Graduation recap :-D

Yes, I´m alive ! Honest, wait .. *pinches herself* yup most definitely alive ;-) Things are slowly getting back to normal after an adventurous week, during which I got to wear a cape, shake hands with the man voted most likely to win the Mr. Colgate competition and go pubbing in Sheffield. To start from the beginning...
As you´ll have gathered from the photo below I graduated last week, seeing as in Iceland we don´t generally have these doos with hats and gowns and such, as well as seeing it was my first university graduation (that I attended) and the very first graduation ever my dad attended it was an adventure indeed!
So, after leaving the kids to fend for temselves (admittedly with friends ;-) we headed off to sunny rainy Sheffield, where after depositing dad at the hotel me and Halldór headed off *picture skipping with numerous photographic pauses* to the NATCECT centre which he´d never actually seen before only to find out that the head of the department wouldn´t even be showing up the following day... oh well her loss (loads of grumbles to be aired later)
On the actual day, after showing up hours early we had plenty of photo opportunities before the ceremony as well as deciding on what kind of memorabilia I´d like (went for a silver cup and a t-shirt) the other graduands started turning up.
Much to my delight I found that there were four others graduating from the department, only from the year before and another aquaintance coming back for her second degree. The reason for this lapse is that the U.K. students generally take the course in 2 years but foreign ones in a year due to school fees for us being twice as high .. :-/
The ceremony went perfectly, the dean pronounced my name correctly, I did (amazingly enough) not trip on the stage and managed to shake hands, smile and thank the head (mr. Colgate himself).

After which smiling muscles were stretched to their limits as endless memory cards were filled outside the hall before heading off, first to have the official photograph taken and then to the nearest pub (my favorite part of Britain ;-)

Much to my enjoyment all three of my years classmates turned up to share in the day with us, Gid (the one in black and white), Si came up from Cheshire (the sandy haired one) and Paul (the Shakespeare impersonator ;-) came all the way up from London! Dad the duly invited the whole lot out to dinner, of which 5 acquiesced.
The cost of which ended up being less than a meal for the two of us at a fancy restaurant in Iceland, amazing the price differences! I love living here when it comes to these things!!
Finally, of course, it was off to the pub again :-D This time the Red Deer, where most of last years Tuesday afternoons were spent discussing folklore amongst other things ;-D

It has been great fun to observe to versions of this ritual here, the Edinburgh one was somehow more dignified, but at least I didn´t get hit on the head ;-) like Halldór did. Thereagain the comparison is unfair, with Sheffield University being only a 100 years old and Edinburgh being what.. 400? Them having a special hall for this sole purpose fancily decorated with frescoes and elderly livery clad ushers ;-D

All in all, great fun, great experience, great expense for poor dad *blush* and an unforgettable memory...