I was sitting in the hallway of the 4th floor of the Elmer Holmes Bobst Library, better known as Bobst among NYU students, because there were absolutely no more seats in the North Reading Room. Other people had the same idea. One guy down the hallway was eating some food ranting to a girl about someone in the reading room who took “literally a f*cking hour to eat an apple.” She was apparently trying to be quiet while eating it, but probably should have just stepped out to eat it quickly and avoid disturbing anyone.
This type of rant is the tell-tale sign of finals week.
If there is ever a week when NYU students do not mess around, it’s finals week. NYU Snaps‘ Facebook page is littered with photos of the most deranged sleeping positions you’ve ever seen after pulling all-nighters. Students across campus (or…city, I guess) are on their 46th consecutive hour without sleep, or they have entirely given up and are binge watching Netflix with anxiety driven regrets of skipping lecture. During this time, students cannot spare a single moment without rest, but they must eat eventually. Unfortunately, that leads to eating in the quiet room to the annoyance of every single person around them.
Shortly after the apple incident I was eavesdropping when my friend Zoey Schultz, a student in the College of Arts and Sciences, sent me a text message.
“You should write an article about food not to bring to the library during finals week. be sure to include gobstoppers. THIS KID IS KILLIN ME RN. plz & thanks”
Clearly, this is a serious food-related issue that needs to be addressed for the sake of our sanity and GPAs. So starting with apples and Gobstoppers, here are some more foods NYU students are begging other NYU students to stop eating in the quiet rooms. That’s what Lower Level 1 is for people.
Photo by Maggie Gorman
Justin Cheung, a student in Tisch School of the Arts, found granola bars to be the most annoying snack in the quiet rooms. Why?
“Because they’re crunchy and the wrapper makes a loud noise. At least they don’t smell, which is nice. It really depends on the person eating though – like if someone is eating a bagel like…” Then, Cheung proceeds to snack obnoxiously like someone might do with a bagel over-loaded with cream cheese.
Anissa Rosales of Steinhardt School of Culture, Education and Human Development and Rachel Barber of Gallatin School of Individualized Study weighed in with their thoughts on what should not be eaten in the quiet rooms.
“Smelly foods are the worst. People that eat certain Chinese foods also. People hate that,” Rosales said.
Barber said that “tuna or Indian food” were the worst for her, but Rosales said that loud foods were the most annoying.
“Pho is so strong, but no one really eats that in the library,” Rosales said.
“I’m sure someone does,” Barber added.
For Liberal Studies student Shiyu Zhang, the worst culprit is chips.
The most annoying foods are “things with a bad smell, like some soup,” Zhang said. “But sushi, that’s okay. It’s not as smelly. It’s also really quiet when you’re eating sushi. I hate when someone is eating chips because it’s noisy.”
Photo by Andre Li
Two graduate students in the College of Dentistry (who chose to be anonymous for unspecified reasons) seemed to agree with the general consensus. Chips are loud and Indian food is smelly, but sushi is okay.
“We usually have our headphones on, so anything cooked or fried is the worst,” said the first student.
The other added that “we can’t really complain because we do it too.”
Maybe we are all a little guilty of eating in the quiet rooms. The overall verdict is that sushi is okay, though. If that doesn’t give you hope for finals week, I don’t know what else could.