Coffee Stained Stories

Starbucks Coffee Company – West 10th Ave | May 25, 2019

“I like that we are outside. Not in front of the computer all the time. It would be hard for me to stay in one place. Some people work in the office all day and they don’t see the sun, ever. Especially in the winter! But I’m outside and the scenery changes. I can tell my students to drive anywhere I want!

I’ve made many friends through my job. I know lots of plumbers, lots of doctors in this city. I spend maximum 1.5 hours with each student per day, so I never get tired of them! Lots of different conversations, this is what I really like.”

Keyvan Keshavarzi on immigrating to Canada as a young family, his home country Iran, and being a driving instructor and business owner of Atlas Driving School.

Panidor Bakery- Cafe | May 10, 2019

“The ladies we work with are from different parts of Syria. And Syrian cuisine is extremely regional. We have a city like Aleppo, which is the crown jewel of Syrian cities in terms of food. Then there’s Damascus, and there’s Latakia, and our ladies come from all of these places. So there’s a constant back and forth. And there’s a lot of, add some more cumin, add some more of this and that. The repertoire is so wide, and there are so many dishes.”

Nihal Elwan on all things Tayybeh: starting a social enterprise, Tayybeh’s wonderful chefs, and bringing Syrian flavours to Vancouver.

Gong Cha | May 6, 2019

“Of course there’s been hard times. Bad days and good days. When I’m feeling a little down or uneasy, I do this mindfulness training. I use an app called Headspace. It makes you pay attention to the present. Not the past or the future, but now. It helps me be grateful for what I have now.

I have a 3-star system. A three-star day is a very good day. A one-star day is not a good day. And it’s fine to have a one-star day. During exams season, usually it’s one star every day. And that’s okay.”

Aya Hioki on graduating from university, Nara’s wild deer, and her mindfulness routine.

AC 064 | April 28, 2019

“I hope people will know that I am not afraid of new people, and that I’m an open-minded person. Many people start judging me because of my mustache. They might say, he’s a lawyer and he looks like a criminal.”

Ankush Yadav on being a lawyer in India and coming to Canada to study criminology.

Arbutus Coffee | April 13, 2019

“I want to move around, go from place to place. If there’s no changes in my life in three years, the next three years will probably be the same. What I want is: I don’t know what’s going to happen next year, but it’s going to be good.”

Lin Lu on her summer plans, passions and interests, and about her hometown Nanjing.

Nero Belgian Waffle Bar | April 12, 2019

“My biggest fear was that If I start posting everything, it wasn’t going to be mine. It’s going to become what people want. Luckily, I didn’t get that popular. But it doesn’t matter what you do as long as it’s sincere. And that is easy to read in a drawing, the sincerity in the idea.”

Bernardo Garcia on how he started drawing every single day!

Kafka’s Coffee | April 6, 2019

“Ads for teaching jobs say things like, Teach because you’ll impact people’s lives. But you don’t really go in thinking, I’m going to change everyone’s lives. It’s just something that happens along the way. I just really hope it’s for the better.”

Joel Jih on his first year as a high school teacher (and why I’m listening to the Wicked the Musical soundtrack on repeat after talking to him!)

The Original Beanery Coffee House | March 30, 2019

“Living in Bolivia, in a city in close enough proximity to the Amazon, surrounded by the forest, I grew up thinking about the forest and people in it. And how in my mind, people should not be separate from nature.”

Ricardo Pelai on growing up in the Bolivian/Brazilian Amazon, indigenous ways of knowledge, and moving to Montreal to work for the UN!