<p>skibum4 where is your son going???</p>
<p>He's going to Choate</p>
<p>oh really?!?!?im going there this fall...see you there! haha :)</p>
<p>speaking of dining halls,
was anyone else so nervous at revisit day that they couldnt eat lunch?
haha</p>
<p>omg me too!! and all the friends we talking ..wait now that i think about i think ate like my whole plate cause i was so nervous...</p>
<p>it was my #1 pick haha
good times</p>
<p>omg on my visit and my revisit day, i was so nervous i didnt touch my food! i did manage to eat some, to be polite.</p>
<p>i didnt want to get food,
but the girl i was shadowing made me get a sandwich which she made me take a bite of...</p>
<p>Lawrenceville has THE most amazing food. Many of the ingredients, including apples (which are used to make fresh apple cider!), asparagus, chicken, and eggs, come from local farms. The best part about Lawrenceville's dining services, however, is that it is very interactive. At breakfast, students can make waffles or omelets with pre-diced fillings from bacon to green pepper to tomato; for the lazy, there is always some hot food, like pancakes or oatmeal. There is also always yogurt with granola, fresh fruit, and coffee/hot chocolate/flavored coffee and an assortment of teas as well as many kinds of drinks and fresh juices (which are also available at every meal). But the highlight of breakfast is most definitely the BAGEL BAR which is always crowded because the bagels are HEAVENLY. Perfect bagels and great toasters too. There are 8 kinds of cereals offered, and they change all the time, depending on demand. There is also skim, 2%, soy, and chocolate milk always. Cereal bar is available for every meal too, so if you don't want any other food, you will at least have cereal.</p>
<p>Lunch is huge: there is always hot items which are usually a vegetable, a carb, and a protein. Memorable lunches have included sauteed squash, sweet potato fries, steamed mussels, fried calamari, eggplant parm, roasted local chicken, pesto-mozzarella-tomato panini, turkey-cranberry-brie-raisin walnut bread sandwich, and strawberry and brie panini.
There is also a salad bar with: 3 different types of lettuce, and at LEAST 10 different add-ins, from beets to feta cheese. There is also 2 kinds of pre-prepared salads, 2 kinds of fresh fruit, and yogurt or pudding, and all sorts of dressings and toppings like cranberries and slivered almonds.
There is a deli bar as well, which has all your standard sandwich fixings. All sorts of breads are available, from white to whole wheat to cinnamon raisin to croissant. There are interesting mayos too, like wasabi or chipotle... delicious.
There is also another bar that rotates its offerings. It has been Nacho bar, hot dog par, potato bar, chilli bar, and more.
On some days, there is an option to make your own quesadillas or tuna melts. There is even an asian noodle bar, where you can assemble your own bowl of noodles and soup.
There is always a soup bar as well with a different soup every day. The best one is their Butternut Squash soup. SO delicious.
Ice cream is available in many flavors, as is a daily dessert.</p>
<p>Dinner is a lot like lunch in that there is the hot, prepared food section and several bars, but at dinner, the deli bar is replaced with a fruit and yogurt bar. The different bars offered at dinner are hot pretzel bar, pizza bagel bar, pasta bar and more.
Most students look forward to the Stir Fry bar. All sorts of ingredients, like water chestnuts, tofu, rice, spinach, peppers, and noodles are provided along with minced garlic, sesame oil, curry powder, chili, ginger, soy sauce, and other typical asian sauces.</p>
<p>I love Irwin (the dining center) because you're allowed to get really creative with your own meal. People have concocted delicious salads and incredible stir fries. Some ingenious students have even made rice crispy treats using the rice crispies from cereal bar, marshmallows from yogurt bar, and butter from the bread/bagel bar, and cooked this up at the stir fry bar! Weight conscious students can even cook up egg white omelets with spinach and tomatoes. It's really fantastic. There is also a comments box where students are encouraged to provide input. The dining staff actually reads and replies to them, and posts both question and answer for everyone to see. Usually if you ask for a certain type of cereal, it is there in a few days or so. I once emailed the dining hall director asking for plain yogurt and the NEXT day it was available!</p>
<p>All in all, Lawrenceville's dining hall is amazing, and I will miss it so much at college.</p>
<p>St. Paul's is very similar to what lville08 described above - including make your own omelets and waffles, deli bar, pasta bar, make your own stir fry. The desserts are good and very tempting and include self-serve ice cream as well as baked goods. A popular breakfast option added this year is make you own smoothies.</p>
<p>I wish we had smoothies. :)
I will say that I don't like Andover dining hall food; I consider it one of the major flaws of the school. I'm spoiled, because I'm from Berkeley and grew up with extremely strong principles of eating well--which does not mean lowfat or low-carb, but using really good, fresh ingredients that serve your body and energy well. We eat deserts, just deserts made well with fresh ingredients, instead of loaded with chemicals, dyes, and artificial sweeteners. At home, I would say I eat 90%+ organic food. Andover has a small bar of organic food, but there is very little in way of meal options (it is mostly peanut butter, granola, and yogurt--certainly not enough for 3 meals a day.) As someone who attended schools with children of migrant workers, I cannot support buying or use of nonorganic fruits and vegetables, simply from an ethical standpoint, not even considering nutritional.
Of course, it's difficult, because Commons needs to provide 2-3 meals a day for 800-1200 people a day, no easy feat. It certainly wouldn't be reasonable to expect them, for example, to hand-cook everything. But the amount of preservatives, fat, sugar, and refined flour in our food is very high, and rarely do we have fresh fruit and vegetables, much less fresh meat or bread, which I have yet to witness.
Andover should invest a lot more time and money in it's food program. That doesn't mean "trying" to get more local produce. It means overhauling it's current system to provide a drastically healthier, more organic, and fresher menu.
Sorry, that's my amazing rant on food. It's an important value to me. Yes, i'm weird.
And to answer your question, Commons should open this spring (2009.) It might be late, though, because they had to stop construction for 3 weeks, due to a threat written on the construction sight.</p>
<p>Spoiled brats...</p>
<p>Hahahahaha........</p>
<p>During revisit day I sat with the JV Ice Hockey players and boy, could they eat! THEY WERE ANIMALS! Hahahaha.
I was so nervous that I only got fruit and Im pretty sure they whispered about me.
Oh well. hehe</p>
<p>im pretty sure they werent the only ones who whispered about you aussie
hahaha</p>
<p>jokes</p>
<p>but aussie,
you dont live with a meat head hockey brother,
and you havent seen animalistic eating until you see him go at it.</p>
<p>Hahahaha
We can go out to eat! lol
We can tape it and post it on youtube. lol
I shouldnt really say anything though. Because I eat like an animal too....lol.</p>
<p>just curious but why is everyone so nervous during revisits? I would think you'd have a sense of relief at this point but idk...</p>
<p>I don't understand that, either. My son loved his revisit and was very comfortable.</p>
<p>someone describe it for nylecoj... its hard for me to explain.</p>
<p>let me say this... i had a grand time at my revisit day. i absolutely loved the people i met, the campus, the food, and the school in general. that didnt stop me from being nervous. i think its only natural.</p>
<p>I'd be nervous, simply because the people around you might be nervous.
This is just a guess, so it might be completely off the mark.
You've been accepted, so now your "hard work" (applications, interviews, SSAT, etc.) is over for the moment.
Now, it's time for that school to impress you. And that might make the atmosphere a little more... nervous.</p>
<p>i think i was nervous because i was so overwhelmed.
i was surrounded by people i didnt know,
people were asking who i was,
nobody knew where i was from when i told them,
and its just like,
scary
lol</p>