"If more of us valued food and cheer and song above hoarded gold, it would be a merrier world."-Tolkien

Kitchen in my building (not mine though)Here in our London dorms, most of the NYU students have access to a communal kitchen on their floors. We share it with about 10 other students (all NYU affiliated). The idea behind it is that we all hang out and get to know one other through shared usage.
Most of the space in the kitchen is taken up by a long table surrounded by about 8 chairs. The refrigerators, storage cabinets for food and freezers are on the right side from the door. The refrigerators are interesting. From the outside, they look like the normal ones we're used to. However, once you open it, you find multiple metal compartments with room numbers on them. Each of us has a key that opens a compartment that yields... well.. not too much space. It's enough for about a week's worth of food, if you're good at packing stuff together. The problem is that sometimes you forget what you have in there simply because you can't see it all. The cabinets however, are much larger, which makes it seem like it's trying to make up for the fridge. On the opposite end is where the microwaves, stoves and ovens (yes all plural) are. Above those are cabinets which contain a random assortment of pots, pans and key ingredients like salt and pepper (though these are often easy to forget about; too commonplace to remember perhaps?). The counter space is limited due to the microwaves, stoves and sink and isn't helped by the boxes of utensils sitting around.
The walls are what make the kitchens on each floor different from each other. Some floors have red walls, others all white. Each kitchen has two pictures, one on each wall. In my kitchen, there is a picture of a gargoyle of Notre Dame overlooking Paris and one of Big Ben reflected in a puddle of water. In the corner near the sink, there's a TV on which people watch everything ranging from Judge Judy to X Factor.
On any given day, the kitchen will be a place where I run into my hall mates, some of whom are also classmates. Usually, we'll both be making dinner or putting away groceries. Conversations are struck up with those I know; brief greetings are exchanged with those I don't know well. However, sometimes the kitchen becomes the meeting place. Some days it's where the group meets before going out. Other times, it's where we meet to hang out because we just don't want to leave the building. The kitchen on the 9th floor of the building is the most common choice for the simple reason that most of my friends happen to live on that floor. These communal kitchens do what kitchens in homes tend to do: bring people together. Food has always been seen as something to gather people around. The kitchen is where that food comes from so the fact that the kitchen is used as a place of socialization isn't surprising. But it still manages to amaze me at what people can turn a kitchen into. Something that is so specific in function is somehow flexible to the will of the people in it.

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