Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Food for Thought


Well, I finally did it. I skipped the pizza and panini today and tried McDonalds. It was nice to taste some US food, but in the end it made me feel just as sick as it does at home. I felt obligated to try it for this blog topic, but I'm going to leave the American fast food in America from now on.
I have done a lot of traveling recently and seen a lot of American goods not only in Italy, but also now in Spain and France. I have done a lot of thinking about how I feel about seeing these products here and I realized that I have been to extremely touristy areas.
I do not know that I have been necessarily fair about judging American restaurants for their presence in these cities. Americans often travel abroad and are comforted, as sad as it may be, by the sight of McDonalds. Before I can truly judge how much of an emphasis is put on American goods, it will be important to visit a city that is not a tourist hot spot. I have plans to stay in a hostel in the Alps in Switzerland next weekend and I will be interested to see what American products are there, so far off the beaten path.

1 comment:

Hillary A. Jones said...

Did you know there aren't any McDonalds at all in Sorrento? It's a point of pride for them, although they certainly have a ton of tourists. Maybe it matters that most of the tourists are British and Australian there?

Keep up the good work!