EATING at a RESTAURANT

 I know that you have probably eaten at a restaurant before, but this one actually caused me a lot of stress, so I will address it here in case you need the help. When my family left Papua New Guinea we went to a mall in Australia. It was a pretty overwhelming experience, so many choices, so many people, and weirdly enough, I was disoriented by the fact that I was no longer a minority and no one stared at me. My family all split up for lunch so we could eat what we wanted at the food court. I chose a sit down Rock and Roll hamburger joint type place. It should have been very comfortable to me. But, I found myself starting to panic. I did not have a clue how to order, if I should seat myself, how to pay, and so on. The whole time I figured that everyone was probably staring at me and thinking what a weirdo I was for not being able to handle this little slice of America. They weren’t of course, but it was scary enough that I decided to leave and go to the Chinese restaurant; at least there the food was more familiar. In Papua New Guinea there are a lot of Asian expatriates and therefore a lot of really delicious Asian restaurants. My whole family must have had the same thought because we all ended up sheepishly back at the same restaurant, comfortably ordering the more familiar.