Saturday, October 17, 2009

A long Way From U of L





















So today was my official matriculation into the University of Oxford. It included a morning meeting at my college dressed in a suit(and yes, the gown, haha), and from there we marched through the streets of Oxford(with onlooking tourists taking pictures! haha) to the church like hall(top picture) where we officially became part of the university. I did not post a picture of myself wearing the gown(Ashton!), and if there is a picture of it somewhere out there I hope and pray that it never surfaces.
The ceremony itself was conducted in Latin so I have absolutely no idea what was being said for the hour or so we were inside the hall; however, it was a very eye opening experience in a school that is laced with immense tradition and I will not forget the experience. After the ceremony we walked back through the town and back to our college where we each posed for a photo.
On another note, while there is not too much to report on the week besides matriculation and a lot of time spent in the library, the Oxford basketball team had its first game this past Wednesday!...we took the train from Oxford to London, and then to a town called Middlesex on the outskirts of the city. After having this first experience, I missed Freedom Hall immediately. The gym was old and score was kept on an electronic clock sitting on a table in between the benches(calling them benches would be a stretch). The other team did manage to round up some cheerleaders which was interesting unto itself, but they were not very good. Rules of the game were even different as opposing players are allowed to just walk through the lane on a free throw like its no big deal. Communication with teammates on the court is also frowned upon as the referee would tell us that no talking was allowed. The refereeing itself was a disaster as there were things called that I did not know existed in the game of basketball. Ultimately though, the Oxford Blues came away with a convincing victory in our first game of the season. I forgot to bring my camera to the game, but will have pictures of that in the future. Our next game is weds.

4 comments:

  1. Congrats on the win buddy! It's good to know that you are geting back on the court, Good luck on Wed. Hope everything is going well for you. Thanks keeping us up to date with your blogs. Wishing you the best as always! Take care of yourself

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  2. love the pictures. and are those bowties i see? please tell me you wore one... and have a picture... MISS YOU!

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  3. you most definitely need to take a picture of you in that gown haha.
    congrats on the win ! now england gets to experience all your talent(=
    miss you. keep it up !

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  4. would love to see a pic of you in a gown!!!! i'm glad you are now an expert on how good cheerleaders are or in this case are not...impressive! good luck on game #2 tomorrow!

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