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...