Food, Self, and Society

So this weekend was the Metropolitan Swimming Conference championships at Rutgers University. The whole team had a great time together. We left Lehman at around 6 and settled into our Comfort Suit room at around 8. The great thing about this trip was that we all got $80 from the college on food expenses. I roomed with my two friends Chip and Chris at the hotel. When we settled in, the first thing we all wanted to do was eat. Since we were on a budget, we had to be smart about where we ate, and what we ate. I looked out the window of our room and noticed that there was a Wawa conveniently across the street from the hotel! If you don’t know what Wawa is, its a convenience store and gas station, think 7 Eleven minus the gas station. If you haven’t heard of Wawa, that’s because they are mostly located in the Mid-Atlantic region of the U.S, and also operate in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, and Virginia, so you won’t find it anywhere in New York. They seriously had everything in there, but nothing was really that healthy. I found it a bit difficult shopping for food, because usually my mom does that, so i couldn’t distinguish between what i needed and what i wanted. I immediately ran towards the sandwich station. At first, i was just standing there, looking around, waiting for someone to take my order. After about 3 minutes or so i had realized that you don’t even have to talk to the people across the counter to get your sandwich. There are touchscreen panels where you place your order. I thought that was pretty ridiculous. Why is Wawa wasting money on this when customers can just call out their order? I actually like talking to the people across the counter, and now i can’t even do that… The first night i purchased a Philly cheese steak, beef jerky, orange juice, lunchables cheese and crackers, two power bars, and a snickers ice cream bar. As my roommate Chip said, we “pigged out”. That night, i fell in love with Wawa. Unfortunately, nothing they sell is very healthy, but when you are at a swim meet for three days, that no longer matters. That same night, one of our teammates came into our room to use our bathroom to throw up. Apparently, the Philly cheese steak he ate got to his stomach pretty bad. Regardless, i continued to eat my philly cheese steak because it just tasted too good! Fortunately, i didn’t have the same problems as our teammate did, although i remember vividly the woman behind the counter taking the meat out for my sandwich. The meat must have been sitting in the pot on the counter all day, but honestly, when you are as desperate and as hungry and i was, you would probably ignore that and continue eating. Here’s what i’m getting at: fast food is bad, but sometimes when you don’t really have a choice, it may be the only option. I am a big fan of “slow food.” I love a nice home cooked meal, but my guilty pleasure is “pigging out” with fast, unhealthy, greasy food, but who care when it tastes good!