The epic of the Second Freezer
By Kirsten Kapteijns
Sneaking a peek into other people’s fridges is back! With this edition, we are not looking into a personal fridge, we’re going all out and taking a leap into a fridge shared by 10 (!) students: Guido, Ruben, Bloeme, Job, Moritz, Lisa, Cecilia, Kirsten, Tia, and Mathilde. Yes, we are talking about one of the infamous Bagijnhof fridges. This is no ordinary fridge. No, this fridge was once known as a freezer, and to this day the Bagijnhof 14 inhabitants still refer to it as ‘The Second Freezer’.
Before opening this magical freezer turned fridge, it is important to share its backstory. It all started when Elbuco took over the appliances, including both the freezers and fridges of all Bagijnhof houses. After a short while, a housemate spotted a difference in fees between B14 and other, similar, houses. Being curious, Elbuco was called, and a quick explanation was given: Bagijnhof 14 had different appliances than the other houses, and thus the amount differed. Still a bit confused, the inhabitants wondered what different appliances they had. Elbuco was quick to give the answer, looking at their files: the other similar houses had one freezer and one fridge, whereas Bagijnhof 14 had one freezer and… a second freezer.
You can imagine the impact of this revelation: the beloved fridge in Bagijnhof 14 was actually a freezer! After all, what was on paper must be right, right? However, after opening and closing the newly discovered ‘Second Freezer’ a few times, and noticing that nothing they put in there actually froze, the students started to doubt its identity. A long dispute with Elbuco followed, a quarrel was begun, and after putting forward solid arguments, it ended in with this highlight: Elbuco sent someone by to check on what in their files was a freezer. After thoroughly looking at the appliance, the Elbuco employee had to agree: this was a fridge, and the entire house rejoiced that their cool common-room companion could finally be true to itself and be properly registered as a fridge.
And a very functioning one it is. If we open the door, a variance of contents is to be found. Of course, this is to be expected when a fridge is shared between 10 people, but even within the sections designated per person, the contents are interesting. Each shelf is shared by two people. The top shelf is filled with dairy products ranging from ‘smeerkaas’ to lactose free yoghurt, beer, and some meat products. Shelf 2, in contrast, is very empty, with only some butter and bread toppings. Shelf 3 is similar but a bit fuller – bread toppings are joined by salad and milk. One shelf down we find pickles, salsa, and sauce, and when looking a bit closer, packaged lasagne. Shelf 5 suddenly fills our vision with greens: beans, broccoli, paprika, and carrots – “Somebody needs to take care we survive.” Finally, at the bottom, B14 has its collection of shared sauces – “An entire bottle of mayonnaise is way too much for one person anyways.”
Bagijnhof 14 has shared house dinners each weekday, where two of the inhabitants buy fresh dinner groceries. This causes the rest of the fridge to be very breakfast and lunch orientated. Different cultures can be observed, as some of the inhabitants have a variance of veggies and leftovers from the days before, and others simply have butter and cheese (“to be honest, I also have Hagelslag to go with the butter”). So, the contents clearly show that the fridge is shared by students with very different eating habits. But, despite their eating patterns, they still come together during dinner, where they can toast to the successful end of their quest to redeem the identity of their once-doubted fridge.
Kirsten Kapteijns, Class of 2017, is a Cognitive Science, Life Science, and Lab major from Lage Mierde, the Netherlands.
