McAuto!
I was working at the chicken farm and forgot my lunch. Paint was drying on the sets so I got in the car and crossed the A2 Highway to McDonalds. It was 12:30 in the afternoon but I thought they might be closed. 1pm is the usual opening time for McDonalds in Spain. If you eat a burger before 2pm you're a culinary freak. I got brave and decided to try the "McAuto" drive-through. This could be dangerous... I was the only car and customer around and it was my first Spanish drive-through.
I slowly drove past two special windows with their metal shutters closed, one open side-door with guys yelling at each other in Spanish presumably about the proper location for the heaps of paper cups. I paused at the last-chance third window and stuck my head out to order two regular hamburguesas sin queso - just two regular old dinky hamburgers at a Euro apiece. The guy taking my order was African and through a series of hand gestures and frowny faces we figured out what I was trying to order. We were both patient and acheived our goal.
As they cooked the hamburgers I wondered if he told me to pull into the "zone of waiting" advertised by the white stripes on the asphalt ahead of me. As I was trying to remember key phrases of our conversation that I might have missed about the "zone" ahead of me, my McDonald's friend suddenly appeared with the sack of hamburgers carefully folded four times at the top. Before he handed them to me he asked me a question and held the sack closer to his chest. Uh oh. We made some more gestures and both hesitated a bit, gazing mysteriously into each other's squinty faces... Then he said to me very loudly, very slowly "Normal?" I said "Que?" (what!?) squinting into his booth area. He repeated "hamburguesas norMAL?!?" I said "uh...Si!" He smiled and handed me the bag and I pulled ahead into the empty parking lot. Yeah... norMAL would be good - no abnorMAL for me today thanks...
I slowly drove past two special windows with their metal shutters closed, one open side-door with guys yelling at each other in Spanish presumably about the proper location for the heaps of paper cups. I paused at the last-chance third window and stuck my head out to order two regular hamburguesas sin queso - just two regular old dinky hamburgers at a Euro apiece. The guy taking my order was African and through a series of hand gestures and frowny faces we figured out what I was trying to order. We were both patient and acheived our goal.
As they cooked the hamburgers I wondered if he told me to pull into the "zone of waiting" advertised by the white stripes on the asphalt ahead of me. As I was trying to remember key phrases of our conversation that I might have missed about the "zone" ahead of me, my McDonald's friend suddenly appeared with the sack of hamburgers carefully folded four times at the top. Before he handed them to me he asked me a question and held the sack closer to his chest. Uh oh. We made some more gestures and both hesitated a bit, gazing mysteriously into each other's squinty faces... Then he said to me very loudly, very slowly "Normal?" I said "Que?" (what!?) squinting into his booth area. He repeated "hamburguesas norMAL?!?" I said "uh...Si!" He smiled and handed me the bag and I pulled ahead into the empty parking lot. Yeah... norMAL would be good - no abnorMAL for me today thanks...
posted by windarkwingod | 10:57 PM
5 Comments:
Little things like when to eat would throw me off in a different culture like that.
Are Micky Dee's hamburguesas the same in Spain?
So an english speaking guy pulls up to a drive through where an African takes his order. Why does he hear people arguing in Spanish in the back?! :)
It sounded like it would make a cool riddle! :) :)
Hope you liked your hamburguesas norMAL :)
Taz, I thought the burger Royale was the quater pounder.
I have eaten at a McDonalds in England, France, Italy, Germany, Switzerland, and probably Austria. It was usually easy to order because we went inside and ordere a menu number. I'll have the number 4. Except we'd try to use their language. England was the easiest.
Taz, love the quotes from "Pulp Fiction." As I was reading through the comments, I kept thinking that I need to post those lines. You beat me to it.
Why did you delete your comment, Taz? So, I could post the quotes? That's ok.
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