Norton: Where's the coffee shop?

When doing homework, and in particular when studying for exams, sometimes I like to get away from my normal study spaces. Personally, I spend a lot of time in the library throughout the year, but as it gets closer to finals week, the library gets more and more crowded - and I like to find other places instead. 

As a native of Amherst, MA, a 5-college town, I am used to having plenty of coffee shops/bakeries to choose from as a place to do homework. Unfortunately, I have not been able to find even one in Norton (although there is an abundance of Dunkin Donuts!). While the Lyons Den seems like a great place, it is not open in the morning or afternoon, when I most often want the caffeine boost and a place to work. Currently, I am writing from a Barnes and Noble Cafe in Medway, MA - about a 20-minute drive from Wheaton. While Barnes and Noble is certainly not the same as a local coffee shop, it provides a similar atmosphere; one that is conducive to doing homework. 

On the outside, this Barnes and Noble does not appear to be a nice study space. It is just off the highway, and part of a strip-mall, surrounded by a Market Basket, Moe's Southwest Grill, Staples, and McDonalds. However, on the inside, the cafe is a place where people can get a warm drink and spend an extended (or short) period of time reading a magazine, a new book, or in my case doing school work. Although the cafe is within a strip-mall, it does not feel that way on the inside, because there are so many other people around who are also there to do work or sit and read. We talked in class about the ability of food to create an experience. The warm drinks create a cozy atmosphere that makes you want to stay, and the other foods that are available (pizza, bagels, quiche, scones, cakes, muffins) allow consumers to stay for an extended period of time. The ugly strip-mall atmosphere is transformed into a peaceful place where people can sit and do work, or relax after hours of shopping.

While the strip-mall Barnes and Noble cafe is not my first preference for a place to do homework, it beats any of the other options in Norton - namely Dunkin Donuts or an overly crowded library. However, I do think that the town of Norton would be greatly improved by the addition of just one coffee shop. 

"Gourmet Eating" on Wheaton Campus

For the most part, the majority of Wheaton are on the meal plan and are served their meals by the kitchen staff.  Few cook for themselves or prepare the plates.  Food it plopped unceremoniously onto the plate and eaten; the presentation of the food is not important, just the consuming part.  But it is a creative outlet, so how to students get around not being able to fend for themselves but still feeling connected to the food provision process.  Well, the use what little they have to work with to make something delicious for themselves.

The easiest way to do this at the dining hall is with the ice cream machine, the salad bar, and the sandwich station.  While students are not directly in control of what is provided and how it looks and tastes, they do gain a sense of individuality when they can make their own combination of foods to eat.  These stations are usually constant and so they are dependable.  for the most part, you know that if you choose not to eat what is provided as the hot meal, you can still get your usual delicious sandwich which satisfies and is familiar to you.

Ice cream from the machine for example, that is as long as you do have the taste for it, will always be sweet, cold, and creamy.  It is the same ice cream maker every night, making the same type of ice cream, and usually with the usual toppings put out ready to be added.  It is a constant, dependable staple in a college kids diet.

Oh the strange combinations...

With strange schedules, late nights, and too much work, college kids often end up skipping meals or combining meals.  As a lat riser, I usually end up skipping breakfast.  But I am still hungry enough to eat food to equal the total food i would have consumed between three meals.  The difference is, I eat two meals worth of food, roughly, during one meal.  Honestly, this isn't saying much because breakfast is usually the lightest meal of the day.  But for those days I wake up at 10:30, I tend to get to the dining hall by 11:00.  So, I grab a bowl of serial, or and omelette, and then look at what is being served for lunch. But why do I do this?   I think it has something to do with routine and comfort.  My brain is used having curtain tasted and types of food first before others.  Also, out of habit, it is strange for me to eat tofu before I have had a muffin, bagel, or cereal.  Usually, people comment on this, stating that this is a strange combination.  But it is familiar, it is tradition.  Although... maybe it's only me who does this.

Finals Time

The end of the fall semester always feels extremely brief, particularly this year since Thanksgiving happened so late into November. As the stress of finals  approaches, students find themselves increasingly longing for the comforts of home from showering without shoes to home cooked meals. This is especially true after  everyone's' Thanksgiving meals. However, this does have the adverse effect of making Chase and Emerson food seem a lot worse in comparison. Taken  with the stress of finals, at this time of the year many students either eat drastically less than they should or start buying more food than usual. My roommate personally has bought 3 bags of chips to eat while studying for the next few days.I think this stretch of limited food options, does have a negative effect on student morale. That's probably the reason why the whoopee pie truck was met with so much excitement last Tuesday and why it was located outside the library to help combat the stress of studying.

I'm telling you right now, I'm not going to grill that

After finishing a night class, I went into Chase, notorious for it's extremely limited late night options. Especially after 7:30, anyone leaving a practice, class, or club meeting are restricted to very limited variety of unhealthy options. In an attempt to be creative, friends and I decided to make quesadillas with tortillas and vegetables. This option felt a thousand times more satisfying than a burger, pizza, or fries. I handed it to the employee at the grill, but he abruptly handed it back to me and said, "I'm telling you right now, I'm not going to grill this." Although I was confused, I was even more disappointed that my attempt to be creative had not only failed, but it had failed at the deliberate effort of a dining hall employee. This brought up several questions such as whether or not I want such unenthusiastic and negative employees in charge of my all my meals, not that I can blame them. In addition, I wondered if they understand the gravity of being limited to options which for the most part are unappealing, unsatisfying, and unhealthy, especially after 7:30PM.

Memories and Food

    The semester is almost over and the finish line is in sight. Christmas break is ahead with a well deserved break from school as well as a excitement for the spring semester to come. As a senior, the emotions associated finally graduating are starting to kick in. One of the more present thoughts is about the friends that I have and whats going to happen when we all go our separate ways. An unfortunate consequence of leaving Wheaton no matter how happy you are to leave is that some of the friends you've made here you will never see again. A sad truth to change that has got me thinking of the past. Looking through the photos from years passed I noticed a great deal of images of our food excursions. Traveling to Mansfield crossing for birthdays or just to go out all together. One photo I found to be particularly resonating is a photo of our suite last year gathered around a Gebbie table eating a meal we all prepared. Last year our suite decided to do a number of events to make living in the suites more fun and to get in a good laugh. This event was one of my favorites. On a Sunday morning we all decided that we were all going to cook something for a brunch. Each member of the suite was tasked with cooking some sort of dish, combing all at the end for a feast. I can remember the hardest part being finding proper cooking ware in the Gebbie kitchen. We had to improvise with about every item. In the end we all completed our dishes prepared them on a table we placed in the middle of the common room and dug in. I recall us spending more time at that table then we did in preparation and cooking.  Laughs, old stories, and plans for our next event were ever present. A topic that has been widely discussed not just in this class but also several times in this blog, is the importance of food used as a tool to bring people together. Even when it is applied to the closest of friends, it is still an important tool. The memories I made I will never forget and subsequently the memories Ive made involving food will never be forgotten.

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Tis the Season to Get Creative!

Tis the season!

Hark how Emerson seems to be giving up on actual meals!

Be jolly now that fresh crops are nowhere to be seen in Chase!

Crowd round the soup, the seemingly only good choice this season!

Be merry and rejoice the semester is almost over!

            Of course the above are just some personal observations of the dinning halls now that fall session is coming quickly to a close. The food served seems to get more and more sparse with fewer and fewer variations.

So… let’s get a bit creative here.

            You could host your very own version of Chopped, a show where you are given a set number of ingredients and have to ‘transform’ them into something completely different, tasty and creative. My friends and I did this on Sunday in Emerson- the worst day by far- and the results came out surprisingly good. From a pizza to a Thai influenced veggie wrap, we each utilized the food differently to create our own version of a healthy meal.

            Upon first instinct we might be tempted to grab a bagel and smear it with cream cheese, but I’m asking you to step away. I’ve observed that we often try and fulfill our hunger cravings with foods such as pasta, bread, bagels and any other carbs we can get. In first world America, where we do have many options to be healthy and have a balanced diet, I find we often mimic the food habits that people in the book “Dancing with Skeletons” have. In the impoverished area where Dettwyler completed her research, the children would often grab potatoes and other readily available carbs- since that is often the only choices they had- to eat whilst their bodies craved something nutrient rich to help balance a diet and aid in their physical development. Every time we grab a nutrient-empty food we forgo vitamins and minerals that could help keep us at peak performance.

            Emerson and Chase might not really offer a full variety to keep a balanced, healthy eating routine BUT this is where the fun begins. Mix and match your foods. Take pride in your college-self and eat food that seemingly do not go together. Today, for example, I ate Chinese lemon infused snap peas with a side of tofu.

            Normal enough, eh? I was able to get some greens and protein from the latter, but then I took some sweet potatoes and a banana and my “balanced meal” was complete with a drink of almond milk.

Would I ever eat the combination again?

Maybe.

Would I ever eat this anywhere else?

I hope not.

A 'normal' breakfast of bananas, cheerios, a dollop of peanut butter, and some yogurt I mixed with nutella.

I must admit, sometimes I do ‘get lucky’ and find foods that are actually supposed to go together, very rarely, but occasionally- even these foods are often supplemented with a tablespoon or two of hummus on the side.

            College is supposed to be the place where we start to act as independent entities, separate from parental oversight. If we do not start good eating habits now, then when? I know my body would slowly break down if all I ate were bagels and cream cheese- no matter how delicious. I’m anemic, but my condition is nowhere near as severe as it used to be. Looking for iron-rich foods is darn near impossible here, especially no that that spinach is not readily available at the salad bar. I really do have to come up with some crazy creations that aren’t always making my taste buds jump in delight, but the choices I make always help fuel my body in what I think is nutritional.

So cheers!

Get your thinking cap on and create!