No Frosted Flakes For Me, Thank You!

It is past 2am here. Can't sleep because I took a 3 hour nap at 6pm. It is such a weird feeling because this probably only happens to me once every two years. I am usually such a good sleeper! I guess I am too excited. Can't stop translating my thoughts into Italian.

Today I bought a SIM card for my phone. I am so proud of myself! The lady at Media World (it is like Best Buy) even compared all the plans with me. She was really nice and just told me how it was. She could see that I was new to this whole speaking italian thing but she didn't baby me, she'd tell me a feature of the plan and then if I didn't understand, I'd ask. I really appreciated it. Unfortunately they didn't have any of the rechargeable cards for my service provider (Wind) so I will have to look for one at the tabbacheria ("smoke shop").

Tabbacherie are amazing. They are so much more than a smoke shop. These are the major places where you buy bus tickets, and cell phone minutes.

Anyway, on to the topic of this post. A little story for you, as told to me by my sister, many years ago. When we first came to this country, my sister and brother were in high school. In ESL class, lots of kids made fun of each other about many things, but most importantly; how cool you were. So at one point, my sister Dina, was asked, (imagine a taunting 14 year old voice) what kind of cereal she ate at home. She desperately tried to think of a popular one she might have seen on a commercial on TV. "The one with the Tiger" she said. "I bet you don't even know the name of it! I bet you eat plain old Corn Flakes!" replied the kid. Dina was horrified.

It was true, we did eat corn flakes for breakfast, but there is nothing to be ashamed of for that. So, this post is about the differences in the food that I ate at home and what many Americans probably ate, and even though it wasn't "cool" at the time, it sure is all the rage here in Italy. I've been pleased to discover many of my favorite foods in just the few days that I've been here. At our group dinner we had "russian salad" which, in russian, is called winter salad (peas, potatoes, eggs, mayo, and somtimes pickles or green apples). I've also had tuna and cabbage with sour cream/mayo. Which is similar to a dish called "Tuna in a winter coat" (silodka pad shubi). At the super market today, I got a small containter of what looked like my moms famous eggplant dish "Eggplant caviar." It was even just like she makes it --less cooked with more chewy pieces rather than being like a paste. But the biggest difference I noticed was at breakfast today. We are provided a semi-continental breakfast each day at these dorms while they function like a hostel until school starts. So at breakfast today, while everyone was saying, "aww, they only have plain old corn flakes," I was thinking "wow, these corn flakes are even better than the Trader Joe's brand ones!"