Offering Hospitality
About

Ximena - Colombia

My name is Ximena, I am from Colombia and came to Ithaca to pursue a Masters degree at Cornell. I used to consider myself a very bad cook; I even had trouble frying eggs! So I decided to join Janice’s classes in the fall 2010. Every week she taught me a recipe, I replayed it with my boyfriend on the weekend. Together we have discovered a fascination with cooking. Now, we are cooking on daily basis, and even have invited friends for dinner. I am so grateful with the opportunity of learning, making fiends, eating great food and having fun every week.

Hong - Vietnam

Serving heart is not a hardwired characteristic that I was born with. I learned that living skill at Crossroads Center, and it has been a very rewarding journey. Serving attitude in what way exactly, one might ask? Through showing hospitality to people in need. Living thousand miles away from home (i came from Vietnam) and often dine alone between classes, I was craving for nice homey meals and people who care for me and I for them. What even worst was, I didn't know how to cook. The welcoming environment at Crossroad is indeed a sanctuary where international students like me found their home a way from home. I learned how to cook and how to serve others at Crossroads. The genuinely serving heart of the staffs there challenged my conventional reciprocal codes of conduct. To care only for my own interests and benefit was no longer fun and seemed too limited. I will never forget the weekly feasts, the joyful laughs, and the cultural insights my friends and I shared through our meals together at Crossroads. These life-long experience have enriched us in ways we can't imagine and sustains us through Ithaca long cold winter. I'm hoping to replicate Crossroads Life Center model in my country one day.