So, I love coffee shops. They are one of my most favourite places to work...I work best in them, really, as I don't like the silence of libraries and don't like the distractions (ie: internet) in my room. So, I like nothing better than to sit down in a coffee shops with a nice latte or chai tea and get down to some work; it makes the whole experience of studying more enjoyable, and I get much more done. I also love reading books or magazines in them, or of course meeting friends for a good catch-up in them.

Where am I going with this? Well, as I'm sure you may be aware, Seattle is the home of Starbucks, which is kind of a big thing. And there are 325 Starbucks' in my 25 mile radius here, no kidding. Now, when I'm in the UK, I like Starbucks, don't get me wrong. I don't really support their whole taking-over-the-world-one-street-corner-at-a-time thing, but I'm fond of them. Mainly just because it's reliably good (okay not amazing, but good enough) coffee...and there aren't that many good independent coffee shops in the UK; if you go to one, it's always a risk. So in the UK, I usually go to Starbucks to meet friends or study. When I went back home at Christmas, all my friends joked "I bet you go to Starbucks ALL the time in Seattle", and when I said "Actually, no..." they seemed most shocked. But honestly, despite how many there are here...I don't. Okay, so I didn't waste my time in being touristy and finding the first one, and I do still go into one occasionally (given how many there are, it's kind of unavoidable), but mostly, I frequent independent coffee shops. Because, ironically, despite the fact it's home to one of the biggest chain coffee shops in the world, Seattle is best for independent coffee shops. The Northwest in fact, is famous for its coffee...it's apparently one of the best places for coffee bar Italy. And it's true...I've never had such amazing coffee before I came here. And of course, the atmosphere in the independent coffee shops is much nicer than Starbucks! And this is not just in downtown Seattle, in the university district alone there are a ridiculous amount of nice independent coffee shops too, which is very convenient.

In other news, I went to the tulip festival upstate last weekend, which was beautiful. Plus, my tutor moved my exam back because the English graduation was on the original day, so my flight back is okay now. I find it very odd that I have only six weeks left...it's gone by so quickly! So I'm going to make sure I fit in as much as I can in the little spare time I have left!