Boba Beyond Borders
By Chelsea-Mae Yuipco
As a glaring sun roasted the city of Berlin, its sidewalks — and my skin — at an unpleasant 94 degrees Fahrenheit (34°C), I walked into a Kaufland supermarket outlet, and found sweet, sweet relief in the air conditioned air. But the sweetest relief was really in the boba, an Asian milk tea, that I found at a snackbar called “Comebuy” inside Kaufland.
Drinking the boba here in Berlin brought me back home from a completely foreign and unfamiliar country, and as I stared at the employees and the other customers sitting, chatting, and drinking their own teas, I realized a sense of community has been created by bringing the Asian milk tea into Berlin.
Upon first arriving in Berlin, I felt as if I had been thrown into the middle of the ocean. I asked an airport employee whether or not I needed to get my passport stamped and he responded in German, speaking quietly and quickly. Whatever he said went in one ear and out the other so I just stared blankly at him and nodded. That’s when the fear started kicking in. I was overwhelmed right from the start.
I could barely read and understand the German signs and words. I didn’t know how public transportation or taxis worked. It was swelteringly hot, and I was on my own for the first time in a foreign country. My first thoughts the second I stepped outside the airport doors and stared at the taxis: “Oh God, I want to go back home.”
But soon I began to get used to the newness of everything, and after a few days I was able to venture off on my own to find the sweet drink I hadn’t been able to drink since I had left home: boba.
On one of my boba-ventures to Comebuy, I had been waiting in line playing Pokemon Go on my phone when a boy in line in front of me asked in English, “What team are you on?”
“Instinct,” I replied. I was on the yellow team.
“I’m on the red team,” he then said.
We seemed to be very different people in age and Pokemon team choices, among other things. But what brought us together was our mutual appreciation of drinking boba. Inside that Comebuy, bonding over boba and Pokemon with a stranger, I experienced a sense of peace and familiarity that I had lost when I was thrown into this foreign country. It made me think about how immigrants who move to Berlin for longer than just two weeks feel.
After witnessing multi-cultural food and drink places throughout my time in Berlin, it seems to me that people here are subscribe to the idea of bringing parts of their former homes into their new home. Like going to a boba place, my own home away from home, doing this brings a community together. It unites people who want a taste of home, with people who want to taste something together.
While I ate lunch at Monsieur Vuong, a famous pho restaurant in Berlin, I watched as a German family left the restaurant, each hugging the restaurant owner one by one with smiles on their faces. The restaurant owner had brought the taste of pho to Berlin and a family, who I assume are regulars, brought themselves to the restaurant to taste it. Through pho, through culturally-specific food and drinks, a new community has been created.
Now, after more than a week, I am still experiencing so much that is new and different. But, I can at least say that I don’t feel alone and afraid anymore. Despite a slight language barrier, how could I possibly feel alone when there’s a community of fellow boba drinkers out there? Berlin may not be my home, but because of how international it is, there’s still something here for me that allows me to call it my new home for now.
UC Santa Barbara journalism students are reporting from Berlin for feature articles which will be published here later in July. Meanwhile, they are blogging from the city about their travel and journalism experiences.
