Tuesday, January 31, 2012

a game of Starbucks

It's 30 degrees out, I'm at work feeling sleepy, and I'm craving a Starbucks ice coffee. There's actually free coffee in our office kitchen, which is more generous than my last job when I worked for the Canadian government (we don't want to be wasting your Canadian tax dollars on that), but what I'm craving is a Starbucks ice coffee.

This may surprise you, but there are no Starbucks in Windhoek. Or Namibia. or southern Africa. In fact, they don't really do coffee to go here, which I theoretically applaud (down with disposable fast food culture!) and realistically deplore ("i need coffee NOW! to go!"). I've managed to survive three months without McDonalds, four months without Korean ramen noodles, five months without chajangmyun, but it looks like I'm going to have to go the full seven months stretch without a Frappucino. Unless...

Starbucks' store locator says, "There's probably a Starbucks coffeehouse near you."

I asked, "Where is the closest Starbucks to me?"

Starbucks' store locator didn't know. Wikipedia says there are Starbucks in Morocco, but Starbucks' store locator didn't agree. South Africa only carries some brands in their hotels, and Google Maps does not want to show me how to get from Cairo to Namibia.

So we have Dubai.





1. 21,000 kilometres, 19 countries, 359 Google direction steps

2. Through Italy.

I guess I'll go and put some ice cubes in my office instant coffee now.

i don't know why, but i actually seem to blog about starbucks a lot.