Saturday morning was Matriculation. In this ceremony, we formally become members of the university. We are required to dress in sub-fusc, which comes from Latin for 'dark/dusky color.' For men, this means a dark suit, black shoes, white shirt, and white bow tie. Girls must wear a white blouse, black ribbon, black skirt or pants, black tights, and black shoes. Girls have the choice of having a mortarboard or a soft cap. We can wear a dark coat, but our academic gown must be worn over it. Postgraduate students have gowns that go to the knee - undergraduate gowns are shorter.
More on Matriculation day after the jump.
The day started with 8 am breakfast in the STX hall. I got a little bit of extra sleep and came downstairs at 8:15. I figured there was no need to be one of the first to register.
Then we took individual photos outside in the quad. We also had a photo of all the new students at St. Cross. It took awhile to get everyone in semi-height order and on these bleachers, and it was a tight squeeze. The camera man had one of those old fashion accordion-type cameras where you have to get underneath a sheet to look into it.
There are three other OII people at St. Cross. Janine is from England, Cohen is from South Carolina, and Manuel is from Germany. Cohen lives on the floor above me at the main site.
After taking photos and hanging out in the St. Cross quad for awhile, we began our journey to the Sheldonian Theatre. We were supposed to walk in two lines, but that didn't last too long.
The photo above is us walking on Broad Street. We were quite a sight to see. We were taking pictures of the whole ordeal --- and so were tourists.
We had to wait awhile to get into the Sheldonian Theatre, which was built in the 17th century and can't seat more than 1000 people. There were ceremonies held all day in order to get all the new undergraduate and graduate students in. We (we being St. Cross freshers) were told we couldn't bring anything with us, but some girls in other colleges had huge bags with them. Some undergraduate girls looked like they were ready for the 'sexy sub-fusc' bop already.
The ceremony was only about 10 minutes long. St. Crossers had to stand during it, and I ended up on the side of the center aisle formed for the procession.
You can watch video of the ceremony. The same speech was given at each ceremony of the day:
After the ceremony, we went to grab a drink from a nearby coffee shop and then went back home to drop off our mortar boards and pick up phones and bags. Cohen, Janine, and I then went to crash the brunch that Balliol College was having for grad students after their ceremony. On the way, I had to take this photo (that fits well with my sense of humor) of 'talking' on a cell phone outside of an old telephone booth.
There are many OIIers at Balliol. Balliol an awesome grad complex, and most of their grad students live together in a few buildings that are across the street from one another. After having a bite to eat and celebratory mimosas (which the British call Buck's Fizz), we went into the quad of Hollywell Manor, part of the Balliol graduate living complex, and took some photos.
We then moved our photo-taking to Radcliffe Camera and happened to find some OIIers from Green-Templeton College on the way there.
Momin, the kid in the purple pants (he had changed out of sub-fusc between the ceremony and the time when we saw him at brunch and informed him of our photo plans), decided it would be fun to climb on the Radcliffe Camera, and we followed suit. You can't walk on the grass that surrounds the building, but there are no signs saying no climbing the building...
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