Hit the ground running

The past few days have gone by in a blur. It is crazy to me that I have only been here for 3 or 4 days, I feel like i have been here for weeks! After arriving on Saturday, I grabbed my first Italian dinner on the patio of a restaurant in a nearby square. Pepperdine's basketball team happened to be in Florence for a few days, so we spent some time with them and enjoyed and evening out with a larger pepperdine community. Not bad for my first few hours in Italy!!

Sunday afternoon we got the chance to see the championship futbol game between Firenze and Siena. It was great seeing all the of crazy fans, some completely belligerent, and the energy and enthusiasm they carried. The game itself, with an ending score of 1-1 ended up not being super intense, but it was still a blast cheering for the Florence team.

Soccer is truly an amazing sport, the amount of running and intensity that goes on during the game is impressive. But I could not help but get frustrated while watching. Firenze was clearly dominating all aspects of the game, but it did not show in the score. I have a huge respect for the players that are able to keep up their dedication in a game that doesn't always show truth in the scoring. I know other sports are similar in this way, but it seemed to me that soccer was overwhelming in this aspect. How could one team dominate the entire game, with so many shots on goal, and the other team get one shot and tie the game? crazzyyy