A college student is fueled by three things: determination, ambition, and dining hall food. The latter is the most essential of the trio, but without good staff to serve the food, the hungry bodies and minds of students across the world would starve. John Triandafillou, a fan-favorite member of the Harris Refectory team, is the friendly man who greets you at the entrance for dinner every night. He moved all the way from Greece to start a new life here in the United States. Triandafillou brought with him dreams of living the American life he saw in magazines and movies, and eventually, he got what he had always wanted. He hopes that the students here will get to live as happily as he has, and he concluded our interview with some words of wisdom we can take through life.
John, can you give me a bit of your backstory? Who are you? Where are you from? Why did you come here?
Well, I’m originally from Greece. I came to America many years ago by myself because I just wanted to be here. As a kid I would read comics about Western culture that talked about cowboys and… I saw so many movies set in New York City and I just knew I wanted to be there. So I moved across the world and came to Connecticut. We still go back to visit Greece all the time, but I like it here so much that I don’t think I ever want to move back there. Life changes and right now my life is here. I wouldn’t know what to do with myself if I lived there again.
How did you start working here at Connecticut College?
My job, originally, was a painter. Not a painter on campus, but I started my own small painting company and I had a few guys who worked with me. The way I was doing it, I was getting work from management companies. But eventually, there just wasn’t enough work for us, my painting van broke down and I couldn’t afford a new one, and the company ran out of money. After that, I stopped working completely for about a year. So I’m here, sitting around all day doing nothing for a year, when my daughter finally said, “You need to get a job!” She started searching and eventually found an open position here at the College. I said, “What am I going to do there? I don’t know anything about college!” She assured me that all I had to do was stand at the door and greet people.
Now that you are here, do you enjoy working in the dining hall?
I really didn’t enjoy working here at first. But, over time, I started to like it more. The job is simply greeting people at the door and swiping them in, but that’s my favorite part about it. Over the years I started becoming friends with some of the older students, and I would always greet them and say hello as they walked in.
What kinds of things do you enjoy doing when you’re not at work? Do you have any hobbies?
Years ago I used to play soccer- it was and still is my favorite game. I’m old enough now that I can’t really play anymore, but I still love to watch it when I can. I also have a daughter living in Florida, so three or four times a year my wife and I go visit her, her husband, and her two kids. I know there is a lot of educational controversy down there right now, and my wife is a teacher who doesn’t really like a lot of what they’re teaching. But my daughter likes it there and wanted to start her family there, so we like visiting her anyways.
Speaking of Florida, I noticed you’re always wearing a Mickey Mouse hat. What’s the story with that?
Actually, it’s just the only hat that I have! My daughter got it for me because she said I should start wearing a hat, and I didn’t care either way. Our family has been to the Disney resort in Florida five times now, so I like it for the most part.
What is your opinion of the food served at Harris?
It’s pretty good. It’s nothing special for me, but that’s not the same for everyone here. Everywhere you go there will be people who like things and people who don’t like things, and in every place there will always be different opinions of the food. Everybody has their own taste and it’s a big place with a lot of mouths to feed. The staff has to cook a lot of food for a lot of different people. Not everyone is always going to like it.
Any final thoughts, advice, or words of wisdom you want to share with the readers of this interview?
I never was a student like you are, so I never got the formal education you all are so lucky to have. But whatever I know and whatever I’ve learned has come from my own teaching. You learn a lot of things from reading books, watching movies, or reading magazines about the world. Before I came to America, I had never even opened up a book! There were no computers to look things up on, so I had to get all of my knowledge as a kid from watching TV. Nowadays, young people have every piece of knowledge at the tip of their fingers. Use that to your advantage.
