I don't recall the rest of that term week by week, but more by events - I suppose immediately
after the end of Freshers' Week my next experience was a gentle introduction
to work. Our first tutorial was in Roman law and took place on Monday 1st Week;
we didn't have to write an essay - just to do the reading, which we all
attempted; but Roman law is a very weird subject, so I think we were all
feeling rather bewildered when we wandered off to Magdalen to for that tute.
We'd be reassured by the second and third year lawyers that Roman law was
easy and that the tutor was pleasant. Wandering into that room was a rather
unusual experience - I think that was the first time I encountered rooms
with two doors, (the theory being that if the outer door was open, the person
was in and you could knock), but perhaps more surprisingly than that were
the number of empty wine bottles stacked about the room, along with piles
and piles of books and papers. In short, the best way to describe that
gentleman is as a quintessentially Oxford tutor. I have no memory whatsoever
of that tute, but we survived and were feeling quite pleased with ourselves afterwards.
However, we were in for a shock the following week, when we realised that we
had not only a Roman tute, but a criminal one as well, and that the reading for
crim would take much, much longer than that for Roman. At this time we were
all at the stage of asking "what's the difference between square brackets
and round ones?", and "what does prima facie mean?". But we survived.
I remember matriculation in a very weird sort of way - an 8.20am meeting in front quad
for the year photo to be taken, followed by wandering through the streets dressed in this
ridiculous garb, surrounded by hundreds of others doing the same, wondering what normal people
thought of us, before going into the Sheldonian and being amazed at how uncomfortable the seats
are in such an architecturally impressive building, and then the ceremony itself. I remember glancing
about the room wondering what was going to happen to us in future years: was I in a room with future
prime ministers? Only time will tell. I don't remember much about what the various university officials
said, though I think some of it was in Latin. I distincly remember going to Sainsbury's dressed in sub fusc
and trying to do some work before giving up and going to find company. Most others had launched in on
a drinking binge.
A couple of tutes bring back memories - there's the one where the question directed at me went
along the lines of 'If I gave you £100 could you find me an S&M club?', to which I answered no, before
kicking myself when he reminded us of calling cards in London phone boxes - this particular discussion
arose out of discussion of R. v. Brown [1992] QB ??? (which is one of the few laughs you'll get in law).
Then there's the Roman tute about theft of writing/paintings and the discussion of where illuminated
manuscripts fit into it all: not to mention the stab of fear that ran through me as I read essays to him
and he'd cover his face with his hands, in a mixture of exasperation/horror at how much I'd missed out.
not understood. We were landed with Saturday morning tutes that term (which didn't seem that weird to us
at the time, because we didn't know any better) which resulted in us having tutes the morning after the
Halsbury society cocktail party, and in at least one of my friends having to leave the tutorial more
than once in order to vomit.
The first JCR meeting of term was something of an adventure, but taught me all I really needed to
know about it: it was fundamentally anti OUSU, and as a body very concerned with its own importance -
a kind of arrogance, I suppose, but maybe not - it's just that we liked to stand up for *our* rights,
and objected strongly to others who tried to undermine this. I also remember seeing Heenal stand for
a number of positions that evening - can't quite remember what - certainly affiliated organisations (OUSU)
rep, and being horrified at how the nasty the questioning was during his hust. That isn't to say that
the questioning was nasty; it was what I'd later discover to be fairly standard stuff, just that
doing that to first years at the beginning of Michalemas didn't seem like a good way to fill posts.
After that first meeting I didn't go to any more for a while, because I'd got involved with competitive
debating at the Oxford Union and it clashed. I did enjoy
debating while I did it, but I wouldn't have said I was especially good at it.
The only other thing that brings back memories is eighth week as a whole - there were parties on ever
evening - the Harvey society cocktails one night, JCR President's drinks another, Christmas dinner
and the carol service - which was lovely on the
Thursday and the ball on Friday - not to mention the usual amount of academic work. Exhaustion was
already beginning to creep up on me as a result of the term, and I didn't do myself any favours by
throwing myself into all these fun things - I had something like six hours sleep for the first three nights
then four hours on the Thursday and Friday nights - on the Thursday night because I had an essay due
on the Friday morning, and on the Friday night because Veronika was going home very early on the
Saturday morning and I'd offered to give her a hand carrying stuff to the coach stop. The ball was
also responsible for the beginnings of what'd become a joke that ran and ran (and is probably still
running somewhere) linking me with a guy that I'd never been with, and never had any intentions of
getting together with.