EPTIf that title started a song playing in your head, I must apologize for the torture.
I am currently nomming on an assortment of foods from my dining hall. Mostly assorted tex-mex, egg rolls, stir fried tofu and a huge bunch of grabs. The "Mexican" food goes great with the pale ale my friend gave me a few days ago.
Once upon a time, mixing all sorts of foods would be strange to me, but it's become a key to surviving the college dining hall. They may not have the best full meals if you stick with a particular theme, but you can mix and match all of the tastiest items to come off with a fairly decent meal. Though my school has an awesome dining hall it still is... well, a dining hall. Even on "steak night" I don't appreciate the quality of the meat much. Though the sushi on Saturdays is always delicious, if simple (California, cucumber, salmon and spicy tuna rolls).
Alright, I'll try not to post two food blogs in a row, though! So let me move on to the rest of my life.
Today is the final dorm meeting of my dorm. At my college, dorms are kind of a cross between greek houses and apartments. Most of the dorms have all of the rooms open directly to the outside, not to an inside hall, and most share one common lounge. There are four inner dorms: North, South, East and West, and four outer dorms: Case, Atwood, Sontag and Linde. However, North, West and Linde are considered the "party" dorms while the other dorms are considered generally plain/conservative.
Each dorm has its own colors, motto, mascot/symbol and traditions. I currently live in North Dorm (more commonly known as Norf to its inhabitants), which has the mascot of the red north rose, the color of yellow, and a motto of "West is Bitch," which derives from the rivalry with West who's motto is "West is Best, Screw the Rest" or WIBSTR. Overall, Norf tends to be a fairly "jock" dorm for being at an exclusively engineering/science school. They play TONS of beer pong (having six full size beer pong tables that can be reassembled into a stage for hosting DJs for large parties) and even have a bar that turns into a double-sized beer pong table called Optimus Prime. Ah, the ingenuity of beer motivated engineers!
Tonight is one of the time honored traditions of the moving up of the freshman. There is only a week left in school and we highly celebrate the moving up of each year. We have a huge figure we draw in the courtyard with symbols that represent that past students and these ones. Since I am considered one of the more artistic people in the dorm, I was recruited to draw some of the symbols: meat (I drew a t-bone), the north rose, a black dog and two lesbians (not my idea, but it is tradition). I can't share the full secrets of the event, because we aren't supposed to let the freshman know about it!
Come to think about it, I really love my dorm. The people in it are super friendly and laid back, but always willing to go out on a limb for each other. It feels very much like a family and really gives me a home away from home. So, despite how often I spend all day locked away in my room playing video games, my dorm really makes me feel like part of the community.
