Another *School* Year

So, tomorrow begins my back to school madness/life. I'm stocked up on quite a bit of gluten-free food, but I know that it's not going to last me too long. It's going to be difficult eating in the cafeteria at my school as well. In fact, I tried to sign up/talk with someone about a gluten-free option. The school is quite small, so there's only one cafeteria, and you'd think people would be able to get in touch with each other, or at least put YOU, a STUDENT PAYING TUITION, in touch with someone that could help! Here's the story:

I gave them a phone call and explained that I had a gluten allergy, newly discovered. The woman I spoke with was at the main office of the college, and told me that "there's a lot of selection in the cafeteria." Clearly she had no idea what gluten was in, but she was going to tell me I could just eat without any special considerations. Apparently I'm supposed to live off lettuce *but without salad dressing, because most are not gluten free!* and her comment made me feel :-| . I politely informed her that gluten was in anything with flour, pasta, so on and so forth. "Oh, well...I'm not sure who you talk with about that" was her next helpful hint. She ended up putting me through to the person in charge of food service in the dining hall, who I left a message with explaining the problem, leaving my name and number and asking to be called back. I received no such return call, which made me feel :( . I called the school again after a day went by, and this time they decided to put me through to our campus health office, who informed me that was something that dining services needed to take care of, and that they didn't really have anything to do with it. They tried to put me through back to the dining people, but I explained how I hadn't gotten a phone call back, and they said they would get in touch with them for me. They gave me a call back a few minutes later, after getting in touch with someone (apparently they only talk to other staff members, and not students?) and told me that I'd have to go in person to the cafeteria and let them know about my problem, but that they were aware. It will be interesting to see how this all turns out. What a pain in the butt to go through, though! I feel bad to have this problem that inconveniences everyone, but at the same time I'm frustrated that in trying to explain it to people who don't understand is so difficult.

I guess a lot of people with problems that aren't widely publicized or widely known must go through this. I wonder if it will get easier with time, if more people will learn about it through the growing awareness of the problem. I hope that it doesn't get blown up into a Hollywood fad, like Kabbala and other such things have. I guess all I can do is hope for the best and see this through!

Until next time,

Gluten, Not Glutton