Letters from Korea - June 25

June 25

Dear friend, It's 7:30 a.m. And I just finished my last coffee for this morning. Real coffee. What a luxury. Sounds strange, right? But I'm in Seoul, South Korea. If you are a coffee-addicted student like me, with a small budget, living in a dormitory, you can consider yourself as happy if you don't have to drink instant coffee.

If it's just about the caffeine, it's ok. You just unzip the small coffee pack and put hot water over it. You can get this water from the water dispenser, which you can find on every floor in a dormitory. It's the only option to "cook" something here.

Also cafe shops don't serve coffee how I like it, simple Americano with a drop of milk and some sugar. Instead of this you usually get coffee with hot water. This is very thin. But it doesn't neutralize this soft acidity flavor. So if you want a drop of milk (우유), you will have to ask for it. It took a while until I could explain what I want. The waitress called it caffe latte. Actually it's not latte... But anyway, I got my coffee.

For you it might sound funny, but I'm used to eat breakfast first before I go out. So I prepare coffee for myself. Thanks to my girlfriend I can use a coffee press. With the pack of powder I brought from home it's increasing my life quality by 200%. Yes I'm dying for good coffee.

However, many things are quite different from home. I get more and more used to it. Now I have to go. The class will start soon. I'll write you when have a little more time.