3 questions related to UG dorms and such

jessiehl
Fri, 04 Jan 2008 09:27:18 +0000

Random house sounds really cool! I love cooking Maybe I will live there next year Is it really hard to find time to cook for yourself at MIT though? I mean… is there really time for that?



Heh, “Random Hall”. The legend is that it used to be called Random House, and then the publishers by the same name threatened to sue. I have no idea if there is any truth to that story.

Random Hall is a very cool place (I probably had more friends there than in any dorm except my own, EC), but you should make sure that you like the rest of its culture too before you decide you want to live there! If it’s just the cooking you’re after, there are several living groups that emphasize or are friendly to cooking, I just picked them as an example. For instance, in many of the cultural houses in New House, taking turns participating in cooking for the group is a precondition of living there, pika (a commune-style independent living group - their stereotype is hippie engineers) cooks communal dinners with vegan options at every meal, and most halls of East Campus have a large percentage of cookers (with the kitchens conveniently joining one of each hall’s two lounges, encouraging social interaction in the kitchen area).

A lot of people find cooking a useful way to destress (I didn’t - not a good enough cook for that :)). And a lot of cooking is group-based - either communal cooking like in the cultural houses, or voluntary groups of four of five friends who take turns cooking for the group of four or five, as is common in much of Random. If your living group has a kitchen but no cooking groups, and you want one, you can form one with your friends!