My favorite starbucks barista thinks he is related to Snoop Dogg.

I now refer to said barista as "Snoop."

Him: Where are you from?
Me (simplified answer): I'm from Southern California, close to LA.
Him: "Oh, I have an uncle in LA! He's a rapper. Snoop Dogg."
Me (thinking that there is a rapping Chilean uncle in LA somewhere who knows Snoop Dogg, because our conversation was all in rapid Spanish): Oh, what's your uncle's name?
Him: Snoop Dogg!
Me: Oh! *I get it now* ¡Que bueno! ¡Jajajaja! (pronounced like laughter, not the word "jaw".)

They proceeded to ask me if the correct name was "Dr. Dre" or "Dr. Ray"as I tried not to laugh.

Somewhere in that conversation I also ordered a small hot chocolate, and they said "Un regalo!", handed me a large hot chocolate (I didn't even have to tell them my name to write on the cup!), and an espresso brownie. I mean, I'm trying to be good in this country with all the delicious food, but why look a gift horse in the mouth? It's not like I don't know they were flattering me for a tip, which I gladly provided. I've worked as a barista at three different coffee shops, they're totally good at working the crowd. Well, and they like me because I'm a lonely, smiley gringuita who always comes there to do homework for hours.

Pathetic fact: I've been in Chile for just over a month and my best Chilean friends are 1) host family and 2) the people at Starbucks. To be fair, we had two weeks of orientation starting off, so I guess I've probably gone here maybe a third of the remaining days. I'd rather patronize smaller Chilean cafés, but this one is close to my house... and lots of cafés serve the abominable Nescafé... and they lack comfy couches and wifi. Others that serve real coffee are businessmen-only, if you catch my drift. In Café Haiti, women in short skirts (think Hooters, but slightly classier- heels and short dresses) serve coffee to businessmen. Those are actually okay for women to attend as well. I found that out when I walked into one by accident. I thought it was fine because I saw a woman in there with a long sleeved shirt, but I quickly realized that five other women were wearing the same long-sleeved cheetah print shirt and tiny shorts. Time to go. Cafe Havanna, incidentally, is a completely normal coffee shop that anyone can go to. Starlight Coffee is a Starbucks lookalike where people are allowed to smoke, so I don't go there either.

There are more coffee shops that I've never been inside which have tinted windows...

As you might have guessed, the ladies serving coffee there are naked. But like, seriously, what happens if they're making coffee and they spill on themselves? Ouch!
I once was working a shift at The Coffee Tree in Pittsburgh when there was a huge rush, and I burned myself with the hot water used for making tea. Not a fun time.

Just a little tidbit about the IES group- we had to discuss our childhood ambitions in life. There were the typical things, vet, doctor. My friend Laura wanted to take care of horses. I personally helped my mom in the garden when I was four and we picked out flowers together, so I informed her that we were going to run a greenhouse together when I grew up. (There was a brief stint in there when I wanted to be a fashion designer, and she asked me what happened to our greenhouse.)

The best was my classmate John, who was struggling to explain what he wanted to be when he was little. "No el bombero, el coche de los bomberos" (Not the fireman, the car for the firemen.)
He wanted to be a fire truck when he was little. Seriously. Things like that brighten my day.

(The text is brown in honor of coffee and chocolate, two of my favorite things)