buttery crackers—a delicacy?

Over the past several weeks, I have started to take note of a rather odd phenomenon.  At school, we have something called “pedagogical lunches.”  Basically, all this means is that teachers can get free lunches at school if they eat with the students in the cafeteria.   It is not these lunches which I have found to be odd, but rather it is what happens near the end of lunch which I am adjusting to.  Towards the end of the meal, it has become tradition for students to get up from their seats and return to where the food is distributed.  They then proceed to take a cracker which is comparable in size to a graham cracker.  On this cracker, they smear almost an eighth of an inch of butter across the top painstakingly making sure that the cracker is covered from edge to edge.  Once they are satisfied with their buttery masterpieces, they return to the lunch tables and eat their crackers.  Honestly, I cannot say I have ever seen so many people eat butter-smeared crackers.  Additionally, I find it amusing the perfectionistic tendencies my students display when it comes to smearing butter on crackers. 

Long story short, having observed this phenomenon for several weeks now, this past Wednesday I thought it best for me to partake in this cultural experience.  Having cleared my plate, I got up from my seat, retrieved a cracker, smeared it with butter (making sure it was covered from edge to edge), returned to my seat and enjoyed.  Honestly, the butter-smeared cracker was a lot better than I thought.  I have to admit that I will likely be partaking in this end-of-lunch ritual more often in the coming months.