We do Freeze Over

Maybe you heard it gets cold here. It certainly won't be when you get here. In fact, after carrying your belongings up 3 flights of stairs, you're going to be ready to swoon. But When October rolls in, or maybe November, weather here isn't a precise science, a cold will lock in that you won't shake until March. Or April. But that's why living in Hoover will be so great. The library and Bartlett Dining Commons are just a few frigid moments away. You could almost go in your bare feet. If you have huge furry feet like a Hobbit.

Maybe you heard, or a sibling who goes here told you, or you noticed when you came to campus as a prospie, but everyone here sells t-shirts and hoodies. They all carry some self deprecating or boastful message. Like "Where Fun Goes to Die" or "If I Wanted an 'A' I Would Have Gone to Harvard," and others that we can't mention on a family blog.

Two years ago, we reached into the discard bin to grab a t-shirt message that was popular some years ago, but hadn't been in circulation for a half-a-decade at least. The phrase - "Hell Does Freeze Over" - aims to do what a lot of these t-shirt slogans set out to do: it calls attention to the fact that University of Chicago students face perilous academic rigor, classroom challenges that would wilt a normal human being. And, by the way, the t-shirt goes on to point out, they do this while freezing their niblets off.

Sister kisser

Meet Jonah and Ellie. They live in Hoover too. Jonah often plays in the hall, and comes around to visit Hoover students, with a light, almost impossible to hear knock on the door. He also took part in Max Arts last year, submitting a shadow box he built with his mommy. Then he sang at the annual Hoover concert at the end of the year. He sang a song he learned in school. It goes like this:

I was walking down the street
Far away from home
I ran into a tiger
And I said Shabbat Shalom.

We're working on Ellie's act for this year.

Squirrels

So what's the deal with the squirrels? Well, they're everywhere on campus. And they'll just about climb up your leg to eat that bagel you're holding. Really. These are some confident squirrels. So years ago, before any of us now living in Hoover House lived here, someone decided to make some t-shirts celebrating the aggressiveness of these squirrels. We still sell them, alongside the "Hell Does Freeze Over" t-shirts, which celebrate the demanding rigor of U. of C. and the bone-chilling winters. Some people will tell you the squirrels here act the way they do from generations of exposure to radiation, leaking from the isotopes buried deep beneath Regenstein Library, where Enrico Fermi and his mad-scientist colleagues first split the atom. Not true. The squirrels here HAVE to get in your face to get a morsel of your bagel, because we're always walking around reading books and looking off into space, contemplating big questions. It's the only way they can get our attention. It's adaptive evolution. You'll learn about it in bio.

What is "Scav"?

Fancy shoes. And a witch in the trunk. Not anything your guidance counselor promised you when you talked about coming to the University of Chicago. But there you have it. One of the experiences that helps fashion and intensify Hooverlove each year is Scav Hunt. Scav Hunt began way back before you were born. Over 4 days in May, teams from across the University of Chicago campus collect items, perform tricks, assemble objects, build nuclear reactors (no, really!), and drink lots and lots of coffee (or Red Bull or Pepsi) just to keep going. Hoover, although forced by architecture and higher-level organizational decisions to be part of Max Palevsky, asserts its independence each year by fielding its own Scav Hunt team. Hoover Lounge is transformed, with tarps and duct tape and discarded pizza boxes, into the nerve center of our determined effort to out-point far larger, better funded teams.

By the way, the image above is a Scav participant's effort to fulfill one of the requirements of item number 23 from the 2008 Scav list:

"Toto, I don't think we're in Kansas any more." No, but you will be before the end of the day. At 9:00 AM Thursday in Hutchinson Courtyard, present your team of Wayward Sons: Dorothy, the Scarecrow, the Cowardly Lion, and the Bat. They must be ready to travel over the rainbow in a flying house featuring a storm cellar door, chimneyed roof, picket fence, and the legs of that wicked witch you just ran over. Although if you happen to own a yellow Buick Roadmaster you can just use that, and follow it. Follow follow follow follow follow the yellow Buick Roadmaster. Boat leaves at 9:30. . . or maybe you don't want to see the second largest ball of twine on the face of the Earth, which is only fourteen short hours away? [& points. All Road Trip items requiring photo- or videographic documentation must include a member of the Wayward Sons in full costume or no points will be awarded.]

We didn't win last year. Or even do that well. Largely because we couldn't assemble a team for the road trip portion of the Scav Hunt. But this year will be different! You'll be here! Bring your ruby slippers.

Hooverlove defined

Wait. What does this family have to do with Hoover House? Oh, yeah: They're the Hoovers! The loveable dysfunctional family from Little Miss Sunshine. Have you seen that movie? Oh man! You should! There's an awesome old yellow VW van in it. And commentary on the hollowness of contemporary self-help motivational literature. And observations on the cringe-inducing weirdness of kiddie beauty pagents. And stuff about Nietzsche and Proust. And meditations on the importance of family. That's why I bring it up. Hoover House will be home to 100 students next year. The feeling you'll have for your fellow Hooverites will be a little bit like the feeling one has for family. Lots and lots of affection. And you'll have that sense that you belong here, without having to prove yourself, or adopt phony personas, or wear Abercrombie & Fitch (but it's okay if you do) . That's what Hooverlove is about. We take you as you are. A past resident (and current associate) once said: "They say there is a House for everyone. What I love about Hoover is that it's a House for anyone."