From Where I Sip: A Cafe As A Beauty Shop!

Continuing on with my From Where I Sip series...

There used to be a sandwich restaurant next to our office, Joe's Sandwich, where I'd order a tuna sandwich for lunch on  days when I didn't have time to properly sit down for a real mid-day meal.

On one of my lunch time visits to Joe's Sandwich, I was surprised on one table, a couple of girls were clipping their finger nails and coloring them. I asked myself, 'Isn't this a restaurant where food is served and sanitation should be observed?'  I don't know Seoul's sanitation regulations when it comes to restaurants, but when clippings of dead finger nails are scattered around the restaurant and these colored chemicals are introduced into the room, I was pretty sure health and sanitation should be a priority. Fortunately that day, those girls were only doing their hands, and not their feet. Eeew!

But I guess, in Korea, that is very acceptable. Putting your sandwich next to your finger nail clippings and nail cutter, or sipping your iced cafe americano while you paint your finger nails red, or perhaps, interchanging the two tasks, is normal.

I'm not sure if that finger clipping and nail-polishing scene at Joe's Sandwich may have been an exception. Perhaps, those girls were meeting their respective dates after lunch and needed an emergency nail-beautification session inside the restaurant before going back to the office. 

On some occasions, it's less surprising. At times, I'd see a group of girls at Starbucks in Itaewon seated in between students studying and ajussis talking about business, while they duplicate a scene out of a beauty shop, minus the hair drying and perming. Ha-ha-ha!

I was amazed that they even brought their own make-up kit. And in between sipping my iced cafe mocha and reading the pages of my report, I observed as they painted their faces with all the colors at their disposal. Brushing, pencilling and lining every square centimeter of their skin that faced the world. Or in the case that night, the skin that faced all the other people in Starbucks. Ha-ha-ha!

I am not sure if this sisterhood of turning any cafe into a beauty shop is prevalent all over the city, or perhaps, the whole peninsula. 

I haven't seen this face-painting scene for quite some time now, and I'm thinking, maybe, just like the nail-clipping and nail-polishing at Joe's Sandwich, this make-up session in a coffee shop is only common to those having an emergency. After all, shouldn't you be groomed and ready when you step out of your apartment?  

So, the next time you're in a coffee shop and you see a group of girls having a make-up session together, don't be surprised. They're having an emergency. 

From Where I Sip: Textbooks And Students

To continue on with my From Where I Sip series...

In most coffee shops, on any given day (or night!), there would always be people reading text books, scribbling notes and discussing lessons with their classmates. 

These are the studious students. Mostly high school and college students doing their homework, writing their papers or cramming for an exam. In my high school and college days, there was only a library and a study hall. Nowadays, these students have another venue: coffee shops!

I can understand it's always difficult to concentrate or get your homework done at home where there's TV and a comfortable bed. And perhaps, noisy neighbors.

These students I always see at coffee shops would buy a drink, occupy a quiet corner, get their textbooks and iPods out, and study away! The whole morning, afternoon or night! 

I used to see a lot of them at Starbucks and at the 24-hour Tom N Toms in Itaewon. But when a group of noisy people seated at the next table is as noisy as a jet plane taking off, you would need more than the concentration of a pilot flying an Airbus 380! It's always irritating when two or three people facing each other at a table are talking at a volume so loud it's as if they are a kilometer away from each other. I'm not sure if they have hearing problems, or maybe, they just don't care that a student seated nearby is cramming for an exam the next day.

I was a good student myself (naks!), and I know that getting good grades needs a lot of hard work and studying. 

So, the next time you and your friends are in a coffee shop babbling loudly away about a new thing you bought or gossiping about other people, try to look around and be considerate. The student seated next to you is studying for his or her future. Who knows? Perhaps, that student would become somebody some day.

Thanks To Friends, I Got The 2014 Starbucks Planners!

They have been very popular over the years; these Starbucks planners. 

                   (The red planner from the 17 stickers)

And every year, before I fly home to the Philippines, I try to complete the 17-sticker requirement for my niece. Last year, I wasn't able to complete it as my visits to Starbucks was limited. 

                                  (Another red planner from a friend)

This year, however, I had help. A lot of help!

Although the 'Starbucks planner event' ends on December 31, I was flying out of Seoul on the third week. So, on the beginning of the second week, I asked friends if they have Starbucks stickers to spare. Of the 17 cups, you need to purchase at least three special Christmas coffee flavors. And lucky for me, Rio and some friends gave me their electronic stickers, which I then incorporated into my Starbucks card, and voila! They totaled 17!  As the red colored planner was very popular, I wasn't able to claim it as the Starbucks coffee shop at Yongsan Station, which was the nearest one to my office. I had to claim it from the one next to the Soonchunhyang Hospital in Hannam-dong in Yongsan-gu.

And while I already secured one for my niece, Priscila, another friend gave me another planner! A Korean friend who used to manage a Starbucks coffee shop in Yongsan-gu gave me another planner. On the second week of December, I also told her that I was running out of time and was worried that I wouldn't be able to complete the 17 stickers. And a few days before I flew out of Seoul, she said she was giving me another one! How generous of her! Now, my other niece, Toni, was getting one, too!

So, in 2013, my annual quest for a Starbucks planner was doubly successful. I can now relax. Ha-ha-ha!

How about you? Have you been able to get yours, too?