Ratty Gourmet

People Love Us!

Hour five is upon us. Time has gone quickly, but we expect that the laws of the universe will soon change and the time between noon and 7:30pm will start to slow. Will update you as the world changes and revolves around us.

In the meantime, people have joined us:

Lainie!

Hisyam. Also, Hisyam's expressive eyebrows.

Frodo

Zack! Then he got a call from the CIA. Then he got kicked off of Club Penguin.

Tim. He did not get kicked off Club Penguin.

Peter agreed to be photographed. This is news. 

THEN WE TOOK A PICTURE WITH GAIL!!!!! DREAM TEAM.

Dana, doing a variation on the Dana face

Carol is the most awake person to arrive.

GRABBY (GABY)

Lewie skyped in, and Abby also took a screenshot of me taking a picture. 

Adam and Lewie hung out for a while. Because…well, because 21st century.

And then I took a photo of Greer because I forgot she's been here since 7:30. Whoops.

It has happened. Abby has lost it. She keeps beeping when the doors beep. Keep an eye out for lunch posts soon. Per Chris' anticipation post, the lunch hour may be the low of our day. But as a team we will prevail. 

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!

Early Birds

We have two new friends:

Christie the photographer being camera shy :)

Isabela, with special appearance by Christie

Our first guest!

8:30 AM and we've already had our first alumni skype call with the illustrious Wilson Baer '13! Apparently when you're old, being awake/functional enough to talk to other humans this early in the morning is not as difficult as it is for us youths. (Although to be fair, he is on a different continent and so it's actually the afternoon where he is. Guess that's how he managed to be so cheerful.) 

Hayley teaches me how to take a screenshot. Wilson is having a blast!

Although Wilson is a busy adult person (he called us from an airport! coming home from a business trip! what a cool adult job thing!), he was able to offer us challengers plenty of great advice for surviving the challenge. Key tips included "Pace yourself," "Don't feel like you have to eat every food in the Ratty," "Get up and walk around every once in a while," and "Don't let the haters get you down." Good advice for the Ratty Challenge—and for life.  

We look forward to hearing from other alums throughout the day—skype us at beirutando!

Thirty Minutes Down

Greetings, outside-dwellers.

The day has begun. A gaggle of bleary-eyed seniors and our lovely swipers congregated in front of the eternal Sharpe Refectory. Upon entering the Ratty, I stood in one place, unblinking, for thirty minutes from the shock of it all, but I've recovered, so here are some photos:

just some friends hanging out on the quad

LOL they thought they were going to prom, but little did they know they were really just here to give us their guest swipes (thanks, swipe team)

the challengers

the challengers, doing that weird Sax thing with the legs (you can tell the brass players by their relative amatureness in executing the craft)

Gail, doing that thing she does so well!

Jeanelle, clocking in as our very first visitor at 7:45am

"I meant to be here at 7:30, that's my usual time"

With nine challengers, it should come as no surprise that we are already at five tables. Soon we will have taken over the entire Ratty. It has begun.

The most notable happening thus far is that we have been joined by a lovely loud tweeting noise from the emergency exit behind some of our diners. It's pretty loud. We may not last much longer. But Gail has been alerted, and apparently this is the door alarm equivalent of having a low smoke alarm battery. Gail told us she'd tell her boss about this, but she doesn't know how soon it will be addressed. If Abby and Chris have devolved into insanity by lunchtime, you'll know why.

Chocolate chip pancakes and grapefruit halves were on point.

Over and out.

The Ratty Challenge: Episode V begins....

Presenting, without further ado, The Ratty Challenge Episode V: The Fries Awaken.

(Text by Amy Andrews and Abby Muller; music performed by Abby Muller and Chris Warren)