Student learning centre & crackaccino

At the University of Georgia students are currently in the middle of exam week. That was reason for us to pay a visit to the student learning centre - a place where students learn (according to most faculty members unfortunately only during those few days before the exam...)

The place is set up very nicely like a little zoo with glass cages (they call them group rooms). One can wander past, in a reminiscent mood thinking about times when you still had to take exams ;-)) Or one can observe the different species in the glass boxes, ranging in their behaviour from frantic last minute activity to resigned exhaustion.

This special atmosphere also gave birth to one of the particularities of the American coffee culture - the Crackaccino. This extraordinary drink is based on cappuchino but contains four shots of expresso!!

A visit to the learning centre would not have been complete without sampling this elixir of the 'last minute all-nighter'. We had steeled ourselves for days for this experience and were bitterly disappointed as the guy at the coffee shop did not even blink when we bravely ordered our two Crackaccinos (they probably don't sell much else there).


Getting ready for the caffeine hit...


The immediate effects are surprisingly mild but include cold sweat and a raised heartbeat. However, one does not really feel awake. The stuff left us with a feeling somewhere between nervousness and exhaustion - edginess is probably the right word...

The main problem, not being a seasoned coffee drinker, is that this feeling which can hardly be called pleasant lasts for quite a while. Eventually, the only way to be able to even think of sleep at night was to use copious amounts of red wine which seems to be an effective antidote...