Matriculation

Blimey! Oxford has been a busy place lately! A couple weekends ago I went through matriculation. It is the formal process of entering the University, and it is required in order to be a student at Oxford. It consists of gathering all the new students in the college together in the dining hall, both grad and undergrad (collectively called freshers), taking a class photo, then heading over to the Sheldonian, where we were greeted by the Vice Chancellor in both Latin and English. Students are required to wear the official academic dress, called subfusc. The Sheldonian, built in 1668, is used mainly for matriculation and graduation.
I had to do a google search to figure out how my subfusc was supposed to look, because I was unsure what to do with the flappy things on my gown:

Malorie (another rhodie in Balliol) and I, along with the other Balliol freshers in our dining hall:

The class photo, and the freshers on our way to the Sheldonian:

The outside of the Sheldoinian, along with the scary sculpture than hung above my head as I sat through matriculation:

It's an odd feeling to be sitting in such a gorgeous building, surrounded by a brilliant and diverse group, and realizing that this has occurred each year for the last 800 years. The ceremony was formal, often in Latin, and surprisingly short. Afterward we were released into the streets, as official students of Oxford, to party the day away. I stopped off at Magdalen college with some fellow rhodies to take in some champagne and brunch, then returned to Holywell Manor to continue in the festivities with the Balliol group.
Inside the Sheldonian:

Filing out of matriculation, and back at Holywell Manor:

And of course, to top the day off, matriculation was the first time I had left my swine flu quarantined room in about 2.5 days!

Cleaning out the cameras

Yes Dad, I will eventually get around to taking pictures of the campus and where I live. In preparation for this, I cleaned out the memory cards on my two cameras. I came across a couple of pictures of the Tetons that I wanted to post. Oxford is gorgeous, but I definitely miss these mountains...

Fresher's Week

Sunday afternoon marks the end of Freshers' Week. Each college has a Freshers' Week, though Balliol's is much more extravagant than most. The idea is for all the grad students in the college to have the opportunity to meet and mingle with other grad students in the college. Balliol is largely international, and about 80% male.

The events of Freshers' Week:
Drinks with the President, Olympic games and BBQ, floor pizza party, dinner with a Student Mentor, Jazz evening, Women's drinks, Quiz night, Drinks with your tutor, Pub Crawl, Movie night, Carnival, Boat Club drinks, Freshers' formal dinner, Port and chocolate night, Sports day, High tea, Freshers' Bop (costume party), Brunch to cure the Bop hangover.

Somehow, all of that was shoved into 7 days, along with all the tours, inductions, paperwork, etc. My favorite event was the formal dinner, which was black tie. We had a three course gormet meal in the dining hall, lit by candles and old lamps. Our wine glasses, first white then red, never fell below half full. The master gave a speech about some of the history of Balliol and of those who had formerly sat where we were sitting. I'll have to admit, it indeed felt a bit like a Harry Potter scene.

Windsor Castle

The Rhodes group took a day trip to Windsor Castle, the largest inhabited castle in the world and the oldest in continuous occupation. The flag was flying and hence the queen was in, but she didn't care to come greet us. We toured the castle and got to see many of the state apartments, dining rooms, and ball rooms. Although pictures were not allowed inside, below are a few snapshots from walking around the castle, including the quintessential phonebooth photo.

The first few days

The first few days were taken up largely by Rhodes events: receptions, meet and greets, etc. There are a lot of Rhodes Scholars here! Almost all the Rhodes Scholars stay for a second year, many stay for a third, and some for a fourth (unfunded). They are from the U.S., Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, Jamaica and the Commonwealth Caribbean, Canada, Germany, Hong Kong, India, Kenya, Namibia, Zambia, Zimbabwe, South Africa, and Pakistan.

I have met my adviser, who seems fairly laid back, and my lab mates, who also seem alright. I've been given a large quantity of reading material to catch up on, and I will start a few biology courses next week.

The Warden of the Rhodes House gave a welcome speech that was well composed and delivered, in which he talked about pursuing passions, extending spheres of comfort, and as Cecil Rhodes requested, "Fighting the world's fight." After elaborating on all the opportunities that a Rhodes is provided at Oxford, he implored, "Please go home as little as you can- there is plenty time for that later, and the opportunities here should not be missed."

Arriving in England

I successfully made it to the U.K., after a 6.5 hour red-eye flight. After maneuvering customs and the Heathrow airport as a group, we were met by Bob the Rhodes House Porter and a couple second year Rhodies (as far as I can tell, a Porter is the person in charge of an individual building). Bob is quite a jovial fellow, and I understand that he will become our best friend. We collected our luggage, which was loaded onto a large moving van, and loaded our coach (bus).

On the hour ride to Oxford, the hillside is incredibly green and dotted with what I interpret to be quaint cottages. Upon arriving in Oxford, the surroundings changed abruptly. The buildings are large, gothic, and impressive. The coach delivered us one by one to our separate colleges.

Upon arriving at my new home, Holywell Manor, which is the graduate anex of my college, Balliol, myself and the other three Americans in Balliol were met by another couple second year scholars. We met the porter, who gave us our keys, and headed to our rooms. I'll admit that I was a bit dissapointed by the building we live in and my room. It's pretty much just a plain dorm room, and I knew that some of my compatriots were discovering some pretty pausch rooms at other colleges. But, what Balliol lacks in extravagent ammenities, it makes up for in its laid back nature and social scene.

I put my things down and immediately headed out into the city center to pick up towels and the like. I was pretty surprised to find the center of Oxford to be lined with fairly modern stores and thousands of bustling people.

Bon Voyage Weekend

The American Rhodes Scholars, accompanied by three scholars from Bermuda, Jamaica, and the Bahamas, met in Washington D.C. for five days before flying to London. As Michael and Becky dropped me off at the Dupont Hotel, I think it hit me for the very first time that I was actually leaving the country, my friends, and my family. But I couldn't dwell on this; before long I was meeting the scholars and attempting to memorize names and fields of study.

The Bon Voyage (Sailing) Weekend is funded entirely by Rhodes Alum (the AARS), and was originally created in the mid eighties to replace the bonding experience the Rhodes Scholars previously enjoyed on the boat ride over to England, which occurred from 1904 to the early 1980's. Its goal was to introduce the new scholars to Oxford, meet some previous scholars already engaged in the "world's fight," and begin friendships before joining individual colleges in Oxford. Noticing that despite the event's title, the group was not "sailing" and the activities had not occurred primarily on a "weekend," the Association President, noted that this provided a perfect introduction to Oxford.

During the five days, we dined multiple times with former scholars, entertained by the formal atmosphere and the old stories of Oxford. We engaged in discussions with former scholars about the school, college, activities, and all other odd aspects of Oxford. We toured the Shakespear Theatre, saw a working rehearsal of "The Alchemis" by Ben Jonson, toured the NIH and World Bank, had a reception at the British Deputy Head of Mission Dominick Chilcott, had a Congressional Breakfast, toured the Capitol, Jefferson Building, and Library of Congress, and had a final Lunch at the Cosmos Club. On top of all that, we took a couple evenings to explore the bars around Dupont Circle, and get to know each other in a situation where we weren't trying to balance an appatizer and wine glass while carry elegant conversations with total strangers. Overall, it was a lot of fun. There was a small detail in there where I became rather sick for about 36 hours, and came within about 5 seconds of puking on the British Deputy. Other than that it was great.

What pleased me most over the 5 days were the people I was surrounded by. The other Rhodes Scholars are pretty incredible, yet still down to earth and quick to downplay their own accomplishments. It's a diverse bunch, and no matter what the topic of our discussions, it seemed like there was always an expert in the field to turn to for an opinion.

What surprised me most was that the same message was put forth by nearly every alum: don't concentrate too much on academics. They repeatedly told us that we had already put in the hard work and proved ourselves; now it was time to enjoy a different country and culture for a few years.

D.C. area with Michael and Becky

Since I needed to be in D.C. for a Bon Voyage Weekend with the American Rhodes Scholars, I decided to go a few days early and hang out with Michael and Becky. I spent a day being a tourist, walking around the Capital and Mall area, and visiting a few museums. These are a few pics from the Capitol and the Botanical Gardens nearby.

This is from a sculpture outside the Air and Space Museum- it looked pretty cool with the clouds.

These mushrooms were outside Michael and Becky's house. They were probably almost a foot tall! I had never seen mushrooms like this before! I was waiting for the garden gnome to pop out from behind it!

We took a day trip to Harper's Ferry, WV, which sits at the confluence of the Potomac and Shenandoah Rivers and on the borders of MD, VA, and WV. The leaves were turning and it was very pretty. We walked through the historic district, which is best known for John Brown's raid, and this is the bridge that forms part of the Appalachian Trail.

We crossed the bridge and walked along the river,

where we came across two blue herons either doing a mating dance or a fighting dance. It's impressive how much they can puff themselves up.

In the Hills: Pactola Lake

After multiple repairs, Dad managed to get the jetski up and running. So, we took it out onto Pactola Lake on a weekday and nearly had the lake to ourselves. The water was like glass, and not too cold. I had forgotten how much fun that little jetski can be! Dad didn't seem entirely keen to be the passanger while I was driving. Ridiculous, I know.

In the Hills: the Mickelson Trail and Sunday Gulch

In September, Dad and I rode a significant portion of the Mickelson Trail. I started in Deadwood and biked the uphill portions, then met up with Dad to bike the downhill portions. The hills were green and the scenery was wonderful, especially on the first half of the trail. It was the last trip on my Dawes- despite how faithful it had been to me over the summer, I sold my mountain bike before I left for England :(

Aunt Nancy came to visit one of the last weeks I was in Rapid, and she, Dad and I hiked down Sunday gulch, behind Sylvan lake. It was a beautiful day and a good hike.