Alex's Coffee Adventure

Well, today was the day! My journey has officially begun, as of my 3:20AM alarm this morning. The obscene hour was due to the fact that the 5am flight was half the price of the 10am one, so that’s how the trip began.

I departed EWR at 5:00AM sharp, transferred through Charlotte, and landed here in Virginia at a crisp 8:42. After an hour long taxi from Richmond down to Colonial Williamsburg, I arrived at the lovely Econolodge (again – student budget!) still well before last week’s average wake-up time of 10:30am. Unfortunately, my driver took me to the wrong Econolodge, but luckily the right one was just down the road. I wore my largest, heaviest clothes today to preserve valuable room in my suitcase, so my 30-minute stroll through the outskirts of town was a bit hotter than I would’ve liked.

I finally got to the correct hotel sometime mid-morning. My room wasn’t ready, so I sat in the lobby for about an hour. To pass the time, I walked down the road to a nearby Pancake house. One thing I don’t like about suburban America is how unfriendly all the roads are to pedestrians; it really feels dangerous and unwelcoming. Even as a New Yorker, it took me about 5 minutes to cross the large street in front of my hotel.

At the pancake house, I finished Dave Eggers’ The Monk of Mokha while downing a waffle covered in mixed berries. I explained my predicament to the waitress, who kindly allowed me to stay at my table after I finished my meal to wait for my room.

I checked into my room, and to my pleasant surprise the room was very accommodating. A king sized bed, desk, dresser, and coffee table welcomed me in. I actually like the room a lot here!

After a lengthy and much-needed nap, I went into town for the afternoon. Anna, my girlfriend, used to go to school here at William & Mary, and I visited her once two years ago. The town is just as quaint and charming as it was then, and I even found the same coffee shop where we went to together way back when.

I spent the afternoon studying some handbooks for the Q course tomorrow over a snack and a cup of iced tea. I also worked more on this blog, but didn’t end up finishing the Backstory page yet. Afterwards, I had a nice dinner in town of some salad and pasta. Study guides for the Q all emphasize that you should eat bland foods for the week of your test, so that’s what I did.

I walked back home through the town and saw all of the beautiful old buildings. It was actually really pleasant out today, at least after I changed out of my hiking boots. My favorite part of the day was seeing all of the fireflies out and about in town and in the grass. One even came up to my table during dinner!

I’m excited and nervous for tomorrow. Class starts at 8:30, so I’ll be up nice and early to get there in time. There are 7 total people enrolled including myself, and we’ll be training under Todd Arnette, apparently a coffee master.

I’ll report back tomorrow with news from the Q! One day down, two months to go.

Alex