Friday 26 December 2008

October: the Matriculation ceremony and the Freshers' Fair

Freshers must do several things in Oxford. Top of the list is the "Matriculation" ceremony: wear sub-fusc and go to the hall, listen to Latin formulae. October 18, 2008, the matriculation day of year 2008.

Normally this ceremony will be held in the Sheldonian Theatre, but this year it was put in the Exam School. All the first year students dressed up and grouped by colleges heading to the hall. So our classmates took matriculation from very early in the morning to late in the afternoon because we are in different colleges.

There were too many students grouped to one same place, so besides the organizers from the colleges, the university, police persons were busy there too.

The ceremony in Exam School was less interesting than the ones in the Sheldonian Theatre. However the sun is shining and the coughing companied the announcement in Latin from the very beginning to the very end which added some interest.

The freshers ourselves became one of the sceneries in Oxford that day. When walking through the streets, we were asked to stop and be photoed for several times.


Besides the most important Matriculation, there is another must go event: the Freshers' Fair.


This year, it was also held in the Exam School. And almost occupied all the building: over 200 clubs!!!!
The fair was very well organized. We cued outside for almost half an hour to make sure people inside were "not too many". After the cue, we went through a huge tank to register and get a "gift pack" with many references and coupons from the Student's Union. Then was the real exciting moment: from sport clubs to literary, drama, science, business, public speaking ones.

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