Haverford House

Hey hey,
Last week Wednesday marked a day in history for us fellows. It was our first trip back to Haveford College as bona-fide alumnae/i (had to throw in some latin. Actually, upon thinking about it if bona fide is going to modify alumnae/i, it should be bonae/i fideles…hmm I’ll leave it alone). We attended the non-academic registration for the Haverford College Class of 2013.

Sarah M

That’s right, every freshman got their keychain, ID card, and 30-second (more or less, depending on how in a rush they were and how energetic they seemed) description of what Haverford House is, what we plan to do, and a map of Philadelphia. It was a great success, and great to see old friends as well. Even nicer was that we had some animal crackers to feed us on the ride back to West Philadelphia (just kidding).

Customs people doing their thing

I’d like to end with a pita bread shape that we saw at dinner last night (courtesy of Joe’s mom who gave him the recipe for pita bread), via Mary’s plate and Sarah M’s blueberry:

I’ll let people guess what it is, but that blueberry is a peninsula. That’s the only clue I’ll give.

Ciao for now,
Sarah D.

post scriptum (I’m done with the latin for today, really)-for Haverford students who wanted a handout and didn’t get it/misplaced it, we will have more this THURSDAY FROM 8-10 AT THE STUDENT ACTIVITITES FAIR! And we’ll post it afterwards.

Starting at the Bicycle Coalition of Greater Philadelphia a few months ago, I didn’t really know what kind of activism went into ‘bicycle advocacy’ (nor what ‘bike advocacy’ even meant, for that matter). I’ve had experience with more direct political activism, I’ve always been excited by non-violent social change like the Civil Rights movement, and most recently I focused on empowerment through displaying social and political issues in the form of public art…but none of this seemed to be what the Bicycle Coalition was about.

When I interviewed at the Bike Coalition, the executive director told me: ‘the thing about bicycles is that they’re fun, and you can win,” comparing the Coalition to his former work as an anti-war activist. “What we’re trying to do is create a cultural shift towards more bike use”. The Coalition focuses on advocacy and education, working to make bicycling both safer and more accessible. The idea is that by doing these things, more people will be willing to try biking, and will be able to enjoy it and recognize its importance on their own- that is, they will be able make biking part of their culture, because they are being invited rather than yelled at or looked down on.

To use one of my favorite new metaphors, the Bike Coalition is not trying to hit people over the head with their agenda, but rather respectfully reaching out to people wherever they currently stand, and asking them to move only a little bit towards making Philly safer and better for bicycling. And exactly because they are engaging in this more subtle, cultural shift kind of activism, people seem to be willing to stop and listen and be engaged, and maybe even shift their behavior.

So would this strategy work for the anti-war movement, I wonder? While it might not solve every problem, it seems to me that the idea of ‘creating cultural shift through building education and accessibility’ might be helpful for many causes.

*p.s.- Speaking of education, check out the bicycle education blog I’ve been writing a lot for! http://bikePHL.bicyclecoalition.org

To help keep our house green, we decided to make a worm bin. Worm bins are an easy way of dealing with food waste and generally require less maintenance than a compost bin.

I looked around online for a design I liked. Generally it’s best to have one bin with holes in the bottom nestled within one without holes.  That way, the liquid (or worm tea) can drip out of the first bin and be collected in the second.  This design includes a third bin, also with holes in the bottom, that one can add once the main bin starts to get full.  If you add it on top of the main bin and begin adding food, the worms will move up from the old bin to the new bin (through the holes in the bottom), ultimately leaving you with a beautiful bin of worm castings without having to sort through and remove the worms yourself.