D'oh where else

From the grapevine, I discovered that if you have a Bod card, then you can go for brunch in the dining room (a.k.a. Hogwarts dining hall in Harry Potter) on Sunday at Christchurch.

So I made use of my extra hour this morning (daylight savings rocks!) to sleep in, watched the end of the second Harry Potter film, then joined my flatmates and a group of friends as we headed over to have a greasy spoon breakfast at a very famous location.

Interesting Facts
- The Lewis Carroll classic, Alice in Wonderland was inspired and written at Christchurch
- The scene when Harry and the other first years are entering Hogwarts was also shot at Christchurch

Hey, it's gotta be done.

A surreal night

So I'm slowly cycling down a beautiful Edwardian street in central Oxford in the middle of a beautiful night, and in front of me are two people, one is dressed like Pippi Longstockings with rollerskates and the other ... well he has fake moustashe and sideburns, a cleaver contraption which is meant to resemble a motorcycle attached to his waist.



I stop them, they are two of my new friends from the course and we are heading back to pick up Chris' bike and I say, "guys, we've got to take a deep breath, close our eyes, and make a meomory", it's been a surreal night.

I mean, what do you expect when you spend the whole day, first meeting with your study group to bash out our assignment due on Monday, then spend the rest of the day in the library doing your readings for endless assignments and classes?

I'm beginning to realise why people dress up so much when they go to bops here, there is a lot of pressure to work stupid hours, do very well and make it appear effortless that you're likely to explode if you don't find some outlet for all the hot air that's generated!

Last night we went to two colleges, Keble and Penbrook. I think I'm going to keep a list of the colleges that I've visited here. They all have their unique characteristics and it would be interesting to find out one cool fact about each of them, preferably from someone who lives there.

Where next?

Happy Hour Halloween

I can't believe that Week 3 has ended. It feels like yesterday that I was writing my blog about the weekend after Week 2 and before I know it, the mid week (Week 4) will be upon us.

Happy Hour
A concept of the business school whereby every Friday night, between 17:30 and 19:30, all drinks in the Common Room are £1. This Friday, in light of the upcoming Halloween (and the large number of Americans on the course) we hyjacked Happy Hour and dedicated it to Halloween. Some of the class (yes, the Americans) took it very much to heart and turned up in full costume.



Electives Beauty Parade
An interesting concept, in order to help us to choose our electives in our second term (Hilary) the lecturers from each of the courses were given the opportunity to present to the class the course that they would be teaching. We now have to hand in our choices by the end of next week. We have the choice of two out of four courses (Finance II, Developing Effective Organisations, Macroeconomics or Technology and Innovation Strategy. Argh! What to choose??

School Dinners
I'm getting into the hang of heading up to my college once a week for a free dinner... this week we had an exchange dinner with Green College which was the college that my brother-in-law went to when he was doing his DPhil at Oxford a few years ago.

I also got to meet the brother of one of my friends on the course who did the MBA last year and get the low down on what courses to do in Hilary...

NBD pitches
NBD is a Said word which means New Business Development and refers to a project that we do in Hilary (next) term. The basic premise is that we get into groups and write a real business plan. This could be someone's idea for starting a new company, it could come from an existing company which wants to launch a new product or service or it could be another kind of startup. On Wednesday, some of us went to a presentation by a company called Isis Innovation which is a fully owned subsidiary of Oxford University whose sole purpose is to exploit innovations which arise from research which is taking place at the University. Several scientists had products or idea that they wanted to take to market but don't have the business know-how. Business school students have the know-how but not the idea... put the two together and you get some really interesting possibilities.

Second week of CE
I've been leading a Christianity Explored course at my church in Oxford (St. Ebbes). Week one was a general getting to know you week where we asked the question, "If you could ask God one question, and be sure to get an answer from him, what would it be?". This week, also week 2, we looked at the paralytic in Mark 2:1-12 and asked the question, "Who do people/you think Jesus is?". Facinating stuff.

Friends

Two of my very lovely friends from London came to Oxford to visit me today so we decided to do the touristy thing and wander around the town.

Naturally, first stop was the business school, there is a fantastic ampitheatre there overlooking a great view of my house...

From there we followed one of the walks on the back of the Oxford book and took a detour through the beautiful Oxford Botanical Gardens where there were many unusual statues...


From there we continued wandering and somehow, in a way that is completely unique to Oxford, we ended up at the (in)famous Christchurch college (left), home of Harry Potter and the like..

It was a beautiful day. It sounds bad but I haven't though about London and the life that I had there until a couple friends came to visit, and then I had to admit that I really miss them. We had some great chats while wandering through the gardens, drinking yummy hot chocolate at Thorntons and chilling out at my home pre-church in the evening.


It's a shame the day had to end and as I headed back to the library after they left to finish up my CV for the school before the deadline on Monday, I had a lot to think about.

Week 2

So I'm half way through Week 2 and my friend Kate is sitting beside me working on her blog while I've been slaving away working on my CV for the business school to send out to 1000s of potential employers. It's supposed to be only 1 page long! I've managed to condense mine down from 4 pages to 1 1/2 - no small feat I assure you, still I have to get rid of that pesky half a page, grr...

Classes are now in full flow and I'm beginning to get a handle on all this studying malarky and still find some time to have fun as well! It really is an exceptional course, this term we're looking at Strategic Management, Decision Science (Statistics), Developing Effective Managers (Organisational Analysis), Finance and Managerial Economics. All fancy names for what is turning out to be very interesting subjects,

with some incredibly good lecturers. My first two assignments were due this week, that was a bit hairy, but you get through it and I'm slowly learning the work/play balance.


Tonight there is a dinner at our college with our Supervisors (an Oxford concept), I'll take some photos and let you know how it goes.

MATRICULATION

It's official! I am now a bonified student of Oxford University. You'd think that you would be a student when they accept you into the University, or even when you pay your fees, and *definately* once you've started classes (one day I will write about week 1). But no... here you must be matriculated into the University at a ceremony containing all the hallmarks of a "rights of passage" ceremony. There were gowns and bowing, latin and huge doors which close with a satisfying thud, not to mention hordes of tourists, family and friends clustering on the other side of a fence made out of ancient iron bars...



Today started at the obscene hour of 7am and for those of you who know me well, know that it's not a good idea for me to do anything at that time of the morning. I got up, bleary-eyed from the previous late night celebration of the end of the first week of proper classes, put on my "sub-fusc" (the garb that *everyone* in the photos is wearing) and cycled to my college 15 minutes away. I was just in time for the my college, St. Hugh's, official photo on the grounds and to hang out with some of my new friends at the college.



There are quite a few of us MBA students at St. Hugh's which is very nice, we are a sociable bunch and very friendly.



After the official photo, we had to be present at the roll call which is the official record of our entry into the University and then we walked from our college to the Sheldonian theatre in the centre of Oxford where the official matriculation ceremony took place.

Afterwards, by custum (and if nothing else, the day is all about custum), we retired to the Turf Tavern for a celebratory pint.



We ate and then I cycled home. It was an unusually warm and beautiful day and I couldn't help stopping, taking a deep breath, closing my eyes, and making a memory.

Week 0

Here at Oxford, time is measured by week numbers rather than months. As our first week here is unofficially called Freshers week and little (post grads) or no (undergrads) work is done during this time, it is known as week 0. Odd huh? Apparantly there are many more little nuggets of similar type information to be gleaned at this fine institution, I shall let you in on them once I find them out.

On our first day as not quite proper Said Business School students we had to all stand in front of the entire class and a video camera and introduce ourselves. How's that for a start to the year?



There are 227 students in our class and it is the largest class to date. They are a fantastic bunch, everyone has had their share of adventures and their tales to tell. During the first couple of days, I met loads of people in the various induction classes and events that were put on by the business school, it has been great!

The rest of the week was taken up with kicking off the various clubs which we will undoubtable be involved in and getting stuck into our various colleges. My college, St. Hugh's is definately got one of the more sociable colleges which is going to be loads of fun! It's a little out of town compared to some of the other colleges but still within walking distance. Set on 14 acres of land, they have really made an effort to make it a beautiful retreat away from the busyness of Oxford.

There are around 20 MBA students at St. Hugh's which means that there are always a group of non-undergraduates to hang out with when you go to the college. Here are a few of the antics that we got up to...

	From top to bottom (left to right) College bar-b-que Mike and Me Me and Kate Chris and Mike Naughty children

Classes start for real tomorrow and I guess things will shift a gear somewhat. Still, week naught was good fun and one I shall remember for a long time!

Firsts

It's been a while hasn't it? I guess it's a combination of not having internet access and just being super busy that caused the delay but who cares, here's the update.

I guess the best way to describe the last couple of weeks is that they have been a week of firsts...

* first night out with the new class


* first day of school


* first Oxford rugby match


* first taste of my college's wine


* first college bop


More ramblings when I have a minute...

Vaniah