Verbal Snippets & Snapshots

My suitemates and I have been joking periodically about our quirks and how they manifest themselves in the things we have in our suite. Every time I stand in the hallway of my suite and take a look around it, I chuckle at whatever I see. Here’s a blog entry with photos and descriptions of just a few of the things that I think reveal a glimpse into the crazy personalities of me and my suitemates:

1. A COMMON DRY-ERASE BOARD: My suitemates and I write messages to each other on a dry-erase board that we bought and hung on the wall of our hallway. Our messages range from the serious to the jocular. In addition, our beloved dry-erase board has been used for games of Pictionary, and as a photo in this blog entry shows, people visiting our suite also like to write on it. (I’ve also uploaded a photo of the dry-erase marker with a dilapidated eraser that we use to write messages on our dry-erase board.)

2. HOMEMADE DEEP-FRIED OREOS: Let me first say that my suitemates and I don’t cook deep-fried Oreos on a regular basis. Earlier this weekend, however, my friend/suitemate Nian wrote on the dry-erase board that she was craving deep-fried Oreos. I saw the message, and since I was also craving chocolatey foods, I decided to go to Charles Street Market with Nian to buy Oreos and pancake mix. I then created a batter out of pancake mix, water, and eggs; dipped the Oreos in it; and deep-fried the batter-covered Oreos. They didn’t look anything like the famous deep-fried Oreos sold by a local vendor at Spring Fair, but they still tasted pretty good! (Compare the photo of deep-fried Oreos that I made recently with the photo of deep-fried Oreos that I bought at Spring Fair last semester.)

3. PROCTER & GAMBLE PRODUCTS: Last week, our floormate Vishal (one of four boys who live in the suite next to ours) won a Procter & Gamble tote bag filled with CoverGirl products at a Society of Hispanic Professional Engineers meeting in which Procter & Gamble representatives gave a presentation and asked the meeting’s attendees to list as many Procter & Gamble products as possible. Vishal named the most Procter & Gamble products out of all the people at the meeting, so he won the prize: a bag full of CoverGirl products. He came to our suite and gave it to us, along with an explanation of how he acquired it. We looked through the items and took those that we liked. My claims included the tote bag itself, a CoverGirl t-shirt, and two makeup products.

4. BAMBOO POLES: Since this year’s Culture Show will be next month, the Filipino Students Association is once again practicing a couple of traditional Filipino dances to perform. (See my entry on last year’s Culture Show to get an idea of what kinds of performances comprise this annual production.) Because Nian and I are both officers in FSA this year, we ended up storing two of the four bamboo poles that FSA uses to dance singkil and tinikling in our suite (as well as two of the four wooden planks used to support the bamboo poles while they’re being clapped on the ground). It’s become a running joke among our friends who visit our suite that we’ve set up a trap for visitors, since people who enter our suite and don’t watch their step trip over the poles.

5. CRAZY SUITEMATES: Of course, nothing else in our suite reveals more about us than our own selves. Here’s a photo of my suitemates and me at the Relay For Life walk last semester. (See my entry about last year’s Relay For Life for details about how it went.) From left to right are Nian, Zainab, Miriam, and I.