Since arriving here in Alezio I have realized that my time spent studying in Florence was quite a bit sheltered. Although I lived with a host mom she was used to having students and changed some of her ways to suit our wants. This post is dedicated to all the interesting ways of life in Italy.

The Good:

• As expected since Alezio is right near the coast (see map on welcome page) a lot of sea food is eaten here. I watched Francesca after she got back from the store in the morning and she literally was cutting off the heads of fish and shrimp. If you are a vegetarian or a pro-animal rights person, I would not exactly recommend visiting. haha

• One night for dinner we went to a typical restaurant of Salento. We were practically in the water we were so close to it. Here we ate lots and lots of seafood. The food was so fresh that I could still taste all of the salt water. I am not a huge fan of seafood but I have to say this wasn’t half bad. Of course I am not exactly sure what I ate but what I don’t know can’t hurt me, right?

• Have I mentioned that I am travelling through Italy during Euro 2012?!?! For those of you who don’t know what this is – basically it is a soccer tournament but only for Europe. It is on the same level as the World Cup. Since soccer is such a big deal here it is awesome to be in Italy for the tournament! We watch the games, shout at the TV and when we score a goal…it really is a GOOOOOAAAAAALLLLLLLLL.

The Bad:

• There are some serious safety issues going on in this country. My mom would literally have a heart attack. Nobody, I mean nobody wears seat belts  Is it legal to not where your seat belt  Nope, it’s definitely illegal. But do they care? Not in the slightest. However, what gets me even more than not wearing seat belts is that half of the cars do not even have the things to click your seat belts into. I kid you not…the first time I got into a car in Puglia I actually held the seat belt with my own hand. Probably not the most effective manner to safe my life but when you’re travelling on those Italian highways, something has to be done.
• Sunblock: or should I say lack thereof. If I had a nickel for every time an Italian said within the first five minutes of meeting me, “wow you’re so white…you need to sun tan a little” I would actually be a millionaire  Even worse than not using sunblock is their usage of baby oil. It takes all of me to restrain myself from hitting them on the head and screaming that skin cancer is the most popular form of cancer and than 1 in 8 people die from cancer worldwide. Luckily, due to the language barrier, I never had this opportunity.

• Finally, and unsurprisingly as many of you may have guessed, the issue of cigarette smoking. I’ve decided that I might as well smoke with the amount of second hand smoke that I intake on a daily basis. Of course then there’s that thing called addiction….

The Plain Weird:

• Well there are a lot of weird things about Italy but I will only point out what is, in my opinion, the strangest: Meal Times. Yes, I know Italians eat later meals. Yes, I know it is strange for them to eat at 6:30 pm like in many parts of America. However, on multiple occasions we would LEAVE the house for dinner at 11 pm. No, I am not making this up. 11 PM. As in, my bedtime back home. Or at least when I would sit down and watch the news (or more likely stalk Facebook because I don’t really watch the news). I will never get over returning at 12:30 am (yes the morning) after a late late Sunday night dinner. Thank goodness I was on vacation because I could not have imagined working the next day.
• SPEEDOS. Dear lord, if I see another speedo I am going to cry. Speedos are not that attractive. Keep your junk to yourself. Maybe I’m just a prude…maybe…but I feel very comfortable in saying that I think a little more coverage would benefit all of us. I mean let’s be real: what percentage of the population actually looks good in speedos? Yeah….