Tick Tock

I am a devoted coffee drinker. I realize this statement could be taken lightly or seen as a mild exaggeration, but my need for coffee is not to be underestimated. I require coffee every morning, or I simply cannot function as a productive member of society throughout the rest of the day. On the days I miss my morning cup of java, I can be seen wandering through the hallways of my school like a zombie, with my eyes half shut and a scowl on my face, ready to attack the first child who screams too loudly in my exhausted, overly-sensitive ears. Even though I view this as being an entirely normal problem to have on the unfortunate, coffee-less days, some might see it as either a serious character flaw, or an addiction to caffeine. And although “addiction” is taboo in every society, I accept and nurture the latter of the two options, because—hey—everyone is addicted to something, right?

I live in a country where sanitation is a little more advanced than some of its surrounding countries. I have, however, been strongly advised on a number of occasions not to drink the tap water here in Korea (I think this is the general rule of thumb in most countries). I have faithfully adhered to the unwritten rules of avoiding tap water like the plague for the entire eight months that I’ve resided here, but today I had to make an exception. I rolled out of bed this morning at a reasonable hour upon the premise that I would have a good cup of coffee in my hands in only a few moments. I shuffled out to the kitchen, rinsed out the coffee pot, put a new coffee filter into the coffee-filter-thinger on my coffee maker, carefully measured two scoops of Starbucks coffee grinds, and then reached for the bottle of drinking water that is usually sitting next to the coffee maker. But much to my confusion, my hand didn’t grasp on to a large plastic bottle; it only scooped up a handful of air. In my zombie-like state, I stared at the empty counter space for a full minute before it registered that I was out of drinking water. Crap. I contemplated my options for a few minutes, and after weighing the pros and cons of walking down to the corner store and buying more water or risking it with the water from the tap, I finally opted to take my chances with the tap. I was, after all, too exhausted (read: lazy) to walk down eight flights of stairs and half of a block to the local Family Mart just for a bottle of water.

Before meandering into uncharted territory by taking my first sip of Korean tap water, I decided to do a little bit of homework first. I Googled “how to kill tap water germs” and found an article that claimed if I boiled the water for a full minute it would kill any harmful germs. I looked at my coffee maker and realized the water wouldn’t come anywhere near the boiling point, but it would, however, be exceptionally hot. I decided to leave the coffee on the burner for a full ten minutes, thinking that maybe ten minutes on a hot surface would do the same damage to the water germs as one minute of boiling.

I’m currently sipping carefully on my iffy-coffee, waiting for something to happen. I’m not sure what to expect really, if the worst should happen. I’m assuming “the worst” would be acquiring a parasite of some sort, but I don’t really know. Only time will tell….