So. MENSA. MENSA is German for the Student Union, except that all it does is food, and coffee if you're lucky. There's no bar or shops or owt, but the canteen is enormous. It's certainly the largest number of people I've ever seen eating at one time. The main dining hall is about the size of an aircraft hanger, and there are other dining rooms adjoining it.

To get food, you first consult the impressive electronic menu board. There are seven lines at the Karlsruhe MENSA, one of which always does SchniPoSA, which is Schnitzel, chips and salad. Note: sandwiches, jacket potatoes etc. are out. Large hot meals are in. Line 6 is the posh boy line, where they do fancy Chinese food and other more German delicacies. You choose your line and then it's very much like any other student union canteen, except that instead of getting the staff to put chips or beans on your plate, the process is speeded up with ruthless German efficiency, and you instead take a little bowl of chips or beans to go with your main course.

So what's it like? Well, about as good as any other student canteen. I'd steer clear of the Schnupfnudeln if I were you, but the Turkish pilau is quite nice. The tough thing is getting used to eating a huge meal in the middle of the day. And it's not even the middle of the day - for some reason, everyone wants to go early, to beat the rush. So you end up going for lunch at about 11:45am. And of course you end up queuing behind everyone else who's gone early. A highly informative cultural experience.

Ok, I'm off to look for a Schlafdecke, more tomorrow..

Update: My thanks (no, really) to Jürgen for pointing out that Mensa is not German for Student Union, but in fact Latin for table, as any fule kno. So that's why there's only food there (why aren't there only tables there? eh?). There should apparently be a real student union elsewhere on the campus. I'll let you know if I find it.