Yucky.
I have made a terrible mistake.
This morning I woke early, as per intention to write a lesson plan. Up until now, I have been eating an egg every morning. One egg. Plain. Very boring. No coffee.
This morning, however, I had no eggs. My one egg per morning routine slowly and steadily decreased the population of eggs in my fridge until, regretfully, there were none. Not even one: none. There was one yesterday but today is today, and today there are none.
Delightfully seizing the opportunity that the extra time of my early morning provided, I grabbed my wallet and retreated down the five flights of stairs to the convenience store located beneath my apartment. (Actually, that was a lie. I take the elevator, the stairs make me dizzy.)
First mission: buy some coffee. Second mission: find milk for breakfast. Though there are two boxes of cereal on the fridge in my apartment, (a gift from the former teacher living here before me, along with the eggs), there is no milk.
Mission one, coffee. I begin my search with a walk to the back corner, near the ice cream freezer, where I know I have seen little coffee- looking cups. Bingo: little cups filled with dried powder, just add hot water. A fine option, but all I’ve had is dried powdery coffee, so I decide to grab one and continue to peruse the store.
On to the back freezer: jackpot! Jardin coffee, which comes in little pouches, simply rip off the top and pour over ice! There are at least five different colored pouches, so there are plenty of flavors. Or, if you’re not feeling the pouch, there are little adorable bottles “a cafe la”, though they look expensive. Four flavors, one of which is black, I think it must be americano–so basically, the coffee I want, loosened up with water. Naturally, due to my combination of desperation for coffee and my need to know what I’m dealing with, I grab one purple bag of Jardin coffee and one red bottle of “a cafe la”. Set. Next mission: milk.
My arms are getting a little full, but I grab a blue carton that has pictured a splash of milk on the front. Next to it is a carton with pictures of plums on it, so I grab that too.
“Need help?” asks the guy at the counter, being that he speaks a little English and I am the only customer in the store, and that he is very nice. “Ummm…..” I artfully respond, arms full of coffee samples and two cartons of liquid. “Sure.” He walks back to me, and, as I try to explain that I am searching for coffee, he grabs me a small cup full of ice cubes for the Jardin coffee before telling me that he has an espresso machine at the counter. “Oh GREAT!” I respond, grabbing a little triangle thing of seaweed and rice before following him to the counter.
Ten thousand Won later and I have a shot of espresso, a pouch of coffee, a cup of powdery coffee stuff, a little red bottle of milky coffee- looking stuff, a triangle of seaweed rice cake, a carton of milk and a carton of plum juice. I tip back the espresso (much to the surprise of the kid at the counter) and… it’s not bad. Close to coffee but more like a strong cup of coffee than espresso. Satisfied, I thank the kid at the counter, ask for a bag and hop back on the elevator.
Now, things are not so hot. On the contrary, thing are extremely hot but not so good. Very bad, actually. I sit at my computer making a blog post instead of a lesson plan, my mouth burning terribly from the small triangle of seaweed kimchi rice thing I ate. I unwrapped it (very badly, I ripped the seaweed), unwittingly bit in and ate almost all of it before I realized what an awful idea it was.
As though in mockery of my burning pain, the cereal box showered me with moths upon opening it, the plum juice is the sweetest juice in the world, and this coffee does nothing for the burn.
My last resort: grapes. Pop it in, chew off the peel and spit it out, spit out the cluster of seeds in the middle, pretend like the burn is going away.
No more spicy food in the morning. Breakfasts are not for experimentation. They are for one egg, nice and simple, and time left for lesson plans. None of this breaking from the haven of normalcy:
I want a cinnamon roll and a piping hot, strong cup of coffee.