I talk about my roommates as if people reading this blog are familiar with my living situation, but it occurs to me that you probably don't. So here's a quick run-down of who my roommates are and where they work:
First off, Steph is the only roommate I actually share a room with - we have bunkbeds, which makes my inner five year old very happy. Everybody else has their own room, since we are six people in a five-person house. Steph is from Kentucky, and works at a soup kitchen and clinic in a church in Kenwood (a southside neighborhood). We watch a lot of Bones together, and she is one of the fastest knitters I know. Steph is also technically not a Young Adult Volunteer - since she's not Presbyterian, she applied to our program through DOOR instead. The biggest practical difference between being DOOR/YAV like the rest of us and only DOOR like Steph is that she didn't go to orientation before showing up to Chicago.
Tad is from Texas, and works at Lakeview Presbyterian Church (in Boystown, which is part of Lakeview). Tad loves musicals and country music, so we get along very well except on football days, when we insult each other's teams mercilessly.
Mara is from Minnesota, and doing her second year of YAV service. Last year she was a YAV in Kenya. This year she works at the Illinois Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, which is based out of the Loop. She loves cheesy movies, which results in a lot of viewings of terrible '90s films.
Brian is from Pennsylvania, and works at a peer mentoring agency right here in Garfield Park. He is a huge Batman fan, which is why he lives in the room with huge Batman wall-clings (yes, we have such a room. This house is awesome). We talk about comics a lot.
Potts is technically Nathaniel, but we call him by his last name instead of his first. Potts is from Maryland, and works at an adult daycare center in Englewood (in the southside). He is also a comic-book fan, which definitely ups the house nerd quotient. Potts is a great cook -- so far his macaroni and cheese is my favorite, but he also makes a mean lasagna.
I hope this helps to clear up any confusion about where I'm living and who I'm living with. Part of this year is that we all live in "intentional Christian community", so my roommates are important for plenty of reasons beyond simply being near them. Living in intentional community means that we all have agreed to be there for each other and be supportive of each other during our year of service. The goal is to have bonds between each other that are strong enough where we can feel comfortable talking about a hard day at work, or asking theological questions, without being nervous. Crafting that kind of rapport between people who are still getting to know each other can be difficult, but obviously living together helps. We also have community days every few weeks where Krista lets us pick out a bonding activity, like playing mini-golf earlier today.
As far as house practicalities go, we share one house budget for groceries and toiletries, and also share cleaning duties. We try to eat dinner together each night as a group, but in reality this almost never happens, as people have work/Bible studies/concerts/visitors instead. However, dinner each night with whoever is at home is a fun time to share things from our days and laugh around the dinner table. Each of us cooks one night a week, which leads to a decent amount of variety. On a related note, if anybody has any vegetarian recipes for six, I'd love to have them.
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