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| Yum! |
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| Family dinners with friends! |
This past fall, I moved into Walsh Hall for my junior year and
opted not to get a meal plan because each room in this apartment-style residence
hall has its own kitchen. My roommates and I were eager to learn how to live
like *real* adults and prepare each meal ourselves.
The challenge over the summer before move-in was
coordinating who would bring what – we didn't understand what we would need and
quickly realized we needed to figure out some system of dividing the purchases
to avoid all bringing the same thing. Even so, when we settled in at the start
of the year, we still somehow managed to each bring pans but forget to bring a
paper towel holder…
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| Fresh pasta from Arthur Ave. |
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| Staying cozy during the snowstorm. |
My friends and I heard anecdotes from others about how
difficult sharing an apartment could be, but we never really felt the stresses
of having both private and public space to take care of, especially since we
were already so close before moving in together. We quickly figured out a
schedule as to when each person would be responsible for making dinners,
washing dishes, cleaning various parts of the apartment, and even making the
communal pot of coffee in the morning! It suddenly felt like we were our own
little family, and, when our own families came to visit, they were always
pleasantly surprised at how responsibly we managed our home away from home.
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| Dining hall trip! |
Every so often, I still stop by the Marketplace – the buffet-style
dining hall in McGinley – for a quick bite if I’m in a rush between classes or
if I’m meeting a friend. In some ways, I really miss the convenience of
on-campus dining (and I really did grow quite fond of the steamed veggies over
rice at the vegan station!), but having my own kitchen and being able to make
my own meals inevitably made me feel a lot more capable of taking care of
myself. This year, my roommates and I learned to grocery shop, pick out fresh
produce, make tons of healthy meals, and really bonded over this new level of
maturity that we’ve reached.
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| Burger night! |
Sitting down for a “family” dinner at the end of a long day
of classes will always be one of my most cherished Fordham memories.
