Culinary House

Culinary House '17-'18. Drama, dishware, didn't do shit like the Culinary House before them. (There was one. From 2016-2017. Just not at 270 W. Tompkins.)

Inherited all the weird shit French House left here, including, but not limited to, several random paintings, the flag of Guyana(?), a bad translation of Les Mes, and a molding fork. They also inherited the house's many ghosts, which are reported to be a family consisting of a mother, son, daughter, and cat that will hiss as if it's in your fucking room. In late April / early May of 2018, ghost activity spiked, residents reporting footsteps upstairs when nobody was there and encountering a shadowy figure coming out of room 204's closet--a known source of ghostly activity. As a response, residents had the house blessed by two separate priests of different sects of Christianity.

Outside of ghosts, Culinary House's residents were bonded through the love of the dog and hate of people who brag about having more cookbooks than you. Had fun pretending they were devastated about losing the house to Harry Potter House. They weren't.

Culinary House Residents

• Bella (The Dog)
• Makenna Farshtchi
• Gabi Harris
• Emily Lewis
• Claire Mazius
• Nijae Minter
• Michel Mora
• Karla Poblano
• Louise Rossiter
• Katana Smith
• Soleil Smith

Renowned Instances

The Sex Closet

Have you ever seen a stain on a carpet and wondered, "What happened here?" Well, for the upstairs public closet, you don't have to! During Culinary House's reign, what started off as an innocuous storage room soon turned into a sex closet, replete with a mattress, TV, and lighting. And sex. Which half of the house did not consent to being created, one might add.

Following the year's closing, it was discovered by Andrew Salemi that several items had been left abandoned in the sex closet, none of which were claimed by any of the house members. One can only pray he used gloves for said items' removal.

The Ghost Incident

Throughout the 2017-2018 school year, several residents both upstairs and downstairs reported hearing strange sounds and voices, running into inconsistent cold spots, feeling as if they were being poked or prodded when no one was there, and being unsettled all around. While much of this was dismissed, either as possible supernatural encounters by believers or plain paranoia by nonbelievers, the ghostly activity could no longer be denied after the Ghost Incident.

April 20

One week before the encounter, noted skeptic and resident of room 204 Gabi Harris reported hearing a loud threatening hissing sound in the corner of their room late at night, scaring the shit out of them and prompting them to investigate. When no apparent stray cats, creatures, or Jazz House students revealed themselves to be the cause, the incident was chalked up to be, frankly, nothing. As time would soon prove, it definitely was Something.

April 27

Exactly one week later, a WVKC event took place late in the afternoon. That event was initially attended by all members of the house. Residents Michel Mora and Karla Poblano decided to return home early, however, and take advantage of the empty house to blast music. As they were getting set up in the living room, both heard footsteps upstairs. After confirming in the house group chat that no one else had returned home, and worrying that a robber had broken in, Mich and Karla went to investigate. It was only after checking each upstairs room that the two realized that the one place they had yet to look was room 204's closet, which was closed at the time (whereas the others were typically kept open).

Mich volunteered to open the closet, with Karla keeping close to the room's exit. Mich opened the door, looked around, and saw nothing. She turned back to announce her findings to Karla only to see the blood draining from Karla's face and hear her scream, "Behind you!" Mich turned back--and came face to face with a hulking black human-shaped mass coming at her.

Gabi Harris and Makenna Farshtchi, who had decided to return to the house upon receiving the worrying break-in text, received a call on the ride back from the two who in hysterics, crying and reporting what they'd experienced. When Gabi and Makenna arrived minutes later, they found the two on the lawn, frantically reporting the news to other house members. Gabi and Makenna agreed to check out the room, arming themselves with a walking stick and a butterfly knife. While nothing and no one was found, they confirmed that the usually closed closet door was now open.

Upon returning to the lawn, the four agreed to call campus security. This prompted the timed side-quest "Death or Exile", in which Gabi remembered that the haunted closet in question was currently serving as their illegal alcohol stash. Suffice to say, ghosts can't beat the threat of academic expulsion.

By the time campo arrived, most of Culinary House had returned and were equally weirded out by the incident. Campus security searched the entire house and even checked for false walls during their inspection. After hearing the entire story, campo offered residents the option to be put up in a hotel if they didn't feel safe sleeping there at night. One particularly cool security officer offered to give them the number of his priest. Residents took him up on the offer and arranged to have the priest come bless the house as soon as possible.

May 1

The first priest, a Catholic, agreed to bless the house at 4 p.m. on the Tuesday following the incident. Several members attended the blessing, recited the opening passage along with the priest, and followed him around as he used an aspergillum to sprinkle holy water around the entire house (closet included) during the remainder of the blessing.

In the hours following the blessing, Emily Lewis reported seeing a ghost girl in the window of room 204, prompting her to contact a second priest about coming to bless the house.

Priest Rating: 9/10. Very professional, didn't accuse of us of causing the haunting, and as a bonus, got some holy water on our computers. A spiritual anti-virus if you will. All around a cool dude. Unfortunately loses a point due to the uncertainty of whether or not his blessing was successful due to the ghost girl sighting.

May 2

AKA 2018 Flunk. Not the greatest day for a priestly visit. Even fewer residents attended the blessing by the second priest, a Baptist, and only one was sober.

Priest Rating: 5/10. Insane response time. Professional...kind of. Came into the house and immediately announced, "it's not a ghost, it's a legion of demons," which really set the tone. Asked us if we were "living in sin," which as a majorly queer house, did not help the energy in the room. Was also described as kind of rude by the attendees, but he did his job, so points for that.