Tonight was music night in Balliol's Middle Common Room, which is Oxford's way of saying graduate students' lounge (though the Room can also be metaphorical, at which point it's the student union, sorta). Oxford only likes to say things in ways that are confusing to anyone unindoctrinated.
I arrived a few minutes late and could hear a loud tenor voice from outside the door. So as not to do that thing where you make a lot of noise and walk right into the stage (there are two doors to the MCR and I wasn't sure where they'd set up), I waited till the end of the song, and snuck in on the clapping. All the seats were taken. As I took up a post standing near the side wall, a guy (who I know but not well) stood up and started reciting, "Who is Silvia, what is she?". It was slightly disorienting. Several people turned to look at me, knowing exactly where I was since I had just walked in late. Anyhow, I suppose it was good timing, would have been sad to miss the poem about me. Then the singing struck up again, a German song to the translated words of the Shakespeare poem.
Oh, that is too funny! It sounds like a scene from a movie. "What is she? Polite, you see!" Okay that is too many (syl)lables.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was younger, my French teachers would always startle me during math lessons. Whenever they said the word "quatre" out loud, I thought they were calling my name. This is why I spent many years fearing the number 4.