Trinity - Week 8

Week 8 was the last real week of Trinity term, and there was no shortage of dancing and dining.


I attended Evensong at Magdalen College on Sunday evening. The chapel looked beautiful, and candles lined all the benches. Even though Magdalen has a boy's school associated with it, I was surprised when choir boys came in. They were followed by what I assumed was the college men's choir. They were all wearing dark red robes underneath white robes. When I went to services at the Balliol chapel, all the choir members just wore academic robes over their own clothes. 

On Monday afternoon, I conducted an interview with a journalist for my thesis. I am interviewing journalists for "triangulation" - the basic idea is that you should use multiple data sources to check your results. 
In the evening, I went with some classmates to Itchy Feet, a dance night at The Junction (a club). Itchy Feet is a DJ/band group that travels around the country to clubs playing oldies, swing, ska, and other fun music for dancing that differs from typical club dance music.

The next morning was our last lecture, but I chose to skip it and get some post-Itchy Feet sleep instead (half way through the term, the head of the MSc finally told us that morning lectures were optional -- they weren't all relevant to everybody, and that we even had to attend these was sprung on us during the spring). I went into class in the afternoon to watch the last day of student presentations.

On Wednesday I went to London to look at flats and attend a welcome session at one of the Deloitte offices.

I attended the termly 'tea and cakes' event at St. Cross on Thursday afternoon and was supposed to have my first rowing outing early that evening. However, one person didn't show up, so we couldn't take out a boat. It was a rainy day, so at least we didn't waste what could have been a beautiful day on the river.

I interviewed another journalist on Friday afternoon. St. Cross held its "going down dinner" on Friday evening. When you go to Oxford, you "come up." When you leave, you "go down." This dinner was for students in the final year of their degree.

The dinner began with champagne in the common room. Then we went into hall for dinner, where we were served a different kind of white wine with each course.

Many other colleges have plates with the college seal on them. This dinner was the first time I think I've seen St. Cross have plates with our seal -- it was exciting.

Appetizer: Risotto Primavera
Entree: Marinated chicken breast with chive and coriander pesto
Dessert: Peach and passion fruit trifle
After dinner, we went to the common room for coffee/tea and St. Cross mints.

I attended the Green Templeton College summer ball on Saturday night. The ball was called the Observer's Ball and had an outer-space theme (GTC has a building called the observatory, which was actually an observatory at one point). We got tickets back in the beginning of Hilary term, and about half of my classmates were in attendance. Most colleges have black tie balls that typically take place during Trinity term. A few of the big and rich colleges rotate hosting Commemoration balls every 3 years. These are white-tie affairs with tickets that cost nearly 200 pounds. Non-dining (without the formal sit-down dinner before the ball) tickets to the (not a commemoration) GTC ball cost about 70 pounds.

A bunch of us met up at St. Cross before the ball to take some photos and walk over together. It had started raining right around this time. I brought an umbrella with me to the ball, but the ball committee happened to be handing out big red umbrellas that they rented.

When we got to the ball, there was a champagne reception and a band playing near the entrance. There was also a food tent, and the food available at the time was a bunch of sausages and vegetarian options catered by a Lebanese place (yum).

Throughout the night, there was a chocolate fountain, cheese plates, a crepe truck, a hog roast, ice cream, and other desserts.

There were drinks all over the GTC grounds, with champagne/wine/beer in the front quad, stuff in the actual college bar, ice luges with vodka scattered throughout, and a small selection of cocktails in the dancing tent (including a delicious lychee drink).

The entertainment included a variety of bands playing throughout the night, a casino tent, a video game tent, a fortune teller, burlesque dancers, and fireworks.

The silent disco started around 2 AM. In order to appease the neighbors, the music was shut off and everyone in the dance tent was given headphones. The headphones had two different channels you could decide between, so you could figure out what the people around you were listening to by watching them sing and seeing what their rhythm was. We kept switching back and forth to see which channel was playing the better music at the time.

People left at different times throughout the evening, but I left with the people I was dancing with at the silent disco around 4 AM. There was a survivor's breakfast for people who made it to the end of the ball at 6 AM.