One of my favorite parts of GSP is the community. While I didn’t join GSP until my junior year, the different perspectives in dialogue, the great conversations during chai chatters, and the close friendships built with my roommates and neighbors in North Quad had me wanting to continue to be a part of the community again as a senior. Luckily, I was able to continue being a part of GSP upon my return from studying abroad in Barcelona thanks to the new position of a general member. This enabled me to keep all the great benefits of GSP through support from the staff and community with my fellow students, despite not having the time to commit to a facilitator or leadership position. 

The great part about being a general member is you have the flexibility to make GSP as big a part of your life as you wish. If you need support from the staff, they are there for you; if you want to go to every event they put on, everyone welcomes you with open arms; if you are super overwhelmed with classes and work, they understand if you cannot make many events. Living off campus this semester meant that I would not reap the benefits of the living aspect of the living-learning community, but I still wanted the community to be a significant part of my life, so I tried to go to the events GSP put on.

One of the events that caught my eye right away was the food tour to Bao Space. I had never been to or even heard of Bao Space before, but I am a huge foodie with the goal to try to eat at as many different Ann Arbor restaurants as possible before graduating. Also, I just love trying new foods, and after looking at the menu, there were a lot of foods I had never eaten before. Hence, when GSP gave me the opportunity to enjoy new foods for free with fellow community members, I signed up instantly. 

It was a pretty cold day the afternoon of the food tour, so I wasn’t the most excited to walk to North Quad and then walk downtown to the restaurant, seeing as despite living in Ann Arbor for a few years, I still am not a fan of the Michigan winter. However, once I had met up with my friends and started catching up and talking, I forgot all about the weather. Once we arrived at Bao Space, I ordered shanghai sumai, which was a rice-filled steamed dumpling and the premium yorkshire buns, which are steamed bao buns containing pork and onion. I also got the BBQ bao and a taro flavored milk box. While the milk flavor was new to me, the box was reminiscent of the juice boxes I would drink as a kid, bringing about a sense of nostalgia. All of the foods were delicious, and I especially loved the taro milk and the BBQ bao. 

Perhaps even better than the food though, was the company to go along with it. I loved being able to talk with old friends, as well as meet some new people I had not met in the program yet. Eating with friends is one of the things that makes me happy, and GSP’s food tour allowed me to do this. The tour to Bao Space is now one of my favorite memories in GSP that I will hold onto for a long time. Even if I never eat another bao bun again, at least I was able to experience them once with great company.