St Chads Matriculation: Real Life Harry Potter

At Durham, we have to apply to be in colleges. The University consists of about 20 or so. I'm in St. Chad's which is really old, but small and beautiful college. Read more about its fabulous self here. St. Chad's is situated on the Old Bailey, which is the bit of the city surrounded by the river, on which is the Castle and Cathedral.

This is a picture of the Old Bailey.

As a postgraduate at St. Chads, we are apart of the Middle Common Room or MCR. The undergraduates are apart of the Junior Common Room, and the Tutors are apart of the Senior Common Room. We have our own common room in the college.

To Matriculate, we all wore our robes and walked into St Chads Chapel where the Principal spoke and then called our names, rose, and signed the registry. We pledged to uphold the rules and honor of St Chads and then proceeded into the courtyard for drinks.

Here is the 2011 Matriculating MCR.

This is Theodora. She is from Austria, and studies Religious Studies. As a part of this, she's in the theology department, and we joke that the American theological students have a 'church clique' meaning that they assume you're a Christian and ask what church you go to. [Three boys are from Alabama, and I know two from Georgia.]

A special part of the evening meant we were allowed to buy wine from our very own wine cellar. Can you believe we have our own wine cellar?! And its dirt cheap. So after buying those, we all trooped in to the dining hall for a formal dinner.

Here's a brief picture of the SCR at their 'high table' at the top of the hall.

Because I had to leave early to catch a train, I had to go up to the Principal, who sat in the center of the table, and bow to him, where he granted me approval to leave the hall.

This is the table with whom I dined. They are all doing Masters courses. Clockwise they study philosophy, religious studies, business management, and biology. Quite a diverse group. For dinner we had liver pate (not my favorite) for first course, steak with vegetables for the second, and chocolate mousse for the third. It was all so nice and inviting and was so sad to have to catch the train home.

I feel a bit split right now with half my life in Durham and half in Edinburgh, but am enjoying it all so very much.