Life at Catz

After living it for a week, I think I'm ready to talk about life at St. Catz. Catz, as I mentioned, is an architectural landmark built by the Danish architect Arne Jacobson. It's comprised of two quads, the original one where first and third years live and a newer addition surrounding a car park that houses second years. My rooms (both have windows covering an entire wall, an upgrade from the arrow slits of Stiles) overlook the "old" quad, which is large (about the size of Branford) with residential staircases (entryways) on either side of the central courtyard, library, and dining hall. The buildings are spread out and unfortunately aren't connected from the inside at all, so I actually have to get dressed to go to the library or dining hall. The courtyard's really nice, with a well-manicured lawn and nicely trimmed square hedges. The library is modern and beautiful on the inside and has really nice study spaces. The dining hall is HUGE but also beautiful and has rows and rows of banquet tables.

At 7:00, if professors and the master are coming to dinner, the bell tolls and everyone makes their way to the hall. It's kind of scary and cultish. We all line up and shuffle in, and instead of finding your friends and sitting with them in little groups everyone just fills in the seats of the tables in order of where they were in line. It's nice because it makes everyone kind of dispersed and we meet different people everyday, except Oly and I are usually the last ones there and we usually sit with the same latecomers. Then, while we sit, servers bring the silverware and set the places, bring us the "appetizer" of the day (a soup or salad), and once we're finished eating take that away and bring us plates. It's a family style meal where the main entree is put on our plates by the servers and the side dish (a vegetable and some variety of "chips," which are fries) is put in the middle for about 6 people to share. When they see we're done with the entree, the servers efficiently whisk away our plates and bring some dessert, fruit, or yogurt. The food hasn't been bad, although I've heard it steadily declines in quality throughout the term. Last night we had profiteroles with caramel sauce, for example. I didn't even know what profiteroles were; apparently it's just a fancy name for cream puff. At the end of dinner we can all get up and help ourselves to coffee or tea; this is the most social mingling portion of the dinner, as everyone stands around where they've placed the pots. All in all it's a very quick and efficient affair, and everyone's out of the hall by 7:50. I'm kind of sad that I can't waste my days away by going to dinner at 5:00 and staying until 7:30, getting up for more food every 20 minutes, but in the long run it's probably better for my productivity and weight. :)

When the master and professors show up for dinner, they all wear their formal robes and file into the hall in rows. We all have to stand in respect until they take their places at the "high table." It's literally just like Harry Potter. I mean, really.

After dinner, it's time to go hang out at the JCR, or the Junior Common Room. It's like the common room, game room, and buttery all next to each other, basically, except the buttery also serves as a bar where you can buy cheap, college-subsidized alcohol. St. Catz is supposed to have one of the largest and best JCR's. There are two pool tables, two foosball tables, and a row of pinball machines and arcade games. This week the British students haven't been out as much since they were studying for collections (exams) held Friday and Saturday, so the Americans have been taking over the JCR. Usually at about 10:30 more people show up and we mingle with them a bit. St. Catz students are great, and we're supposed be a little bit of a party college, although I've yet to see it live up to its reputation.

I've learned the social schedule here of clubbing, which is Filth on Mondays and Fridays, The Bridge on Tuesdays and Thursdays, Bar-Risa/Jongleurs on Wednesdays, and Clementine's on Saturdays. The weekends are the most low-key, since Clementine's is the only place open and very little else is going on. Clubs are busy from 11 to 2 or 3 when they close, but pubs are usually where people go earlier in the evening.

So far I've been out into downtown Oxford about every night but one. The first few nights I went out with some American students to the King's Arms (KA), your run-of-the-mill 16th century pub. It isn't that crowded and has a nice friendly atmosphere. Thursday night the boys wanted to see a band perform at the Jericho, which is famous amongst Radiohead fans as their first regular gig, so we made the half-hour trek out there and discovered that the so-called band was really a Jamaican DJ. After a few pints of hoegarden we checked out the Bridge. Before paying the 3 pound entree fee, I asked the bouncer whether it was busy inside, to which he brightly replied, "There about 17 people upstairs. But they're American!" Sweet... so we left and stopped at another, smaller club called Mood, where I got a small first taste of where the British get their horrible reputation for dancing. We didn't stay very long because people started staring, probably thinking that we Americans were dirty, dirty people for the way we danced.

Last night some of the girls and I met some nice British boys at the JCR who took us to PT, or the Purple Turtle. The bar/club is part of the Oxford Union, which if you hadn't heard, is a pretty big deal. It's a private debating society that many students join for life for an exorbitant fee, after which they don't really attend the lectures but do go around for the rest of their lives flaunting the fact that they're members of the Oxford Union. Famous speakers include the Dalai Lama and Stephen Hawking. The PT itself was a very hidden, underground place with winding passageways leading to many chambers, including two bars and a cave-like dance floor. Everything was bathed in a purplish light. The whole place made me feel like I was in the Leaky Cauldron. Yes, the Harry Potter comparisons will continue, unabated.

So despite its crappy modern architecture, I do love Catz so far and hopefully will have more to tell in the weeks to come.