day wrap-up

1. Matriculation was today. This meant that I had to wake up at 7:30 so that I could get a shower (accounting for fitting in 10 showers before 8:30, using 2 showers), have breakfast, and dress up in academic costume (white shirt, black ribbon tied at neck, black pants, gown, cap), and go stand for a while in Univ's quad in the cold waiting for a group picture to be taken. Then we all went to stand for a while in the courtyard of the Sheldonian theatre, where finally they let us in, and spoke a few sentences of Latin, and magically we were all suddenly members of the university. I was pleased at being able to make out a large portion of the Latin; ukelele would have no doubt been appalled at the pronunciation.

1a. It seems that, contrary to the written rules, there is an unwritten rule that students don't ever actually wear their caps. They just carry them around everywhere. It sounded to me like some kind of "let's fool the freshers" joke, particularly the bit where undergrads were being told that they'd be punished if they were caught with their caps on, but no one was in fact wearing the cap, so I wasn't going to start. Except for the picture I had someone take of me. And no one official told us to put them on, ever.

2. I had a bit of confusion about Oxford geography resolved today, at length, with oscuridad. Boy are my legs tired. But I got to see some pretty bits of the Christ Church grounds. (They have cows! So odd.)

3. I really, really need a backrub. And am not going to get one anytime soon.

4. A bunch of Univ people went to the opera tonight in London. It was Madame Butterfly, and quite good, and I still don't particularly like operatic singing. Which I guess just goes to show that I am a philistine. I overheard Lord Butler (the master of Univ) saying that he goes to the opera quite regularly, but he hadn't had a seat that high up since the 1960s sometime. (He was in the row behind me, and I think mine was the highest row that could still see the surtitles.)

time on my hands

I didn't make the dance team. Not even close. I got to be one of the first group out the door.

While it is true that I pretty much haven't danced in four years, it is also true that all the stuff that used to bother me came rushing back. I don't feel graceful, I don't know what to do about it, and no one will tell me what it is I'm doing wrong. And in a new environment, particularly one overloaded with women, the chances of my finding a semi-regular partner are about nil. Not to mention the chances of the instructor paying enough attention to me to tell me what I'm doing wrong.

So, right now, I don't even know if I'm going to keep going to lessons. What would be the point?