The Avid Starbucks Hunteress

While I was living in the US there were many things from Belgium I craved and just the smell of some things familiar brought back all the memories attached to them. Well, now that I am living in Belgium, one thing I miss very much is ...STARBUCKS! We have wonderfull coffee over here but the whole Starbucks experience is something I associate to many wonderful memories of meeting good friends, fun conversation, of course great coffee drinks and customer service.

Belgium opened up its first Starbucks at the Brussels airport a couple of years ago, which is about an hour from my house. I would not mind taking the drive over there but having to park in the airport parking lot and walking all the way to the departure gates is just not the experience I was looking for.
Option number two is Aachen, which is a city in Germany about 45 minutes away. Needless to say I have been over there about a dozen times JUST to get the Starbucks experience I was missing and that has been great.

Now, the point of the story, A second location in Belgium has opened in the city of Antwerp, about 40 minutes away. and it is the largest Starbucks in Europe to date. As I wrote in my last blog, Will and I went to Antwerp for Valentines day. I had strategically picked that place to have a wonderful Mocha as part of the fun weekend AND booked our room with a window view to those nice block letters spelling STARBUCKS COFFEE. So, I think I can pretty much say one of the most disappointing moments of my life was when I opened the curtains of our room and reading the words: STARBUCKS COFFEE, OPENING FEBRUARY 24TH!!! Remember, this is Valentines day, so NOT the 24th.

No way, this was not happening to me! I was not about to give up not that easily, no way Jose. I walked by there about 7 times during the weekend just to get a glimps of anybody maybe working inside or something, ...ANYTHING. And..as usual, determination and positive thinking pays of: As we were waiting for our train to get back to our town, all of a sudden the doors open and an entire Starbucks crew is working inside!!! Like a dream! I drag Will inside and we talk to the manager who informs us that the crew is practising for the grand opening and that we could order whatever we wanted for free!!! The words "Grande Soy White Mocha, Two pumps, No whip" never sounded so great to me ever before.

My wishful thinking did not even stop paying off here, the manager invited the 2 of us to the pre-grand opening for friends and family to enjoy all the drinks and food for free to make sure it was up to American standards! Wow, how great was that. Of course I have been married into a Mexican family way too long to not take this opportunity a step further and kindly RSVP for 4:-) We took my brother and his girlfriend and had a wonderful time.

Moral of the story: If you really want something, dont give up because most of the time there always is a way to get what you want. Second moral to the story: appreciate the little things you have, because you do not know how much they mean until they are gone!

Until next time,

love, Lesley