Well, it rained today.
Not a particularly nice way to have a graduation but hey, what can you do, that's just the way life is.
Got to uni, went to the office, collected some data from the soprtion box and showed my parents around my building and then off to collect my gown and trencher.
The lines were building up already at 2pm, and so it took a little while to get it and boy oh boy it's heavy. The two striped red stoles on the gown weigh a lot more than the normal formal gown, and then there is the red hood attachment also.
We then waited for a bit before we could go in, and the weather was being intermittently rain and no rain, so we took a absolute mass of photographs around the place LOL before the actual ceremony.
The ceremony took about an hour and a half to get through 180 graduates and the speeches, and then processions out. I got a plaque order and photograph order also before returning the gown.
A few observations on graduation over the years.
The ceremony has changed. Sadly, much of the 'tradition' is going to a much more simplified procedure to expedite the process with larger numbers of people graduating. For example, when I graduated from my bachelors, PhD graduates would have the title of their thesis read out, and I remember this quite distinctly. Now, we just have our names read out like every other graduate. The distinction between us and other grads is shrinking in some ways I guess.
Another point is etiquette. Tradition is that when guys sit down, they take their trencher hat off. You can see this with the academics on the dais, but they don't correct you on that any more like they did back in my bachelor days... So guys now sit with their hats on like the girls..
The last point, which is not a tradition loss, but a .... observation, is that undergraduates do not listen to instructions. The poor lady giving instructions told every single undergrad graduating to stand at the black line on the carpet. Half of them couldn't follow that instruction, and blocked the view of the person on the dais seeing this woman who had a book with numbers to indicate the order of the person (to ensure the right order incase there are people absent without notice etc).... Silly undergraduates.
The day was ok, and it is over, so I guess no more graduations until either I am an academic and I have to attend them, or for a significant other, or for my own children further down the track.
The link to my photos taken by my father and brother on my Flickr is here are:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dchiou/sets/72157610282722563/
Not a particularly nice way to have a graduation but hey, what can you do, that's just the way life is.
Got to uni, went to the office, collected some data from the soprtion box and showed my parents around my building and then off to collect my gown and trencher.
The lines were building up already at 2pm, and so it took a little while to get it and boy oh boy it's heavy. The two striped red stoles on the gown weigh a lot more than the normal formal gown, and then there is the red hood attachment also.
We then waited for a bit before we could go in, and the weather was being intermittently rain and no rain, so we took a absolute mass of photographs around the place LOL before the actual ceremony.
The ceremony took about an hour and a half to get through 180 graduates and the speeches, and then processions out. I got a plaque order and photograph order also before returning the gown.
A few observations on graduation over the years.
The ceremony has changed. Sadly, much of the 'tradition' is going to a much more simplified procedure to expedite the process with larger numbers of people graduating. For example, when I graduated from my bachelors, PhD graduates would have the title of their thesis read out, and I remember this quite distinctly. Now, we just have our names read out like every other graduate. The distinction between us and other grads is shrinking in some ways I guess.
Another point is etiquette. Tradition is that when guys sit down, they take their trencher hat off. You can see this with the academics on the dais, but they don't correct you on that any more like they did back in my bachelor days... So guys now sit with their hats on like the girls..
The last point, which is not a tradition loss, but a .... observation, is that undergraduates do not listen to instructions. The poor lady giving instructions told every single undergrad graduating to stand at the black line on the carpet. Half of them couldn't follow that instruction, and blocked the view of the person on the dais seeing this woman who had a book with numbers to indicate the order of the person (to ensure the right order incase there are people absent without notice etc).... Silly undergraduates.
The day was ok, and it is over, so I guess no more graduations until either I am an academic and I have to attend them, or for a significant other, or for my own children further down the track.
The link to my photos taken by my father and brother on my Flickr is here are:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/dchiou/sets/72157610282722563/
1 comment:
Congratulation on graduating!
Hope the rain did not put too much of a damper on your memorable day!
Michelle,
Graduation Stoles
Post a Comment