The food here at Smith is great. Yeah, I said it. Apparently I'm in limited company in this opinion, but I totally stand by it. I remember sitting in Chase-Duckett with a bunch of new students and leaders during orientation week and thinking "Wow, this is good." Soon after, though, the negative comments began. It seems that everyone is complaining about dining hall food here. But it's great! As a transfer student from a big public university, I feel that I may have a little bit more perspective than most. When you go from eating in dining halls among thousands to small houses with maybe 70 people, it's bound to get better. Food for the masses is just plain bad. At University of Michigan, my best friend, a vegan, has approximately two options every night: burrito with beans, rice, and salsa, or peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Not the greatest range of choice. At Smith, we have Northrup-Gillett, which has some of the best cooks on campus and makes really interesting and tasty vegan and vegetarian dishes like falafel and Thai tortellini for three meals a day. How can you complain about that? Yes, pasta is served maybe a little too frequently, and it would be nice to have bigger water glasses, but seriously. You don't know what you have until you've had much worse. I get so excited for the food here that I check the menu weeks in advance. Just this week, I'm excited for banana muffins, brinner (breakfast for dinner), lemon squares, curried lentils, mashed potatoes, taco bar, and pizza. And those are just the highlights.