I have developed moderately strong opinions about coffee. These include:
- Drinking coffee out of a paper cup is not great.
- Getting coffee to go is seriously not great.
- Even crappy, free coffee is best enjoyed over a leisurely conversation.
- The best way to drink coffee is out of a real cup, unhurried (or at least not caring if you're going to be late), and sitting down. Even if you're by yourself.
It's actually kind of amazing how long it takes to drink a small cappuccino when you're locked in conversation or people watching. In fact, it's probably best to allocate at least 45 minutes to enjoy your coffee.
Coffee culture is a thing, and people will get surprisingly passionate about it. Apparently, Italy and Greece know what's up as far as coffee drinking, but I heard that from an Italian guy and a couple Greeks, so there's some bias to be considered. As best I can tell, coffee culture is all about social atmosphere. And if you talk to people over here about it, apparently the American tendency to take our coffee to go or work (rather than socialize) in coffee shops is an abomination that totally misses the point.
Although, as Ev has pointed out, that doesn't mean it's not coffee culture. It's just a different coffee culture. That, admittedly, is not quite as enjoyable.
Lessons of the Netherlands # 9:
The Dutch have the highest per-capita coffee consumption in the world, around 2.5 cups per person per day (sorry, America, but we don't even break the top 10 list with a per capita coffee consumption of only 0.91 cups per day. The rest of the top 10 is filled out by Scandinavia and northern Europe). If you think about it for very long, you realize that that is a LOT of coffee, especially when you consider that the whole "per capita" thing includes all the kids (to be clear, I am only talking about per capita consumption. If we're talking volume, the U.S. is king).
Although there is a solid chance that most people here don't actually drink that much coffee and most of the coffee consumption is by engineering professors and grad students with free coffee cards.
As a matter of fact, that's probably true everywhere.
Regardless, my caffeine tolerance is getting pretty high again, but I choose to believe that I can quit any time I want.
I'm probably lying to myself again.
On another note, my kid sister decided she wanted to run a half marathon. Because I wholeheartedly support encouraging everyone around me run, I agreed to run it with her. Well, also I kind of tricked Rach into running a half a couple years ago and figure it's only fair to run one with each sister. Cuz I'm cool like that.
Anyways, the end result is that we're signed up for the Rocky Mountains Half Marathon in Estes Park, Colorado.
I'm slightly concerned about the elevation. The race starts at 7,500ft and goes up to 8,000ft. The Netherlands is around
Elevation sickness isn't real, right?
I figure the best way to not die during the race is to get back into full marathon shape. Probably won't stop me from feeling like absolute crap, but at least it increases the chances of a half-way decent time.
Maybe.
Oh yes, and Valentines Day. That's a thing. That I kind of spaced and spent doing homework. Luckily, we had some super fancy French chocolates from Lyon and a really nice bottle of champagne on hand (apparently we remembered Valentines Day when we were in France and prepared accordingly), so we spent the evening eating the best chocolates I have ever had (not kidding. They. Were. Amazing. The champagne was pretty good, too), and alternating between enjoying them and being kind of shocked that we're in freaking Europe.
And here's a picture that pretty much sums up our relationship.
Also a random picture of Ev near Rotterdam City Hall. Because seriously, he has to climb on everything.
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| Chamonix |
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| Machu Picchu |
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| Yes, that IS an avalanche chute. |
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