Quick Fix

Before I went to Boston, colleagues warned that I would come home addicted to coffee and so sick of fast food that I wouldn’t even look at another McDonald’s for at least one year.

Neither of these happened.

I never care much for beverages; water often suffice whenever I feel dehydrated. At home at the dinner table I would just sapu whatever [coffee, tea, with or without milk or creamer] my mom makes for herself, which she always makes extra anyway knowing my habit. Outside of home, my choice of hot beverage is often chocolate, since I love chocolates. Chocolates have less caffeine (the world's most popular, and legal, psychoactive drug) compared to coffee, and is much healthier too. While most people turn to coffee for a quick caffeine fix, I don’t get the same effect. I can drink a cup of black coffee and go right to bed. Suapi (who now thinks that I am being sombong with him) made coffee the first thing when he woke up in the morning and again when he came back from school in the evening; I drank juice. When my American and recently-Americanized classmates walked into class with a cup of coffee in hand, I just enjoyed the rich aroma.

The fast food story also came with an alternate version. Some relatives warned that having been deprived of halal fast food for a year, I would come home craving for them like crazy. This didn’t happen either. I was neither dependent nor deprived of fast food during my time there. I cooked my own lunch and dinner almost everyday, and if I wanted fast food the nearest Burger King, KFC, McDonald's, Wendy's etc outlets were just a short walk or T ride away.

So I really cannot relate to Popeye and his Banana Mocha Frapp affair; Starbucks’ menu table confuses me, but I do like the new Salmon Burger at Burger King.

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QUICKIE: Popeye is [1] a 915 SDARian who is now a Kodok, [2] a popular cartoon character of a one-eyed sailor created by Elzie Crisler Segar; and [3] an Israeli stand-off air-to-ground missile developed by the United States as the AGM-142.