Embarrassing Americans

Day 23.

Today marks the day that I give in and admit that I miss American food. Yes, just a little bit. Its a little strange being this far from home, with stores that do not sell anything remotely American, and when you are always playing a guessing game with what you have just bought. "Is this chicken, or pork" "Is this brie, or something else?" "Do they sell anything whole grain here?!" We in the apartment have had our fair share of playing the guessing game and today my roommate and I quietly snuck over the to McDonalds near the Spanish Steps. It turns out that we spent a good 20 minutes just trying to find it, even though there are signs every 10 meters pointing, (said signs are kind of misleading...) This McDonalds is the fanciest McDonalds I have ever been, and its underground, with crazy seating areas and displays. We both ordered a burger and fries obviously, and somehow, we still dont know how, my roommate got a beer with her meal. We sat down and ate, and it was delicious, though somehow still tasted Italian. The menus that we got on our trays were the most interesting part though, they had the US as a map with different pictures of food at locations. New York was pastries, Arizona was a southwest burger, Fort Worth was a salad and Birmingham, Alabama was fried chicken...an interesting and perhaps oddly stereotypical interpretation of the United States. Our trip to McDonalds actually made us think a lot more than I thought it would.