The Bill Please

Procedure for buying lunch at the cafeteria:

1) Yell "COMPRA" (you buy) as loud as you can until a certain kid named Chicho comes over.
2) Throw your wallet at him and say you want the usual.
3) Chicho comes back 5 minutes later with the food.
4) Get your wallet back with the change in it, minus a "tip" for Chicho.
5) Argue that he took too big of a tip.

Chicho runs his own little waitering business during lunch time. If you have a few extra pesos you don't need to stand in the long line for food, he does it for you! I have studied his technique extensively and it seems he is either buddies with the guy that gives out food or he gives him a cut of his profits, either way he somehow manages to cut to the front of the line and have his order waiting for him to pick up. He brings your food to where you are sitting. As a rule Mexicans aren't very good at mental math so there is always a lot of arguments over how much change someone should get. The fact that he doesn't have a price for his services, instead he just takes what he thinks is fair, makes for many vague accusations of him taking too much. I help figure out who gets what change almost everyday. The reason that Chicho goes through all of this is so that he can buy a chocolate bar with his lunch.