Ormond College Formal Dinner

Happy Birthday Mom!! I hope you have a great Birthday, sorry we couldn't be there to celebrate with you! But at least we will get to check out the North Island soon!

Upon popular request, we snuck off a few picturesto show what goes on at Ormond College during the mysterious Formal Dinner. It is very dark in the Hall, so the pictures took some editing and many of them did not come out, but at least some are viewable.

The easiest way to describe it is to say it is eerily like Harry Potter, as it is based on the English tradition. Three times a week, the College gathers for Formal Dinner. All the students gather in their robes in the Great Hall, which is a massive, beautiful room with high ceilings and long wooden tables. The Senior Common Room (SCR), which consists of the Deans, the residential tutors (us), and the "Master" then enter the Hall in our robes and walk up to High Table, which is a long table up on a stage above the students. The Master then gives a short talk about what is going on in the College (a la Dumbledore) before dinner commences. Unfortunately, there is no sorting hat...

The food I think is quite good, although I think Kersti might disagree. We do get wine with our meals, as long as people remember to pass it. The meals only take about an hour. There are always at least a couple students who eat with us, as well as some visiting Professors, Judges, Physicists, you name it. So it is actually quite fun and we get to meet a lot of interesting people. Kersti and I both love living at Ormond, it is the exact opposite of living at College Square, our previous apartment complex. Everyone is so friendly and helpful.

Billy