Colleges Suck at Planning Meals, a Reflection

Hey guys. I'm trying to get in the habit of posting on schedule so I'm back at it with part 2 of my Freshman year reflection. If you missed my near failing grade recap you can read about it here. Today's post is a reflection on the dining situation. It sucked.

Eastern has a policy that for freshman living in dorms, you MUST have a meal plan and it is the stupidest shit ever. They give you 3 options: Platinum, Gold, and Silver. 

Platnium cost per semester $2,455 and gave you 3 meals Mon-Fri and 2 on weekends and $75 of Flex (like University monopoly money) 

Gold costed $2,311 and gave you 2 meals Mon-Sun with $150 worth of Flex (I got this one)

Silver costs  $2,275 and gives you 8 meals a week and $200 in Flex

These themselves wouldn't be so terrible if Eastern got its shit together with places to eat on campus. All the places had really weird hours like almost everywhere would close at 2pm on Friday for no real reason and on Sunday nothing was really open until 4pm. And if you wanted a late night burrito, fucking forget it because everything closes at 11pm. 

I came from a family of health nuts. We ate out like 5 times a month and 4 of those times were Friday night pizza. I'm used to low fat alternative cooking and when I got to Eastern I think my insides didn't know how to take it. While other friends could eat all the burgers and popcorn chicken they wanted to and not gain weight I couldn't and it was awful. All the fast food was closest to my dorm so I had to trek further to find unfried food and as a result, fewer people were wiling to eat with me. 

I eventually met Ben at one place I went to escape the fries and found out he was doing the same. So we became meal buddies and walk to get the better food. We still ended up gaining the freshman 15 though =/ 

Halfway through the year my doctor suggested I try eating gluten free to control my joint pain. That was a nightmare. To Eastern's credit, they do offer gluten free options and work really hard to prevent cross contamination but a lot of the alternatives weren't ordered regularly because they weren't in high demand and it was typically a hit or miss. The struggle lasted a month and then I decided to maybe try again in the summer when I was back home.

I talked to my parents about getting off the plan and buying groceries instead but it unfortunately isn't an option at this point. There are only kitchens in the lounge and it would be hell trying to prepare 3 meals between classes and washing all the dishes. I wish I could. This was just a rant post because my meal plan experience was not a good one. Sorry guys, I hope you don't have to be slaves to your meal plan.

xx Clair