In Chinese you would say “一边喝咖啡，一边聊天”, which quite literally means “A Little Coffee, A Little Chat”. Sometimes (okay – most of the time) coffee and good, long conversations can do wonders for one’s mood. Thankfully, Rachel was up for just such an outing. We dressed up for the occasion and were off to a cozy coffee shop.

Unfortunately, choosing the day of China’s Lunar New Year (their biggest holiday of the year), most of the cafes we moseyed over to were closed! In a final attempt to follow through with our plan, we spotted the Korean owned, “Alice Cafe,” with doors open and ready to serve us some Joe.

The great thing about going out with Rachel is that I never feel strained to carry on conversation. We both worked on separate projects until either her or I sparked an interesting topic, which was then talked through to completion…

As we ended our stay (which had lasted three hours +), we took advantage of Cafe Alice’s adorable store front by shooting a few photos, (this didn’t last long because it was freezing outside!)