While Elephantitis may have come and gone, the residents of 7111 Cowles are just warming up to their new home. This year, the apartment of 7111 Cowles is home to a group of six ultimate frisbee friends, Matt Dole ’16, James Dowell ’15, Benyamin Elias ’15, Mark Lewis ’16, Florian Perret ’15 and Jacob Salzman ’15.

“We’ve been pretty tight for a couple of years now,” Dole said.

Partly intentionally and partly by accident, each of them once again shares a room with their second-year roommate.

“We were initially looking for a house, but we kinda got on that a bit too late, so we went for an apartment, just because that was what was left,” Lewis said.

The group refers to its spacious, three-bedroom and one-bath apartment as the “Slumberyard.”

The apartment received its name early in the year—an indirect benefit of the apartment’s air conditioning and the residents’ various sleepy friends.

“During NSO week … we have a lot of friends who live in Cowles who don’t have air conditioning, and so they were just sleeping on our couches. We have a bed under the stairs that was pretty popular,” Elias said. “And everyone kept sleeping everywhere, naps in the middle of the day, just constantly sleeping. So we were like, ‘Slumberyard sounds good.’”

At one point, the Slumberyard was home to 10 or 11 sleepers sprawled on various surfaces. In addition to the apartment giving rest to nearly a dozen students at time, it is also home to nearly 150 frisbees, although around 100 of them are the team’s practice discs.

Ultimate frisbee informs much of the apartment’s existence.

“I’m the president, and Benyamin’s a captain and Jacob’s a captain, there’s one other captain, but we have 75 percent of the frisbee leadership, men’s team leadership living in this apartment,” Dowell said. “A lot of in-depth frisbee talk goes on, strategic planning for the team.”

“You come in at some point, there will probably be someone holding a frisbee, pivoting back and forth [in the common area], or tossing it to themselves or spinning it on their finger … we have our separate kitchen in the closet of all our practice equipment,” Elias said.

The camaraderie of the team is palpable in the apartment as everyone prepares for practice, though the line for showers in the evening can be long.

On the weekends, the apartment plays host to occasional parties, but the truly unique weekend activity at the Slumberyard is the Saturday bread-baking.

“Our lovely chef, Matt Dole, every Saturday morning at 10 bakes four loaves of bread. It’s a nice treat to wake up to,” Dowell said.

The bread-baking is an important social activity that brings in friends from all around. “It’s a lot of fun. It’s just a nice way to bring people together, introduce my various friend groups to each other,” Dowell said.

“Matt Dole is definitely one of the more domestic people in the house. It’s very typical for him to be cooking up something delicious like kale chips or making something to drink … it’s especially nice, since there are some other people in the apartment, myself included, who know absolutely nothing about cooking and will be completely lost when they go out into the world,” Dowell added.

Even during the week, it’s usual for various friends to hang out in the apartment, so there’s always someone to talk with.

“It’s kind of a hub for all the cool people we know who live in the North area,” Dowell said.

“I’ve definitely been staying up a lot later than I have been before, because I’ve never been in this environment where you’re living with five of your closest friends, and you’re just like, ‘Well, I’m done with my work and it’s like 11:30, but we’re clearly going to stay up talking for a few hours,’” Elias said.

All agree that the Slumberyard has turned out to be an excellent place to live, whether for hanging out or sleeping in.