Wolfson College Supper posted on October 14, 2005 by Holly Hayes

Just got back from the pub with my colleagues. How fun is that? I'll have to do another post on that, but must go back a bit first. David, by the way, is on his way back from London right now. He had a fun day of wandering around in the hi-fi area of town. He just sent me a text message from the train! I've never gotten a text message before. I attempted to reply but couldn't find the space button - should be interesting to try to read.

Anyway, as David mentioned in his last post, I had a Wolfson Supper and general meeting on Wednesday night. The main purpose was to meet our college advisors, who basically help you with anything non-academic, including if you have trouble with your academic supervisor. It didn't sound all that exciting to me, but it was actually a lot of fun! They had the dining hall all set up pretty with white tablecloths and linen napkins. We were assigned a seat at a specific table - I had to look for my name on a list on my way in and then find the right table number.

I'm usually rather shy at these sort of things, but we always have so much to talk about here that it's easy - "What are you studying?" "Where are you from?" always gets you started. The guy next to me was from Georgia (but no southern accent) and is in the Department of Oriental Studies studying textual variants in the Greek and Armenian versions of the Book of Kings. I kid you not!

Next was Jasmine from Boston (also no accent). She did her Master's at a different college in Oxford in philosophy, and is now doing a doctorate in Anthropology. Her thesis is on a sacred site in Tibet - fun! She also lived for a year in Varanasi, India, a major sacred site on the Ganges. Naturally, she was very interesting to me but she was at the other end of the table so I didn't get to talk to her as much as I would have liked. But I also learned that she recently married a British guy (he's an astrophysicist - again, I kid you not) and they had their honeymoon in Montreal.

Next to her was Michelle (I think?) who was of some Russian or Eastern European persuasion. She spoke excellent English but in a small voice and with a strong accent, so I had some trouble understanding her. She's studying Sanskrit, the ancient language of India.

Before I got to talk to the guy across from me there was a brief announcement welcoming us to the supper and then our college advisors joined us. Guess they had to make an entrance. The guy who is my college advisor sat at the end of the table next to me. His name is Dr. Robert Milne, he's 48 (he told us) and he is the "Acting Director of Library Services at Oxford." That's really something, since there's like 80 libraries to be in charge of. But he was very approachable and very nice.

Dr. Milne is the college advisor for both me and the guy across from me, whose name is Dr. Simon Heighes. He's a student, even though he already has a doctorate, and maybe in his 30s. Also interesting is that he pronounces his last name like mine - a spelling I hadn't seen before. He's English and is a radio broadcaster on BBC Radio. Sounds like he's on quite often - apparently including this Saturday morning. He presents primarily classical music, but also puts in info on history and what not. He had a lovely posh accent, just the sort you'd expect to hear on BBC.

Simon is at Oxford working on a postgraduate certificate in education, as he wants to teach secondary school while also doing his broadcasting career. He's quite interested in religious studies, and that may be what he'll focus on teaching. That brings up an interesting point that we discussed for awhile - religious studies is a required part of public education in Britain, and I think it should be in the U.S. They teach the main world religions, plus general religious ideas and concepts. Very cool.

My advisor was also very interesting and fun to talk to. The three of us had an enjoyable conversation throughout dinner and we were among the last to leave. Dr. Milne, the advisor, is from Perth, Scotland. I hadn't noticed much of a Scottish accent until he told me that, and then I heard it when he said "book." Dr. Milne and Simon knew each other quite well already, I didn't catch how, and they gave me lots of recommendations for the best symphony hall in London and that sort of thing. They also asked me what Oregon is like, giving me an opportunity to really sing its praises - and I did! We also talked about whitewater rafting - both of them have done it and loved it. Not something you picture the stereotypical Englishman doing.

The other nice thing about the evening was the free meal! There was a bottle of white wine, red wine, and cold sparkling water on the table and a little French bread for each of us, then we went up to a buffet as a table and got things like chicken, pasta, turkey, quiche, etc. Dessert was the ubiquitous but tasty apple crumble. At one point during dinner the Dean of Degrees made a brief speech, mainly giving us some useful information on Saturday's matriculation ceremony.

Then I got home and got to hear all about David's interesting time in Summertown!