Korean Coffee

So one of the things I love the most about Korea I've decided are the coffee shops. Koreans aren't so much into brewing their own coffee*, so they have made up for it by having tons of super cute coffee shops all over the place. Behind my house there are at least five (photos to come), but here is a place near my subway stop that we went to for my friend Jae's birthday. My friend Katie was ecstatic because they have china, and while I am not a china aficionado per se, I do love a good tea set (hence the photo of the cup). 

Bahhhhhhhhhhh cute cup!! The saucer came as the lid. So preeeetty.

Some friends and I enjoying tea/coffee (you get your very own little teapot here, which I love). (love the painting in the background as well!! The decor here was amazing)

My other favorite place about the coffee shops around my place is the clientele. Usually my friends and I go midday before we have to go to work, so the other people there are a bunch of ajumas (korean middle-aged women famed for upholding social propriety and giving you tons of clementines (yes both of these are personal experience)). I know they don't appreciate me as much as I do them because I laugh very . . . very loudly and get a lot of stares. However, I like to see middle-aged ladies sitting around enjoying their coffee because it gives me hope for the future. Or the present, if you would believe my students.

*My friend Katie and I went on a mission on one of our first weeks here to a Korean supermarket to get coffee for her. So after an entire aisle devoted to instant coffee we finally find a tiny corner of grounds. I, being the college-educated coffee snob that I am, of course recommend to her that she should get whole beans and grind it there (they did in fact have a grinder). However, it takes us literally twenty minutes of teeth-gnawing to break into the plastic/military-enforced container of this coffee package, which then promptly splits, spilling beans everywhere. The opening is jagged, so attempts to pour the ground coffee into the bag result in a small powdered puddle all over our immediate vicinity and leading, Hansel- and Gretel-like, back home with us. She now goes to Starbucks for her coffee.