warm hot dogs: protein source in internet cafe
I was hanging out an internet cafe around 4pm in the afternoon on a weekday.
For each cafe that I spend time at, I do a quick and dirty subjective rating of each cafe on a scale of 1-10 stars, 10 being the most luxurious and 1 being the most dilipidated.
This cafe is on the nicer end; I would've given it a 7 but I gave it 8 because they offer warm hot dogs - note the keyword - warm. Most cafes, if they offer hot dogs, sell cold hot dogs snacks in a wrapper.
Here is a short excerpt from my fieldnotes about this cafe.
Cafe rating - 8 stars: air-conditioned, requires identification cards and they appear to check them, no mosquitos or flies, keyboard and mouse appear to be clean, available warm food (hot dog in food display, bathroom located on same floor as cafe (2nd floor), cloth on chairs are in place, no nuts or food scattered on ground, the workers seems responsive when customers need help, cubicles in back appear ot be new
keyboards are not stained with dirt though the keyboards are black so it would be hard to see the dirt -but I don't see food encrusted in between the keys
estimate: total of 100-120 computers, 60 computers are being used with around 40 people playing games and 15 people watching videos and 5 people on websites browsing, 40 females and 20 males, I see 5-6 couples together, there are 2-3 people napping at all times
most customers playing games have a soft-drink or sugar beverage with them, some have lots of wrappers of candies and other snacks spread around their keyboard
within the last hour, two customers (one male & one female) bought 1 hot dog each, the meat is kept warm in a transparent plastic food display with a light, you can see the oil on the hot dog bubbling up, 1RMB each, customers went back to their computer and began playing their game, the female was playing a dancing/clothing game of some sort, male playing first person CS-like game
there's a sudden down pour outside, people are running in with drenched clothes and hair, the internet cafe is dry, are they coming here to use the computer or coming here to get away from the rain?
overheard conversation: let's just pay for 1 hour, check to see if companies have emailed me back, and then the rain will probably clear up
I wonder how many people have been living here, how many people are on a gaming deadline (like joined a team or bought in-game items that will expire), where are these people from, how many people are lookin for a job, who lives in the nearby tunnel, how many alrady have internet access at home