Lending a Hand (In a small way)

Meal of the week:

The beginning of this quarter started with me being properly sick of dining hall food. My remedy? Buy a box of pasta and a can of tomato sauce from Goody's Market and cook myself a meal in my electric kettle / hot pot! The cost for both was around $10 (give or take $2?) but both lasted me through three meals. I would also buy spinach and broccoli from the salad bar at OVT, steam them, and eat them salted along with my pasta. I felt rather strange walking out with less than 50 cents of "salad" in my bowl though...

In light of the earthquake in Japan, a paper crane making event was held in the OVL by Marshall College. Each paper crane submitted triggered a donation from the Bezos Family Foundation, who promised to donate $2 for every crane donated from schools and students! This web site recently stated that a total of $500,000 in relief efforts were raised ($400,000 from the Bezos Family Foundation and $100,000 from an anonymous donor), and a total of 1 million cranes were tallied.

My small contribution:

There were plenty of other orgs and fundraising events to help provide aid to Japan. I think it's amazing how much small donations and efforts can add up.
-Rosanne

Salads and Tajins

Salads and Tajines

For anyone who likes to eat healthy or at least supplement their diet of fat and sugar with an injection of salad or something healthy but not so intensely green, the dining halls occasionally have healthier meals.  I try to eat healthy and at most of the dining halls, this can be accomplished.  Sometimes at foodworx it can be a stretch to try and find something worth eating that’s not super bad for you when you’ve eaten salads for the last few days, but overall, foodworx intersperses their pizza and ice cream with vegetarian food and the weekend hummus bar.  Since I live right next to foodworx and get tired of the same salad bar day in day out, I eat at Revelle on my chemistry lecture days and have found that the salad bar at Revelle is about 100 times better.  This is mainly because of the price and size of foodworx’s salads.  Foodworx might improve their salads by allowing different portions for different prices (i.e. charging less if you don’t want the usual size) and Plaza cafe has an open salad bar that goes by weight, so if you avoid the heavier items, you can get the same salad volume for half of what it goes for at foodworx.  

Along the same lines of healthier meals, last week I had a Tajine at Pines in Muir College that was really well done.  Tajins are traditionally a North African concoction that are characterized by the type of conical dish they are cooked and served in.  In many cases, Tajines have a signature blend of sweet dried fruits or nuts, honey or some other sweetener, and some savory meat and spices.  I’ve tried a lot of Moroccan Tajines and I have to say that while the traditional Tajine is a hard thing to beat, this came super close to matching them.  So good work Pines, you’ve finally redeemed yourself after undercooking my omelets.  Eating right is something that can be easily overlooked, but it’s important to eat healthy and although sometimes finding healthy snacks on campus can be tough (especially at sixth college) it’s always doable.  

Passport to Leadership

Meal of the week: a ten second review of dining hall food
No picture this week :'(
Mahi mahi. $5.95 with one side of veggies or rice. You can have both sides for an additional $1.75
Where/when: OVT for lunch, 3/11
Delicious? For one, I loved both sides very much--fried rice and broccoli with carrots! Instead of dreading the side or rice or veggies or another, I gobbled it all down with gusto. The fish itself was nicely spiced and flavored and a lot less dry than other fish dishes.

Leadership's always a little tricky to obtain, especially for those who entered college with very little experience in leadership positions (ahem--like me). Prior leadership experience is often strongly recommended when applying for current leadership opportunities--it's kind of a vicious and never ending cycle. However, when I asked my RA and my Orientation Leader for advice or leadership opportunities on campus, they actually directed me to a lot of places and events that would help you learn and develop leadership ability. I'd like to share the ton of resources that UCSD offers to people who want to get more involved in the community or better their leadership skills.

1) Passport to Leadership
This program offers a series of rather informal workshops, which anyone can drop in on. I attended one this quarter about using inclusive vs exclusive language. The workshop leader taught the importance of using inclusive language in a group setting or giving a speech and we participated in a series of activities exploring the impact the words we use have on us. They also offer other workshops on meditating conflict, making ethical decisions and becoming more culturally sensitive, just to name a few. And if you register and attend a certain number of workshops, you get a certificate for your effort!

2) Center for Communication and Leadership (CCL)
CCL offers quarter-long noncredit programs ranging from public speaking to interpersonal skills. For graduate students, they also offer a program on presentational skills! You have to apply at the site I linked and spaces are limited.

3) On-campus organizations
Not only do on-campus orgs let you get involved in your community and bond with people with similar interests (Quidditch, anyone?), they also offer opportunities to better your leadership skills by participating in club responsibilities and the like. My RA suggested that college-specific orgs (for example, SCORE in Marshall) are a good way to start if you don't want to tackle the huge list of orgs on campus linked here.

The Guardian

I'm not sure how many people on campus regularly read The Guardian. To be honest, I myself didn't really start reading it until this year. I feel like I missed out.

The Guardian, I think, is one of the best ways to really get to know UCSD and to really understand what's going on behind the scenes of the school, letting students know what's going on with new administration policies and rules and fee increases and much more.

But not everyone is interested in the political stuff. I'm not. Although I do try to be.

I like flipping over to the Opinion section. There, I read what students are really talking, what really going on in the minds of my peers, although probably much more elegantly said.

One of the Opinion columnists wrote in the latest issue of the Guardian about how they're graduating next year, like myself, and have no idea what they want to do afterwards. It's nice to feel like you're not alone in this life-boat of uncertainty and bewilderment.

Another column that I always really enjoy is Cheryl Hori's "Change of Pace." Each week, she writes about trying to change one of her bad habits and what kind of changes she sees. It's pretty interesting and I love all the outcomes and little life lessons you get out of her stories.

Anyway, The Guardian is great. I highly recommend perusing it next time you see and stand or a copy flowing in the wind near the campus loop stop near Peterson Hall where for some reason there's always a ton of them floating around.

If you're not into the columns or the politics... the Lights and Sirens will never fail you!

"7:31 p.m.: Medical aid

▶ A male in his 50s, possibly a

professor, was bleeding from his head

at Pacific Hall. He said he had the

stomach flu and kept falling several

times. Information only."

Early Morning Hunger Monkey Jumping on Your Back?

Hey everyone,

First, a quick announcement- the Lacrosse team is having an opening home game on Saturday at Warren field against Biola.  For more information, visit http://sportsclubs.ucsd.edu/sports/teams/lacrossem/schedule.php.

Second, I hate waking up early.  There's a kind of two part hatred involved- the fact that I have to drag myself out of bed before I am physically ready to function and the forethought required to put myself to bed at a decent hour the night before.  It's tough to say which one is less enjoyable.  Either way, if you find yourself in my position, forced out of the house in the AM, it can be difficult to find breakfast.  Many dining halls are closed and I heard a rumor that Earl's Place had stopped serving breakfast items.  I'll make it easy on you: OVT, ERC's cafe, Earl's Place, Revelle's cafe, and Pines all open at 7AM, so next time you have a reason to be out and about super early in the morning and can't find an open dining hall (mainly for all of you sixth college residents)  stop by one of these places and grab a bite.

Stay Classy San Diego

Going Vegetarian

Meal of the week: a ten second review of dining hall food

Cream of asparagus soup, peanut butter and jelly and honey sandwich. $2.75 for the soup, $1.50 for the sandwich. 
When/where? 2/24, lunch at Pines
Delicious? The cream of asparagus was a tad too heavy on the cream and could use a little more asparagus, but the taste was great, not too salty or too sour. I really like the way Pines offers peanut butter and jelly sandwiches--OVT has the jelly but not the butter.

For the last week I've been eating vegetarian (or more specifically, ovo-lacto vegetarian, where I can consume dairy products and eggs but not meat). One of my suitemates thrives on a largely plant-based diet and I thought it would be a nice self challenge to follow her meal plan for a month. It's a fun experiment in a way, too: what do people with meal restrictions eat in college?

I didn't think I could pull it off, to be honest, because of my dislike of tofu, onions and bell peppers (which are frequently substituted for meat in many dining hall dishes). In the last week I've never walked into a dining hall and found nothing appetizing to get. However, a lot of the offered vegetarian dishes simply substitute meat for cheese--there has to be better vegetarian entrees than that! I'd also recommend, if possible, a different variety of vegetables--a lot of the roasted veggies in the dishes are a random assortment of carrots, what looks like zucchini, and some unidentifiable yellow wedges (which, if you allow me to hazard a guess, also falls under the "zucchini" or "squash" range). Broccoli is a far more popular vegetable and packed with nutritiony goodness. I'm always excited whenever I see the rare broccoli in the dining halls.

In the past week, I have had pasta gorgonzola, cheese quesadillas, vegetarian pasta and a hummus wrap at this dining hall--which are all delicious. OVT also offers yakisoba or other meatless noodles and various tofu-substituted items (tofurkey and stir fry), fruit/parfait bar and the salad bar. The yakisoba was terribly sour in taste, and last week the sandwich station went several days without vegetarian options, which was a huge disappointment. I've also dined at Pines (vegetarian rolls, peanut butter for bread, hummus plate and delicious tofu stir fry for those who like tofu) and Foodworx (possibly the best place for vegetarians, with the yummy salads, waffle bar, nutella wraps and customized vegetarian pizzas). Minus yesterday, I'll hope to continue this vegetarian diet for the rest of this month :)

[On the exception of yesterday: it's hard to turn down free fish tacos! Marshall College had a Gastrotrucks event with food vouchers specifically for Marshall students...yum. That was definitely my kind of event. Baja fish taco aside, I also received a free Corner Cupcake in red velvet with irish cream. It was the most delicious thing in the world--the cake was perfectly moist and crumbled, the irish buttercream frosting not too sweet and not too heavy. It. was. so. good!]

I could do with another one of these right about now...

-Rosanne

A Surprising Discovery: Foodworx

Now, I know Rosanne just wrote up an amazingly comprehensive and detailed review of every single dining hall on campus, but I thought I would throw my two-cents in there to talk about my new favorite place to eat- Foodworx.

I know. It's a bazillion miles away from the main area of campus, down long rows, through jungles, across oceans, but... it's actually worth it.

I literally have stumbled upon Foodworx once before this quarter. I was taking a random midnight walk around campus with a friend my FIRST QUARTER ON CAMPUS. It was a tiny little building, bustling with people and food and we walked right past it without really thinking much except "Oh, this is where Foodworx is." As soon as that moment passed, Foodworx was out of my mind for good.

Until recently.

I've been to Foodworx three times now in the past week. My flatmate and I have been craving pizza and so far OVT's pizza slices have NOT been doing the trick. Neither did a Superbowl Day splurge on Papa John's pizza. Neither did an expensive perfectly cheesy pizza from Borelli's that was such a treat while staying with some nearby family last weekend. Nothing quite did it until... we decided to get off our butts and journey to Foodworx to try the incredible personal pizzas we'd been hearing so much about recently.

Totally worth it. We split between us a cheese pizza and a bbq chicken with garlic pizza. They were absolutely delicious. Now, I am definitely an extra cheese and only cheese pizza kind of girl, but this bbq chicken pizza was to die for. While we waited, we also noticed that there was a waffle bar, so we made a plan to head down there the next morning to try the waffles. Also, delicious and amazing.

Today, we decided to run to Foodworx on our way back from the mall, grab some pizzas, and head to the volleyball game. While three of us waited for three bbq chicken pizzas, our friend went to the other side and ordered a peanut butter wrap with apples and nutella. THIS WAS NOTHING MY TONGUE HAD EVER TASTED. It was AMAZING. It blew my mind away. It was SO GOOD. And plus, we noticed at night, they turn the breakfast waffle bar into a DESSERT waffle bar.

Another cool little tidbit- they have bottled Coke from Mexico. I don't know about you, but soda tastes infinitely better from Mexico. And I love drinking out of glass bottles.

The point is--go to Foodworx. If you're tired of Pines and its dismal selection, or if you're tired tired of the same old same old at Goody's and OVT, or if Cafe V isn't an option and never really was, or if Revelle is just too far away (all of these equal the general opinion of my apartment), then make the trek to Foodworx. It is UCSD's hidden gem of delicious, for sure.