Schmumbledore and Food

Meet Albus Dumbledore:

In my one class, the teacher was explaining how Dr. Albert Bickford had written all the course materials, so if we had questions, we should take them up with the violin-playing, gray-maned director. Again, in another course, the plans and techniques we were learning originated from this lanky, grandfather figure, who insists you call him Albert and wears knee-high whites with 80s Adidas running shorts. He's warm, gregarious, and all together unassuming. Yet, you can't help but feel you're in the presence of someone who's wisdom is so sharp, he can cut you like a sword. This is Dr. Bickford; this is Albert. All extraneous comments of Rowling aside, Albert seems to me Dumbledore. This I chose to comment on to the group of 3 students and teacher, who received the comment with either blank stares or uneasy laughter. But before I go about enforcing stereotypes, the woman I've become closest too confined she too read and enjoyed Harry Potter. Though, she also thought the idea of dumpster-diving kind of repulsive.

Freedom and restraint:
Like mentioned last time, the things I miss more than all of you were my bike and my food. Good news, I got a bike!!! A used, red Gary Fisher, and I'm madly deeply in love with it and the new freedom it provides me to escape dorms, campus, and hymn-sing when necessary! It's stupid flat here, so riding feels like flying. Between the clean air, (unnervingly) huge sky, and plethorous bike lanes, I'm utterly enamored of the experience to ride here. The bike represents freedom that my sanity needs. The food, on the other hand, is like a prison.

I miss my quinoa and kale, my daal and whole wheat flower, my happy beef and farmer fresh eggs. I've done a bit of rigorous research about the dining services. Basically, to stick to my guns about food, I ought not partake in meat, eggs, dairy, and all things highly processed. In a cafeteria setting, this means salad bar with no dressing or frozen vegetables. At every meal, I've consumed a plate full of leafy greens or soggy veggies. I have indeed found a food soul mate here. She more extreme than me, has nearly entirely given up eating at the cafeteria. However, with no kitchen, and no allowances for even microwaves or hotpots, the ability to eat healthy is almost completely forbidden. And seeing as I am paying more for room and board than for credits, it makes sense to eat the food provided.

One can also argue that my food preferences are all self-enforced and I ought suck it up, swallow my "values" and eat the meatloaf. If one of you dear friends invited me over for dinner, I would happily consume whatever you placed in front of me in a heart beat. Why? Because community and people trump my food particulars. But the cafeteria is like going out to eat. The waiter or waitress doesn't care if I don't order the majority of things on the menu or if as I did when at Friday's with Justin, I only order two sides of probably previously frozen veggies. Yet, what nearly drove me to tears yesterday, was the thought of yet another meal of these veggies. I broke down, I got the chocolate chip pancakes, and thinking "WTF!" i ate them with high fructose corn syrup syrup. The coating it left in my mouth was terrible and my stomach found the fare unfavorable.

Today, while the majority of the SIL-ers fret about where to find a church that they can attend for the remainder of the summer, my goal is to seek out a fair-trade coffee and fresh-made bakery shop to have a quite time, where I will be able to eat at ease for the rest of the summer. Know of any happy food places in Grand Forks...I'm starving to find out about them!

Keep praying for me to find my identity in God. I'm going to start my own bible study into God's acts of naming, like Abram > Abraham and Simon > Peter etc. I'll let you know what I find out.