Memorable Moments: time and place

By -

Taste presentation
 Memorable Moments: time and place

Dear REL-365-B01-2025,


I had the privilege of taking SMells and Bells in the second semester of my senior year. JBK and I planned for me to take this course one year prior while planning out my religion minor. It was a really long year but I am so glad I got to take this course when I did.

Class meetings for this course were some of the more challenging and more calming for me throughout the semester. Some days I anxiously sat out of conversations while scrolling through apartment websites and wondering if I needed to look for another job. Other days we made s’mores, celebrated the trees’ New Year, and went on a walk in the Wheaton Woods. 

New Years for the trees
Pilgrimage to the Bra Tree

As always I deeply appreciated hearing from my peers especially when we disagree. I am honored to be seen as a safe person to disagree with. I am thankful for anyone who shared especially in particularly small and vulnerable classes like ours. 

Our banquet was exactly what I expected and a perfect condensing of how I have experienced our course. Thank you all for your contributions from menu brainstorming, to decorations, and playlist curation.

Banquet preparations


Blessings, 

Josephine Mortrud

2025 Banquet

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Healing, purity, and revitalization: A tour of Kashmiri staple spices

By -
Image
“So, Adi, what do you want to know about spices?” These were the words that started my evening at Iqbal’s, an old family friend and professor of management at UMass Amherst alongside my parents. Although his department is that of economics, his expertise, in my opinion, lies in the realm of authentic Kashmiri cooking. He taught me and my parents how food is traditionally eaten by hand in India, how they were often served in large, metal bowls in which the individual components of the meal were free to mix, and now (at the behest of my parents) I’d come to learn about the nuances of spice in Iqbal’s cultural background. Admittedly, I had no idea what questions to ask or where to start, but thankfully Iqbal came prepared for this lesson. He opened a large drawer underneath the counter, revealing countless honey-jars repurposed for spice containment. “In just about all religions, spices have been used as disinfectant,” Iqbal tells me as he passes me a handful of cloves, prom...
Read more

In conclusion

By Anonymous -
I signed up to take this class in order to fulfill a connection (with nutrition), something that the administration of our college is moving to phase out or perhaps alter significantly. And while I found some connections to be a stretch, looking at the catalogue of what was possible, I thought most were solid. However I'm still pissed at the school for not letting me connect a class about the religion of Judaism and a class on the history of Jews in Europe, seemed like a layup, but I digress. I'm still glad I took the class. While I can't promise I'll retain all the content, I do feel like I learned a decent amount about my peers in the class. People sharing anecdotes about memories brought on by smells and sounds, it reminded me about how interesting people can be and what the human mind can do. Also I had fun during the banquet, making a pizza, for a live audience, wearing a shirt saying "Pizza's got your back", but sadly theres nothing on the back o...
Read more

Amidst the Pandemic

By -
Image
I think having the opportunity to take Smells and Bells and then experiencing a worldwide pandemic came with good timing. Oftentimes, we’re so rushed to get from one one place to another that we miss out on what happens around us. We’re so accustomed to the lifestyle of being busy that it has become the norm for many of us. However, the pandemic has forced us to slow down. We’re now appreciating everything that we had previously taken for granted and noticing things in our surroundings that we have never noticed before.  Take this quarantining/social distancing as an opportunity to be more aware of what you experience through the senses. I don’t think my senses have necessarily heightened over the past 5 weeks, but I am actively making the choice to pay more attention to what I see, hear, touch, taste, and smell. I like going on nature/mindfulness walks and basking in the sunshine out in my backyard. This morning, I could hear a faint noise from the wind, hear the birds chirpin...
Read more