Holidays!

Have a great Christmas and I'll catch up with you again in January!

Lost

It was a beautiful day today, the sun was shining, the sky was cloudless, the street musicians were playing Christmassy music and everyone was humming a little tune. I was wandering around Oxford this afternoon and every few minutes I would bump into someone else from the course. It was so nice, like living in a small town, but a fantastic, historic, interesting place where you know everyone but without all the baggage of having known everyone all your life.

It's a weird feeling at the same time though, and speaking with others, I think we all felt the same way. After 10 weeks of unrelenting work, all of a sudden we don't have anything to do. We were all walking around with a slightly lost feeling, like there is something that we should be doing, somewhere we should be at but we didn't quite know what it was.

Examinations
What an intense last few days though. Phew! There is so much that I would like to write about but I suspect that much of it will disappear into the mists of time. Shame. The examinations were an experience. Morning and afternoon for three days - intense doesn't begin to describe what we went through. Dressing up in sub fusc, sitting in rows in an ancient building, being overseen by the Proctors, studying through lunch, oh, and somewhere in there we had to write some exams. I'm glad it's over - results don't come out until the New Year so I'll worry about them later.

Here is a sneek look at our group in the Examinations School just before an exam. We're not allowed to take pictures in there so please don't tell or the Proctors with be out to get me!


Mustache Sub Fusc
They're over now. And the celebration party rocked!

And yes, there is an inordinate amount of facial hair on display. The guys decided to have a little moustache competition. Here are some of the finer examples.

As a representative of the female population, I do feel the need to attempt to disuade this kind of behaviour so boys: *big frown*.

Tim's parents
Have been visiting for a few days. It's been really nice to get to know them a bit. They had kindly brought some pictures of baby Timmy which may appear on this blog at some point - watch this space!

They all headed off for Ireland this morning. 10 minutes later the door opened and Tim came rushing back inside the house. He had forgotten his passport. Exams do that to you!

Three weeks
I now have three whole weeks off. The last couple of days have been nice. I've been hanging around Oxford and just chilling out with some of my new friends. It's been good. I'm heading to London for the second time since I've been here to catch up with old friends. Weird. My life in London seems a million years ago and it's only been a few months.

I have lived a lifetime these last 10 weeks. I wonder how it has changed me...?

Carnations

White Carnation
I wore my first carnation yesterday, pinned to the lapel of my black jacket. One of the Things I love about Oxford is the fact that you can walk around at 9 o'clock in the morning, wearing a tuxedo with a carnation pinned to your lapel and no one bats an eyelid! Of course, I wasn't wearing a tuxedo, Tim and Scott, my flatmates were, but Johannah and I had on our black trousers, white shirt and black ribbon. We all were carrying our morter boards in our hands as we walked together to our first exam.

Pink carnationAfter being bloodied by your first exam, the tradition is that you were pink carnations for the rest. We went to the covered market in search of the pink and had a great conversation with the nice lady in the flower shop. Normally there aren't any exams around this time but she heard that there were some so she ordered pink carnations especially for us! Nice.

Note that the pictures show the actual carnations used by me for my first two exams!

So, I'm sitting at my desk in my room typing this and I'm (again) wearing this Oxford uniform. After matriculation, my "white" shirt had been washed with some coloureds (I know) and now it has a slight tinge of pink. I hope the Proctors don't notice...

On Hilary

You've probably heard me mention Hilary throughout my blog and thought, what is she on about? Well, here at Oxford, we aren't satisfied with the normal names for the terms, we've got to go and give them funny names. Hilary is the name for the second term of the year which is traditionally called the Easter term.

I thought I'd do a search on the origins of the names of the terms so I went to the general Oxford University website and checked out the frequently asked questions. I can't believe that people are more interested in the coat of arms than the funny names of the terms.

Next stop was my college, St. Hugh's website, still no joy, but I did learn that the library there is open 24 hours to St. Hugh's students. Hmmm...

So, Oxford University is keeping mum about this matter, is it that they don't know so if nobody says anything then perhaps no one will notice? Well, I'm not put off that easily so I tried AskJeeves which is a site where you can ask any question and it searches the web to give you an answer. Finally! As well as an answer, I also found a great website on Oxford speak that you should check out.

If you're now sitting on the edge of your seat then here is why: The Oxford terms follow the ecclesiastical calendar of the Anglican Christian year and the three terms are named Michaelmas, Hilary and Trinity. I shall attempt to further explain why...

Michaelmas is named after the feast of Michael which takes place on the 29th September. The archangel is one of the angels in God's presence, traditionally the one with a sword. The date, 29th Sept is the anniversary of the dedication of the Roman basilica to him.

Hilary is named after Saint Hilary of Poitiers (c315-367) was a bishop in the church from 350. As a result of his zeal, he was exiled and on his return wrote the historically invaluable De synodis (hasn't everyone read it?). Actually, I found a pretty decent translation - here is a chapter addressed "To the bishops of Africa" written about 369 a.d. - who said Christianity is a western religion? Anyway, St. Hilary's feast takes place on the 14th January which is about the time that Hilary term starts.

Finaly, Trinity (I really must be going to bed). This one is easy, Trinity Sunday is celebrated as the first Sunday after the feast of Pentecost which is important in the Christian calendar because it signifies when the Holy Spirit first came and the Christian church was "born". Ironically, Pentecost takes place on the 6th June next year which is in Week 7 on Trinity. Puzzling? Go figure.

PS. I've found more information on Michaelmas, Hilary and Trinity
on Wikipedia

PS cont'd. I also discovered that the terms at Oxford are the shortest of any British University. Now they tell us!

T minus 2

NBD News
I was half way through my last post which was all about the New Business Development project that we are going to be doing in Hilary when I thought, hang on, as a team we've just signed a "Letter of Agreement" which has all sorts of confidentiality clauses, I'm not sure yet what I can and can not publish about my project. So, you're just going to have to endure a few snippets of information while I check it out.

The reason that I'm excited is because we've managed to get the project that I was really hoping for. IMHO it is the most interesting of the projects on offer and the company that we will be working with has a lot of potential. So much so that they (the company) was featured on the ITV local news tonight and the product that we will be working with was highlighted (clue 1).

I'm really looking forward to doing this project. If you have a look at the (new) MBA website then they have a section for the New Business Development (NBD) project. The general idea is that you learn better through putting into practice what you learn in lectures and the NBD helps you to go through some of the pain of launching a new business or product to the market. The experience culminates with a presentation to a panel of real venture capitalists where there is a chance that they will make you an offer to take the idea forward to start up your own business. Wow!

I have also got the greatest team ever! There are five of us, Tim, Martin, Whitney, Kostas and myself. The more I speak with them, the more I think that we have got all the skills needed to do a truely great project. I found out, just this evening, that Tim's undergraduate thesis was in the subject that we're doing our project in (clue 2) and that Whitney has had experience both in marketing and in launching new products (clue 3).

Two days to go
I think that everyone has reached the point where they are exausted from studying for exams and just want them to be over. I've always thought that I was a plodder - that like the Energizer(R) bunny, that I could just go and go, but right now, I'd really like it to all be over. Except for Finance. Still, there are only two days to go.

Varsity Blues

It's the week before finals and I've been convinced that I couldn't be and Oxonian without going to the annual Varsity match between Oxford and Cambridge which has been taking place for over a hundred years.

Played at the home of the England rugby team, a visit to Twickenham is every little boys desire (and there where lots there) and being on the pitch is beyond their wildest dreams.

So, I found myself at the match, wearing my college (St. Hugh's) scarf and cheering for Oxford.

We were all delighted when our very own Sean Fauth (#21) ran on the to pitch in the last minute. Well done Sean for earning your blue! Now you can go buy one of those cool, cream, v-neck vests worn by all the blue holders.

It was quite a day, and most of us had been up studying the night before, on the bus on the way down, so it was no surprise when there was a subdued atmosphere on the way back, and some of us even nodded off.

Whitney is definately going to win my "Sleeping Beauty" Silvester vote of the year, though from this shot, Paul may come a close second!