Tea Time @ Tyndale

As is the custom at Tyndale, the gong is sounded at 11am and 4pm each day, signaling the mass exodus of the library into the parlor for tea and conversation. The double gong, however, is where my heart lies; it is the secret signal that there are treats to accompany tea. Ruth Norris, Sarah Dixon and I half-heartedly decided we would form a double-gong club, in protest of all teas void of treats.
In this gathering of the Tyndale community, where many might be wearing an ensemble constructed in the dark or the same clothes as the day before (which is actually rather refreshing to eliminate the pressure to put oneself together each day - very similar to the Harvard community which contributed at one point to Boston being designated 'worst-dressed city in America'), the one defining quality to take notice of is the mug which one carries. In order to eliminate paper cups many of the readers at Tyndale keep a mug at their desks especially for tea time, embellished with the Hebrew alphabet, their favorite football (soccer) team, or the like. As my apartment only rendered 4 flowered black and white mugs that look like they belong to a 13 year old girl, my Saturday morning was spent endeavoring to find a mug which would define me to the tea time world. I settled finally on a British-Oklahoma hybrid made by Cath Kidston (essentially the British Vera Bradley). This mug epitomizes the English concept of a cowboy, and by proxy Oklahoma, since the only things known over here about Oklahoma are the musical and Twister. Thus, I resigned myself to sport with pride my British cowboy mug each day at 11 and 4.