Communiversity
Brandeis has an activity every spring called Communiversity. Or, rather, not every spring. It was started in the early 1980's, and lapsed for awhile and was brought back last year or the year before.
In communiversity, anyone who is interested can sign up to teach a class on the topic of their choice. The classes are usually short, meeting between 1 and 3 times for an hour or two in the evenings. They run all kinds of different subjects, and are taught by everyone from students to Brandeis staff members to professors.
This year I signed up for three classes. The first on was Turkish Coffee and Fortune Telling. We learned all of the secrets for making and drinking Turkish coffee, including a lot of the folklore and old wives tales. Then we learned how to drink it in an acceptable manner, and finally we learned the basics of reading our fortunes in our coffee grounds. The class was a lot of fun, and I am always looking for more excuses to go out and drink coffee!
The next class I took was Vegan Cooking, and it met twice. During the classes we talked a lot about what it means to be vegan, what kinds of substitutions are necessary to make vegan food turn out right in the absence of eggs and butter, and the types of dietary necessities that must be met when meats and dairy are cut out of your diet. Meanwhile we learned how to make several delicious vegan dishes mostly by watching because the university doesn't have a very hands-on friendly cooking environment. The first week we made an amazing lentil and potato curry dish and chocolate chip cookies, and the second week we made a sweet potato and lentil soup and chocolate cake. All of the items were extremely good, but I must say that I think I'll stick with non-vegan baked goods and take my vegan food in the form of wonderful soups and stews.
Finally, I took a class on basic chain mail. I taught myself mailing several years ago, so I wasn't expecting to really learn much from the class, but it seemed like a good opportunity to meet some people with similar interests. The class was fun, and the instructor was a nice woman who works in our dining services department in some form or fashion.
Overall, I was thrilled with the opportunity to get out and meet some new people and try some new things (and avoid doing homework!). We got a good laugh at most of the classes because almost all of the people in attendance were seniors. Everyone commented that they figured that they should get out and do some fun things on campus before they graduated and began to regret doing nothing but sitting at home studying!
In communiversity, anyone who is interested can sign up to teach a class on the topic of their choice. The classes are usually short, meeting between 1 and 3 times for an hour or two in the evenings. They run all kinds of different subjects, and are taught by everyone from students to Brandeis staff members to professors.
This year I signed up for three classes. The first on was Turkish Coffee and Fortune Telling. We learned all of the secrets for making and drinking Turkish coffee, including a lot of the folklore and old wives tales. Then we learned how to drink it in an acceptable manner, and finally we learned the basics of reading our fortunes in our coffee grounds. The class was a lot of fun, and I am always looking for more excuses to go out and drink coffee!
The next class I took was Vegan Cooking, and it met twice. During the classes we talked a lot about what it means to be vegan, what kinds of substitutions are necessary to make vegan food turn out right in the absence of eggs and butter, and the types of dietary necessities that must be met when meats and dairy are cut out of your diet. Meanwhile we learned how to make several delicious vegan dishes mostly by watching because the university doesn't have a very hands-on friendly cooking environment. The first week we made an amazing lentil and potato curry dish and chocolate chip cookies, and the second week we made a sweet potato and lentil soup and chocolate cake. All of the items were extremely good, but I must say that I think I'll stick with non-vegan baked goods and take my vegan food in the form of wonderful soups and stews.
Finally, I took a class on basic chain mail. I taught myself mailing several years ago, so I wasn't expecting to really learn much from the class, but it seemed like a good opportunity to meet some people with similar interests. The class was fun, and the instructor was a nice woman who works in our dining services department in some form or fashion.
Overall, I was thrilled with the opportunity to get out and meet some new people and try some new things (and avoid doing homework!). We got a good laugh at most of the classes because almost all of the people in attendance were seniors. Everyone commented that they figured that they should get out and do some fun things on campus before they graduated and began to regret doing nothing but sitting at home studying!
posted by Liz at 11:05 PM
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home