The Basics of Living in French House KITCHEN THINGS Cooking: We cook every day except Saturday. Cooking starts at 4 p.m. and dinner is served at 6:15 p.m. Clean-up is typically over by 7:30 p.m. We usually have four- to five-person cooking teams. Every team cooks once a week. Within each team, the members rotate who is the "chef" responsible for writing the menu and organizing the rest of the team. The food stewards need menus from chefs early to be able to pick ingredient quantities and order food. Gardes / invites / missing dinner: If you can't be home for dinner but want us to save you some food for when you do get home, you can mark a "G" by your name on the form across from the drinks fridge, or call and request a "garde". The cooking team will save you a plate to eat later, and either leave it in the kitchen or put it in the house fridge with your name on it. If you don't eat dinner at the house at all one night, mark "X" by your name on the form, and you won't be billed for the dinner. (But if you mark an "X", you can't eat any leftovers from the meal until midnight.) Mark "I" for "invite" if you have a friend come over and eat a house dinner, and mark "V" if you ate just the vegetarian dinner (this is cheaper). Use "VG" for a vegetarian garde, or, if you're really hungry, "GG" for a "grand garde" with a bigger portion (same price as a normal dinner). Use other various combinations as necessary (e.g. VGG, VI, etc.). Fridges: We have four fridges. The fridge inside the kitchen proper is the "drinks fridge" or "frigo des boissons". It holds house drinks and sometimes house dessert or other ingredients. Don't put any personal food in this fridge. The three fridges in the dining room are, from left to right: 1. what is variously referred to as the "frigo nouveau", the "frigo a gauche", or the "frigo sans nom", 2. the "house fridge" or "frigo de la maison", and 3. the "frigo viole." The frigo nouveau and the frigo viole are for personal items. Put your name on your food -- we have sharpies and various writing implements in a canister on the kitchen table. Don't eat anybody else's food without their permission. The house fridge contains house food. Don't put any personal food in this fridge, except for gardes. House food may be eaten if: a) It is for a house purpose, such as LMF Dinner, or cookies that you bake for everybody. b) It is leftovers for a meal that has already been made, no future chef is depending on it being available (ask the food stewards), and it is after midnight if you marked an "X" for dinner. c) It is of a certain ingredient that can be used for personal use in responsible quantities. Some ingredients, like flour, sugar, and ketchup, can be used for personal use in responsible quantities. Cleanliness: Wash your dishes after you use them. Use soap and hot water. Look at the dish to make sure it's clean. If not, repeat. When moving dishes to the drying rack, move a similar amount of dishes from the drying rack to the shelves. Nettoyages: Nettoyages are medium-sized cleaning tasks (cleaning out one fridge, cleaning a stove) performed every week by a cooking team, so each cooking team does grands nettoyages every six weeks, or twice a semester. Each member should sign up for four different tasks each semester, including one fridge each time. Sponges: Sponges with a corner cut off are for tables. Sponges without a corner cut off are for plates, cups, bowls, and silverware. Distribution of kitchen wealth: Don't hoard plates, cups, bowls, or silverware in your room, or someone will come after you when it's time for dinner. FRENCHY/HOUSE THINGS When we speak French: We speak exclusively French during dinner (at least until dessert), pauses-cafes (study breaks), house meetings (except with the president's permission), and the weeklong French marathon every semester. At dinner, if a non-member (who is not a former member) is visiting and doesn't speak French, that person's table can speak English. House meetings: We hold house meetings the first Sunday of every month. House meetings are announced a week in advance by the president, who runs them. Particular important votes (amendments to the guidelines, matters already voted on at previous meetings) must be announced a week in advance. Social members: In addition to our resident members who live in French House, we can also have social members who cook, eat, and hang out in French House without actually living here. These people are voted in with a two-thirds majority and generally must speak French or profess an interest in learning. Kitchen socialness: People often do their homework in the dining room (which we inexplicably refer to as "the kitchen"). Members are usually happy to help each other. The tables resonate at the same frequency generally used for pencil erasing, so be careful to warn your tablemates before you erase something. Sacrificial table: The two tables leading into the kitchen from the TV lounge are the "sacrificial table" (la table sacrificielle). Items left on it may be claimed by anybody, except when we use the tables to serve dinner, or when the items are otherwise clearly not sacrificial (valuable, left there by mistake, etc.). The sacrificial table is not the same thing as the trash -- only put stuff on the table if there's a reasonable chance somebody else might want it. Be careful not to accidentally pick up other people's things and put them on the sacrificial table. Computers: Grace a le class of '07 geeksquad, French House has a lovely public-access Athena workstation, tour-eiffel (in the TV lounge). French House also has Wireless Ethernet (802.11) around most of the house, provided by Keith and Josh.