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During lunch, I strived to seek a little variety in my humble office routine. Simply meaning: somewhere new to eat lunch. The office pantry is getting old (and I needed excercise), The Loyola House of Studies is so…quiet (nice view though) and dining at Katipunan is expensive.

(Yes, I work at Ateneo.)

So I finally tried eating at the college cafeteria at Gonzaga Hall. I’ve never eaten there because, I’d like to think, everytime I asked my officemates where it is they usually say “doon” (there). And for me a place designated by “doon” as its location just sounded way far. But today, I was a little adventurous so I set off on a mission to find it.

Ateneo being a fairly sized campus has most of its facilities accessible by foot (with enough evergreens to make a noon walk bearable). Surprisingly, after taking a little detour (paseo de reilly [?]) I found myself there in a couple of minutes. I’ve always thought of our building as more in the burbs rather than downtown, cause I barely see students up and about. Wrong.

The trip started as promising I’ve decided to go with the flow. Meaning, I followed a group of students ( I figured: “It’s lunch time where are they to?”). As I found myself near the Loyola schools complex, I hesitated. Finding the canteen, I thought, might prove a little laborious after all.

But a familiar sight led me to it in no time: students trying to juggle books with packed lunches in styrofoam. Just like in UP’s CASAA.

Well it’s not really like CASAA.
It’s more spacious for a start (it has two floors) and more ventilated.
A lot of commercial franchised stalls but some are “lutong bahay” (home made) type. I decided to try out the Food Coop, I had menudo w/ rice for lunch, banana bread for dessert and Four Seasons for drink: decent enough and affordable. Though my menudo had more pork liver than meat in it.

As I chewed my food I looked around the place. Dining with all the students brought out a lot of memories for me. It made me remember how much I missed going to school. All the familiar sights and sounds were there, the ambient noise of chatter, the clang of metal utensils, students cramming for their assignments, class readings scattered amongst edibles, laptops (lots)/books/notebooks proppped on the tables etc.

I felt like a freshman again.
And I ate my lunch blending in with the academic crowd.

It took awhile for me to get a seat. I felt alienated by the many cliques hogging almost all of the tables, and I’ve proven a common observation I’ve heard before: a mass of Ateneans doesn’t look like a mosh pit cause they all look “bagong ligo” (well groomed) hehehe unlike a mass of UP students which are more… mass-y. Like me.

Gonzaga Hall is situated near all the buildings the students frequent and has a nice landscaped atrium. I looked around a bit and again missed familiar sights, students sitting on the hallway posters from different student orgs posted on bulletin boards (The play “Tanikalang Guinto” is set to premiere this Feb. which I thought cool).

And I asked myself,”Am I actually liking Ateneo?”

This academic institution

(which is cloistered from the outside world)
(which houses a lot of the affluent families in the country)
(which clogs Katipunan Avenue with its fleet of SUVs)

looks like a really nice place to study.

It is.

After a little stroll
I walked back to my office
counting the 20 peso bills in my wallet
looking at my soiled pants
stroking my greasy hair (I didn’t have a bath this morning)

I just miss UP. That’s all.