Food Race

Having been here almost two weeks (and having worked for nearly nine days), I feel the need to tell you about our lunch periods. For lunch, we usually go a little after noon, nothing unusual, except right before, everyone calls each other and assembles in a little herd outside the building. Any stragglers who choose to take their lunches separately or with other people are left behind but usually almost everyone goes, including the boss. We then begin the ritual walk to the mensa (cafeteria). Everyone gets their food, pays, and sits down at a table together. This is where I was surprised two weeks ago. The conversation is few and everyone scarfs down their food. The first time I had lunch, I was the last one to finish (I was talking to my PI but he somehow, along with everyone else, managed to eat everything and talk at the same time). As I looked around at the empty plates, it was clear that they were waiting for me, so I stopped talking and picked up the fork to shovel some food, so as to not make them wait excessively long. When I finally felt like I gave the lunch a good effort, I put my utensils down carefully and looked up. We waited a few minutes to be polite, and then someone muttered what I assumed to be "let's go" in German and everyone got up to walk out. Each time, the whole process takes less than 30 minutes..... who says the Europeans were all about leisure? :P

LILY