Also, I should apologise for the lack of photos, Reba has gone off to Greece with her buddies and took the camera with her, so it’s just my boring writing until tomorrow evening when she returns.

The busy factor is starting to blow my mind, and school hasn’t even begun yet.  You often hear University staff remark, or read in whatever official mailings that “you can’t do it all” while you’re here.  What an understatement.  This past week (naught) included the following events, unless otherwise noted, they all run back to back.

 

Saturday Sept 30

(note: since I have to deal with the stupid 24 hour time system here, YOU have to as well, enjoy it)

11:00 tour of my college, Merton.  We learned all about the history, famous guests and scholars, got a tour of the library (the oldest still in use in the English speaking world), halls, etc.  Damn cool.

14:30 The Oxford Pursuit scavenger hunt.  Sort of a high faluting way of getting to know the town and some history while trying to bond with and wrestle for control with other type-A MBA people.  In the pouring rain.

19:30 Dinner with Reba, she was leaving for Greece later in the evening.  I picked up some fairly passable Chinese take out.

Had to skip the 15:30 graduate parenting tea in the Merton MCR.  “Parents” are students that have been at Merton for at least a year and can give you the lowdown on stuff, which is good because no one else will even attempt to.  The MCR is the Middle Common Room.  This is the graduate student only social hall, a really old room with a TV, stereo and… you guessed it!  A BAR!!!!  There is also a JCR (Junior Common Room) for undergrads, and some sort of Senior room for the fellows and whatever.

We finished the day with the MBA dudes out drinking til 2AM.

 

Merton MCR

 

Sunday Oct 1

13:30 stomped across Christ Church Meadow in the pour-assing rain to get to Merton for what was going to be a rain drenched tour of the city.  Turns out they cancelled it due to rain.  Figures.  I looked like I had waded through a bathtub.  Was also generally hung over and did jack shit, for various reasons.

Monday Oct 2

8:30 induction information lectures at the business school.  Lasted all day until 17:00.  Got to listen to a bunch of official types talk about the curriculum, online assignment submission system, career center, etc.  1/2 of the incoming class of 214 gave 1 minute each bios on stage.  That was painful.

17:00 ran across town to Merton where I had to sit in my suit in the Saville room (not as nice as it sounds) and wait for my name to be called, along with all the other “freshers” so I could walk up, shake hands with the warden, and sign my name in her big book of people’s signatures.  She was very smiley about it and said “welcome to the college”.  Neato!

19:00 ran back across town to the school for a welcome reception.  This is where they turn the normal studious and serious lobby area into a big frigging party room.  These people like to drink, and the wine was very free flowing.  I can’t say how much we went through, but it was cases and cases.  Some of last year’s MBA class were there, and the staff hung around guzzling as well.

We finished the day with the MBA dudes out drinking til 2AM.

Tuesday Oct 3

8:30 induction day 2 at the school.  A marathon 12 hours in the same room, and the second half of the 214 got their 1 minute.  This was murderously painful.  Can you say, “I am ____ from India, I work in IT, and I like Cricket and Football” 45 times in a row with a straight face?  I can now say that I’ve seen it done, but by 45 different people.  Met my study group, and we had our first meeting.  Interesting folks all around: a South African accountant, a marketer from Hong Kong, a couple of IT guys from India, a Canadian project manager, and me.

Had to skip the 10:00 meeting with Merton Tutors, 16:00 meeting with the Merton welfare team, and 20:00 Merton bar crawl (going to all the bars at the different colleges) because of schedule conflicts with the biz school and sheer exhaustion.  I was really annoyed by the end of this day.

Wednesday Oct 4

9:40 health presentation at Merton.  This was funny.  I basically sat in the big dining hall at Merton, with 100 or so other graduate and undergraduate freshers and got lectured about not getting beat up by the townies, contraception, drug use, etc.  I had a brief meeting after with the Merton nurse, who weighed me and said that I am 15.5 stone.  Whatever that is.  It probably sounds worse in pounds, anyway.  Also, I was informed that I could not get my mumps and meningitis shots at the college and would have to go to the doctor’s office for my shots.  Apparently I am too old, and if I had a reaction to the shots, the nurse wouldn’t have the right “gear” to take care of me.  Whatev.

11:00 started putting my calendar and task list together for the term.  I now have 168 separate tasks in my todo list, mostly reading.  The assignments haven’t been given out yet, so I’ll add those as well.  Keep in mind: I only have 8 weeks to do all 168 readings.

15:00 had a pint and a chat about web projects with an alumus, Tom M.  Tom is starting a company and wanted to get an idea of what it would cost to do some web work.  I can’t go into the details, because I am under super-double-secret-sbs-handshake-lockdown oath to not reveal the details of our conversation or his company idea.  This is a bit funny, because this is probably the 3rd time I’ve had this double secret style conversation with people at SBS this week.  The ideas are all generally pretty good too, by the way.

16:00 meeting with the college officers at Merton.  This was a lot of fire safety, behaviour requirements, info about fines you can be given, etc.  The Bursar rambled on at length about different subjects in a super dry humour sarcastic sort of way.  He made everyone feel a bit weird by telling us how he’d been “given the sack” and would be leaving soon, and was planning on spending the rest of his days sitting in a dark room staring at his computer.  Seriously.  And then he told us how he has attended Merton as an undergrad in the 60’s, and how our experience as grad students would in no way be as “orgasmic” as it would have been as undergrads.  Seriously.  He may be crazy, or just weird, or just bitter, or some of all of those things.  He went on about fire safety as well.  These Brits are really worked up about fire safety.

20:00 champagne reception in Merton chapel’s antechapel.  Everyone from the MCR got dressed up and guzzled champagne in the chapel at Merton.  This is a huge church, apparently at one point it was going to be the general church for Oxford, but it didn’t for whatever reason and now it’s just for the college.  Pretty cool place to have a party.  Talked to tons of smartypants grad students, but they make me feel A) old and B) degenerate.  They’re all 21 or 22, and many are pooped out at 11pm, right when I get ready to go meet up with the MBAs for some more drinking.  The clean cut physiology grad students and etc. often just go to bed after this kind of affair, but as noted, on most nights, the MBAs go out drinking til 2AM.  However, tonight was an exception: we all went disco dancing, and it wasn’t too totally sausage fest lame, there were actually a few cute gradstudent-girls with us.  We went to a “hiphop” club, and everybody did the creepy bump and grind dance that is so popular these days.  I just can’t bring myself to do this… I prefer doing the retro rock and roll dance, if not doing some outright pogo-ing.  The sexy bootie grind dance just weirds me out, and I can’t really move that way anyway.  This also makes me feel old, but not quite as degenerate.

We finished the day with the MBA dudes out drinking til 2AM.

Thursday Oct 5

9:30 Freshers’ Fair at the Examination School.  The Exam School is the place where you go to take tests wearing your subfusc, but today there was no dress code and it was filled with booths recruiting for every student group at Oxford.  Ethnic, political, language, hobby, sport, gaming, food and wine, military, literary, music, dance, and just about any other type of group you could imagine were represented there.  I joined groups for dinghy racing, fencing, wine, hunting, entrepreneurship, and indie/alternative music, not that I’ll have any time for them.    A bit about the hunting group: fox hunting is now illegal here.  So instead of “fox hunting” per se, these guys go out in the woods and follow packs of trained beagles around and see what they scare up, I don’t know what happens if anything does get scared up.  Funny.  Even better though: they don’t have horses.  So, this group of dudes have to follow the beagles on foot, there were even pictures in the booth of the club in all of their fox hunting horse riding gear, with no horses around.  I can’t help but think of Monty Python’s “The Holy Grail” where the knights all gallop along on foot because they don’t have horses… How can I not join this club?

18:30 drinks with Dr Alan Morrison and Dr Kate Blackmon, fellows (I think) at Merton.  Basically, myself and a bunch of grad and undergrad freshers got suits on, and went to Dr Kate’s private study at Merton, where we chit chatted politely while Kate and Alan tried to get us loaded on sherry.  Alan’s English, but Kate’s from Chapel Hill, and reminds me of Maryanne Garland, for those who know her.  By the way, she’s also one of the officers who was lecturing us the previous day about rules, regs, and NOT over-imbibing at Merton.  This was fun.

19:00 pre-dinner drinks in MCR.  More sherry and grad students in fancy dress.

19:30 Matriculation dinner in Merton Hall.  Harry Potter eat your heart out!  We all filed into the ancient dining hall and sat at assigned seats at long tables with benchs underneath scowly painting of famous Mertonians in wigs.  The grad/undergrad-students were all busy talking when the Fellows (including Kate and Alan) came marching in.  Everybody hushed and stood up for this, kind of like when the judge enters a courtroom.  Then we all sat down.  Then we stood up and the Vicar (?) said a prayer in Latin, and then they served us a 3 course dinner, which was actually pretty good.  There was a brief speech at the end by the Warden, who is sort of Professor McGonagall-ish in a way.

We finished the day with the MBA dudes out drinking til 2AM.

Friday Oct 6

11:00 totally stupid “tour” of the careers center at SBS.  This consisted of filing into the careers center, some semi bitchy presentations by career center staff on what not to do with your 2 allotted 1/2 hour sessions of career advice per term, and direction to the various leaflets and pamphlets laying around.  I’m not sure, but I’m getting the feeling that the careers folks may not be my favorite Oxonians before too long.  I’m reserving judgement for now, however.

Afternoon – got the study group’s sharepoint site up and running, finished typing in the tasks and calendar items for the term, uploaded the tasks/items to the sharepoint for the rest of the folks in my section to download and import, set up the shared google calendar for the study group.

18:00 dinner with Sasha, Orly and their visiting pal whose name I forget.  Their son Nir was also there.  This dinner was great, and we had a really excellent time, and Nir is a very cute little guy.  The best thing about this night is that it was the first time I’ve had dinner with 3 Israelis and had PORK CHOPS!  I found out that Hedgehogs and Porcupines aren’t kosher either, but I don’t think Sasha will be serving these anytime soon.  Apparently the Arabs in Israel eat a lot of Porcupines, Sasha says they’re pretty good!

20:00 went to the Wadham College Bop.  A Bop is a school dance, and the theme of this was “school uniforms” …basically it was the sexy catholic schoolgirl look for the girls and whatever the dudes could work out.  This place was gigantic, filled with 1000s of undergrads, totally drunk.  The funny thing about colleges here is that they not only don’t restrict alcohol use among the students, they actually encourage it by having a bar in the college!  Sometimes more than one!  This was was giant drunk undergrad dance party sexy dance fiasco, and honestly, Sasha and I were a bit out of place.  We each had a Guiness and split.

We finished the day with the MBA dudes out drinking til 2AM.

Saturday Oct 7

Actually read something for my Monday classes.  Crazy, I know.  Pretty neat article about vision, core ideology and envisioned future at businesses by the guys who wrote “Built to Last”.  It’s great to read stuff firsthand that I’m typically exposed to when it’s being thrown around (usually incorrectly) by corporate types. 

Tonight there are a bunch of options (again)… the “start of term” cocktail party at the MCR, the JCR have a bop, and Andrew wants to go to the Turf to check out the beer festival.  I also need to quit writing blogs and finish my reading.