Alex may be providing you with a steady diet of meat and potatoes, but I like to think of my feature as something more fabulous. How fabulous you ask? This fabulous. (You should eat at Miya’s at least once while you’re living in New Haven. Even if you don’t like sushi. It’s that good.)
On a similar note, the Div School’s Refectory will prevent you from going hungry by providing you a steady diet of meat-and-potatoes-esque dishes. Don’t get me wrong; I like the Refectory. It’s far from the worst cafeteria that I’ve eaten in. However, when you eat it day in and day out, it gets old. That’s where today’s feature comes in.
As a YDS student, you’re required to purchase “Eli Bucks,” Yale’s dining points system. For full-time students, the required amount is $400; for part-time, it’s $200. While you can spend all of these in a semester at the Refectory, you do have other options: namely the Hall of Graduate Studies and Yale Commons.
HGS (320 York St) operates a cafeteria for Yale’s graduate and professional student community. At $9.50 for lunch and $13 for dinner, it can be a bit pricey, but it is money that you’ve already spent (plus, you didn’t hear this from me, but people totally sneak in Tupperware). At each meal, there’s a salad bar, two soup options, at least two hot entrees, one of which is vegetarian, sides, and desert. Throughout the year, HGS runs special dinners, such as “Chocolate Fest,” where every dish contains chocolate.
Yale Commons (168 Grove St) was at one point Yale’s only dining room. That isn’t the case today, but it’s still the only dining facility open to the entire Yale Community. Plus, where else can you dine beneath pictures of former US Presidents (all of whom were Yale alumni) while watching the fascinating creatures that are Yale undergrads? Commons provides more options per meal than HGS does, although it’s only open Monday through Friday. Plus, the scenes in the Indiana Jones moves that supposedly occur in Sterling Memorial Library were all actually filmed in Commons (I’m still really impressed by that fact).
There’s also a restaurant in Bass Library, but, as the worker told me, “Divinity points? We don’t take those here.” The moral of the story here is: bring cash for snacks when you’re studying in Bass (which is open later than the Divinity Library, for the record).
So... are Eli Bucks accepted at campus bookstores? I know that I'd rather bring a lunch for cost-sake, so might I use the money I'm forced to shell out to bear the cost of an iPad?
ReplyDeleteEric, unfortunately, no. Eli Bucks are only usable in Yale dining facilities. As far as I'm aware, as a Divinity student, yours will work everywhere except in Bass's cafe (I've never eaten in a residential college's dining hall, but I don't see why our points wouldn't work there; then again, I'm still not sure why they don't work in Bass...) Still, the good news is that the money is just about what it would cost to eat a reasonable meal in the Refectory just about every day during the semester. From time to time, you will get the option to donate your points to a charity. We were able to donate to Haiti relief this past semester.
ReplyDeleteJust to clarify, Divinity Dining Points can be used in the Refectory, at the Hall of Graduate Studies dining hall, the Commons, and the Slifka Center for Jewish Life.
ReplyDelete