Welcome to day 1 of reviewing food from IU! Note: food taste is subjective, hence, take my opinion with a grain of salt. Sanjay says, I quote, “You must be eating [explicit] at home.” He is also the person that hates avocados and dairy (ikr, who hates avocados and dairy?).
(For context, we are given cards with “unlimited fake money” to buy whatever we want to eat, so when I list the price of something, I’m not actually paying it out of pocket.)
Breakfast: Matcha tea latte with no ice, dipped madeleines, and bacon gruyere egg bites from Starbucks
Cost: $13.64
Starbucks has never seen a greater influx of matcha latte orders since SSP came to IU. I also highly recommend getting drinks with no ice to get the most bang out of your buck. I swear the drink will not be room temperature (ew). The egg bites are pretty decent though I highly suspect they add some mystery substances into the egg.
My rating: 8/10
Lunch: Hot food from The Mix and macarons from Sugar & Spice
Cost: $14.23
The IMU is pretty nice in that it has a decently large variety of foods (except on weekends when everything is closed). The one store that I absolutely LOVE is Sugar & Spice! I don’t care if people (looking at you, Jonathan) say spending $1.50 per macaron is “financially unwise” 😤
My rating: 6/10 The Mix, 10/10 Sugar & Spice
Dinner: All you can eat from Forest
Cost: a WHOPPING $17.26
We are required to eat food from Forest every night except for Sundays. IMO, the food is not bad! Despite always butchering Asian food, Forest has pretty good Mexican food (I am probably not a good judge of that though), nice steak, and, occasionally, that absolutely delectable grilled shrimp (guys, eating the shell is not that weird, right??). However, eating at Forest every night does get tiring, and the dining hall is a 15 minute walk away from the dorms. That may not seem bad until you realize that Indiana weather in the summer is disgusting, especially when you are wearing nice formal wear (no shorts allowed 🙁).
My rating: 7.203/10
Dinner is great for bonding with everyone though! The intriguing conversations on our interesting (in a bad way) siblings and debates about which way you should face when you shower never fail to make me laugh. I may have come to SSP for science, but the thing I will treasure the most when leaving here are the friendships I have made.
Josie here! I may be native to an obscure state called New Jersey, but you can observe me in my natural habitat at the Goodbody basement. As a huge biology enthusiast, I surprise myself by not mentioning any science in my blog. But, that is because SSP is not just a science program. Sure, you learn a lot of biochemistry, you do a lot of research, but there are many opportunities that offer that. What makes SSP unique, what I find truly valuable, is less tangible.
Life isn’t just about the end goal, but the journey you take to reach it. Many people who come to SSP don’t end up becoming scientists, but rather pave their own way in an unexpected field. We aren’t trained to be successful scientists, we are trained to be successful people; SSP provides you with the skill set you need to make it in life. Where you go and what you do, that’s up to you.
