You're in college. You are most likely broke. You are most likely hungry. If not, you might possibly be the luckiest college student I've ever met (relatively speaking, of course). You always have that super delicious school food that they like to force freshmen to add to their already ridiculously high bill. But as much as we all love the variety (yet still feels like we're eating the same thing every. single. damn. day.) of the food they serve in the cafeteria, sometimes we just need a break from that - even if it's fast food.
College Rule #5
It is perfectly ok, and even encouraged, to get food AWAY from the school cafeteria every once in a while.
I am aware that not everyone is as lucky as I am to have a Wendy's within walking distance of my dorm, along with quite a few other restaurants within 5 minutes driving distance. I suppose that would ease the temptation of eating out all of the time to avoid school food. I'm still trying to decide if that's a fortunate or unfortunate thing for you.... I'll get back to you on that one.
One of the food places around my lovely place of schooling is Denny's. Super classy, I know. Denny's happens to be the hang out place for college students after midnight though, apparently. This could be because college students' sophisticated palates can truly appreciate the delicacy that is Denny's breakfast foods... or more likely it's pretty much the only place with an open dining room that late. Either way, I have made a couple of late night food runs to Denny's in my time.
The best part about my late night Denny's runs was that I went with my friends Paul and Chris. We're all in the same major, so we've ended up working on homework until the wee hours of the night, and then going to get some breakfast at 12 in the morning. I quite enjoy my chocolate chip pancakes.
The first time we went, I got an Oreo milkshake instead of actual food. While Chris and Paul were Vining their weird ass video clips (ok, not gonna lie, they were pretty good as far as Vine videos go), I was using my milkshake as ink to do the kiddie maze on my placemat (I had no writing utensils, you see... and using my own blood seemed a little out of the question). As the night went on, they started making fun of me for not finishing my milkshake, and Paul kept pretending to pour salt into it. Just as he was about to actually dump salt into it (or so I thought), I swatted his hand away. Well I suppose he wasn't expecting it or something, because he ended up dropping it straight into my milkshake. Normal people would have reached in and pulled it out before it had totally submerged and sunk to the bottom, but we're not normal. We spent approximately the next 2 minutes straight laughing. I had to scoop it out with a spoon and try not to laugh when Paul asked the waitress for more napkins and explain what happened. He did a very nice job cleaning it out, though.
That also was the night that when the waitress asked for our orders, Paul asked if he could order off the senior menu. The waitress said yes he could, and then Paul ordered something that wasn't off the senior menu. She said, "You know that's not on the senior menu, right?" to which Paul replied, "Yeah, I know. I just wanted to see if I could order off of it." Chris and I couldn't stop laughing because we didn't think that he would actually ask that.
We were probably such a pain in the waitress's ass that it made me feel a little bit better about the lady we gave our money to totally gyp-ing me. My milkshake was $4, so I was just going to pay $5 total and give a $1 tip. When the lady asked how much I wanted to pay (after listening to that whole conversation about $5 total and a $1 tip) and I said $5, she still put on a $5 tip. So I ended up paying $9 for a stupid milkshake. I should have said something, but I didn't. Still didn't stop me from bitching about it for the rest of the night and most of the next day.
Life Rule #1
If someone cheats you out of money or hears you incorrectly, speak up and say something. If you sit back and let it happen to you, you really forfeit all rights to complain.
The second time we went to Denny's wasn't nearly as eventful. As we pulled in and parked, we noticed how the front of the parking lot was ridiculously brightly lit, while there were no lights in the back. We decided that's where people hid dead bodies. Once inside, we were waiting to be seated, and two slightly older guys came up and started talking to me. They were pretty much hitting on me, and Chris, funny kid that he is, basically butted into the conversation and answered all the questions they were asking me. Meanwhile, Paul was completely oblivious to the whole thing. When the server came to seat us, she asked if it was a party of 5. The guys said "No, unless you guys all want to sit together." It was funny, but Paul basically said "Nooo wayyy" (in his normal Paul-speak). A little bit later, the guys ended up skipping out on their meal and paying and all that wrought. Paul said, "See, they probably would have taken us out back...."
College Rule #6
If someone asks you to go out and do something, go with them. You make experiences everywhere, everyday. Even something as little as going to Denny's at midnight can produce some funny stories and great memories.
Unfortunately, as Paul's not coming back next semester, the Denny's runs were kind of short lived. Paul, Chris, and I over twitter just had a conversation about how much we needed another late night trip, though. Too bad we all live so far away from each other. *sigh* College Life. Moral of the story is, getting food away from college isn't just a quick moment of heaven and break from college food, but also a good time. I definitely recommend getting a group of friends and just going out somewhere to eat. It doesn't have to be somewhere expensive... just somewhere away from campus.
Peace. Love. Denny's.
Haha! You should have been older than me so I could have gotten these College Rules sooner! Ugh, no far you have a Denny's and Wendy's by your campus! I have a McDonald's "near" (good 10-15 minute walk) but we also have Taco Bell (my staple) and the oh-so-elusive-closes-too-early Chick-Fil-A. So, I guess that's good lol
ReplyDeleteYou hung with a HILARIOUS group during your food trips! I'm side-eying the creepers who were hitting on you/skipping on their meal. Someone's intuition was spot on xD
You're totally right about the quiet between the storm that is meal time. I hung with my cousin a lot this past school year, and it didn't matter what tests we had, there was nothing like our run to the tea shop, and then Taco Bell. Our experience was kind of the opposite of yours in that we rarely ate at the cafeteria, so those trips were a treat. There was a new one built last semester, so our celebratory traditions were to go there. :D
Dang it, woman, I was just happy about being out of school, now you're making me want to go back *insert shaking fist smiley here*
Oh..........and my site's open. So, there's that ;D
Haha, well if anything, I hope my life experiences can help others feel a little more confident about going off to college. I know I was super shaky about my first year living on campus last year.
DeleteWe only have Sheetz and Wendy's within walking distance really... "The Golden Mile" as they call it is a 10 minute drive... not ideal for walking. And all the other food places are in the sketchy parts of town that you don't really want to walk through by yourself.
You had food good enough in your cafeteria to have celebratory traditions there? Lucky. I'm jealous. There are at least 5 different places to eat on campus, and no matter where you go, it still feels like you're eating the same crap every day.
"*insert shaking fist smiley here*" i see what you did there xD
YAY!!!! Your site is open! -so much excitement- hehe.(:
It's funny hearing you talk about college life like that, when here university life is so different. Like, most of us don't live on campus, so most of the time we don't eat on campus. My uni is RIGHT in the middle of the city so it's a 30 second walk onto one of the busiest streets in Sydney, meaning within a 3 minute walk we have a pub, a McDonalds, a KFC, a sushi place, a salad place, a Subway, a Mexian place, a Pho place... you get me. I actually only went to our cafeteria to get money out for the first time a few weeks ago, after going to that uni for a year and a half. It sounds like your experiences are nearly the opposite, which is funny as you're on the other side of the world, haha.
ReplyDeleteI went to community college for a while that didn't even have a cafeteria, and I commuted, so I totally get that whole experience, too. It's definitely interesting the different experiences you get from different parts of the world and different colleges... I guess I only offer experiences from a college in the middle of nowhere pennsylvania :p It would be cool to have other people leave comments about their experiences.(:
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