The V-Dub

I'm in between classes right now, and I want to do some work but I also want to take a little break from Differential Equations, so I think I'll get back to writing about Food@Brown. One note to you kids when you're going to college: Try schedule your classes in blocks. "Awkward Hour" breaks between classes are just about the worst thing ever, UNLESS it's a break for lunch or dinner. But, honestly, a 70 minute break for lunch is just a little excessive. But anyway.

So I already discussed The Ratty. But, somewhere along the line, I heard that there was another option! I think my first knowledge of it was when Chaz (the best friend of Kim, my very close friend from Governor's School) was talking about both of us living in the Pembroke campus, and that he was excited because our dorms were both right near "The V-Dub." [It's real name is The Verney-Woolley Dining Hall.] When I looked it up online, it looked kind of sketchy, and I think I referred to it as "A cereal bar with a hat on."

Well anyway, when we came to campus, there were all sorts of rumors about VDub. The Ratty was open for Orientation activities, but the VDub was not. No one knew exactly when it would open - some said Tuesday morning, some said Tuesday night, some said Wednesday morning, some said it was closed all week, some said it was closed all year, some people said it was closed on weekends, some people said it was only open on number days that were primes or perfect squares. Suffice to say, there was a lot of controversy around VW.

So I think it turned out that it opened Tuesday morning, but I wasn't aware of that, so I had to wait (I think) until Wednesday or Thursday to try it. I'm pretty sure I waited until Thursday because I was afraid it would suck on Wednesday (first day of classes) and who wants that? I also think it was Thursday because they didn't have pancakes the first time I went, and I think they have pancakes MWF.

So VW is located in the basement of a dorm complex called Morriss-Champlin (or Mo-Champ). To get to it, you have to go in a door near a very popular a cappella arch, down a flight of stairs, down a hallway, turn a corner, go down another long hallway with lots of windows that look into a little courtyard where people might eat if they go to the VW, and then turn a corner to the entrance. At night, another door is open that bypasses the second long hallway. Anyway, it's all painted yellow and very plain.

But when you go inside the VW, it's actually pretty nice. Let's say we went in for breakfast, so we took the long hallway. When the person swipes your card, to the right of them is a nicely decorated eating area, much like the nicely decorated "Caves" of The Ratty. It's mostly dark green and dark brown, all tables, no booths. If you walk straight, you'll come to a half-wall. To the left of the half-wall is where you put your trays when you're done (and you have to remove your silverware yourself - !) and to the right of the half-wall is the cereal bar, drink bar, etc. Here, all the cereal is right out of the box - they don't even bother to put in in a new container for you. It's just like eating at home. Oh, and the bowls are deep here! But the spoons are always way too big. Heh...

Anyway, if you go to the left when you go past the card swipe, you come to all the food. So turn a left and walk straight. The first thing you pass is the ice cream bar, which is also right near the Belgian Waffle bar, which is open all day every day that the VW is open. It takes 3 minutes to cook them, and they are PRETTY FREAKING GOOD. If you keep going, you get to an omelette bar. After that, there's three little stations where they serve whatever main meals they have - chicken, pancakes, french toast, I don't know. In the center there is all the silverware, lots of fruit, and sometimes desserts (usually at night). To the left of you is a loooong bar where people can sit and face a window, and looking through the window you see the same courtyard as before. If you walk all the way past the three food stations and the ensuing condiment station, you come to another seating area, which is also very green/blue/brown.

But this one has booths. Huge booths. That could probably sit like 10-15 people, with very high backs that look very exclusive... It's hard to believe that something that looks so luxurious could be in a college dining hall... but hey, there it is. I guess that's what our puny $3,000,000,000 endowment gets us.

So some comments about the VW:

-Everything at VW is better than The Ratty, because the cooks actually put effort into it at VW. VW is like a family restaurant, and Ratty is like fast food. This is most notable in the quality of the ice cream and the quality of the pancakes. The syrup, sadly, is still subpar.
-The Belgian Waffle bar is incredible, and also a pretty big draw for me.
-People generally go to VW for breakfast and dinner, but it's pretty dead for lunch beacuse everyone is in class, and all classes are like centered around Ratty. So at 12PM, there's about 1000 people in the Ratty every day.
-Eating at VW, though, isn't quite as fun as eating at Ratty. They play softer music at VW, the people are quieter, and it's just not as "Brown" as Ratty. When people who know Brown think about it, they think "Ratty," not VW.

So yeah, that's about all I have to say about that for now.

Peace out!

Wasted

I think one of the worst feelings I have ever know is feeling like I have wasted my time.

Peace!

How's the Food?

Food at Brown is a little bit better than I thought it would be. But it's not like it's incredible or anything. I'll tell a bit about my experience with it so far.

So at first, the only place that I knew about to eat is "The Ratty." It's real name is The Sharpe Refectory, but apparently some kids found rats in it around the 1960s or 1970s and it's been called The Ratty every since. A girl named Trish in a dorm room just across the hall went to school with kids from the Sharpe family, and apparently they are not very happy about that name at all. One time, almost out of politeness to them, I referred to it as "The Sharpe," and people got mad at me for not calling it The Ratty. Oh well.

On a somewhat related note, the largest library here is the John D. Rockafeller library. People have called it "The Rock" for decades, but then apparently someone from the Rockefeller family got upset about it and contacted the Brown administration to have them ask students to stop. The students agreed and started referring to it very publicly as "The John." The Rockefellers called back and retracted their request.

Well anyway, as I said, the Ratty is the only place I knew about to eat for a while. Which is no problem - it's maybe a 10 minute walk, but only like a 3 minute bike ride, and it's right near the Barus & Holley Building (The BH), which is where 80% of my classes are. You have to understand that this building is enormous. It has to put out something along the lines of 11,000 meals per day, and it does it with some rockin' efficiency. If you look at it from the street - specifically, from George St., you can look through the basement windows and see row after row of kitchen, freezer, cooker, worker, etc. And to get an idea for the dimensions, it's probably about 400 x 400 feet, which is, as I said, enormous. It could swallow like half of Garnet Valley. Plus it's got three or four stories [although you only eat on one, sometimes two].

So inside. Most things are shades of yellow or brown. When you walk in, someone swipes you're card, and right about then you're in the "front left" corner of the building. The perimeter of the building is where everyone sits, as the center itself is for employees at work only, and just outside of that is where you get your food. So every sits in a big ring around the food lines. There are also a couple nicely decorated rooms attached to the perimeter that you can sit in sometimes, and then even NICER ones that are reserved for VIPs or whatever. I've never seen anyone in them.

In any case, in the center, there are four main "food lines" where people prepare food for you. The one that's closest to the "front left" corner has.... I don't really know, it's stuff I never eat. At the end of the line are the desserts, though, which include brownies and ice cream just about every day. I usually don't feel like ice cream, BUT I ALWAYS FEEL LIKE A CAKE CONE. HOW'S THAT FEEL, TEAM SKANKNASTY???? Unfortunately that's all I can tell you. The "back left" corner [if you walk further straight once you come in] has pasta and pizza and that sort of thing. I don't usually go to this line either. Just outside of this line is the cereal bar, which has like every kind of cereal I've ever eaten - Cheerios, Life, Lucky Charms, Frosted Flakes, Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Frosted Mini Wheats, Smart Start, and some others that I can't remember right now. But it's a great cereal bar. But the bowls are a little shallow and the spoons are huge. I usually get some in the morning... and sometimes in the afternoon or night, but usually only if there's nothing else that I like. And there's usually something I like.

If you turn right at the corner, and start walking to the "back right," you come across one of the two drink stands and fruit baskets. I "steal" apples from here when I can remember. I usually just get chocolate milk, skim milk, or water to drink, but they also have coffee and decaf and expresso and cappuccino and lots of soda. Oh, I also sometimes have orange juice, 'cuz there's like four types of juice that they have. One time I tried to get a friend a cappuccino, but I put it in this "Greenware" plastic cup and it melted in my hand and hurt a lot.

Anyway, if you go past the drink stand and turn the corner again, you're at the "back right" line, which is my favorite - the grill. They always have hot dogs, hamburgers, grilled chicken, and french fries. Usually I just grab a bun and have some grilled chicken or hot dog for lunch/dinner, and it's very plain and warm and it's pretty much all I could ask for.... hehe. So that's the line I usually go to. If you kept walking, the line in the "front right" is the vegetarian "Roots and Shoots" line. This is where all the vegetarians go. ...duh.

Oh, right, I forgot to add: The Ratty serves pancakes for breakfast EVERY DAY. The first week, I had a pancake breakfast every single day. Then I sort of was just like.... hm.... this is going to make me really fat. So I decided to just go back to breakfast as I knew it - bowl of cereal, maybe some bread, and something to drink - even though it feels like I'm wasting a meal credit. Ah well. Sometimes I have one pancake. The pancakes themselves are usually good - although sometimes too crispy - but the really scandalously awful part is the SYRUP. OH GOD, THE SYRUP. I wish I could describe it to you, but it's like... it's like Plastic Syrup. You can tell it sucks even more because on weekends, they give you real Maple Syrup from a bottle. But during weekdays, you have to scoop the syrup out of a vat with a ladle, and as you do, you can like... see it scrunch up and get "broken" and "frozen together" and oh... oh god. It like... latches on to your pancakes and your mouth.

I'd like to describe more, but I have to go to MATH0180 with Sergei Treil now. Sergei! His website is WEIRD. But Sergei is awesome. More later. I'll tell you about...

The V-Dub.

Peace out!

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