Starbucks in China

This semester I have been focusing on polishing my book and finding an agent, so I’ve been spending a lot of time at Starbucks.

I know, I know, I can hear you groan from here. “Starbucks, really?!” Especially as Xiamen has a lot of amazing cute little cafes all over the place with special teas and snacks. But if I’m in a small cafe, and one person is playing a game on their phone, or if two people are talking, it drives me nuts. I can’t focus on anything. But if I’m at a big, crazy Starbucks with a million people making noise I can zone it all out and bang away at my computer. Don’t judge me.

So, you know how there are all the jokes about Starbucks getting even the simplest names wrong? That’s in American Starbucks. But what about the ones outside America? In China, American names are impossible to pronounce. In fact, they don’t even try. When I order my black tea latte (I don’t like coffee) they don’t ever ask me my name. So how do they call me when it is ready? How do they know which is mine? Turns out, they have special symbols just for foreigners. I thought it was quite funny so I started taking pictures of it.

Here are some of the symbols and words they have put on my cup.

People think my life in China is exotic and unusual. But more of then than not, it is exactly as mundane and simple as life back in America. We’re both at Starbucks laughing at how wrong they get our name.
You know that romantic saying about being far away from someone and they both look up at the moon and know they are close because they are looking at the same moon. Well, next time you go to Starbucks look at your cup and think of me, looking at my own Starbucks cup and we are close again. 😉