Eating alone is something you get used to after a while. You find ways to amuse yourself, or feel less self conscious. I used to only ever eat alone at counter-pay places, but never at restaurant where I sit and order from wait staff.
Today, I was eating breakfast at McDonalds.
One of my favourite things to do us just sit, watch and listen. This is especially fun at breakfast time. McDonalds in the morning is dominated by old people. Seniors sitting around eating their McDonalds breakfast are entertaining.
Today, on my way to a business meeting, I stopped off at a McDonalds. I feel no shame in admitting I enjoy their breakfasts, both in taste, and environment.
Today was a Saturday, and the place packed to capacity. I actually had to wait for a table, but sadly the location was in a Chinese neighborhood and the restaurant was fully packed with people, both young and old, all speaking Chinese.
That’s no fun. Overhearing people speaking a different language is not entertaining at all. To an English speaker, people speaking Chinese sound exactly like another English speaker mocking it. Gibberish words and lots of ahhh sounds.
Zeppelin: I have lived almost 50 years and today is the first day ever, that I discovered gibberish is spelled with a g, not a j. To me, the Chinese language seems a little louder than English, and so from my table, I could overhear conversations from no less than four tables. Sadly, I could not understand a word.
Sometimes when you listen to foreigners talking in their language, you can still pick out newer words, or technology words they may not know the translations for. Your ears trigger on terms like APPLE or iPHONE or MICROSOFT WINDOWS in between the other words. Todays restaurant cliental were all these were seniors, so they were probably not discussing much modern technology. No random English words crept in. Nothing. Just Chinese.
I felt alone in a crowd.
I suppose I am supposed to understand what it might feel like to be a foreigner in a regular English speaking McDonalds.
