Eating at the Mensa

Because I have spent so much time eating in the Mensa, I figured that I should talk about it. Mensa is just the German word for a university cafeteria. The food in Hochschule Bremen’s mensa is typically really good and it is not expensive. If I buy a drink for lunch most days, so it costs a little over 3 Euro for lunch, which I think is pretty good for the quality and quantity of the food. In the mensa, there are three stations for food that change every day. There is also a pasta bar, a salad bar, a set list of fried foods you can get (like schnitzel and fries), a small selection of grab and go sandwiches, fruits, ice cream, and drinks. There are also always vegetarian options, though those are more limited. I have tried a lot of German foods there that I might not have ordered myself if I went out to eat. I tried spargles there, I had liver and onions there, I had a Turkish pizza there, and more. My landlords said that they would go eat in the mensa sometimes because it is cheap and good food. With your meal at one of the stations that changes every day, you get a soup of the day, typically some kind of meat, typically some kind of starch (boiled potatoes are very common), some kind of vegetable, and some kind of sauce on all of it. The people who work in the mensa are always very nice to me. Even if I can’t communicate with them well, I can always point at what I would like. They will always say “danke” when handing me my food and I will say “danke” back because it seems weird to say “please” or “you’re welcome” and not “thank you” when receiving the food. During the brief time when I am not working but I am still here studing for my MCAT, I think I will head to the mensa for a few days for lunch so I will get out of the house and get some good food.