Our time in Oxford: 3/5 of week 4 done…

I take some time on this Wednedsday evening to catch up a bit with my blog entries.

Things I haven’t told you so far include matriculation, formal dinner at my college, SBS photo shooting and dinner with 3i’s CEO Philip Yea.

Trying to keep the chronological order I start with my first formal dinner at St. Hugh’s College. The dinner is called formal since everyone is supposed to wear appropriate clothes. This can be a challenging expression in Oxford, as different occasions demand different “appropriate clothes”. As a graduate student our formal dress for all University related events is the so called sub fusc. It consists of black suit with black shoes and black socks, white shirt with white bow tie in combination with a gown and mortarboard. Have a look at Wikipedia for more information.

Fortunately the dress code for our dinner was just formal which means suit for the boys and evening dress for the girls. Here are some pictures from the drinks reception before the dinner.

Although St. Hugh’s is said to be a poor College we have our own wine J

Curiously I was placed at the high table were normally only fellows and their guests sit. The high table is another funny Oxford tradition, being a table that is really separated from the normal dining-hall by being located of a podium overlooking the hall. Unfortunately we were not allowed to take pictures at the high table. In the middle of the high table sits the Principal who officially opens the dinner with some Latin words. Before he has finished no one is allowed to sit... 800 years of tradition :-)

We had a really nice evening over a three course meal and finished the evening with a beer in the College bar.

On Friday Oct. 12^th we had our first happy hour. Every Friday from 5:30 to 7:30 pm our common room serves fair priced bear and wine and the dining hall offers take away food. Following a good start at the common room we went to the Turf Tavern to celebrate the first real week of studying. More pictures here...

Saturday morning we then had to meet at our Colleges for matriculation, which means in the broadest sense registration with the University. After a group picture in full sub fusc we went to the Sheldonian Theatre under the guidance of a senior member of the college. Since all Colleges have their matriculation on the same day, the city was full of perfectly dressed students. The ceremony itself took only several minutes but is for sure another nice tradition. More pictures...

Here is a small video I recorded...

Since our time slot for the ceremony was early in the morning some of the St. Hugh’s MBAs had decided to have breakfast together. This turned out to be a bit difficult since most of the pubs down town don’t serve breakfast and a lot of the cafes were already crowded when we arrived. Finally we ended in a place some minutes outside the city centre and I had my first full English breakfast consisting of eggs, sausage, mushrooms, grilled tomato, bacon, and black pudding which turned out to be “Blutwurst”. This interesting and obviously healthy, fat free and low calories dish is served with buttered toast and tasted really good :-)

On Wednesday Philip Yea, CEO of Private Equity and Venture Capital investor 3i gave a talk at the business school. He spoke about current challenges in the private equity market and how established companies deal with that. Following his speech and the common drinks reception I was invited to participate in a formal dinner with Philip, our dean and a number of interesting people thereunder a McKinsey Partner, the principal of Brasenose College, a representative of Rolls Royce and a small number of MBA students. I had a really good time although cooking is not one of the British’s strength :-)

Here are some more pictures from last week’s happy hour. More pictures...