THE FLAVOR TABLE (or, changes at the Ratty)

It's 10 AM now and we're still going strong. (If we were not, we'd be in trouble, considering we still have approximately 9.5 hours to go.) 

Abby, Greer, and I took a jaunt around the Ratty a little while ago, following the advice of Wilson Baer '13 to walk around every so often. I've only been in the Ratty twice since last May—once for caroling in December and once to get a flu shot in November—and I did not eat food on either of those occasions (RIP being on meal plan), so this post will explore some of the new and exciting changes to the Ratty since I was last here.

The salad bar is a slightly different shape than it used to be, more of an L-shape than a U-shape. Fascinating. More fascinating: apparently at breakfast, the salad bar consists entirely of a bowl of bananas. (UPDATE: according to Brooke, it's a yogurt bar at breakfast, so that's why the bananas are there. I somehow did not see the yogurt. Oh well.)

Where the oatmeal used to be (I think? I have never actually eaten Ratty oatmeal), there is now something called THE FLAVOR TABLE. The available flavors, apparently: spicy, salty, tangy, sweet, fresh (is fresh really a flavor?), savory, and earthy.

Flavors at the FLAVOR TABLE! There are a lot of different kinds of vinegar. We also spent some time debating which of these things actually has an "earthy" flavor. Oregano? Dill? Any herb, because herbs grow in the earth and therefore must be earthy? Comment below with your earth-flavor-related thoughts.

This never happened when I was on meal plan. (Jk, these totally existed. But there was no fun sign that said FLAVOR TABLE! I just really love the sign.)

According to this sign, it's Harvest Month. Also, POTATOES. Ratty signage always communicates the most important information.

The band has now commandeered 5 tables in the back corner of the Ratty. London and Chris are playing some mysterious card game, Kyle and Charlie are playing an even more mysterious computer game (that seems to involve peasants? and babies?). Hayley and Gabe are playing with action figures (Frodo and two people with lightsabers—I'm too far away to tell who they are). And the other half of the table is entirely a mystery, but there are lots of laptops out. They might be playing Neopets, but maybe they're actually being studious? Now it seems like everyone's going to retake the sorting test on Pottermore. Who knows what's going on over there.

It's now 10:30 AM and we are officially more that 25 percent of the way done with the challenge. WOO!