Let's go and fika

It’s the first day the ban on indoor dining was lifted in New Taipei City, I was curious how fast restaurants could get ready within a day or two to meet the stringent requirements for indoor dining and how people react toward the new dining etiquette. At noon, it rained cats and dogs, I stayed home for lunch with my husband. When the rain finally stopped at 2:30, I brought along a heavy Korean grammar textbook to IKEA Xindian to enjoy fika for NT$99.

Fika is "a coffee and cake break" in Swedish. The word derives from the 19th-century slang word for coffee: kaffi. Invert the word kaffi, and you get fika. Swedes consider it essential to make time for fika every day, to make time for friends and colleagues to share a cup of coffee and a little something to eat and to socialise. It refreshes the brain and strengthens relationships. 

IKEA, the mega Swedish furniture chain-store presented no doubt a model showcase for Taiwanese restaurants to follow the indoor dining rules stipulated by New Taipei City Authority. All tables were set up with acrylic partitions and were marked diagonally to comply with social distancing.

I had two chicken wings, one strawberry cheesecake, one cup of all-you-can-drink swedish coffee for fika today. I tried to invite a few friends to join me, but they would rather stay home to have on-line chatting. So I had fika by myself. To my surprise, there weren’t as many patrons as before, people were obviously much concerned about the mutation speed of notorious coronavirus.

At IKEA, I heard the announcement very now and then, it’s mandatory people wear masks at all times except eating and drinking. I don't mind wearing mask while reading or writing as I got used to the hygiene practice when I was on the cruise to offshore islands three times last year.

While having fika, I practiced a couple of Korean folk songs to get myself ready for lunch at my Korean Teacher’s place tomorrow. I also review a few Korean children songs we learned last year. In the end, I didn’t study much of Korean grammar in the heavy textbook. But I made up my mind to study 5 pages a day, in order to finish the 500 pages textbook by the end of 2021.