Vicarious Coffee

For reasons to be revealed later, I will not be able to drink as much coffee as I like this year. In fact, I am back in a position that I never anticipated (or at least hoped and prayed to avoid) after my second year as a doctoral student during which I valiantly (and quite ridiculously, in hindsight) attempted to give up coffee. At that time, I thought that I could calm my nerves and perform better on my qualifying exams by taking control of my happy addiction to the c. bean. I quit nearly cold turkey and spent several months experiencing a yet more thrilling psychological state than just being perpetually hyperactive from the caffeine buzz. I learned my lesson after my resolve broke down (disintegrated, to be direct) and went back to coffee right after the qualifying exam was over.
This time, with my capacity for drinking already much diminished, I am going to take things as slowly as possible. I have already given up espressos, afternoon coffee, and even a properly strong brew of exquisite beans (thanks to E.L. of New York -- must post about that later). My mug may now contain one paltry serving of weak brown water, but I shall try to keep up my enthusiasm for coffee through sight and smell, if not taste.

Time for Coffee

I have always taken comfort in the fact that coffee can be gulped down while multi-tasking. Aside from the danger of burning one's tongue if it is too hot, coffee is not a drink that one has to brew multiple times. In fact, to do so with the same grounds would taste terrible. I envy aficionados of tea who have the patience to brew leaves or steep tea bags with limitless patience. I even miss the days when my wiser half, MarshalN, could spend hours drinking his tea, book in hand or in partial meditation mode. Now, regrettably, he has mastered the "brew-and-go" method, shuttling back and forth from our living room where his kettle and tea accessories reside to his study, cup after cup poured, drunk, rinse and repeat.

So I resolve that this year, both of us will be able to enjoy our caffeinated beverages in a leisurely manner, restoring the joy of a slow, hot brew. As we approach our mid-30s, I am starting to believe that we could do with less of the "high-octane, go-getter" mentality and revive a more youthful interest in appreciating fun things...so in the spirit of escaping the tyranny of time,

http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2012/jan/28/stop-clock-time-timepieces

New Year, New Coffee

I will try to blog more this year because 1) I am going to resolve my health problem once and for all so I don't have to give up coffee, 2) I miss being able to indulge my hobbies (and since it's been 10 years, I think this resolution deserves priority). I have much to report about recent activities -- coffee in Taiwan again, a lovely gift from New York, brewing techniques, and so much more.

To all coffee drinkers, may you consume good brews.
To non-coffee drinkers (like my wiser half MarshalN), I'll try to throw in some observations about coffee culture that do not require "touching that dark, nasty stuff." (not my words, naturally)

HK Magazine

Fresh off the Internet press from my favorite expatriate rag (yes, I'm trying to "go native" in the positive sense, but it's hard to cut oneself off from all things familiar and foreign)

http://hk.asia-city.com/city-living/article/coffee-philosophy

I hope that when things settle down with work in December, I can go visit some of these places.

Mood and Magic

My best friend sent me a link to an article about how coffee consumption is correlated with lower rates of depression in women. She joked about how not having coffee in the morning would make her very grouchy. My gut response was that such research findings could very well be true, since I have experienced more emotional challenges since having to reduce my coffee intake.

I realize that one could simply say that I am undergoing withdrawal symptoms. However, I tried to cut off all caffeine consumption in order to sharpen my mind for my graduate comprehensive exam (based on the research conclusions that caffeine actually makes one's brain fuzzier and less alert) -- oh, big mistake. I felt stuck in the middle stages of the famed Oatmeal cartoon about the emotional roller coaster all caffeine addicts ride on a daily basis [http://theoatmeal.com/comics/caffeine]. Physically, mentally, emotionally draining -- although far less severe pain in magnitude than what individuals who are refraining from heroin and other such drugs are said to endure.

As I have mentioned in previous posts, I do miss the activities related to drinking coffee, such as sitting in coffee houses, meeting with friends for coffee, and so on. I admit, I also miss the thrills of drinking coffee in the evenings and being tremendously more productive (whee!) I still drink coffee [like a wonderful white I had just hours ago at Simply Life (http://www.openrice.com/english/restaurant/sr2.htm?shopid=18912)] but I am also thinking about whether my coffee-drinking days will soon be over, a phenomenon I could never fathom when expressed by other people, but all the more comprehensible now.

Returning to Work

...in two senses of the phrase.
The academic year (for courses, not finances) started on 1 September, ending my summer routine heavy on research, light on pedagogy. I hope to maintain a more balanced "diet" of these activities this year, but I will have to be practical and meet all sorts of pressing obligations, usually associated with the latter category, so we will see...
I have also been taking a break from coffee to recover from some moderate ailments, and also on the advice of Chinese medicine physicians. I have tried to follow their orders to abstain from and then drink the absolute minimum amount of caffeinated beverages, which has been hard. I probably never had actual carte blanche to enjoy as much coffee as I want, but it is rather discouraging to think consciously about whether to have a cup of coffee on any given day.
With time, I hope to get back on the coffee drinking boat and continue writing this blog.

A Different Flavor

My parents and I share the view that for most of my life, I have not experienced homesickness whenever away from what "home of the moment" might be. For the first seventeen years of my life, I grew up in Oregon. I started to leave home for short periods, spanning a few days to three months, during summers. After starting college, my time away from Oregon increased to six or more months. By my fourth and final undergraduate year, I still referred to the place where I was born and raised as my hometown, but I enjoyed being a transplant with thin but tight roots in my college town. The college town became my home base for the subsequent ten years while I went back and forth from China, Taiwan, Korea, and very short trips to Europe. I said good-bye to that place three years ago to take up my first job away, and after two years, replaced it with the city in which I worked and lived. When WH took his job in yet another place, that town became "second home," but more out of respect for WH's presence there rather than because of genuine attachment.

I am sure some proverb exists about an experience occurring eventually, and for me, I finally started to feel subtle but explicit pangs of homesickness this past year. I could distinguish them from cultural shock, work-related stress, and all of the other emotions I expected to feel. I know that being a foreigner is always challenging, unless one is equipped with tremendous amounts of money, power, as well as vast support networks of friends, relatives, and subordinates to mitigate all the problems of marginalization. The critical difference between this "trip out" and all others preceding is that I plan to stay away and settle down in this new home city until death do we part. Resolving to make a long-term commitment (scarier and arguably less satisfying than promising one's all to spouse or children) has sapped a bit of the flavor out of my life, and inspired memories of my previous homes.

All of these thoughts relate to the coffee part of the blog in the sense that I began to enjoy coffee in the US and learned the ins and outs of such appreciation there. I hope that in the coming months, I will learn more about how a precious few manage to imbibe real coffee here in Hong Kong, and as such, how I can long less for places, in a trite way, that may only have flavored my past but not my future.