Coffee Break

Wow, sometimes time really gets away from me and I lose track of how long it's been since my last blog post. But in my defense, I had an essay test this morning, a 4 page history paper due tonight at midnight, and various other assignments due tomorrow. So, since I'm going to be busy for the rest of the night with those aforementioned various other assignments, I thought I'd just throw in a side story about my daily morning routine that I've developed here. Every morning, I leave my room about 45 minutes before the start of class, and go downstairs to the canteen/food court in the basement of my dorm here. And just about every morning, I end up buying a coffee for here, and a coffee to go (or "take-away", as this is all they understand here) and this bread-like thing called prata (basically very very thin dough folded up and grilled until it's brown, flaky and delicious). My dad, who is even pickier about coffee than I am, would probably be appalled at the coffee that I drink here, as they make it rather dark, and when it comes time to serve it they pour it in a glass about halfway, and fill the rest of the glass with water. But each cup is only 40 cents Singaporean, so I give them a break. I have actually developed a real taste for sweetened condensed milk though, which they love to put in/on everything here- so far I've had it in my coffee and on my toast, and both have been quite good. Today, however, I had a sort of interesting ordeal with the not-so-nice coffee ladies. I was running on about 4 hours of sleep, and had a test and class very soon. So I attempted to order coffee without my beloved sweetened condensed milk, so as to ensure that I wouldn't crash from the sugar later. Our conversation went something like this:

Me (trying to order a black coffee to go): Hi, can I get a coffee with NO milk and NO sugar take-away please?
Coffee Lady #1: Coffee wit no sugar no milk.
Me: Yes, that's right.
{Coffee Lady #2 proceeds to make my coffee and add milk to it}
Me: Oh, wait, sorry, but I said no milk and no sugar.
#1: You should have said no milk no sugar.
Me: Oh, yeah, well I know. I mean I did.
#1: Black coffee. You suppose to say black coffee.
Me (thinking I had no idea they would know what 'black' meant): Oh, sorry.
#1: Yeah, black coffee. You no say black coffee, we put sugar.
Me: Oh, okay. I'll say black coffee next time.
#2: Yeah, black coffee.
{Continuous babbling in broken English by coffee ladies about black coffee}
Random Guy in Line (honestly trying to be helpful): Oh, you gotta say black coffee, or else they'll put milk and sugar in it.
Me: I GOT IT, OKAY?!
#1: Yeah, black coffee.
Me: Yes, I understand. Thank you.

Oh, the joys of being in a country where customer service isn't important and they like to pretend that their primary language is English. But it's okay, now I know from now on to order my coffee black.