I remember getting forms to apply to be matriculated, a form from the doctors' surgery
and other bits and pieces, all before I received my A level results, which I filled in and returned:
I was certainly aprehensive about going to Oxford, but I have always been good at paper pushing.
Getting My 'A' level results was
great, though I'll confess to being a little disappointed with my 'B' in business studies, - I
went to a pub for the second time ever without either parent - I think I might even
have had some alcohol. Then I got sent prepatory reading - which I did some of - but much of it was
longwinded and dull, and despite feeling guilty I gave up on much of it. In the end, and on the advice of
Anthony, my subject parent, I realised
that none of that reading was really necessary, and what would have been been far more useful was
the first week's reading lists and details of the text books we'd need.....Then I started in on
the packing. That first time round it seemed to take a very long time, because I didn't really
know what I needed/what the room would be like. I didn't do too badly - I had yet to learn what
black tie was, didn't have any dressing up stuff - I'll explain why that's important later
and forgot one of my winter coats. Apart from that I did rather well.
My first six-seven weeks in Oxford were some of the most intense weeks
of my life - I learned a whole new vocabularly - both Oxford specific
and legal terms, I met so many people who were so different from me,
and I crammed an awful lot into the time I had. In some ways there were
my best time there - though my memories are a jumble.
Like most people, I don't have that clear a recollection of my own Freshers' Week, but there are
bits and pieces that stand out. I distinctly remember that the first person I met was Matthew,
with long hair in dreadlocks, who knew my name (as I later discovered, only because he'd been looking
at the pictures we'd all sent in). Though I knew it not at the time, he'd become a powerful
influence over me. He was certainly a bit weird, but I was doing my level best to be openminded and
not judge people too quickly; it was all new and a bit weird - so he didn't seem that far from the norm.
It was Claire, one of the JCR welfare officers
who showed me to my room - RL5:8, where my mother and I unpacked - we're a highly efficient team
when we want to be, and managed it *much* faster than many others - then we went off and had lunch
at what is currently named 'Merton's Bar and brasserie' (no relationship to the College at all), before
she left me. I can't really remember what happened next other than me meeting two of the people who'd
become very close friends over the next three years - Susie and Anna. I also remember being in the JCR
and Heenal introducing himself to me by handing me a business card - which was certainly unexpected, but
like everything else, I was trying not to judge too quickly.
I seemed to drift from event to event over the next few days - meeting people, and not remembering names.
I certainly remember meeting a then important anti fees campaigner who tried to persuade me to become
a non-payer. Opposed to fees I certainly am, but I wasn't about to start my time in Oxford by irritating
the College by refusing to pay them. Of Freshers' Fair I don't remember much - other than a conversation
with the then OUSU President over where I'd obtain an NUS card - at which point I discovered that NUS
affilations in Oxford take place College by College, and that as Merton hasn't been affilated for years
I couldn't have one. I remember being set work, and by the end of the week - when I was just beginning
to think I might have some control over my time (because we'd finished all those organised talks), I realised
that I was going to have an awful lot of work to do, and not much time to enjoy myself. Alcohol was
a whole new experience to me - I drank more than week than I'd ever drunk before, though certainly nowhere close
to too much - it was simply a case of being at events where alcohol was available, and in many instances free, and
having some - something I'd never done before. I retained my self control and didn't overdo it - though I do
remember being rather giggly as Kathryn took my arm to lead me from pre matriculation dinner drinks, to the
dinner itself. That dinner was probably the first time I'd ever been to a formal dinner - deciding what
to wear hadn't been easy - whoever knows how 'lounge suit' translates for women? But I enjoyed it; for
the first time I was surrounded by people who weren't amazed when I said I had two As and two Bs at 'A' level -
it was the norm.
Michalemas 1999 - a baptism of fire, part two
Oxford index
Home.