Dubai & Starbucks -- A Love Story

For the past year I've been saying that if I woke up one morning and a garbage bag full of money had magically appeared under my bed, there are three places I would go:

1. The bank
2. Dubai, United Arab Emirates
3. Starbucks

The bank is an obvious first stop, but I'm sure you have your eyebrows raised at my other two destinations. Last August I was putting together a list of all the places that I wanted to travel to over the course of the year. I included all the usual suspects of Europe, with Egypt and Morocco thrown in there for fun, but as I was talking to co-workers many of them told me about these "absolutely fabulous holidays" that they took in Dubai. Even though I'm pretty good with history and geography, I had never heard of Dubai before and I was very intrigued. After doing a bit of research I realized it was in the United Arab Emirates and not too far from Abu Dhabi. I had definitely heard of Abu Dhabi because my friends and I got into a habit of saying things like "I'm going to ship you off to Abu Dhabi!" or "She acted as if I asked her to go all the way to Abu Dhabi!" So needless to say, I was pretty excited at the prospect of going to Dubai and possibly making a pitstop in Abu Dhabi along the way.

Even though I'll be leaving Europe in a few weeks, I've still been looking at vacation packages online, just in case I run up on something that's too good to pass up. I've had my eye on Dubai but this is prime season for tourists so the prices are out of the water. I ran across a story about Burj Al Arab, the world's only seven star hotel and the world's largest Starbucks inside the Mall of Arabia, the world's largest mall.

Anytime I see something described as "the world's only, the world's largest, or the world's best", it becomes my mission to see it, have it, or experience it. Just like any girl, I love having the best of the best so seeing those phrases really draws me, even if I don't necessarily want to be drawn in. For some odd reason, jellied eels is a popular dish around England. Just the thought of it makes me queasy, but I was walking down Oxford Street one day and saw a restaurant with a banner saying "Voted world's best jellied eels by Time Out magazine." I tried them, hated them, but if I saw another restaurant saying they had the worlds best jellied eels, nine times out of ten I would try them. That's how much I like having "the best". So imagine my excitement when I was reading about Dubai and saw that they had not only the world's only seven star hotel, but also the world's largest Starbucks! If I had a spare grand laying around in my savings account I would have been on the first place to the UAE! Dubai has the world's tallest building, the world's largest indoor ski resort and the world's largest amusement park. With the addition of SB, I need to find my way to Dubai ASAP.

Starbucks and I have a tumultuous history. I never really liked coffee until I got to college but occasionally I would drink it during finals week. We only had one coffee shop on our small campus called The Buzz and it had been around for generations. Starbucks came in, completely took over the coffee business, and within months The Buzz had to close up shop. I hated Starbucks because of that! I had never gone to The Buzz before, but I've never liked the idea of big corporations driving away smaller business; which is one reason (among many) that I won't shop at WalMart. I went on a tirade about how much I hated Starbucks to anyone that would listen and gained a reputation for being very anti-SB. But then I had one of these and my life changed forever...

The Frappuccino, or frappy as I affectionately call it, is one of those amazing creations that only comes along once or twice every 6 months or so. Even though I had heard so many people singing the praises of these magical little drinks, I refused to try them because of my anti-SBness. But while spending a summer interning in NYC at a high-profile fashion designer, a very famous bootylicious singer was kind enough to give me a SB giftcard for helping her find a dress for a red-carpet event. I couldn't walk more than 5 minutes without seeing one of those crack dens perched on just about every street corner in midtown, I was slowly being drawn in like a moth to a flame. Finally after two weeks and the giftcard burning a hole in my pocket, I gave in and joined the long line of fiends waiting to get their daily fix. My order: a grande mocha frappuccino. My love affair had begun.

As blissful as it was, the love affair quickly came to an end when I looked at old bank statements from my whirlwind summer in New York and realized that I spent over $300 in three months at Starbucks. And that was just from my debit card, that doesn't include the times that I actually had cash in my wallet and used that instead! I was addicted to the stuff in a bad way. I went cold turkey and stopped drinking my beloved frappies for 5 weeks, but once I got back to campus, they started calling me again. I couldn't help myself! It was hot, I was bored, so I started drinking and before I knew it I was drinking 1-2 per week. I had it under control though, it wasn't nearly as bad as my old habit of 5-7 per week. I wouldn't let it take over me like I did before. I had went as far as to purchase a very artistic black and white photograph of the first Starbucks branch in Seattle and even changed the words to 50 Cent's song "Magic Stick" to "Mocha Stick". I was a fiend I tell you, a fiend!

As time went on, I kept drinking my beloved frappies. I saw new flavors come and go...banana caramel, strawberries & cream, toffee nut, mint chocolate chip, green tea (disgusting!), etc. I've had every flavor and I get a little annoyed when new ones are introduced because nothing can top the classic Mocha. This past weekend I had one for the first time in almost a year. I had stopped drinking them in an effort to consume healthier foods. Even when my healthy food kick came to an end, I has successfully resisted the urge to go back to my drink of choice. It was hot as hell on Saturday and I hadn't had any chocolate yet so I thought to myself "Ok, just this once. It'll be fine." But it wasn't...I'm hooked again.

As I was looking though travel sites and seeing all of the beautiful sandy beaches of Dubai, all I could think about was the fabulous hotel that leaves $400 worth of Hermes goodies in each room for you to take as souvenirs, and lounging in a five-story Starbucks reading a good book. While one love is very much within reach (just a 10 minute walk to be exact), the other love is quite far away and I may not be able to see if for another year or so. But in the meantime, I always have my frappy:-) The love affair will go on.