Starbucks

I wrote this last Friday and forgot to post it... obviously don't know how to use a blog. Tomorrow morning Ellie and I are doing a bit of museuming around downtown Santiago and Saturday morning we're headed out on a weekend trip to see Pablo Neruda's house in Isla Negra and then back to the beautiful Valparaiso.






"Starbucks says they are going to start putting religious quotes on cups. The very first one will say, 'Jesus! This cup is expensive!'"
-- Conan O'Brian


Today, I forgot my lunch. How 7th grade of me. So after class I went back home to eat, and not wanting to have to leave and come back in time for dinner, I looked for something I could do in the area. I was feeling an afternoon in a coffeeshop with my book. I wanted something classicly Chilean, but when I asked madre for suggestions, the Starbucks down the street came highly recommended, as well as the Dulce de Leche latte. The latte won me over, dulce de leche is pretty Chilean (at least they eat it all the time, so that counts... right?). I remember once someone, I don't remember who, was telling me that whenever they go to a new restaurant, they order something familiar, so they can compare it to what they have had before. I think that's kind of valid, because I think this Starbucks made me like this country even more. From the friendly, laidback baristas who struggled with my name (it's tough being an American in foreign country with an un-American names, it gets people pretty frazzled) to the rich dulce de leche, to the young teenager and her mother reading Great Expectations in English together and working together to translate (ugh. the funniest. - also, why would you pick THAT book to start with?!) The schoolgirls in their uniforms, the language. Spanish looks good on Starbucks, I'm telling you. I also read 60 pages of my book and I got to go out and do something on my own, which I haven't had the chance to do yet.