Florence

Best Attributes: White Architecture, Short Walking Distances, Local Food

Worst Attributes: Heavy Tourism, Claustrophobic Streets

Florence is a beautiful city. From the stunning white gold architecture to the ambient pizza kitchens, it's the best of both worlds. The food was classically Italian and there wasn't a fast food chain in sight. Restaurants like Gustapizza and Zaza's served local food and did a great job creating an environment that both tourists and natives could enjoy. While prices were steep in some restaurants, it wasn't too difficult to find a nice cheap meal here and there. To find a nice bar, restaurant or club (depending on the night), everything was a 5-15 minute walk away. Not only were these walks short, but they also showed Florence in all it's glory. Beautiful bridges, leather shops, and Italian music could keep you entertained at all times. There were also supermarket pop-ups in various places throughout the weekend, which gave me the opportunity to buy second handle leather apparel and wrist wear at a relatively low price.

While Florence was glorious, the tourism is definitely a major problem. I know, difficult to

complain about when you're a tourist yourself, but every area of the city was full of visitors from Germany, France and U.S often ruining the atmosphere and environment. The fact that the city is so small surely emphasizes this problem as the narrow streets cramp you between pedestrians, cars and the typical stone wall. Not to mention that Italians absolutely hate tourists. Nights out were accompanied by jeers and laughter from various groups of Italians, graffiti littered tourist destinations and bus stops with Italian phrases like "Get out" or "Leave".

Special shoutout to Madrey for letting me intrude on her and her roommates for the weekend. Certainly saved me some high demand dough and allowed me to experience a classic Italian villa. She was a great tour guide, showing me great restaurants, viewpoints and the Florenzi nightlife. Overall, I definitely recommend visiting to Florence. It's not known as a top 3 Italian destination, but I think it's criminally underrated and in need of some props.

Recommendations: Zaza's restaurant (classic Italian cuisine), Piazzale Michelangelo (a scenic hike and viewpoint), Leather Shops (highly touted industry in the Tuscany region)

Things that were weird:

Streets are so narrow that most cars aren't allowed in certain areas

One of the most renowned dishes is a form of raw meat (Florentine steak)

Alcohol was not served in supermarkets after 9pm

Week 7

3/28

Things that are weird in Spain:

- Some people don't wears socks (I don't understand it, it's so uncomfortable)

- There are no railings or protection from falling from high places. My apartment is 7 stories up, yet the bottom of the windows are down to my knees and very easy to fall out of

- There are small extra toilets in every bathroom, and I'm still not sure what they're for

- They call sandwiches "bikini's" (this could be a Catalonia thing, but why "bikini"

- People in the gym make constant loud grunting noises during their workouts (pet peeve)

Midterms this week proved a big point to me. Spanish classes are much more difficult than American classes. I take that back, the class itself is very easy, but this only makes the tests more difficult when the teacher hasn't provided the necessary material or prepared us enough for the test. Spanish students seem to be used to this, but I was completely caught off guard when we were directed to write 2 pages about the entirety of the 'drivers of the supply chains delivery structure'. Sound fun? The only teacher that prepared us well and gave us guidance on the exam was my Spanish professor, Adria Sole, who has taught me a lot of useful real world Spanish already.

I became friends with some Spanish professional basketball players last weekend at the bar. They play for E.U Sant Cugat, just North of Barcelona and I went to their game on Sunday. Spanish fans are so much more involved in the game whether they understand it or not. It immediately felt like I was watching FC Barcelona play soccer. The fans were pounding on large drums and signing chants throughout the game, but then they would cheer at the wrong times. Do they know anything about basketball or is this just a substitute for when FC Barcelona isn't playing. Either way it was a great experience and while Sant Cugat lost it was cool to see my new friends play, and witness a real European basketball atmosphere. The refs were the best part. They knew less about basketball than the fans. Every single play was an uncalled travel, every other play was an uncalled foul. While I'm all for the refs letting the players play through contact, people were getting close-lined in the face and it wasn't getting called. (I honestly thought I would be better than half the team, and I'm not even that good at basketball.)

I have turned into the biggest heavyweight during my time here. It's not even the quantity of how much I drink, it's just the consistency and how often I'm going to bars. On Saturday I drank a bottle of wine, 3 beers, 3 shots and a long island iced tea in the span of 1 hour. In the

end, the most I felt was buzzed. Something could be wrong. On another note, I constantly see Raiders gear here, and for a while it was exciting to see that Europe loves the Raiders. But this weekend my friends told me that people only wear their gear because they like the emblem and the colors. Makes sense, the Raiders suck. You could compare it to the Yankee's symbol. Many people wear it, whether they watch baseball or not.

Week 6

3/23

I just got home from my 8 am. I learned a lot today, but not from the class, never use vending machines to buy anything in Spain. Two seperate vending machines took my money, and then trapped the item in between the glass and the casing. What are the odds of that. Never the less, I guess from now on I will only be purchasing snacks from the cafe on campus if I get hungry. Going back to class and being distracted the entire time by

snickering French students only made things worse. I have heard rumors about the hate Europeans have for French people, but now I fully understand. Every French person I've met have been loud, judgemental or just outright annoying. Their language sucks and they smell bad, sorry but it's true.

This week I've been writing down things in Spain that are weird. You could call this culture shock:

-The massive doorknobs in the middle of the door, but only on the outside

-The small "elevators" that are creatively different in every apartment

-Most restaurants are extremely narrow (like a wingspan length wide)

-People speak to some people in Catalan and others in Spanish, somehow they remember who they speak what language to (when you meet people, do you introduce yourself in Catalan or Spanish)

-Everyone stares. I don't know if this is because I wear American clothing or if I'm just insanely handsome, but everyone, everywhere, stare at me like I'm some sort of alien. I may have mentioned this in a previous blog, but it's getting weird!

It's so easy to stay busy here. Every week feels like a completely different experience. Some weeks will be full of traveling, exploring and playing sports, other weeks will be full of partying, drinking and going to the beach. I've met a lot of Erasmus students which is both a positive and a negative. While I'm not learning Spanish as quickly or fluently as I could be, Erasmus students are always eager to go to a bar or plan a trip. Spaniards are just boring. But I don't blame them, I'm sure after a while of partying and nightlife it turns into a chore. My roommates almost never go out, and while they don't work during the week they constantly talk about how busy they are (big pet peeve). Everyones busy, it's not something you should be flexing. I digress.

This week was great. While Saint Marys lost to Uconn in the 2nd round of the March Madness tournament, FC Barcelona won El Clasico on a 92nd minute winner by Frank Kessie. It was cool to watch it with people that are so dedicated to the team. Plus, I learned a lot of cool new Spanish swear words. On Tuesday night my German friend Benito and I made it to the final of a 70+ person beer pong tournament, and while I don't want to take all the credit, I definitely carried. Each round you won, you got more beers so as I'm sure you can guess I was absolutely buzzing by the time we actually got to the final game. Hence, us losing in the final round.

Last night I smoked weed for the first time since I've gotten here. They are much more strict on smoking weed here compared to California, making it hard to acquire. Honestly it wasn't even worth it, I can confirm Cali weed is far superior.

Next week I leave for Eastern Europe. I'm sure there will be plenty to blog about so stay tuned.