Freshmen Fridays: Fall Break Feasting

 Six weeks into the semester, stressed by impending midterms,  overwhelmed by the mountain of laundry that never seems to  shrink (doing it more than once every three weeks might help with  that, I’ll admit) and fed-up with spending five minutes cleaning  somebody else’s clump of sudsy hair out of the shower before even  getting in myself, to say that I was excited for fall break would be  an understatement. Before coming to Penn I never fully  appreciated how nice it was to not have to walk farther than  downstairs for dinner or to have all my favorite snacks magically  restocked and waiting for me in the fridge whenever I needed a  study break, or, as it happened more frequently, was bored and  wanted to partake in my favorite past-time: mindless eating. At  school, once I run out of my favorite Greek yogurts and Luna bars, I  have to make the long trek to the grocery store (McClelland never  has good flavors) and then, once there, decide how many I can buy  without being judged by the cashier (last time I went for ten  yogurts and twenty bars…that was pushing it); since I’m far too  lazy to go through that long process, I often go snack-less, so by the time fall break came I was ready to gorge myself on a series of outstanding meals where all I had to do to gain five pounds was show up.

Since I live in Los Angeles, rather than taking a five hour flight home for a four-day break, my mom flew out to meet me in Philadelphia and I moved into her hotel with her for the weekend, finally getting my chance to fulfill every little girl’s dream of becoming Eloise and live in a hotel (substituting the Rittenhouse for the Plaza and Philadelphia for New York, but it’s the idea that counts right?). After weeks of wiping dirt off of each individual grape at Commons and waiting in line for a million years just to pay for my food at Houstons (which means that I end up eating most of it before I even get to the register where I have to go through the awkward conversation of describing what food they should charge me for even though some of the items are nowhere to be found), I was ready to indulge at every meal and my mom, in her excitement to see me, was only too happy to make my gluttonous dreams come true.

Missing my LA foods, my mom and I kicked off the weekend with a visit to Distrito for Mexican food, and while the guacamole might have been ordered “for the table” I had eaten practically all of it before anybody else could even lift a chip. Every morning I sampled a new breakfast dish, beginning with the classic combo of banana pancakes in my bathrobe (it was raining and I couldn’t get Jack Johnson out of my head for the rest of the day, not that I really wanted to) before moving on to the best french toast New York had to offer, fries on the side (who says they don’t go together–they both have the word french in them) and concluding my weekend with a Belgian waffle with fresh berries and a mountain of whipped cream. And while that would be enough to cause any person to gain the freshman fifty, I didn’t stop there. I treated myself to dessert at every meal (who can say no to pumpkin tiramisu–it’s a seasonal dish… if I don’t have it now who knows when I will get another chance!!) and had both of the hotel chocolates on our pillows each night (sorry Mom, yours somehow never made it to you…). And while the food was delicious (I’m still full… or as full as I ever get), the best part was that I didn’t have to do any planning for any of it. There was no coordinating of schedules and motivating myself to walk to that great off-campus spot or, on some days, even just over the bridge to Commons. And while I, like the rest of campus, have been mourning the end of fall break since the brutal shock of actually being expected to learn in class on Monday, I at least have something to remember it by–an extra fifteen pounds and a fridge full of my favorite snacks, courtesy of mom, making school feel (at least until the snacks run out) a little more like home.
–Emily Waxman