Field Notes 6/10 – Amorino Gelato

Note: All conversations in Spanish unless otherwise noted

The signs outside read, ¨Amorino – Gelato Natural¨ and ¨Caffé Cioccolato.¨ This place serves ice cream, gelato and macaroons. It is just off of Plaza Nueva.  It is 2:06 and 79 degrees outside on a Tuesday. Two workers, one male and one female wear black server caps and aprons. Two teenage girls sit on the high stools and bench in the back, discussing something calmly but intensely. Their friend Mari comes in, and the energy in the group changes drastically. They bounce up to hug and kiss her and she pulls up a stool to join them. The three talk much more animatedly than before. They leave, thanking the servers on their way out. An older couple comes in and they start discussing the flavors with the servers. They get small cups. While they are ordering, three new people enter the shop, and leave their things at a table as they go to the counter to order. The two younger people in the group, one male and one female, order light yellow slushie-type things with thick straw. The oldest in the group gets a small cone, with ice cream towering over the cone in large arches. She´s surprised  to get so much ice cream in for a small cone. The young male is wearing tennis shoes, white socks, jeans and a white polo. He has his hands and feet on the extra stool on the table, moving it back and forth. The girl is around his age, maybe older, wearing a yellow dress and a tan purse. She has her legs crossed under the table. The woman is wearing a paisley orange and blue dress with sandals. She seems older than her companions, and her ankles are crossed. A wide range of music comes through the speakers, right now it is jazz. The woman grabs some napkins, located on one of the shorter tables. There are four short tables against the black booth on the wall where I am sitting, with small back cushion-like backless chairs in front of them. A new set of people come in. I cannot see them, but I hear a female voice speaking English in a British accent to the female server. The male server is making something in a fancy coffee machine. A woman with shorts walks to the bathroom. The shop also has the table in the middle the party of three is sitting at, three smaller raised tables with one stool each on one side, and a wooden booth on the other. There is a bar with stools parallel to the selection of ice creams and macaroons. The woman from the group in the middle goes to th bathroom. Her tan purse and thick sprial notebook remain at the table with the younger people. The voices in the music playing now are singing in English. I need to sit somewhere else next time because the counter is blocking my view of the shop. Two circular light fixtures hang from the ceiling. Three walls are dark tan and one is rock. I leave at 2:37, and see a group of people who had been hidden from my vision before. The male server says ¨hasta luego¨as I leave.

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