For the Love of Coffee...

Ok back to stories...

This afternoon, after we woke up, Liz decided it was time to experiment with the new coffeemaker. We've had the coffeemaker since the time we got our dishes, but what with "filter coffee" being so readily available here in South India, we hadn't actually gotten around to using it. I'm sure an instruction manual actually came with the thing, but somehow in the mess of unpacking everything it has disappeared... So, first there was the debate about how much water to how much coffee to use. (In terms of American coffee, we were a little off-it was a bit strong!) Liz was all focused on how to tell when it was finished cuz the carafe is metal instead of glass (so you can't see when it's done dripping.) Meanwhile, one of our friends and I were busy trying to figure out how much milk we would need to warm up for our three cups of coffee. (Of course warming the milk is a foreign concept to us Americans, but what can you do?-gotta please the Indian guys...) :) Anyway, we collected all the disparate parts needed...and began the assembly process. Liz led out first, but put in too much coffee and sugar for the milk and managed to spill it out into the saucer. She then thought that the best (?) plan would be to 'mix' it by pouring it back and forth between two mugs. [This is not as strange as it may sound-it is the common way the coffee-wallahs (sellers) mix the coffee when you order it here.] However, apparantly it requires a fair amount of practice or genetic disposition to do this without spilling all over the counter! (i.e. Liz should NOT become a coffee-wallah at any point in life!) While she was doing this, our friend and I mixed our own coffees safely with a spoon. Well, safely until I managed to knock my cup completely out of the saucer and all over the counter and floor. *sigh* I had just got the proportions right too...

I'm sure most of you are thinking (hoping!) that this is the end of the story...but no...it continues on... :)

As our friend and I were changing the water jug in the dispenser, Liz, deciding that her coffee still needed sugar, picked up the sugar canister and managed to drop it over the entire kitchen floor. I'm still not exactly sure how... YUCK! (Especially where it mixed with the coffee splotches already on the floor!) Unfortunately, our maid had already left for the day, so Liz and I were running around trying to get the mess cleaned up as quickly as possible so that we could get showered and dressed and ready for our cab to the office (which we expected in the next 45 minutes or so.) ACK! All this while we were laughing hysterically and trying to drink the remaining coffee. :) Nothing but good times in our apartment!

We did manage a sweeping and two moppings and to get ready before they called to say that the cab had arrived. Phew! Now we're just wondering if the ant colony that we had managed to (mostly) banish will have moved in again by the time we get back from work.... *crossing fingers*

I think we should stick to just buying coffee from the coffee-wallahs for a bit more time... Although probably this story emphasizes how much we actually NEEDED the coffee at that time... :)