subway: eat what?

while trekking across the city today i stopped by the local subway to fill my empty stomach. with the perfect sandwich in mind i walked into a completely vacant restaurant immediately filled with the joy of being the next, first and only person in line. i approached the counter, standing like a pro under the 'order here' sign, when i suddenly realised the restaurant was void of both patron and employee. with the faint sound of running water coming from further within, i waited patiently until my solitude began to weigh on my time schedule. with a more than friendly knock on the glass, two eyes flashed from around a corner beyond the cash register. the eyes fled briefly, rounded the corner and were then followed by the pleasant smile of a young woman. with places to be, i got right to the task at hand, sharply delivering step one of the subway process: 'foot long, subway melt on wheat.' she pulls and cuts a white roll. maybe she misheard me? 'wheat,' i restated and with a soft 'sorry' she switched rolls, pointing at the wheat for my approval before pulling it from its tray. what i soon came to realise was that the nice woman preparing my sandwich didn't understand a vast majority of what i was saying. my expeditious stop for the long awaited sandwich in jeopardy, i found myself in a panic, pointing at some meats and cheeses, discarding others. i would point, she would point and with an agreeing nod, the selected would make it's way to the bread. the finger pointing method was working well until we stalled out looking for the bacon (a key element for any truly great sandwich). after a 10minute search for the bacon, i was about ready to forget the sandwich all together and get on my way down the road when a second, unexpected employee turned the corner from the back room. the language barrier, smaller but still stifling what should be a fast process, the second employee toasted the sub after which we began working through the second step: the veggies, sauces and spices. at this point, it was not to my surprise that they were out of barbecue sauce and didn't even carry old bay seasoning; nor did they have coca-cola available (neither bottled nor fountain varieties). i paid (the unfortunate third step), waiting another 10minutes for a pen to sign off on the now cold sandwich. totally discouraged with my half hour subway stop and now well behind schedule, i left, cola-less, with my partially constructed sandwich and a sour attitude. the sourness past relatively quickly and after adding barbecue sauce and old bay from my own kitchen the sandwich was quite good. in future, i will, however, avoid the local subway in hopes of dealing with faster food.