end-of-semester musings

Well, that's it -- another semester gone by. This semester has been one of the best that I've had during my time at Grinnell, and especially at EcoHouse. Together, house residents have accomplished so much this semester; from hosting a canning workshop and a local foods meal at Harvest Fest, to having some of our favorite professors over for dinner, to helping out with the Local Foods CoOp Thanksgiving meal, to a week of living bravely and intentionally, this house has done a lot to help promote sustainable living, both to others and to ourselves.

One of my favorite aspects of this semester was the group's willingness and enthusiasm for focusing on locally grown foods. Looking back, buying and cooking with almost exclusively local foods for a majority of the semester was a huge success and taught us a lot about where our food comes from, making connections with local farmers, and finally, how much better food tastes when you know who grew and harvested it! (We definitely noticed a difference when our CSA share timed out...there was a long period of grieving. WHY, WINTER, WHY MUST YOU BE SO UNFRIENDLY TO FRESH TOMATOES?!) Though planning and budgeting our food, as well as keeping track of our food sources (which were different for eggs, produce, and bulk grains) was at times difficult or stressful and at times caused disagreements or tensions within the group, we seem to have figured out a pretty good system that everyone seems to like. We'll keep working on this new communal/local foods experiment next semester, and hopefully we'll just continue to get better at it.

One of the best things about this communal foods system is that it's let us start cooking and eating together several times a week. While not everyone chooses to contribute to the communal food budget, those who do have formed a mini co-op within the house, alternating cooking on a nightly basis. We usually decide at our meeting, at the beginning of each week, who wants to volunteer to cook each  night, and how many people will plan on eating at the house that night. This system has worked pretty well for us, and it has been so nice to get to eat with housemates and friends almost nightly. I think I can speak for many other EcoHouse residents when I say that these meals (as well as our weekly house-meeting dinners) have been one of the leading forces in bringing us together as a community. Let the communal meals continue next semester (read: let the delicious food and wonderful house bonding continue next semester!).

While all these things (local food projects, Harvest Fest, Be Brave Week, etc.) have been successful, the number one reason why this semester has been my favorite one at Grinnell so far is the beautiful people that I have had the amazing opportunity to live with. From Vincent and Madeline's heated conversations about current events or environmental issues to David's math jokes to late-night kitchen conversations with Hannah, I can honestly say that it's the people who make this house the truly magical place that it is. Every time I walk into EcoHouse and smell some of Jacob's fresh-baked bread, see Eleanor reading in the living room, catch Leah playing her ukulele, or see Ivy's smiling face, there's no question about it -- I am here. I am surrounded by people who care about me. I am home.



-Adriana