Now, it appears that every Subway in town has been taken over by Indians, and things have kinda changed a little bit. I have to coax many of them to give me more than 1 napkin in my bag, for instance, or tell them what "lots of lettuce" means. But that's ok... going to Subway has recently become more of a spiritual experience than before, so there is a trade-off. However, tip jars have now been popping up like a plague in several of them, and I just can't bring myself to do it... not in Subway, no, no...
Anyway, I had the most strange encounter today with the Subway closest to my house (and ironically, the one I least often go to). I ordered 2 -- one for me, and one for the Mrs. The person making the sammies was an Indian probably in her mid to late 40's, and when I told her what type of cheese I wanted on mine, she put it all on one side of the sandwich before turning around to grab a new bag of ham. I was curious if she planned on spreading it out across the sandwich and she finally did, to my relief. But then I asked for "lots of lettuce" and tomato, and she put a modest amount of lettuce and 2 slices of tomato on only one half of the sandwich and asked if that was it. I asked if I could please have lettuce and tomato on the other half, and she did so. Now, I usually list out my veggies 2 at a time so I don't overload them, but after each veggie, she would act as if she were about to close it out, so I compensated by ensuring there was constant communication flowing to her, instead of strategic pauses between veggies. I'm always impressed by my ability to adapt in harsh environments, I must say.
Finally, she finishes up both sammies and proceeds to wrap them up in the SAME paper wrapper, so I stopped her and nicely asked if I could have each in its own wrapper. Today, I learned humility and patience, but still not how to tip at Subway. Maybe that level of enlightenment will come on a future visit, but for now, I'm pleased with my progress.
