--Benny
Thursday, February 9, 2012
My dinner in Christ Church
Well, I'm still in Oxford. But even though I haven't been traveling, I have been having some adventures. Last night, I had dinner in Christ Church. Christ Church is one of Oxford's colleges. It is also the site of Oxford's cathedral. I went to a formal dinner in the dining hall there, which is where I had my friends take these pictures. I know it's dark, but those of you who have been to the movies recently might recognize Christ Church dining hall -- the Hogwarts Great Hall scenes from all eight Harry Potter movies were filmed there. Obviously, the actual dining hall doesn't have a ceiling that reflects the weather outside, so there was a lot of CGI. But perhaps you can still see the resemblance!
--Benny
--Benny
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Benny,
ReplyDeleteWhat do the students wear at formal dining hall? Do they dress up? What did you have to eat?
You have to dress up nicely in a suit and tie to go to formal hall. Fortunately, I always wear my red bow tie (and my scarf because it has been cold in Oxford). Different colleges have different dress codes, plus not all occasions are the same. Sometimes, students have to wear black academic gowns to dinner. Students have different kinds of gowns -- undergraduates wear short gowns, unless they have done well in their exams, in which they get to wear wider "scholars' gowns" with sleeves. Graduate students wear long gowns. But we didn't have to wear gowns to this particular dinner in Christ Church. This is why I am not wearing one in the photo.
ReplyDeleteThe food is usually pretty weird. There are so many formal halls that the cooking staff runs out of normal things to serve. So last night, the main course was braised ox meat, which just sort of tastes like lamb. For dessert, we had chocolate mousse. This is better than formal hall in Magdalen, where every dessert inevitably comes in some sort of mold. The students bet whether their dessert will come shaped as a pyramid, a dome, or a shell. Whatever flavor they say it will taste like doesn't matter; it never actually tastes like anything. So chocolate mousse in Christ Church was definitely preferable.
Benny,
ReplyDeleteDo you have a gown? I would like to see students in their gowns. When do you have to wear them? Do you have hats?
No, I don't have a gown because I am not a student here. I'm just a tourist. You just have to wear your gown to go to certain formal meals in the dining halls of certain colleges. But there are also times when you have to wear full academic dress, which at Oxford is a dress code called "sub fusc." For men, sub fusc means a black suit, a white shirt, a black gown, a white bowtie, and a mortar board that you carry rather than wear. For women, it means a black skirt, black leggings, a white shirt, a black string tie, a black gown, and a black cloth hat that, again, you carry rather than wear. You have to wear this full academic dress for matriculation and for any formal examinations. Does Ms. Kelly make you dress up in a suit, gown, and white bowtie to take tests? She should. I bet you would all perform much better!
ReplyDeleteI will try to find pictures of students in sub fusc for an upcoming blog post from Oxford.