Let's Get High, English-Style

View from High Street in Oxford.

I am going to a high tea this afternoon. Thinking about the high tea and what differentiates it from a regular "cuppa tea," it occurs to me that the English like to formalize things for no apparent reason. One of their favorite ways of characterizing something formal is to add the word "high" to show that thing's superiority to other non-high (low?) versions of the same thing.*

I have written about our High Table dinners which require cocktail attire and a basic knowledge of how to use different forks. Being the oldest college at Oxford we are on the High Street, also known just as "The High."

While there is something to be learned from adding a sense of dignity to events as people often do here at Oxford, I think it's high time that I get back home for some beer and burgers.

High-ku:

Teas, streets, and tables.
Make it English by adding
"High" to everything.

*One notable exception to this policy is the Scottish Highlands - the English clearly find them inferior. Surprised? Didn't think so.

Oxford Lasts

Tonight we had our last High Table dinner, our last class with our Oxford tutor, and our last dinner with traditional end-of-program events including poems that honored/poked fun at our professors, our last night in the (ridiculously cheap) Univ. pub, the last night some of us would go out together, and our last social event as a program. All in all, I would say the night and the overall experience could be described in one word: epic.

A night of lasts makes
Me feel like we are finished.
But exams still loom.