10.07.2004
high table
Woah. Yes, it's late. Yes, I should be in bed. But I'm not. So there.
Wonderful dinner tonight: it was the Graduate Freshers' Dinner, with pre-dinner drinks with the College Fellows. I met my college advisor today: he is an excellent conversationalist. Also got caught up with an attractive German blonde at dinner who kept talking about how horrible she felt that it was that Americans seem to measure their worth by their academic pedigree. I couldn't really say anything, as an alumnus of Princeton, except to say that I took it all with a good amount of irony. I don't think that she was at all convinced, though. This took far too much of my attention off of talking with my college advisor, which I was a bit unhappy about. All was well by the end, of course.
But yes, the dinner was fabulous. I had dinner at high table, which is something generally reserved for the Senior Fellows of the college and their very important guests; certainly not one such as myself. So I was honored (honoured?) and humbled at the same time. I sat diagonally across from the College Bursar and diagonally across from the Senior Tutor for Graduates, and next to my college advisor: we were poured wine and had a delicious dinner. Started with a celeriac and citrus salad, followed by supreme of guinea fowl with an orange and ginger sauce, accompanied by Parisenne potatoes adn assorted green vegetables. Dessert was a strawberry and champagne roulade with strawberry coulis. Oustanding. The Keble College white (yes, Keble has its own wine) was not very good, the red was a bit better, but not fantastic. Coffee was a welcome change.
We wore our formal gowns today for the first time: I look ridiculous in this thing, and I think that we all do. But it has a certain snob appeal to some, and a certain appeal to British tradition that is ultimately both quaint and annoying. But life is good, and it's been a lot of fun so far. Got nothing to do tomorrow but go to the Freshers' Fair, which is the time when all of us Freshers are bombarded with extra-curricular organizations all in one place, all asking for our time and telling us of the benefits of membership to this group or that. I can't wait.
Go Red Sox. The sad fact is that I am completely out of energy and can't stay up to watch the game. The folks on Boston.com were complaining today about the 10:00 PM Pacific Time start. Oh no, they said, it's starting at 1 in the morning for us. I'm sorry, you silly silly people. It's starting at about 6 AM in the UK. RIDICULOUS. Stop whining: all of you.
Wonderful dinner tonight: it was the Graduate Freshers' Dinner, with pre-dinner drinks with the College Fellows. I met my college advisor today: he is an excellent conversationalist. Also got caught up with an attractive German blonde at dinner who kept talking about how horrible she felt that it was that Americans seem to measure their worth by their academic pedigree. I couldn't really say anything, as an alumnus of Princeton, except to say that I took it all with a good amount of irony. I don't think that she was at all convinced, though. This took far too much of my attention off of talking with my college advisor, which I was a bit unhappy about. All was well by the end, of course.
But yes, the dinner was fabulous. I had dinner at high table, which is something generally reserved for the Senior Fellows of the college and their very important guests; certainly not one such as myself. So I was honored (honoured?) and humbled at the same time. I sat diagonally across from the College Bursar and diagonally across from the Senior Tutor for Graduates, and next to my college advisor: we were poured wine and had a delicious dinner. Started with a celeriac and citrus salad, followed by supreme of guinea fowl with an orange and ginger sauce, accompanied by Parisenne potatoes adn assorted green vegetables. Dessert was a strawberry and champagne roulade with strawberry coulis. Oustanding. The Keble College white (yes, Keble has its own wine) was not very good, the red was a bit better, but not fantastic. Coffee was a welcome change.
We wore our formal gowns today for the first time: I look ridiculous in this thing, and I think that we all do. But it has a certain snob appeal to some, and a certain appeal to British tradition that is ultimately both quaint and annoying. But life is good, and it's been a lot of fun so far. Got nothing to do tomorrow but go to the Freshers' Fair, which is the time when all of us Freshers are bombarded with extra-curricular organizations all in one place, all asking for our time and telling us of the benefits of membership to this group or that. I can't wait.
Go Red Sox. The sad fact is that I am completely out of energy and can't stay up to watch the game. The folks on Boston.com were complaining today about the 10:00 PM Pacific Time start. Oh no, they said, it's starting at 1 in the morning for us. I'm sorry, you silly silly people. It's starting at about 6 AM in the UK. RIDICULOUS. Stop whining: all of you.
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Poor duck! I remember spending the nights at friends' houses in Grenoble, France just so we could get up at four am to watch the Super Bowl...back then it was only broadcast on Canal+. They were our beloved Bills, however, and it was imperative that we see them lose.
The academic pedigree thing is interesting in that it seems to me that there is some sort of marketing thing going in the UK with universities, isn't there? A friend of mine talks about the 'redbricks,' etc as though they have some sort of cache.
In France, it was always all about 'les Grandes Écoles.'
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The academic pedigree thing is interesting in that it seems to me that there is some sort of marketing thing going in the UK with universities, isn't there? A friend of mine talks about the 'redbricks,' etc as though they have some sort of cache.
In France, it was always all about 'les Grandes Écoles.'
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