my love affair with coffee

i can remember the first time i stepped foot inside a starbucks coffee shop.

my college friend nicole and i were about to embark on an over-night road trip (which, incidentally, now ranks number 3 on my stupidest things i've ever done list). we weren't able to take a spring break trip together, so this was our pre-spring break trip. our plan was to drive through the night on friday night, arrive at the beach saturday morning, camp that night and then drive home sunday. see? stupid.

and the best part is that we made this 800-mile through-the-night trip without telling either of our parents. after being awake for 12 hours already. really stupid.

we'd both been up all day with classes and then a dorm event in indianapolis that night (we were both RAs). we were excited to get on the road, but definitely needed some caffiene to get started. starbucks had just opened a store downtown and so on our way out, we stopped.

it was a little taste of heaven before our big adventure.

eighteen months later, starbucks became a haven of home as i moved 8000 miles from everything familiar to me. i spent a year in manila serving with the navigators' edge corp. we served college students at two universities, one of which happened to be the harvard of the philippines, located across the street from a starbucks.

my teammates and i became regulars at this starbucks. it was a little piece of vanilla in a cappuccino world. i loved living in manila and have fabulous memories from our time there. but somehow, starbucks -- and the countless hours we spent there reading our bibles, sharing deep thoughts, writing letters home, journaling -- became a rock.

and so began my love affair with coffee. clearly, it's an emotional affair, though i do love the taste of coffee. and, it's no longer about the caffeine. in fact, normally, i prefer decaf. sometimes, if the mood is right, when i take that first sip of a hot vanilla latte, i can instantly be transported to that quezon city starbucks on katipunan avenue in manila. emotional memories, connected to your senses, are powerful things.

and so, in honor of my love for all things coffee, i'm participating in this week's bloggy giveaway carnival. i will be giving away a mug from starbucks. to enter, leave a comment telling me your favorite coffee drink. i'll leave comments open until noon on friday. i will select a winner after that.

i will contact the winner by email, so please be sure to leave your email address in the comments. the winner will have three days to respond, after which i will choose a new winner.

have fun!