Cheese Cake. Cheese Cake.

hello Hello HELLO!! Yes, I am alive. I am sincerely sorry that I am so behind on my blogs. The last couple of days have been extremely hectic. Next week I have 4 midterms and then leave for Spring Break on Friday, so I have a lot to get done between now and then.

So (in case you forgot) this is the blog for Wednesday.

I got up in the morning and did my usual routine for the morning. Seeing as how I got to sleep in I had my breakfast kind of late so I wasn't really hungry around lunch time, but I knew that if I didn't eat I would be starving by the time it was 3 o'clock.

I had been hearing a bunch of my classmates talk about this place called "Mama's Bakery". Everyone said that it was really good, and perfect if you were craving something back home. So I decided to go check it out. It is a block away from school so a friend and I went to grab something quick before class started at 1pm. The minute you walk into the place you feel like you are back in the U.S. It is a cute bakery/cafe where the menu is written in English, there are american bakery items, and San Francisco decorations all over the walls! Who would think that in a neighborhood that is outside of the tourist loop would have an American bakery?

Well, perhaps one day my mother and sisters and I will move to Italy and start a bakery. (I hope so, because I already have a named picked out.)

There were brownies, cookies, cakes, cupcakes, bagels, sandwiches and much more!

I decided that it would probably be a good idea to get something that would stick with me longer than a cupcake would. So I settled on a bagel. I got a cinnamon, raisin, almond cream cheese. It was absolutely delicious! I can't wait to go back to the bakery and try some of their other treats.

After class I met up with a girl from my program, Jessica, who was coming over to my house for her homestay dinner. She has only had a few weeks of Italian, but between my translating and looking some words or phrases up, she got by pretty well and she seemed to have a fun time.

My mother cooked fettucine with a meat red sauce. Then we had sliced chicken (it was cut like Italian beef and then cooked on the stove) as well as purpettes (which are mashed potatoes rolled into balls or sometimes patties that are then fried on the outside). I've always loved these.

Finally we had homemade chocolate cheesecake that my mother made! This was the first time she had made it, and it was really good! I was absolutely in love with the crust.

Once the night had ended I went with my host brother as we drove Jessica back to her apartment since it is quite far away from where I live. I've driven with my brother a few times, and let me just say that I applaud the Italians on their driving. To an outsider, yes, it does seem very crazy and a bit scary however, I have yet to see an accident. It seems kind of bizarre to me that back home, where the driving laws are enforced pretty strictly, there are accidents all the time, and here, where the laws seem to be more of a formality than anything else, there seems to be so few accidents. The no parking signs don't matter, double parking is a common occurrence and the driving lanes are a joke. Everyone looks forward to what is happening in front of them, and they don't really worry about what's going on behind them. If everyone pays attention to the front, then there isn't a need to worry about what's behind you, because they are paying attention to you. It seems a bit flawed, but it seems to work. I think that accidents occur because only some people follow the traffic laws. Those that do, expect others to, and thus an accident occurs when they don't. You either need 100% compliance or 100% negligence, but if you have negligence, as here, everyone needs to know that, and be on the same page about what to expect. Perhaps I will have to go to a roundabout and take a video for you to really understand. Plus, their roundabouts make our roundabouts look like a joke. Seriously.

Okay, well that was all for Wednesday, now time for bed for me!