Forty-eight - Lucky dip lunch

Stacey's lunch did not coincide with the lunch time of the other trainees. She didn't know whether they would be having their lunch later than her or whether they had already had their lunch. That reminded her. She really needed to ask someone to teach her how to read the clock. Although she figured there were about thirty-two hours in a day, that wasn't an exact number. Perhaps the number of minutes in an hour were different here. She definitely hadn't counted sixteen hour segments on the wall clock.

Lunch consisted of strange cubes of some sort of steamed grain - not unlike glutinous rice. Perhaps it was sticky rice grains mixed with something else. Each cube was wrapped in a thin leaf that Stacey noticed some staff members ate but some peeled away. Since it seemed edible, she didn't worry about trying to peel the cubes so that her fingers didn't get all sticky. The centre of the cubes all had different flavours. Some were meaty and savoury, some vegetable, some were a strange grainy texture and some were sweet.

There were even some that burst with liquid in her mouth when she bit into it, resulting in sugar syrup or gravy exploding through her mouth to mix with the sticky and chewy outside. A different cube exploded with soup instead, giving her another surprise.

"What do you think of the mystery cubes?" Mr Huo asked, taking a seat across from her with a plate of the green wrapped cubes and a platter of fruits. "There are no cameras or microphones pointed at us at the moment, so you can relax for a bit."

"They're fun," Stacey relaxed since there were no cameras watching and enthusiastically bit into one that was filled with juicy meat. The juice dripped down her chin, while she slurped and hurriedly stuffed the rest of the cube into her mouth before she made a bigger mess.

Mr Huo reached over with a paper napkin and Stacey quickly took the serviette from him to wipe her own chin. She had noticed that the men here seemed to help and touch women more often than she was used to. She wasn't used to being taken care of or served in that way. Not even her once-upon-a-time boyfriend in high school who had only lasted two weeks had ever treated her in this way. She felt uncomfortable with people she was unfamiliar with touching her or getting too close.

Stacey chewed quickly but these things weren't meant to be eaten quickly. One had to chew them thoroughly before swallowing or they might get stuck on the way down. Neither could a person talk while these rice cake things were gumming up their mouth.

"It's a bit like getting a lucky dip when you eat them, isn't it?" Mr Huo threw a cube into his mouth and his eyes twinkled at her, while she took a sip of juice to try and help swallow more quickly.

Stacey nodded at him emphatically, still chewing hard. She supposed that they did make a person slow down and need to enjoy their food during meal time. Something that Ken, Endo and Flail had tried to point out to her several times in the past week. They had felt that she ate and left the dining table too quickly when meal times were meant to be times of relaxation, when she was in a hurry to get back to her dance practice or studies.

Finally managing to swallow her mouthful, Stacey took another sip of juice to make sure she wouldn't accidentally show any food remnants. It wasn't like she was still a kid who liked to play 'do you like seafood?'. Nobody liked to see the food being eaten.

"Don't rush," Mr Huo told her. "Take your time. You have a whole hour for lunch - or more than one going by your reckoning. With longer days than you're used to, there's a reason we have an hour's free time after lunch. Most people use it for a siesta. Time is measured differently here - they don't use the sexagesimal system. They use a different base number system here for time. Everything else is decimal - base ten, like you're used to. Don't get too hung up on it. You'll get the hang of it eventually. Don't rely on your watch. You'll get confused. You've managed pretty well so far."

"Ugh, my head," Stacey held her head and ate another cube, thinking about the headache learning another number system would produce. This cube was full of pickled vegetables that were both tart and sweet.

"We could go over the math, but I've noticed that you don't really like maths?"

Stacey shook her head.

"Then let's forget about it for now," Mr Huo smiled, pushing the fruit platter toward her. "Another time. Help yourself."