Dear Freshman-to-Be Sister | Guest Blogger-Barista

HOW TO LEARN FROM...

...the first time you accidentally sleep through a quiz.

a - Wake up and realize what has happened. This is a painful and harsh realization, but it happens to everyone. Remember, it's just a quiz and you can probably drop one grade score or recover with excellent scores from here on out. But either way...don't mess it up again.

b - SMACK YO'SELF. You deserve it, ya stupid. Now you know what to do next time...

c - Set one-million alarms on your phone. In order to wake up at 8:00am, I set a 7:30, a 7:35, a 7:40, a 7:45, a 7:50 and a 7:55 alarm. It's silly, but I like me some snooze.

d - Plan to get to class a little early next time. It doesn't hurt to get to class early and look over your notes or study guide one last time. This way, if you get hit by a bike or attacked by a squirrel or mugged on your way to class, you have some built in minutes to spar

e - Make a decision. There are two choices here: 1) Start going to bed earlier or 2) Learn to love coffee. And I'll tell you right now, you're going to discover the magic of coffee sooner or later, so you might as well learn now.

f - Start loving coffee. Get a little, 1-4 cup coffee maker. Like this one that I have:

Hamilton Beach BrewStation Coffee Maker

It's just a plastic piece of crap, but it has lasted me four years and it makes coffee quick. Not to mention there's no stinkin' coffee pot to clean out. In addition to a speedy coffee maker, get some sugar and cream. And then, you do the coffee like this:

A spoonful of sugar, two parts coffee, one part cream.

This is how our dear mother drinks it, and by biological preference, we must too. Also, it's kind of like a mini-dessert this way, so it will help you adjust to the harsh coffee flavor of coffee that I KNOW you don't like.

g - Make a pre-quiz Starbucks trip. Talk about two birds with one stone. Now you can leave early for your quiz AND get some java all in one move. Starbucks is like, pretty cool. It's nice to be in the J-School because there's once conveniently located downtown. But there's also one in Memorial Union...which actually isn't much closer to  Cornell. Lucky for you, I have a Guest Blogger-Barista to offer some advice on how to utilize the Starbucks menu...as a non-coffee drinker.

 Please welcome, Abbieeeee Loveall!

As a non-coffee drinker, you have a couple options...

a) Starbucks Refreshers. They are made from green coffee extract, which means coffee beans before they're roasted. Doesn't taste like coffee at all, and has even more caffeine! They taste like fruit juice, and come in a few flavors. You can have your barista make you a Cool Lime (tastes like Margarita mix without the tequila) or Berry Hibiscus (sort of blackberry tasting), or they come in cans as Strawberry Lemonade, Orange Melon, and Raspberry Pomegranate.

b) Frappuccinos. These drinks are a bit lighter on the caffeine (95 mg in a 16 oz Grande), but boy are they good on a hot day. And everyone likes them, coffee addicts and non-coffee drinkers alike. It basically tastes like a coffee milkshake, but you can get just about any flavor you want. Chocolate syrup, chocolate chips, vanilla, hazelnut, white chocolate, caramel you name it. The Cafe Vanilla is my favorite, but the best thing about these is that you can mix and match things and create one exactly the way you like it.

c) Signature Espresso drinks. Here is where you can make yourself like coffee. Start with something sweet and then slowly wean yourself off the sugary syrups until you like just plain ol' coffee. Maybe you start with a White Chocolate Mocha (one of the most popular drinks in this college town), then move to a Vanilla Latte (probably the second most popular), then you try just a plain latte (espresso and steamed milk), and then a cafe misto (half brewed coffee, half steamed milk). By the time you're drinking a misto, your half a cup away from drinking pure coffee! Pro tip: a misto and a latte have the same amount of caffeine, and a misto costs half as much.

On a side note:
I'm glad your Summer Welcome went well. I loved having you in town and meeting you and mom for lunch at the dining halls. There will be many more lunch dates in our future. And if you keep swiping me in for free meals, I'll probably put some of my grown-up salary towards taking you out to some cool restraunts every now and again. Stay tuned for my tips...and in the meantime, enjoy that pretty little MacBook of yours. Love you!