Its Saturday and the morning starts with me opening the place at 6am.
It's 630 now, the coffee pots are boiling, ready for the caffeine junkies to pile in and the doors are now open. In walks (we'll call him) JACK, my first customer of the day and a serious regular, he has been coming in every morning without fail for at least 3 years.
Here's the thing about Jack.. he is homeless and lives on the streets, he has worn the same hole ridden sweater for God only knows how long and eats the exact same thing for breakfast day in and day out. His order is as follows; bagel with cream cheese, coffee and a bowl of oatmeal that he proceeds to cover in ketchup... mmm, yummy.
Here's what I know about Jack...he is an Aquarius, has never left the states, is in his 60's, has only a few teeth remaining in his mouth and therefore is not the easiest person to understand. The first time we met it took me at least 20 minutes to figure out his order and that in itself was super awkward as he does not like to repeat himself, the more he has to, the more frustrated he gets and the louder he shouts, so here's me 2 years ago being shouted at by a barely audible toothless homeless man who I'm desperately trying to comprehend. 2 years later, here I am entering his order into the computer without the need to ask, thank God.
So now the place is starting to fill up and I don't know why but it seemed every other person who walked in was German. Now Ive lived in many countries but in all my travels Ive managed to avoid Germany completely and now I remember why. I hate the bloody Germans. I mean OK, hate is rather a harsh word and I'm not wanting to generalize an entire country but from the experience Ive had with them its hard not to!
Firstly do they ever smile? All day long I served German tourists, not only do they not smile but they manage to avoid making eye contact completely as they are ordering, and then they leave without tipping, truly charming people. In fact the best ones today were these two German teenagers that came in with a plastic cup full of coins, order two hot chocolates to go and paid me the full $9.00 in change, counting out each nickel and dime at a glacial pace. So now I got to spend the rest of my shift with my change purse weighed down which in turn caused my apron to keep falling off. Thanks boys.
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