GIP, sorta

[emmagrant01]

I'm literally taking a coffee break from grading final papers. (Why, oh why did I make so many things due at the end of the semester? I'm going to be doing nothing but grading friggin' term papers all week!)

Anyways, this seemed an appropriate time to intro my new coffee icon! The story behind this one is that on a recent trip to London, MDH and I were stunned that we couldn't find any cafes open on Sunday afternoon. We were cold and tired and had an hour to kill before the theatre opened, and there was nowhere to go for a cup of coffee! And then, we spotted that familiar black, green and white sign -- and it was OPEN! Coffee! Warmth! And no smoking allowed!

So I snapped that shot in my elation, and then made an LJ icon of it. It may not be the best coffee in the world, but it's there when you've got nowhere else to go.

*sips coffee*

ETA: Not in response to splix's "Onion" post. Complete coincidence!

Comments

[jedirita.livejournal.com]

Love the new icons, dearie!

For a similar reason, that is why I sometimes eat at McDonald's overseas -- because it's cheap, and I can understand the menu. Sad to say, but the place where I ate at McD's the most was in France. The food in France was surprisingly bad and astonishingly overpriced. It cost about US $7 for a cup of coffee and a stale croissant for breakfast. You couldn't find lunch anywhere for less than $15. Maybe if I'd been willing to pay $35 for lunch I could have found some decent food, but I was on a tight budget. A Big Mac anywhere on the planet is never going to cost more than $5.

Incidentally, the only country I've yet been to that didn't have McD's was Tunisia.

[emmagrant01.livejournal.com]

Oooh, thanks! I know what you mean, espcially about France... MDH and I once ate in a McD's in Paris after having been snottily turned away by at least three restaurants. Half-empty, over-priced restaurants. At some point, you've had your fill of weird organ meats and just want *something* familiar, cheap, and quick. And most McD's everywhere on the planet are full of locals, not American tourists.

We had a bad experience with a hamburger chain in Rio de Janeiro as well -- we refer to the chain as "Bob's Ratburger" now -- and squealed with delight when we finally found a McD's in Uruguay. I remember laughing over the fact that the hamburger wrapper had "100% carne de vaca" printed all over it. I know the way to translate that is "100% beef", but we couldn't resist joking that what it really meant was "completely made from cow meat -- no rats".