My apologies to those of you who are unfamiliar with my terriblly careless and, I am sure, irksome habit of sending many missives with tiny bits of information which could be all brought together under one package had I enough sense to do so ... to those of you familiar with this habit, you recieve no apologies.
The cool thing is, when we first arrived, each student recieved a number of token Oxford nicknacks (including hard candies and an awesome "do not disturb" sign) to make us feel at home. One of these was a little mug with the motto of the CMRS (Centre for Medieval and Renaissance Studies - the Centre or specialized section of Oxford at which I am studying) JCR (Junior Common Room - both the physical four-wall-space which serves as lobby/TV room/rec room/hangout and the actual members of that room (undergrads) at Oxford. The motto runs something like this:
Virtus ab anno MCMLXXV / Ex umbris et imaginibus in vertitatem
... which, loosely translated, means Oxford is cool and you should all come visit. Maybe that's too loosely translated ...
Slightly more accurately (if my six years of Year-One Latin do not fail me) it says "Virtue/Manliness from the year 1972 / From the shadows and images in truth"
Not sure how virtue comes from the shadows of truth, but it sounds cool ... any scholars, please correct my pig latin if I am missing the gist (which I seem to be ... !)
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