Introduction

When I first arrived in Austin, I was surprised and even confused when I heard about a co-op as a place to live. Then, I realized that co-op is the short name for co-operative. Once I knew that, the meaning turned to be clearer and after almost four month living in one of these places I can explain what a student co-op looks like. A co-operative residence has many things in common with a regular residence. For example, both of them are essentially a place where you can live, sleep, eat, etc… at a cheaper price than a hotel. That’s a very important point for student, like me, who spend a long time in the same place far away from their home. Obviously, one does not live alone in those residences but you are with lots of people from different places and usually, in the case of Austin, with people of different nationalities. So it can be a nice experience to meet new people and learn more about other cultures. This is very important since it helps you grow up and look at the world in a different way. In other words, it helps you be more open-minded.

So what are the differences between a co-op and a regular residence? Well, there are few of them. I have been living in a regular residence in Spain and now, I am living in Taos, a student co-op. Ever since the very first few weeks, I have realized that the main difference is that the prefix “co-” is necessarily mandatory in a co-op. Although it is rather difficult, you could live without knowing anybody in a regular residence if you just go there to eat and then, you isolate yourself in your single room. However, this is not possible in a co-op since the place is run and owned by students, that is, we are the owners, so we have to be very organized and talk to each other to take care of our house.

One could say that a co-op is usually cheaper and you are not so tight to certain rules or timetables because you are the one who make the rules. Well, you are not living with your parents and you do not have any kind of curfew. In fact, you may feel that you can do whatever you want. However, you realize that this liberty makes you be more responsible and organized; otherwise you will notice that you really need your parents to have your meal cooked and your clothes washed.

Living with a bunch of people is a very satisfactory experience since it makes you be more organized and respectful of others. You have to get along with people with whom you never thought you were going to talk and you have to discuss the rules everybody living in the house should follow. You also have to organize the meal, decide who has to cook and who has to clean and so on.

However, this amount of people living in the same place also causes problems. For example, it is very common to see a lot of people who have not done their labor or who have played music very loud the previous night, so they get written up in a special sheet that everybody can see. Those problems need to be discussed and that’s why the cooperation and the organization among everyone is so important.

In the following sections, I present the problem about the lack of cups we have in Taos, as well as some possible solutions that could be taken to solve it.