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Co-op is a real pain. At Waterloo we change terms ever four months (hence why I’m on my school term right now, and why so many people think I’m taking remedial classes :S). It’s a pain to move and you constantly have to be searching for jobs/housing and arranging transportation. The worst of these problems always happen at the end of the term as you are scrambling to plan the next 4 months of your life and how you are going to make it work. Then there is the packing. How Iloath packing! Every 4 months I get to cram my life into a suitcase, a duffel bad and two carry-ons. And what happens when you can’t fit something in? You pawn it off on a friend, or throw it out. What other choice do you have? At the end of every term a student is left with quite alot of disposable items. These include paper towels, toilet paper, and other products that just don’t seem worth keeping in favour of space and weight savings. The worst of all these things is food.

When you are a student and you get to the end of the term, you start thinking carefully about what food you have left and when are you going to eat it. Thought it was a good idea to buy the 10 kg bad of potatoes a week earlier, didn’t you? Price shopped good and now have a half dozen Michalina’s in your freezer? Buying the bulk spices was a good decision, until you find you can’t fit them in your luggage to take to your next place of residence. This is now the third consecutive term where I think I’m having this problem. Luckily last term my roommate was staying and I pawned everything leftover on him. Oh and I made a huge ham dinner on one of my last days in Ottawa and then left it for others and ran off for dinner out with friends…just to use up that ham I assured myself I’d have a use for when I bought it (It really WAS a good price too!). The term before I ended up just throwing alot of stuff away at the last moment (like 5 mins) before the shuttle picked me up for the airport. Hope is not lost yet though! I still have a week and a half, and I can do it right this time. I still have time to stop and think about what I’m doing and carefully plan out meals for the remainder of the term.

The real problem is a balance of eating all of your food, while not having to eat out too much, and to eat RIGHT. The last one is really key. I find myself eating less nutritional meals just for the sake of using up those bags of pasta leftover. For most students, an issue for them is always the cost of food, and at the end of the term people are prone to going out for food and spending money they really shouldn’t. Sure, it isn’t bad to treat yourself at the end of the term and go out with friends, but some people end up eating out for every single meal instead of risking buying food and having it left over. Also, it is much easier, especially when you are trying to study, to just have food made for you then to have to waste time making it yourself (though it’s a nice study break methinks).

This last Sunday I went for my last grocery run (I go every Sunday because there is a shuttle). I stocked up only on stuff I know I’ll use up in the next week and a half (also realizing that I have some eating out events I have agreed to already). I’m going to try to use everything up, but I know I can’t use up absolutely every food item I own. Last term, as I mentioned, I ended up throwing stuff out. You can’t donate half finished boxes of crackers, or open bags of rice. Most of the stuff is half used and it is just not possible to give away (unless you have the occasional extended stay student who can use a few snack foods to pass the time). Even if I had non-perishables, it’s out of my way to go donate them. You’d think that, knowing the day/week people move out of res, that food banks would set up a box in the foyer of the building. It’s easy gathering time! I can just imagine all the donatable things that just get thrown out because people can’t be bothered at this stressful time to go out of their way.

Well, back to studying methinks…after last night’s 5:20 fire alarm pull, and the resulting loss of sleep and ruining of my usual schedule, I’m now behind where I hoped to be. This would never of happened if I was in off campus housing…

Currently Listening to: “Cocaine Cowgirl” - Matt Mays and El Torpedo