Guy Fawkes Night

Today was my first Guy Fawkes night. We had a fireworks display in the Somerville College quad, so I was closer to the fireworks display than I believe I have ever been. It was actually pretty spectacular.

Sadly, we didn't burn an effigy. We can't have a bonfire in the quad, so the effigy-burning will have to wait for another year... I want to burn an effigy. :)

By the way, it's worth remarking that the Brits seem to play fast and lose with some holidays (like this one). Namely, there were various fireworks displays on different days during the past week. For example, I was in London on Saturday and I saw fireworks at various points while I was taking the train back to Oxford.

I also had one of my patented awesome/"awesome" moments this evening. I was asked by one of my British colleagues if we had anything like this in the U.S. I mentioned that we had July 4th, which is Independence day [pause] --- "when we declared our independence from you guys."