When I chose Yale, I didn’t consider that a significant amount of my time would be determined by where I was eating. Since I’ve been at Yale I have seen tiktoks about Yale’s dining halls go viral, highlighting the amazing food and whatnot. The food is… fine. It is generally much better than dining hall food at other schools, but in my opinion the food is the least interesting thing about these spaces.* We are fortunate for the abundance of food we have access to, but I’d argue we are even more fortunate to have the bountiful opportunity for connection with the staff running these spaces.
All dining halls have similar staff structures in place but I am speaking primarily for Trumbull since I am lazy and like to eat close to home. Most breakfast and dinners you can find me at the Trumbull dining hall mere minutes before closing (my procrastination spreads into my eating habits as well). Lunch is more of a curveball since I’m usually in a different place every day during this time. Trumbull has a consistent staff, with the chefs and front desk quickly becoming familiar faces if you eat there every day like I do.
Bulldog was printed in the CEID, this is me getting dinner after having printed him
It has become a sort of ritual to find joy in the conversations that take place as I walk into the dining hall. Most of the chats tend to be small talk: checking in and saying hello and reiterating how deep in the trenches I am with schoolwork—all the usual hits. However, the longer I’ve been at Yale the longer and more meaningful these conversations get. I want to take this opportunity to highlight some people who have really made Trumbull a home through food, let’s put names to faces:
When I first spoke to Kareem I offhandedly asked him how he felt about the weather, normal small talk stuff. Little did I know he is a full-fledged hobby meterologist. One time he literally illustrated how La Niña and El Niño weather patterns were causing global weather changes. I’ve never met someone who has so many thoughts on the weather, or who wants to experience tornadoes firsthand. Whenever everyone around me is tired of the snow or rain or generally unfavorable weather, I know to ask Kareem his thoughts. He always makes me appreciate the “bad” weather, reframing it as rain alleviating us from a drought. He’s also actively taking college classes and so we commiserate together and also motivate each other as needed. He’s on my mind today since he’s got two essays to write this weekend. Best of luck, bud.
Manny my beloved, is a man who really reminds me of my parents and so naturally we speak in Spanish whenever we catch up. He probably also reminds me of my parents because he asks about them often, so the association is pretty strong. He has a daughter a little older than I am, and I can feel how he probably sees me in a similar light. I love hearing about her whereabouts and successes. The number of times he has told me he is proud of me is enough to make my little heart grow exponentially. I’ve never seen a more consistently joyous person. Unfortunately I’m graduating but my one reassurance is that Manny said I should come visit whenever because he’d always be happy to see me.
Kishawn always catches me when I’m watching my tv shows during my meal. If I’m not eating with friends, I’m sat watching a youtube video or Netflix show. It turns out we have similar taste in shows. I was watching a commentary video about Love is Blind, and all of a sudden he’s telling me about how he’s also watching the show—a pleasant surprise. Another time I’m watching an animated show, Pantheon, and he asks if I’m watching anime. Naturally we started discussing our favorite animes and this man has taste! Now he’s watching Pantheon and I’m waiting for him to finish the show so we can talk about it. He is doing me a solid by watching since I need to debrief with someone badly. He loves it so far, so much so that one time he was actively watching it as I went in to get food lol. He’s my twin when it comes to varied tv show taste.
This is not an exhaustive list; all my dining hall buddies make my day. Special shoutout to my fellow student workers (especially Trumbull legends Leah and Troy) who have run the front desk!
* This is not at all related to the main thesis of this blog of this but another thing that makes dining halls super interesting are the sociological behaviors people take part in: the unspoken rules about where to sit, how to claim a spot with personal belongings, line formation for the buffet, etc. It’s so interesting that students will conduct sociology and psychology experiments in these spaces to see how people behave. My singular experience in a sociology class had two separate projects based in the dining halls where my peers literally set up experiments in their residential college dining halls. This is all to say you’re just as likely to unknowingly be the subject of a peer’s research paper as you are to befriend the dining hall workers :) That’s Yale for you
