Finals flew by quickly here in London – but the two-day span of 3,000-word papers and two-hour finals did not fail to exhaust us abroad students (Who knew there was indeed a “study” part to “study abroad”?). Amid all this chaos, my friends and I flocked to the only café close by that has free WiFi: Starbucks.
Before you judge, please keep in mind desperate times call for desperate measures, and there are not one but two Starbucks locations within a one-mile radius of our dorms and the building we have classes in. Combine this with our lack of sleep and time crunch for work and you’ve got a bunch of tired Americans attempting to write papers but forgetting what it means to be a student.
At any rate, three of my friends and I went to Starbucks to begin our endless pile of work. When we got there, it was crowded, so we hovered by the door waiting for people to leave. One boy, who was sitting with his mother, ate his cookie at the pace of a lumbering tortoise. Another woman in the corner put on her scarf . . . only to take it off again when she saw a friend she knew in line. Hopeless cause.
But finally, a table appeared and our eyes lit up in anticipation. We nabbed it, grabbed our food and began working. Soon two more tables opened up. We each had our own space. Sure, tables were small (you could fit a laptop and your coffee, no more and no less) but we were in the zone.
Hours went by and we were still hard at work – until a man came up to my friend who was sitting at the other table.
“This is an eating establishment right?” he asked.
“Yes?” my friend looked up at him, confused.
“Well you’re taking up a lot of space – why are you sitting here? You don’t even have a coffee. You’re taking up space,” the man repeated.
He then aggressively grabbed a chair and sat next to her.
“I’m just going to sit here,” he said, with an extra passive-aggressive emphasis.
“If you asked me politely I would have moved my stuff,” my friend said. “There is no need to be rude.”
“Oh you would have would you?” he said as he scoffed.
My friend then quietly packed her things, got up and left.
“Enjoy the table,” she said calmly.
I decided to tell Starbucks management about the incident because I, myself, was taken aback by the man’s blunt rudeness. They apologized and said next time they would consider putting up a sign about waiting for tables and smiled at me.
“Dear _____ (my friend’s name here),
Please tell your friend that I do apologize for being a bit rude (was not my intention). Consider that each of you is/was taking up a table for two and perhaps it was a bit rude for you not to share a table or to occupy the spaces during lunch time (????). Back in the States, we’re used to lounging at Starbucks but this is London (small). Remember you pay extra for eat in. Sorry again and hope you and your friend enjoy your study abroad. Cheers.” – His name
This note was basically a manifestation of why many people around the world stereotype Americans. We can be rude, very rude. And apparently, we believe our opinions are superior to those around us and that apologies can be written in notes that sound more condescending than genuine.
The man claimed that people “lounge” at Starbucks locations in the U.S. but in London they don’t. First of all, people “lounge” everywhere – we’re in Europe, the United Kingdom for that matter. Does he not know that pubs are probably where lounging originated? Second of all, Starbucks is a coffee shop. Call me naïve, but this is where people work, and dare I say it – lounge.
Don’t get me wrong – I love being American. Especially while being abroad, it is a great conversation starter. But the moment the note-leaving American man walked out the door of Starbucks, I found myself embarrassed that I was from the U.S. and could no longer focus on the task at hand.
But now I understand the American stereotype. Thanks, mysterious tourist and Starbucks customer, you have successfully shown me how not to act in a foreign country. This man needs to take a page from Mary Kate & Ashley’s book and learn how to win London.
Until then, leave it to me.
Saba Hamedy is a College of Communication and College of Arts and Sciences junior, Fall 2011 editor-in-chief of The Daily Free Press and now a weekly columnist. She can be reached at sbhamedy@bu.edu.
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