My first blog ever on this site!
Teo’s blogpost reminded me that this awesome site exists, and figured it might be nice to recount some of my own experiences in the House now that I am graduated too– I’m feeling nostalgic with nothing to do at my job so I’ll blog on company time.
When I first told my friend that I lived in French House, they thought I was a weird Francophile but now they live in French House too… sooooooo #whatdatmean 🤔
I joined French House my freshman fall, back in 2022. My first exposure to French House was actually far earlier than that, during CPW, when I crashed in the quiet lounge. I think Fiona ‘24 came in around midnight asking if I was alright (My CPW host lives in Baker– I had no reason to be passed out in that lounge).
Perhaps that was the first indication of what kind of a place French House was: even a random prefrosh asleep in the quiet lounge is checked on to make sure they’re okay.
My time in French House often fluctuated; I was more present in some semesters than others, depending on what kind of curveball MIT throws at you. The sweet thing about French House, though, is that it doesn’t matter if you’re gone for two hours or four months. There will always be someone in the hall or the kitchen waiting to ask you how your day has been.
French House often advertises itself as The Hub of Baking and Cooking at MIT, filled with friendly faces who are always down to join you in whatever you might dream of.
And to its credit, it’s true.
What you don’t often get to see is how French House shows up for each other:
Rallying in droves to wrap hundreds of stuffed grape leaves hours before you’re even meant to start cooking
Staying up past midnight to make hundreds of tortillas
Cooking dinner every night and pouring your hearts into each meal regardless of whose menu it is
Showing up to help you cook without any instructions, already knowing what needs to get done
Dropping off home-baked goods, communal IAP groceries, and boxes and boxes of snacks so you know you always have food at home
Seeing fudstuds (despite their best efforts not to) work overtime to fulfill every one of your crackpot menus
Cheering for your plane as it flies overhead at Johnson track
Dreaming up new ways to trick and delude you so that even after four years you’re still surprised when you’re brought before a pitch black kitchen at 10 pm
Appearing at CPW events even if there’s only one prefrosh present just for it to turn into a house-wide board game night with each other
Defeating cabin fever by play fighting in the snow
Babysitting a puppy that hasn’t quite gotten used to being alone yet
Packing up your entire room in the few hours before you leave
Flying across the country to hold each other together
Going across the hall to hold each other together
Generations of LMFians before me have wandered the same halls I have, and many more will do the same after me. Nothing ever really felt the same from year to year– and I think that’s the point. The community isn’t so much a place as it is the people who make it up; it will grow and change and evolve into something new as the seasons do. Not much will stay the same, I’m sure, but that has always been the most exciting part.
It was and still feels so cliche to say that the best thing about this school is the people you meet here– but cliches persist because they’re true, and this one is no different. French House will show you exactly how a group of thirty-something undergrads can come together and make the east wing on the fourth floor of New House feel like home. I don’t think I’ll ever stop being grateful for that.
