The Blessing and Curse of Meal Hall

Meal Hall. The very word brings me both joy and shivers.

As I walk down the stairs and see the view of friends, I smile and look forward to the conversations I can expect in front of me. Laying down my coat and purse on an available seat, I go to the salad bar. Lettuce, cucumber, tomato, chick peas, black olives, FETA!! woohoo. I get a glass of water and sit down. On with my meal and with a long conversation with my table buddies. Laughing so hard that I can feel the food I've just eaten get squashed by my over-worked abs, I eat up my salad bite by bite. Onto something else... Potatoes! And I sit back down to my table buddies. We strike up conversation on an awful professor that is called a name I shall not repeat and I try to change the topic. How, do you ask, did I do so? I start singing Backstreet Boys. Yep. That's about it. I get some strange looks and two people leave, although one of my friends decides that he'd like to join in on my fun too. He is indeed a good friend. lol. Now, I move seats since the majority of people in this section seem to have left. Time for ice cream! On to see which flavours are available... vanilla, vanilla, vanilla, butterschotch ripple, which is mostly vanilla, oh! and coffee chocolate flavour. Let's get that. Mmmmmm... I lick at the drops of solid caffeine. Again, a new conversation strikes up about vegetarianism. "Hurray!" I think to myself-although I am smiling very widely as he talks about his reasoning behind his veggie choice-woohooo! And the ice cream is devoured. Hmmmm... what now? Well, I haven't had a glass of milk in a long time. Maybe some of that. Off to the milk station. Skim, of course. I sit back down. By this time, everyone is gone except for my loyal backstreet boy singing friend, lol. We spend time discussing my previous meal hall encounter when I was teaching my friend how to wink, but some guy thought that my winks were directed at him. :S We start laughing again. About an hour and a half has gone by at this point. He offers me part of his cookie and since my milk is gone at this point, some of that too. I ate the first chunk before he got to asking me about the milk, opps. Finally, after almost the entire table has cleared out, even those who arrived about half an hour after me, my friend and I decide that now is about the right time to head back to residence. I have spent an entire hour and half of what could have been studying in meal hall. hahaha.

But I enjoyed every minute of it too. Was it wasted? Perhaps. But it was wasted with friends, and that's what counts. :D