The dorms are one of my favorite things about Reed, but there are still lots of things you can do to make them feel like home. We got together as a dorm to eat cookies and decorate the walls/celling of Naito 2 with blue tape art. It was a lot of fun, and went on for a few hours. The pictures say it all…
In honor of Halloween, the residents of Sullivan 2 gathered to celebrate with some pumpkin-themed fun! After filling up on pumpkin scones, pumpkin macaroons, pumpkin muffins, and pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, we got our hands dirty carving three large and several small pumpkins to adorn the common room.
Lured in by the smell of free food and the sound of Monty Python, several residents from around Naito-Sullivan joined in. Soon the room was full of Reedies carving (and eating) away.
Letting nothing go to waste, we roasted the pumpkin seeds while watching Monty Python’s Flying Circus, and then marveled at our creations: a rat, vampire, and a stress-relieving pin cushion to name a few. We ended the night with full bellies and contented hearts.
Join us in Winch on Sunday, November 3 from 1-3 p.m. for the “Grand Bazaar”! The event, presented by the Arabic Culture House and Fulbright Scholar Noha, will feature a number of specifically Arabic- and Middle Eastern-themed activities. Visitors will be greeted not only with enticing aromas and lively music, but also with a cup of hot tea at the entrance. Inside, they will have the opportunity to try our very own koshari dish, a typical Arabic food, as well as trying several other pre-prepared Arabic dishes. They will learn to write their name in Arabic script, and can take it with them either on paper or as a temporary henna body tattoo. They will also learn about the hijab, the traditional Islamic headscarf. Finally, the guests can grab a small homemade Arabic sweet or dessert upon leaving the bazaar.
Over the weekend, Outhausers took a camping trip to Steens Mountain in Southeast Oregon. We rose before the sun to pack up and hit the road, letting Reed College quickly fade into the 4:30am darkness behind us.
We arrived at our destination and set up camp as tiny flurries of snow swirled in the frigid, clear air. Patches of frozen white persisted in the shadows of the brilliant yellow aspens. The scene embodied the spirit of fall completely: Brisk air so chilly it had its own flavor, glowing golden forests, and a sky that transformed moment to moment from gray and nebulous to crystalline blue.
Well worth the eight hour drive.
After falling hungrily on lunch, we hiked until early evening. We trekked the length of a ridge extending out into a deep, glacial-formed furrow in the mountain. Piles of snow provided ammunition for snowball battles along the way, and clambering onto the many rock formations granted spectacular views of the dramatically sloping autumn-painted walls of the valley.
We had a moment of despair when, even after determined fumbling with frozen fingers, our camp stove would not work. The cold was bitter, and we were loathe to resign ourselves to a dinner of cold bread and peanut butter. Our problem was solved by a trio of grizzled elk hunters who graciously allowed us to cook dinner in their camp. They were also without a stove, but were in possession of space heater, which served just as well to boil a pot of water for pasta.
The next day, we awoke frosted. The entire world glittered. We packed up camp and headed out. We traveled to a natural hot spring and spent a glorious hour soaking, relaxing, and taking in the spectacular mountain views. After stopping in Fields, a town consisting of a liquor store, a gas station, and a restaurant (all owned by the same family) for the “world’s best milkshakes”, we commenced the long drive back to Reed, content with our lovely fall escape.
Anna Mannites gathered on Wednesday for an evening of hard-core stress relief during midterm week. One of our residents prepared and shared a selection of soothing teas which we enjoyed with pumpkin-flavored pastries. We then decorated the common room with an assortment of cinnamon-scented pine cones, ribbon and pumpkins.
We had a great time slowing down the pace during a crazy week for all to usher in the fall season with yummy smells and autumnal decorations around a cozy fire.
This past weekend, the Reed Community was invited into the Reed Canyon to get their hands dirty While the canyon receives constant attention from the project director Zac Perry and his crew of dedicated student workers, “Canyon Day” happens once each spring and fall to invite more students, faculty, staff, and campus neighbors to get their hands dirty. The main task we face is ripping up the persistent English Ivy, an invasive species that suffocates all other plants small and large if left unkempt. Climatis and Himalayan Blackberry also pose problems to the balance of the ecosystem, but are not as prolific as the ivy. Volunteers planted ferns, Thimbleberry, and other native species in the bare patches created by the ivy’s vacancy.
To repay volunteers for their time and energy, a small group of talented musicians wove through the trees while playing beautiful folk music. We also enjoyed grilled sausages from the local Otto’s Sausages (with veggie options), and used the new cider press to quench our thirst with fresh cider.
With slightly-sore arms and my soul soothed by the natural surroundings, music, and good company, I was able to head back to my books!
A photo from last year’s Portland Juggling Festival.
This weekend the Portland Juggling Festival, an annual event that is considered to be the largest regional gathering of jugglers, will return to Reed! More specifically, the Sports Center.
Portland Jugglers describes the event as follows:
“The Portland Jugglers are a rich community of people from around the globe that use the Portland, Oregon area as a place to nurture juggling as a hobby and a lifestyle.
We come together weekly to share and socialize, often joined by some of the best local amateur and professional talent Portland has to offer. Join us at the Reed College Sports Center to learn the basics or advance your skills. All ages welcome, children should be accompanied by an adult.
Once a year, we focus our collective energies to put on one of the largest regional juggling festival in North America, which draws jugglers from around the world to come and see what is happening this year.
In a place where stuff is falling from the sky for most of the year, we feel compelled to throw stuff back up.”
The Portland Juggling Festival will be held September 27th-19th, with events beginning at 10:00am every day of the Festival. A performance will be held in Kaul Auditorium at 7:00pm on Saturday the 28th; tickets will be available at the Sports Center front desk throughout the day and at the Kaul box office beginning at 6:00pm on Saturday. Tickets are $16 for adults and $10 with a student ID.
Liquid Nitrogen Ice Cream is an annual tradition in Mad Science, a theme community housed in the second and third levels of Foster. Each year, puzzled Reedies peer into their cabinets, wondering why the vanilla, the chai powder, and the cocoa mix are all marked with “N2”. They are rewarded for not using the ingredients when the first Hum 110 paper is due, and the common room is full of nitrogen gas and various flavors of ice cream.
Students gather to “ooh” and “aah” over the smoky sweet treat.
Last Friday evening started out inauspiciously–the Reed van I’d reserved wouldn’t start. After several minutes of sweaty confusion, I finally figured out the problem and we were cruising across the Ross Island bridge up my favorite twisting tree-lined hill street to Chapman Elementary School. This historic building has a huge, cylindrical chimney in which thousands (about 35,000 at the last official count) of migratory Vaux’s swifts roost each warm September night.
Photo courtesy of Jamie Francis/The Oregonian
Click here for a video of the migrating Vaux’s swifts!
My dormies and I sat on a grassy slope above the soccer field watching the little kids play a free-for-all game of soccer while the birds circled the chimney in a complex flying pattern before funneling in to sleep. The entire process took about a half hour as the sun set, and a large hawk swooped in near the end, providing an exciting finale to our show. We hopped back into the van and drove a bit deeper into the city to Cool Moon ice cream. There, we all sampled their signature “kulfi” flavor: pistachio/cardamom/rosewater, an interpretation of the classic Indian frozen dessert served during Diwali.
Dormies displaying their scoops… Yum!
Over half of us (including myself) got the yummy “horchata cookie” in cones. We arrived back at Reed while the night was just beginning, still impressed by the swifts and endless sweet combinations.
