Sunday, December 5, 2010

Neighborhooding #1


We live on the East side of town. It has it's perks; quieter, close to the school, other cool people live over here. The draw backs are that its a 10 元 taxi ride to downtown. Downtown is loaded with the hustle and bustle of people walking all over the place. Actually, not as much bustle as there is hustle. Good curry, the gym, the sports field, good Western food at Bill's Place and The Greenhouse are all within walking distance of each other and sometimes I can't help but wonder what life would be like if we lived downtown.

Anyways, today was a day when I decided to rebel against these thoughts. I moved in the opposite spirit and I went to "Coffee Prince" and got a cup of coffee to go. Coffee Prince is a place located across the street from us. It started out as a cafe. It quickly (almost over night) turned into a place where students can buy cheap beer and play cards. The truth is that I went outside to run some errands and I was not prepared for the chill in the air. Under dressed, I needed something to warm up my bones. I went into Coffee Prince with the hope of finding something hot to drink. It didn't really matter what it tasted like.

Back Story Break:

In 2008, about a month after Coffee Prince opened, I went in to get a coffee on the way to class. At the counter I stood in awe as the man filled up the coffee maker with water and re-used the cold, slimy grinds that were still inside. I took the cup, sipped at its lukewarm contents, and I never returned.

Back to the Future:

But today I went in... and I ordered again, dang it! This time the owner made my cup. She called me over when it was ready. She had some sort of weird system of making coffee involving a pitcher with a mess filter built into the side of it. I didn't ask any questions. I took it to go and it was hot! I thought that no matter what this tastes like, its already an improvement. I sipped it and it tasted like a crappy cup of coffee. The funny thing was that it was cold out today and a hot drink was all I needed. It could have been hot cat milk and I would have drank it. And even though it was a crappy cup of coffee, it was MY Neighborhood's crappy cup of coffee!

My Neighborhood!

2 comments:

Unknown said...

There are few things nicer than a warm cup of cat milk on a cold Xining day. I have a contract with Morgan and Lorrie to supply me with a quart of cat milk a week.

Brett said...

Cat's Milk... the gentleman's drink. Lets roll with that slogan for a new business idea.