A Kitchen for Six

I complained about eating at my school cafeteria regularly for the past two years. At Oxford, however, I am without a meal plan: I can eat at the Mansfield Dining Hall, but I have to pay for each meal, so I’ve been cooking for myself most of the time to save money. As soon as I found out that I wouldn’t have a meal plan, I suddenly gained a new appreciation for the convenience of eating prepared food—so now I’ve been complaining about the lack of cafeteria. Perhaps you will conclude (fairly) that I am whiny. But I’ve gradually stopped complaining (as much), because I’ve found another unexpected blessing at Oxford due to the lack of meal plan.

My floor at my dorm has six girls, each with a single room, sharing one kitchen and one shower. I was admittedly skeptical when I thought about sharing the tiny shower and kitchen amongst the six of us. Now each day one of my favourite things about Oxford is my kitchen. It’s pretty much the only warm room in my dorm, a little bigger than the other kitchens, and we each have our own little cabinet to store our food. There’s a tea kettle that makes it feel British. A window overlooks the courtyard. The oven is tiny and the fridge just isn’t big enough for all of our groceries. Everyone on my floor cooks pretty regularly, and the fridge reflects the diversity of our food tastes and our love of cheap, but good quality, groceries at Tesco’s.

At least once a day I walk into the cozy little kitchen and see a minimum of one of my floormates, with an average of at least 4 of us cooking at once I’d say. We share the oven space, squeeze around one another to grab something from the fridge, take turns slipping in front of the sink to do dishes. We laugh and talk about our days, try one another’s food, and drink tea together. I absolutely love the hustle and bustle of our kitchen, the warmth and friendship that transforms the drab little space into a cozy, happy break from schoolwork and the coldness outside.

Food brings people together. There are countless examples of this including Jesus' ministry in the bible using food to bring people together in addition to feeding them spiritually, free pizza at any college event upping the attendance by ten-fold, and the popularity of the Food Network in our world today. One of my favorite parts of my childhood has been our Sunday family dinners at home, where all my extended family drew together one guaranteed time per week to relax and enjoy food together before the start of another busy week. At school last year, one of my friends invited me over to her house on Sunday mornings to prepare brunch with a big group of her friends; we'd cook and laugh and eat huge quantities of delicious food instead of doing schoolwork. Food brings people together. I'm glad that principle holds true here as well.

By the time this year is over (which already makes me sad to think about—especially with how fast this term has been going) I think that I will have dozens of memories in that little kitchen alone. I think one the biggest parts of growing up is realizing that one makes a family as one passes through life; when I’m thousands of miles away from home, and can’t see my family, it is so warming to think that my floormates are starting to turn into a new kind of family for me. They offer to let me use their computers, they ask if I’ve gotten over that cold, they comfort me, they give me advice, they fix me dinner, they laugh at my stupid jokes, they will travel with me, they make fun of me.

So although my meal ideas are starting to run out—I’ve completely stretched my culinary knowledge already—my lack of meal plan can only be seen as a blessing. On my list of favourite things about Oxford, that little kitchen will be at the top.