Melted Chocolate

This morning I woke up a little earlier and skyped with my entire apartment that I will be living with next semester and we were even able to do a three-way to include my roomie Jenelle who is studying in Israel right now!  I am lucky to have such good friends to come back to in San Diego.  They truly make the whole process of leaving Rome bittersweet. 

After, I left my apartment for my favorite little café located near my school in Trastevere.  The bar/café is named Friends and it has free wi-fi which is huge draw especially to college students.  The layout is similar to that of Starbucks with a bar on the side and lots of tables.  A big difference is that you either have to order at the bar and drink your coffee or drink right there at the bar or you have an option of taking a table and a waiter will come and bring a menu.  There is no such thing as a to go cup,  To sit at a table you will be charged a service fee.  I came to class 3 hours early with a couple of friends to do work in Friends café.  The laid back, chill environment is a fun place to do your work.  The café has dark undertone, not very well lit with guitars and artsy posters hanging up on the walls.  Some of the walls are also lined with bookshelves for décor.  At each table there are outlets so I am able to plug in my computer.  Sitting at the table, I see students, workers, and business men come in and out all speaking the beautifully eloquent Italian language.  In the background there is usually a soft jazz piece playing or sometimes playing is what I would classify as indie music.  The café is warm and cozy especially when you look outside and see the pouring rain.

Despite Italy being world famous for coffee I still have not come to enjoy the taste or the caffeine in coffee.  However, I go straight for the hot chocolate.  Here in Italy it is comprised of milk, sugar, a thickening agent like flour or corn starch, and, of course, chocolate (often in the form of cocoa powder), hot chocolate in Italy has nothing to do with the watery, sippable kind that I usually have in the states. Hot chocolate in Italy and many parts of Europe is thick, almost the consistency of pudding, and the way to enjoy it is with a small spoon, one delicious mouthful at a time. It literally tastes like melted chocolate.  Just be careful because they usually serve it quite hot!

Tomorrow is a Friday and I usually do not have school on Fridays but it is a make-up day.  I came to the café to start working on my econ paper that is due the first week of December.  It is going t be 15 pages and that includes graphs.  My only guidelines is that is must be about a developing country.  I am choosing to do my topic on water in Sub-Sahara Africa.  I will talk more about my subject once I do some more research.   For dinner I will be having homemade ravioli with basil sauce.