Smells and Bells

Screenshot from Smells & Bells S'20 virtual banquet FYS F '17 Cooking Together As I was reading Rosie's reflection, especially after reading almost all of the class's reflections, I saw that nearly all  of you noted  the one thing the would change would be to have the banquet in person,. But then  a strange thought occurred to me.  Of all the times I've had classes do this "ritual scorecard" after a banquet, including our FYS, your reflections on this virtual banquet  seemed to come closest to expressing the "educational goals" I had in mind by having us make a ritual banquet together.  For one thing, more people agreed that we achieved the right balance between scriptedness and improvisation, more people felt it was inclusive, and people seemed to have a clearer sense of the closure it provided.  Which suggests that just as there were costs of not being able to cook and eat together, so there may also have been costs fr...

This is a sumset picture from the beach I am writing about.              In A Natural History of the Senses, Diane Ackerman often talked about how smells have a memory attached to them. While reading her examples I found myself thinking about some smells that have a personal meaning to me, whether that be a memory or a feeling of home. What I started to think about is the smell I miss the most while I’m at school and reminds me of home I came up with the smell of low tide aka the sulfur ocean smell you get sometimes at the beach. When I was in 5 th grade my family moved to Cape Cod from central Massachusetts, and I hated that smell at first. It would fill up the school bus as it would drive me to school or as we passed the marsh on my way to my grandparent’s house. The smell is so strong as I’m writing this I can think back to what it smelt like. As I grew up I found that I missed it when I would go away for vacation. Now that smell mean...