Baristas

Baristas need to make a sitcom.

Source: tatoeba (400816)

In the afternoon of the 28th of December of 2024, my cousin Eve's cousin Rex went with Eve and Mama to tour Lulu Island. Rex is visiting from the states. They went to Garden City Shopping Centre to have bubble tea that he has been desiring. Then, they visited Aberdeen Centre, wherein Rex bought me four packages of varied Japanese goodies: There is a small box of "ZEN Gardening Kit" amongst them. The others are snacks. Rex knows that I am a Nipponophile. I opine that Rex looks more Peruvian than Mexican. At home, they brought me a steamed pork-stuffed bun and lotus leaf-wrapped meat-stuffed sticky rice. Being highly cultured, Rex was preparing fruitcake with wine. Mama, Eve, and Rex huddled themselves at the kitchen table. In the meanwhile, in the evening, I went to Starbucks café to drink a reddish Passion Tango iced tea. The baristas were Chris the Japanese-English hybrid and Jessica the petite Vietnamese. I told Jessica about me eating out at Crab Hot Lau, a Vietnamese restaurant, the other day. She said that she has not tried it herself.

Source: tatoeba (12944364)

I woke up early today. I started my café-hopping here on Lulu Island just after 5 in the night-like morning. I walked to Tim Hortons to have a Green Tea with Oat Milk and a Sausage Egg Cheese English Muffin. Pushpak the South Asian vendor was not there today. I was the only customer in the vast chamber. Then, I walked to Starbucks. My baristas were Nicole the Filipina and Jessica the Vietnamese. I was drinking a Brown Sugar Oat Cortado that comes in a cute, little ceramic mug. It tasted like jackfruit to me. Jessica from afar whispered loudly and solemnly, "Richmond is not like Asia." A regular, a big white man with white hair, sat with his tablet computer at a table near the washrooms. I thought that he was playing games on it. It was the 23rd of January of 2025.

Source: tatoeba (12999440)

A sunny day it was, this 30th of April of 2025. I walked several times to Tim Hortons café, here on Lulu Island, to enjoy various teas with oat milk, a Classic Lemonade, and a Turkey Bacon Club Sandwich. I went also to Starbucks café to enjoy an Iced Cherry Chai with oat milk. My Filipino friends, the baristas Anna and Jam, were there. At home, my family received a guest from Kenya: Moko. We talked about Swahili—or Kiswahili. She said that in neighbouring Zanzibar in Tanzania, one spoke a prestige dialect of Swahili. I recounted my fantasy of one day visiting Zanzibar. "Why not a safari tour?" she added. Yes, such would be nice, too—the fun countryside! Kenya is like the Philippines, we agreed, as many people might speak a local language, a regional language, a national language, and an international language. At home, in my bedroom, I could hear my Fijian neighbours, who are Cantonese, East Indian, and Black Caribbean in blending, chatting away!

Source: tatoeba (13258610)