15 June 2006

a semester's worth of stories part two

the unfamiliar will think of pasadena city college as a second high school, only bigger, busier, and with a lot more leeway. the thing that still surprises me is that plenty don't know about the variety of services the community college has to offer. first of all, i've come across people who don't have a student ID. worse, there's a good number who don't know that they can avail of a student ID. that's your ticket to checking out a book from the library, going to the gym, using computers, getting printouts, using equipment from the music department, etc. second, i'd guess more than half the student population is unfamiliar with the campus in its entirety. it's a pretty small campus compared to university standards, so it's fairly traversable and there are many interesting places to visit. last and most important, a lot of students don't know that you could get free food (!) on campus, that is if you look a little harder.

there are various hotspots for complimentary grub. these include:

the cross cultural center's dinner and a movie. their last movie, boys of baraka, was terrific. the dinner consisted of yellow rice with cashews, seasoned fried chicken, carrots, celery and ranch dip, iced tea, lemonade, and water. earlier in the semester, they also showed crash with free popcorn, nachos, cream puffs, and pizza.

workshops. during week without violence, there was a series of workships discussing domestic violence, partner abuse, rape, etc. think about it. you leave educated and well-fed. they served wraps, fruit, cookies, and other pastries.

art gallery exhibits. great art, photography, and the occasional food.

club events. alpha gamma sigma gave out free pizza and soda during their first general meeting. being part of a club could also mean having free banquets at the end of each semester, or other year-end activities like club italia's caffé teatro and students for social justice's spring mixer. even TROPA gave away free (albeit very commercialized) halo-halo. the inter-club council's end-of-the-year celebration had good food: adobo, five-cheese lasagna, pad thai, rice, potstickers, lemon bars, pecan bars, pita, and hummus.

el pollo loco. that's right, el pollo loco. if you guys didn't notice, bank of america had a tent in front of the fast food restaurant, giving away credit promotions. participating in one meant a free meal: two pieces of chicken and two sides in exchange for filling out a piece of paper! let's just say students are not completely responsible for aliases, spur-of-the-moment nicknames, and names derived from characters in a play, not to mention nonexistent addresses and weird number combinations. let's wait and see if they come back next fall. teehee.

there are other locations and events wherein you can enjoy free food. just this week, i scored free wafers, white fudge, chocolate chip, and m&m cookies from the D building. there are seminars which have just ended and have free lemonade, iced tea, and water waiting to be thrown away. welcome week had cotton candy. discovering pcc day did too, plus snow cones and popcorn.


chicken steak and rice at tea zone $4.99 you know you liiike it.

when you can't find any free food, you could always live off the dollar menus at jack in the box, carl's jr, mcdonald's, and burger king. it also helps if you have a friend who works at yoshinoya and could toss you a free drink and cheesecake every now and then. buy the large and delicious portions they have at tea zone and split the meal and the bill with a friend. taipan café has great food, too.

hey, students starve. you gotta do what you gotta do.

Posted by ilovesecondhandsmoke @ 12:47 AM