<p>It's my s at boarding school (in America), and I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed and exhausted from everything that is going on. I don't mean to be racist or anything, but there are a lot of Asian teens in both the girls and boys dorm, and like two other american teens including me. I can't connect with any of them. I'm more connected to the day students, and I find it hard to talk to the other dorm students, especially my roommates. They rarely speak English in and outside the dorms. That's just one problem. At my last school, I only ate dinner, because the school lunches sucked, and I worked out three times a week. I lost some weight, but was able to maintain it. I don't have a scale in my room, but I know I'm probably in the high 90s. I'm usually around 101 or 103. I eat both lunch and dinner at school, but I feel like I'm not getting enough to eat. Breakfast really isn't my thing. I also hate going to dinner, because it's so stressful to find a place to sit and all they have for dinner is something chicken something something every night. It's usually better during the week days because I have cheer and when I go to dinner not a lot of people are there. Usually some teachers ask me to sit with them because I sit all alone. I've been thinking about going to breakfast and lunch only, because I heard the breakfast is amazing, but I hate feeling full while in class. Does anyone know how I can cope with all this stuff. Also, exercising is a really big thing for me, but cheerleading isn't really giving me the workout I want and the equipment my dorm has is old and has dust-webs on it. I also can't go to the football field to run, and I have no idea where I'm going on campus. At certain hours we have to walk with a buddy, and I don't think my roommate is the type to wake up or stop what she's doing to exercise. Any advice to help me cope with all of this stuff would be awesome. Also, I'm haven cravings for all these different foods, lol. How do I stop them?</p>
<p>May I ask what school you go to? This reminds me of my old school. </p>
<p>Try making friends with the internationals, you’ll find they are just like normal people. Some of my best friends were the Asian students. We communicated through hand gestures mostly, because of the language barrier, but I spent most of my time with them. We had great times.</p>
<p>When it comes to the food, what I did was I take ziploc bags and save all that I could for later. I had hoards of food under my bed. Also, try getting some bulk amounts of food when your out on trips or grocery runs. And try going to the breakfast because thats where the best food is usually. I was the first in line at breakfast and I used to hate eating in the morning.</p>
<p>MVCS in California. I’m trying to make friends with them, and some of them are really nice, but they only say hi or say my name. I don’t want to gross my roommate out with zip locked packages of food under the bed 
The problem with trips is that we only have so much space to put people on the bus and it’s like by the time sophomores are called there aren’t any spaces left. I really want to eat breakfast, but eating in front of people makes me nervous. I always feel like everyone is watching me. I’m going to try to go to breakfast tomorrow though.</p>
<p>I suggest u re-post this thread on the Prep School Parents board:
<a href=“Prep School Parents - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-parents</a></p>
<p>But I’m not parent?</p>
<p>It should go here:</p>
<p><a href=“Prep School Cafe - College Confidential Forums”>http://talk.collegeconfidential.com/prep-school-cafe/</a></p>
<p>Thank you. I’ll repost it there.</p>
<p>Hey! I’m at MV too so I think I can help you.</p>
<p>Try to make friends with the international students (this has been said already but it’s important). They’re all really awesome people and they can all speak English pretty decently, but they speak in their native languages often because it’s familiar to them. It’s the first week of school so more of them are probably speaking their own languages because they aren’t completely used to school in America. It’s pretty easy to become friends with them if you just get to know them and hang out with them. Don’t stress about it- they’ll get more comfortable as the days go by and you’ll end up being good friends with a lot of them by the time the semester ends.</p>
<p>The dinners can get kind of repetitive with the all the chicken. I always had soup or salad for dinner whenever there was chicken or pork. The soups are awesome and they’re different every lunch and dinner. </p>
<p>I wouldn’t bother putting it in the Prep School Cafe forum. That forum hardly gets any traffic, and the threads there are generally silly, fun threads.</p>
<p>
You will get serious-minded people (both parents AND students) reading and responding to your issue.</p>
<p>I accidentally posted my reply early and I’m not sure how to delete it so read this one instead lol</p>
<p>Hey! I’m at MV too so I think I can help you.</p>
<p>Try to make friends with the international students (this has been said already but it’s important). They’re all really awesome people and they can all speak English pretty decently, but they speak in their native languages often because it’s familiar to them. Also, it’s the first week of school so more of them are probably speaking their own languages because they aren’t completely used to school in America. It’s pretty easy to become friends with them if you just get to know them and hang out with them. Don’t stress about it- they’ll get more comfortable as the days go by and you’ll end up being good friends with a lot of them by the time the semester ends.</p>
<p>The dinners can get kind of repetitive with the all the chicken. I always had soup or salad for dinner whenever there was chicken or pork. The soups are awesome and they’re different every lunch and dinner (I think). Also, you can ask for parts of the dinner if you don’t want the meat (like you can get just rice or just the vegetables or both). Try not to get stressed about finding a place to sit! The international students usually sit together and it’s kinda intimidating but you can always just sit with the American students if they’re at a table or next to them if they’re sitting with other students. It’s fine to just sit by yourself, too (f you sit by yourself someone from dorm staff or another student will probably sit with you). You said that teachers ask you to sit with them- do it if you want! It’s a lot of fun talking to the teachers and getting to know them as well.</p>
<p>And yes the breakfast is amazing! If you don’t like feeling full in class, ask for less food when the cafeteria workers are putting it on your plate or just get however much cereal you want or whatever you’d like to eat. </p>
<p>Ask the dorm staff about the exercising stuff. I know that during the summer one of the girls woke up early and went for a run with someone around campus before school started. </p>
<p>If you need to go on the shopping trips to get food, tell someone on dorm staff that you need to go and they’ll find a space for you. Also, everyone buys food on the trips and keeps food in their rooms or in the kitchen so don’t worry about being judged lol</p>
<p>So yeah! Hopefully this is kinda helpful! :)</p>
<p>Lol thanks. I just bought a bunch of food last night, and I think I’m broke now. I usually like my alone time when I eat because I’m constantly around my roommates and other people, and it’s hard for me to eat in front of other people I don’t know very well and enjoy the food at the same time. The chicken is good, but I always feel like I’m going to throw up after eating it 
Do you have any tips for lunch? The line is so long, and it’s like right after I get my food the bell rings. My 5th period class is all the way down by the gym and I find it awkward to eat and walk fast. Also, I went to breakfast yesterday and today and omg it was good.</p>
<p>Omg the lines for lunch this year are awful. My only suggestion would be to not rush the line right away and instead go like 5 minutes after the bell rings (that’s what I did last year) but I’m not sure if that would even help given how long the lines have been the past few days. The line will probably become more manageable as the school year goes on (it has in years past) bc the cafeteria will get more efficient and stuff but like I have no tips for the first few weeks lol</p>