Branded~

I bet this has happened to most of you if not all... You tend to visit a restaurant/cafe/bar often and after having tried a bunch of stuff(or not), you develop a favorite and knowingly or not end up ordering the same combo day after day... And of course after a while, the waiter/waitress catches on and nods along even before you have completed ordering. Apparently, I develop favorites at most places... I think that has been derived from the fact that being vegetarian gives me few options in other countries and its easy to deveop a favorite among say, 2 choices.

It happened in Subway back in Cinci.. It wasn't the sub that got branded as my taste... But the way I prepared it. For instance, I was probably one-in-a-million who had the weird request of wanting her sub toasted after the veggies were in. After the first few quizzical glances, they started doing it by themselves whenever they saw me. Goldstar Chili was my next joint-of-choice. I used to order the café salad with extra olives and tomatoes and light on cheese. After 3 times, they started making the salad when they saw me in the vicinity. Most of the time, this stuff makes you feel special... like you are their regular and they know that and want to please you. But sometimes, its annoying. I always feel like they think they have me figured out. Now I can't exactly say why that matters to me.

It happened here again. So there's this really handy café downstairs that serves the typical coffees, juices and a bunch of breakfast baked foods apart from sandwiches and salads. Many mornings when I have heroinically skipped breakfast, I find my tummy grumbling in response to the delicious smell of fresh-baked croissants that wafts in to me from the café as I head upstairs to my office. And my order usually goes -"Bonjour... Café Créme Grand la porte et un croissant si'l vous plait" (Goodmorning... A large coffee with milk in a take-away cup and one croissant please). I think it happened fairly enough for her to brand me large-coffee-in-portable-cup-and-croissants-in-the-morning girl. Usually she hears me out even though she knows whats coming and then proceeds to complete my order. Today, she heard me again but she didn't listen. And I said petit - small cup.. But no, there arrived my large steaming cup of coffee and 1 freshly baked croissant. So much for feeling special. Nobody listens. Hmph.

The real charades

Traditionally, I have been great at Charades or Dumb-C as we call it... But that was all with people who basically shared at least one single language. Here in France, the case is obviously different. It isn't so much a game as a survival skill. I've had a bunch of experiences where some basic actions have gotten me through sticky situations. Here's one- While I was visiting at college, I convincingly ordered a café au lait (coffee with milk) and gave 5€ to pay for it and was given back 45 cents. Now I knew it was utterly completely impossible for a coffee to cost 4.55€ in that part of the suburb. I looked around for a board of prices... And saw that it was being repainted. So I motioned the guy over and said - "I gave 5 (raising 5 fingers) euros." He smiled, gave me a high five and said "Merci." (Thank you). I tried again and this time his smile faltered a bit before thanking me again. A fleeting thought of letting the 5€ crossed my mind. But who was going to lose 300 rupees over some lack of understanding? After a deep breath I decided I had to use my limited french to get the point across.

"Je (=I while pointing to myself) gaaaaaaaaaaave (action of giving- didn't know the french word for that) cinq (five) hooro (french pronunciation of euro). Combien café? (How much for the coffee?)"

There was a sudden spark of understanding in his eye and he retrieved appropriate change (= 4€ more) and profusely apologized.

Whoosh.. a minor victory. (And thank god the coffee didn't actually cost 4.55 €. Now that would've been embarassing)

Un café si'l vous plait

I haven't really noticed how the cost of coffee varies from city to city inside the US...But I sure have made a short n sweet study in Paris in my short while here. Maybe its coz one tends to drink soo many coffees or probably one drinks soo many coffees because of all those cafés scattered at every street corner. Whatever the reason, the cost of living gradation is pretty obvious from these prices -

Coffee At --------------------------------Price in €
School (suburb) -----------------.----------0.65
Near home (posh suburb) ---------------- 2.00
City outskirts ------------------------------3.50
(2 min from posh suburb)
City - pretty setting ---------------------- 5.00
Champs Elysees --------------------------- 6.00

There you go.

Conspirational Coffee

Yesterday was one of those bleary-eyed days at work where I'd not slept a wink the previous night due to a variety of factors - one of which was YEAAY - India are the World T20 Champions!! But cutting to the chase, I wanted to sleep a couple of hours before getting to work. But I was too pumped up after the Indian victory and I knew fatigue was a while away. I cajoled myself into leaving for work. And I tried out a different bus combination and so I didn't have my usual coffee at the transit center.

So I arrive at work around 10 and the canteen has shut down for the usual breakfast-lunch interim. It won't be open for another hour at least. With my eyelids growing heavy every second, I ambled to the the coffee machine.. one that looks like the picture above (its not that same brand so don't sue me).. dug out my 60 cents.. fed it the money and punched in 1-H-3 which was the combination for my usual non-sweet French vanilla. I shut my eyes while I heard the perfunctory cup-dispensing sound. But it was a wee bit different from usual. I half opened one lid and imagine my horror when there was no cup! The machine however happily displayed "Dispensing" and spat out the 5 cents of change as it poured the coffee literally into the drain with no cup in between. I actually yelled "WAIT!" at the machine when I frantically looked around for an empty cup. None. I donno if the coffee would've woken me up as well as my temper against the coffee machine did. Either way - mission accomplished. I was awake. For the next 2 hours at any rate.