Sport CPW by Sabrina M. '21
cpw at senior haus
CPW has come and gone, and it’s left all the students of MIT with sunny weather for this week. I should preface this by saying: I love CPW. I organized CPW in my dorm last year. It is one of my favorite times of the school year, because I love having silly events and meeting excited prefrosh. I also love my dorm, Senior Haus, and I’ve written about it before. Mix the two together and you just get a really excitable and energetic version of myself for one weekend.
I didn’t get many pictures for two reasons: one, a lot of our events are discussions or activities relating to what can be sensitive or private material, and students come here seeking a safe space, so, we definitely don’t snap pictures of those. And second, I’m really forgetful and can never remember to take photos. Regardless, I’ve compiled what I have, and for what I don’t, I wrote the best descriptions I could. So, in a particular, but not chronological, order, here are some of the events we had at Senior Haus:
Occupy Senior Haus
cardboard construction requires cardboard safety hats
BBQ With Tireswinging
A historic tradition in Senior Haus, we had this all weekend long. When we weren’t building cardboard forts or making absurd food combos, we were grilling and tire swinging. Few prefrosh were brave enough to try facing The Tree, but all of them made it out alive. We stepped our barbecuing game up by adding some Latin flair, but we ran out of hamburger buns pretty early and had to improvise using hot dog ones. Trust me, it can work.
shot by danielle h. 19′
Alternative Sex Seminar
An annual classic! Exactly what it sounds like. We got together in our lobby to have a frank discussion about safe sex practices and different ways people explore their sexualities. We also had a trained PLEASURE educator there to show everyone some useful tips.
Sausage Tacos
What do you get when you put Bratwurst into a flour tortilla? A sausage taco! The perfect way to start any CPW morning. Surprisingly, it tastes a lot better than it sounds, and I think the prefrosh who got a taste will agree with me on this one.
Pony Rides
Big disclaimer: there were no ponies present. As it turns out, adults and teenagers are too large to ride on tiny little ponies, so we had to settle for adult horses. Nonetheless, prefrosh (and residents!) got to ride around our courtyard on two horses, one of which was a part-time unicorn for hire.
Living Here and Being Queer
Another discussion based event. We sat in a nice cozy circle and talked about our own personal experiences being queer at MIT and in Senior Haus. We discussed resources on campus, like the Rainbow Lounge and specific Mental Health services. We also got a little more light hearted and talked about dating and East Campus parties. Special shout out to the prefrosh that came out to this one (or those who wanted to but couldn’t!); you guys are great, and I really hope you find your home here at MIT.
Skeptical Festival
This one’s kind of a special one. It was supposed to be an amalgamation of really silly events, like a hot dog eating contest, a three legged race, and a ton of cotton candy, which we bought a machine for. However, no one actually knew that because our description was just “This probably won’t be good,” and we only got one prefrosh who ate a hot dog before leaving. But, in typical Senior Haus fashion, we made the best of a kinda sad situation. We grabbed our bucket full of hotdogs and a handful of buns and embarked on a journey across campus to spread hot dog joy to MIT, because CPW can be fun for upperclassmen, too. After about an hour and a trip through the Infinite and through Dorm Row, we managed to get every single hot dog eaten. Thanks to everyone who ate our cold hot dogs, even after we ran out of buns!
Poetry Reading
My personal favorite event, but I missed it this year. If it’s anything like last year’s, though, then there was bound to be a lot of intense poetry and over dramatized readings of them. Famous poets like Ginsberg and EE Cummings were featured.
Waffle Haus
Waffle House is an American restaurant chain with more than 2,100 locations in 25 states in the United States. Waffle Haus is a breakfast event sponsored by Senior Haus with many, many waffles, and other breakfast foods. This turned out to be a popular event for those who had been embarking on fruity adventures the night before and hadn’t slept yet.
Live Portraiture
Another great event that I missed; residents and volunteers got together and modeled for the sake of art. Many bodies were drawn, some more abstract than others.
Head of House Brunch
In a rare opportunity, the world outside of Senior Haus got to see how lovely our Heads of Haus are, and just how fancy their brunches can be. We had smoked fishes, homemade quiche, roasted potatoes, banana bread, and all sorts of fancy cheese and crackers. I got to meet some cool prefrosh parents (preparents?) who chatted it up with our Haus Team.
one of our head of house’s fluffly (backwards) kitties
Haus Concert
Nothing screams “Senior Haus culture” like concerts in our courtyard. This time around, we had a fantastic lineup of Luke Martinez (formerly known as Aztec in the music world) from down the river at Harvard, Breaking Forms from the Media Lab, and Mornings, who’s one of our talented residents and former bloggers.
shot by peter d.
Really Freaking Good Coffee
To end off the weekend of no sleep, prefrosh came to try some of our finest coffee. I’m no coffee connoisseur, but I know these were some expensive beans, roasted to perfection, and brewed precisely to a science. The name didn’t lie.
Lastly, I wanted to close with a special thank you to all the prefrosh who came out to hang with us; Senior Haus is a far walk from all the happenings of Dorm Row, and we seriously appreciate it. Plus, you guys were some of the coolest kids ever, and I hope you all come to MIT, and maybe even live in Senior Haus, too.