Canteen lunch today was garbage, though it was an unfortunate situation and a major blunder by yours truly.
I bought the vegetarian meal as it seemed to me, by the description, to be the best of the bunch. The fish meal was something I’d had before and hadn’t thoroughly enjoyed, so naturally I gravitated towards the other option.
As I made my way across the counter, I noticed four people in a row asking for the vegetarian option. Now, seeing four people ask for the vegetarian option would already be odd, but not only were all of them in front of me and in sequence, but only two of them were together! That’s right, three independent groups of people asking for the vegetarian meals. Not to mention myself, of course. I would’ve been the fifth.
The issue was that the vegetarian meal tray was already low on food, and the sudden onslaught of vegetarians really tore it down to nothing—or basically nothing. So much so, that I was afraid that, were I to pick it, I would be relegated to a measly meal, instead of what I paid for and was rightfully owed. Maybe that wouldn’t have been the case, I’ll never know, but I didn’t want to risk it. I was terribly hungry, at the time.
So, I chose the fish meal.
There are basically two types of fish meals at the canteen: has fish, is fish. Sometimes we get something like pasta with tuna or a fish lasagna, those are in the first category; other times, we get pieces of fish accompanied by something, like sardines with rice, for example. That’s what it was supposed to be, today, but instead I got some other weird fish with boiled potatoes. I’ve got nothing against potatoes, mind you—as a matter of fact, I prefer potatoes to rice—, but these potatoes were not great. They were cold and hard. Not only that, but the fish itself was cold too! Now, my next complaint is a personal gripe: there was an onion and tomato sauce drenching everything. I like raw tomatoes, I like raw onions, but that thing is disgusting, I struggle to eat, I struggle to even look at it! I realize this is personal taste, so I’m not docking points for it, but it was still terrible for me. Finally, and perhaps most importantly, the fish was more bone than fish. Every bite had a bone, every fucking bite. I tried to pick them out but it was impossible, they were small but so hard, and hard to find. It ruined the meal.
To throw salt into the wound, they threw a slice of green pepper into my salad. I hate peppers.
I realize I sound a bit whiny and maybe ungrateful, the canteen is a great environment, everyone there works hard, and they provide complete and varied meals for all students at a very affordable price. Moreover, I didn’t even choose what I actually wanted. Still, it left a bad taste in my mouth (pun intended).
Tomorrow I’ll have to go veggie, if I go to the canteen at all (which is very likely). It’s tofu. Looking forward to it; the last time I had that there it was really, really good. I was also starving at the time, if I remember correctly, but still.
Only real issue is the rain. It’s been raining like crazy the whole day and I expect the downpour to continue tomorrow. It would be a real pain in the ass to go there just to get drenched, but the food might just be worth it. Then again, maybe not.
Did some math and turns out I spent almost €27 this past week (since last Wednesday) on food. That would add up to around €115 per month. Some €12 (by far the biggest single chunk) there does include €4.80 that haven’t been spent yet. Still, €115 for now.
If I account for everything, my expenses are coming out to less than €450 per month. That leaves just about €800 for investing, which sucks. I wanted to do €800, but I also wanted to keep some money to buy other stuff. And I do, to be fair, about 10 bucks, and there’s also some other money that comes in occasionally from my family for various reasons, and I’m estimating utilities on the high side side. Still, it’s a tight budget, the way I see it.
What I’m getting at is that this small money that I’m spending at the canteen matters and I’d like it not to be trash.