After School Tips

Spending sleepless nights, doing your homework, studying for the exam, writing papers or even just catching up on watching your series is a common phenomenon among students. All-nighter's (or puyat) is a term often associated when a person (usually a student) has crammed all of his or her work in to the night right before the deadlines and has resolved himself for the storm that is coming. It does not literally mean that you stay up all night, chances are you will fall asleep before you finish all of your work, but it usually ends up with the person staying up till the wonderful hours of post midnight. As hard as it is, its unavoidable. We as Filipinos will leave our work for later, until it piles up and you bully your brain to stay awake for one night (more for some) of mayhem. And, like Spartans that march to inevitable doom, we have to arm ourselves. Our weapon of choice? Coffee.

Coffee is that wonderful brown-black stuff you drink when you want to finish that 10 page paper you just started an hour ago. It contains caffeine which looks very much like Adenosine. Adenosine is a by product of almost all of your bodies activities and results with you feeling like the bed is the utopia that dreams were made of. Caffeine blocks Adenosine by taking its place on the neuroreceptor for Adenosine. This results to your body not feeling drowsy.

Personally, I prefer drinking iced coffee. Not because it tastes any better, but only because, like much of my generation, I lack the patience for my hot coffee to become drinkable without setting the insides of my mouth on fire. If the night is still young and I have the time and money to go to it, my first choice will always be Krispy Kreme© and their Iced Kaffe Kreme.

This little concoction of Krispy Kreme is for me and my fellow “Sweet Tooths” out there. It is rather pricy, but it has a nice blend of creaminess and enough coffee for you to taste with enough sugar to support the caffeine to keep you up longer (sometimes longer than intended).

However, Krispy Kreme is not a 24 hour establishment and does not deliver to your doorstep. When you are already re-reading the same line of your reviewer for the 20^th time, its nice to know that iced coffee is just one call away. In these times, I am grateful that Mcdonalds© exists and is open long enough to cater to my all-nighter needs. Their Iced coffee comes in two flavors, Plain and Vanilla. I suggest ordering the Plain one as the Vanilla is sometimes so sweet that you can no longer taste the coffee. This will still cost you quite a bit as Mcdonalds charges an extra 40 pesos for delivery. However, if you're looking for a snack along with your liquid energy, Mcdonalds is the way to go.

Iced coffee is a pricy purchase and not everyone has the cash to shell out for it. When you're fresh out of cash and your body starts looking for your caffeine fix, you can resort to those canned iced coffee from convenience stores or you could make your own iced coffee. All you need is a packet of 3-in-1 coffee (choose your brand well), some hot water and an ice tray. Only place enough hot water to dissolve the contents of the packet, add tepid water and finally add ice on top. Taste varies with the brand and type that you buy, but the general caffeine fix should be enough for you to force out those last few paragraphs.

Its 3 am in the morning, you have been working non-stop for the past 8 hours now for a paper that was given out a month ago. You reach beside your laptop for your mug, containing that sweet, cold, bitter beverage. Only a few more words left and you will be finished. You drink the last drops of your coffee and stare blankly at your finished work. You know its sub-par and it is quite obviously rushed, but you don't care. Looking at your empty mug you smile, you make an internal promise that next time you are starting earlier. You later find yourself in bed, your eyes wide open, the caffeine still running in your system. You tell yourself that you'll be a better student from now on, that you will no longer pull an all-nighter, but deep down you know. This won't be the last.

Sincerely,

GuilerMi


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Posted on GuilerMi's behalf due to difficulties in his schedules