tyler kennyComment

Americano

tyler kennyComment

On Americans & Americanos

 

Maybe it's the fact that the past two weeks have been completely bonkers diary* wise and I've been consuming copious amounts of coffee. 

(Diary is the brits way of saying Calendar or schedule) 

Or maybe it's the fact that today after celebrating a big coup at work my boss turned to me and said,

'Go Canada Go! " and followed it up with, 'So do you hate all Americans?" .

I explained to him that Canadians and Americans are quite amicable; with our comparable dollars, discount shopping trips, 45 min porter flights to NY  and ... last time I checked the world's longest unprotected border! 

My boss then went on a long rant outlining all the reasons he hated Americans. 

(The Devil wears who....?) 


Between work and late night cram sessions I only had two things on my mind when I sat down to write tonight - Americans & Americanos. 

 

America, the Beautiful

If I were to tally the number of times I've been asked, "so what part of America are you from?" 

we'd be here for a long time. There was the time when the guy selling me my phone leaned over the counter and said, "So what part of America are you from?"

The conversation that followed went like this;

'I'm not from America"

"Yes you are." 

"No I'm not."

'Yes you are! You said dollars instead of pounds when you first came in"

"Well sir, I'm from Canada - which is among several other countries that use dollars as currency"

 

Or there was the time when I was *trying* to open a bank account and the lady HOLDING MY CANADIAN PASSPORT IN HER HAND asked me, "So what part of America are you from?" 

(More about the 17 step process to opening a UK bank account later) 

The wildest & last thing I'll share on the whole being from North America thing is that believe it or not the way we speak is often considered SEXY to the Brits. 

Just the other night someone said, 'Oh My God. Your accent is so sexy" 

I'm like, no! no! you've got it all wrong, you're the ones with the accents everyone goes crazy for! My accent is neutral!

 

On Americanos...

 

I like most human beings who have a hard time getting up in the morning or find themselves hitting the 3 o'clock wall .... love me some Starbucks.

I frequent Starbucks more than I care to share. I carry a Starbucks gold card with my name on it, use the app for click and collect here in London, and even have my own signature seasonal drinks.  I've ordered these drinks so many times, that I've even picked up on the staff lingo to simplify my order and avoid having to repeat myself.       

That is until I got to London. When you order a grande - they correct you and say "Medium". 

Don't even try ordering a Venti or ... god forbid a Trenta light Iced passion tea lemonade. 

One time I ordered a grande 5 pump tazo chai with light ice and I ended up with a croque monsieur and a Medium black currant  tea. 

The signage says tall, grande , venti but every single staff at every single Starbucks has corrected me with Medium or Large. 

It's like I'm 15 at Chapters trying to order a medium strawberry frappucino all over again. 

 

The moral of this story is that someone from America (Seattle stand up!) needs to get over here and straighten out Starbucks so I can go back to ordering grande Americanos .

 

 

 

Wearing H&M A/W 15 reversible bomber, H&M A/W 15 drawstring dress shirt, Zara trousers, Tiger of Sweden shoes.