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QFT
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15 Nov 2021, 1:33 am

As I mentioned in some of my other posts, I like to study in the cafes. In any case, there is one particular cafe -- which I haven't mentioned till now -- whose drive-through is open till 9 pm but whose lobby closes at, I believe, around 4 pm or 4:30 pm or something like that. Reason being that the area is really not that safe so it is the way they are protecting themselves.

In any case, a week ago instead of asking me to leave they told me that I can stay as long as I need to, they will just lock the door from the outside. I took it to mean that I can stay just a little bit longer, so I did, and left once I got to the stoping point. But today I decided to try not to leave and see what happens. And, believe it or not, they let me stay all the way till 9 pm.

I think its good on three different levels:

1) As I mentioned, the reason they close lobby at 4 is basically safety. So the fact that they are letting me to stay till 9 shows that they trust me that I am safe. Now, one thing that kept bothering me elsewhere is that women seem to assume I am homeless or somehow unsafe. Well, in this particular cafe it is just the opposite: I am the only one who *is* safe seeing that I am the only one whom they are letting stay.

2) Oftentimes when I am studying at the cafe and I see people being friendly to each other but not to me, I find it frustrating. Well, if I stay in this particular cafe, past hours, then this is not going to happen simply because nobody is around except for me. Well, I guess today it sort of did happen: there was one other person at some point and the waitress was talking really friendly towards him while I was feeling totally ignored. But it was just 5 minutes out of all those hours.

3) When I study at other places I oftentimes feel restless. Either because I want to change the scenary or because I want a break from studies or whatever. And when I change cafe I keep buying new stuff at new cafe and waste a lot of money. Well, now that I was studying at this cafe I didn't feel restless at all. After all, I knew that if I leave the cafe I won't be able to come back, since the doors are locked. And there is no way I would sacrifice such a nice place (see 1 and 2).

Still, however, I wish they were to talk to me the way that waitress talked to the other person I mentioned. I really hope that by being the only person there, for hours, and studying all this time this would inevitably make them want to talk to me. But this didn't happen today yet. I do plan to go there more often so we will see. I am actually thinking of going there every day.



QFT
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11 Dec 2021, 8:14 am

No, I don't really like that place: its chairs don't have the full back, except for one single table that is. Since I am not elderly or anything, I don't feel comfortable taking the one and only table with full back chairs. And at the same time I don't like too much sitting for hours without the back either.

Here is a good news though. I went to a DIFFERENT place, which is a restaurant. And there I got similar type of favor. There is that one waitress that -- unlike everyone else -- isn't making me order food; she just gives me coffee. That saves me quite a bit of money. She lets me stay past the time it closes (it closes at 9 and she lets me stay till 10) and yesterday she also let me have my coffee for free. Well I DID give her 3 dollar tip but she kept teling me I didn't have to.

So its nice when I am given that type of special treatment, whether it be starbucks (described at the OP) or "range cafe" (described now). Well, no, neither one of them sees me as a friend, I don't think. But at least its nice to feel like someone actually cares.