Crowded get-together during lunch time

Seated on a chair, grabbing a bite of a sandwich, and holding an academic paper, an Ewha student is having a meal. Since all students have their own schedule that is not likely to match with others’, eating alone is not a uncommon phenomenon at Ewha. However, a few years ago, Ewha had a lunch time from 12 o’ clock to 1 o’ clock in the afternoon.

No exact record is available that explains when and why the lunch time disappeared. However, in the past, class hours were exactly an hour, including a 10 minute break after the lecture. Therefore, Professor Yang Hei-soon (English Education) who is an alumna of Ewha concludes, “Probably lunch time disappeared when class hours were changed from 50 minute lecture to the current 75 minute lecture.”

 The school cafeteria is crowded with students during the “peak time” which is about 12:30 p.m. However, the crowdedness cannot be compared to that of the past when everyone ate at the same time—different from today where students have a later lunch or a brunch according to their schedules. Bae Oi-sook (’84, Diplomacy) took a deep retrospect on her school years recalling happenings during lunch time. “I always had to rush to eat,” Bae says. “Since so many students were sharing the same cafeteria, sometimes I had to eat while standing in front of a table only relying my lunch board.” During her days in school there was no Areum Garden or Ewha Sarang, both of which Ewha students and faculty now regularly frequent to subdue their hunger. In the past, however, the student cafeteria was the only place where students could eat. Also, the lunch rush ended very quickly – right after the lunch break – so students had to hurry to eat their foods.

The lunch time might not have always been pleasant because of too many people. Nevertheless, students could have a chance to meet students from different departments. “Lunch time enabled me to meet friends of other departments and I was really pleased by it,” Bae says.