The formal routine

As mentioned previously, we do a lot of formals here. Just part of the rhythm here, every Friday evening is a formal "superhall" that you throw on a suit for and have a fancy dinner with some ritual toasting and a welcome in Latin (Seems to be just "Benedictus Benedicte, Amen" usually). They're starting to blend together a bit but here are some photos:

First superhall, 10/10.

Exchange formal: 17/10/2008 (yeah I'm getting used to writing dates with the day first now). You have enough formals that, to keep it fresh, you exchange with other colleges. We hosted this exchange so members of Emmanuel College and Hughes Hall came and ate with us. Similarly I did an exchange at Emmanuel earlier in the week.

Really though this photo sums up the experience. This is some of the gang at the MCR after the formal. To recap, the MCR is our own pub for grad students at Churchill, pretty much packed with people after every formal event. So the usual drill for my Friday evenings is research group meeting 4-5, CS happy hour 5-6, formal dinner 7-9, hanging out in MCR 9-11, then dancing at the "Pav" downstairs from 11 on.

Anyway, I'm appreciating the structure more and more, because you actually get a chance to interact with people from around campus this way. I think I've had learned some interesting stuff from the random intelectual conversations that get launched at these things. Of course a lot of people are just in it for the wine, so who knows.