Valentine Dining Hall

This past weekend was my first time eating in the dining hall at Amherst College, Valentine. After hearing a lot of negative things about the dining hall, similar to sentiments about Smith dining halls, I was convinced it had to be the most repulsive place on this planet. When I walked in, I was surprised to see that the comments I had heard were exaggerated and biased. The dining hall at Amherst isn’t as bad as some people make it. While at Smith we only have about two options for every meal, Amherst had several, with more constant options as alternatives to the main meal. When I dined at Val on Saturday they had breakfast options, lunch options, soups, salads, cereals, and a full dessert station! If that’s not better than Smith’s lame two-breakfast food brunch with salad than I don’t know what is. I realize that perhaps if I had to eat at this dining hall every day I might be unhappy too, just like I am with food at Smith, but for my first experience the fact that I could have ice cream with breakfast is utterly fabulous.