I’m hungry, so this post is going to be about food.  Not always great food, mind you – that comes later, when I’m not a student.  But food it is, nonetheless.  So here are four things I’ve eaten recently.

1. Brunch. Brunch may just be my favorite meal of the week.  I live in Passfield Hall, in Bloomsbury, and besides being home to a pretty darn pleasant group of people, Passfield provides us (as part of our rent) seven hot meals a week.  Six days a week, that means dinner.  It’s a real lifesaver to not have to spend time and effort worrying about what you’re going to eat; you just show up at the canteen at 6:30 and there’s something hot and (usually) delicious waiting for you.

And then there’s Saturday.  On Saturday, we eat brunch.  Now, I’m pretty sure I’m on the record somewhere as saying that the hamburger is America’s best invention.  Go ahead.   Look at this picture.  I stand by my statement.  But if that’s true, it’s equally true that Passfield Brunch is Britain’s best invention.  I mean, look at that picture up top!  And this one here!  It’s honestly wonderful.

2. Bread and Cheese.  Sadly, I don’t start every day as happy as I do on Saturdays.  Most days, I snag a few pieces of bread from dinner the previous night and have it the next morning with some cheese from Tesco.  (Don’t turn up your nose at me like that!  They have these fantastic deals where you can get 600g of cheese for £3, and the cheese isn’t half bad!  Name me another place I can get breakfast for a week for under a fiver.)

The sad thing about this breakfast, though, is that even though it isn’t all that great, I’ve developed a Stockholm syndrome-like affection for it.  To compound the problem, I’ve gotten into the habit of watching Arrested Development while having my breakfast – the episodes are short enough that I won’t be late if I get caught up in it – and so now every time I see Jason Bateman’s face I get the taste of cheddar in my mouth.  Oh, Pavlov, you saucy minx!

3. A Bottle of Wine.  Ok, so technically this wasn’t eating so much as drinking.  Yesterday, though, a friend came down to study in my room (hers is super cold, something about a draft) and, after a while, we decided to take a break from the endless reading and split a bottle of wine.  The picture up top isn’t of my bottle of wine, obviously.  By the time I realized I was going to write this post that bottle was long empty (and it was never all that picturesque, anyway).  So I used an idealized version of the bottle up to and have included a link to the real thing here, for those of you who crave journalistic integrity.

4. Fruit Stand Apples.  One of my pastimes whilst at school is not getting scurvy.  In this spirit, I make a twice-weekly stop at the fruit stand on Kingsway – pictured here, in a Google Maps screengrab – to buy fruit.  Apples are 4 for £1, as are oranges.  I used to get the oranges, but they got a little shaky as the weather got colder, plus they’re harder to eat when you’re in a rush.  Anyhow, they come in these fantastic little brown paper bags that are seemingly impervious to any and all attackers … I’m half-convinced that the British army is looking into them for body armor.  Nothing makes me feel as much like a local as nodding at the grocer (“Bill” – of course his name is “Bill”), handing him my coin, and wandering off back home with my fruit in hand.

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And there you have it, folks.  Four things I’ve eaten recently.  They’re not fancy, and certainly not all delicious, but they are all in my belly.  Time to get back to work.