Home is Where the Coffee is

I’ve mentioned this earlier, but I’m a coffee fanatic. I love having a go-to coffee shop that is my ‘comfort place’ to grab a reliable cup of—not Dunkin Donuts watered-down— coffee. I definitely consider myself to be more of an old soul, in the sense that I try my best to be loyal to one coffee shop. At home, my go-to coffee shop is the perfect place to grab coffee, meet up with friends, and talk for hours on end. At school, my go-to coffee shop is the best place to grab coffee, sit alone, and do my homework. Abroad, well I am yet to find my go-to coffee shop. I’ve just started experimenting with a bunch on campus...

At the University of Sydney they have coffee shops everywhere. They are practically in every academic building, the gym, around every corner, the options are endless. It can be a little overwhelming with all these options, how will I find THE one? The coffee shop that I can grab coffee, blog, and journal..because frankly I don’t have much homework to do here. It sounds silly that of all the new and overwhelming things there are to experience abroad, it’s finding the perfect go-to coffee shop seems to be giving me the most amount of stress.

It is silly, but then I think about it. When people in Australia ask me where I’m from, I struggle in my head whether I should say I’m from Glastonbury, CT (my hometown) or Boston (where I go to school). My family and home are in Glastonbury, but I live/go to school in Boston for the majority of the year, so in many ways I feel like that is “home” too. Basically, I have two places that I call home and a go-to coffee shop at each one. I realized that I am only being so particular about finding THE coffee shop here because it’s a part of establishing my new home. It is a part of my process for creating a new home here in Australia.

I’ve been in Australia for four weeks now. The first week I was still recovering from jet lag and overstimulated by everything new. The second week I was still meeting new friends every day and experiencing a bit of culture shock. The third week classes started and my daily routine was just sinking in. At the start of my fourth week, I feel like I have finally processed everything new in Australia and I am settling in to call this place I now call— home. Hopefully with all these coffee shop contenders I’ll be able to find my go-to one soon. I’ll keep everyone updated when I do, but in the meantime, I am happy experimenting with a cup coffee and exploring my new home.