Walking onto campus this past semester, I couldn’t imagine what my Allegheny life would be like. I was unsure of everything – how would my classes work? Would I be able to see my friends? Where can we hang out? Are we allowed to leave campus? Who would I be living with? And will we get along? Most people had some of these same concerns but the last two I felt the most personally because I was chosen to live in the French House. Being chosen to live in the French House meant I was going to be living with four other people I hardly knew. This was particularly nerve-wracking. Out of my four roommates in the French House, I had only interacted with two of them – one lived across the hall from me in Crawford for a couple of months and the other was in one of my classes.
"Other than those few interactions, I really knew nothing about my future roommates."
Luckily, before move-in, we started a groupchat to start to get to know everyone a bit better, and as soon as I got to campus for move-in, there were two smiling faces there waiting to help me. I knew from that moment on that this was going to be a great semester.
The first few days were very quiet as we were still getting used to each other and there were only three of us there due to travel restrictions. As soon as everyone got there, the French House became a very fun environment! There was constant activity, whether that be dance parties to French and early 2000’s hits, dressing up for absolutely no reason, cooking up something delicious in the kitchen, game nights (in particular Cards Against Humanity), movie nights, or adventures around Crawford County.
One of my favorite memories of my roommates and me in the French House was on the Friday night before Halloween. Because it was Halloween I was dressed up, as an alien, no less. Three of us ended up watching the final episode of Marianne when my two other roommates showed up with flowers for some unknown reason. Because we are college students, none of us brought a vase to college and we had to improvise. We had a giant jug of cheese puffs, so I dumped them all out onto our kitchen table, cleaned it out, and, voila, we had a vase that happened to coordinate perfectly with the flowers. Later that night, we had a self-care night where me and two of my roommates put on clay face masks, blasted music, had deep conversations, and ultimately ended up doing a ridiculous photoshoot. This photoshoot resulted in about 200 photos, not only with our funky clay face masks but also random balloons we had lying around the French House from three of our birthdays.
"This is absolutely one of my favorite memories of the French House because we really felt like a family!"
I am extremely thankful for all of the opportunities that living in the French House has given me. I have been able to step out of my comfort zone, meet new friends, and of course, work on my French while doing all of that! Here’s to my roommates, Kathryn, Maxence, Tony, and Elis! I can’t wait for more memories together next semester!
~~ Faythe Shulte, Class of '23
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