Time to Get Down to Business

Finals are coming. Thankfully, I only have three finals, all three of which count for 100% of my grade in my classes. So lately I've been studying. A lot.

Last Saturday, after our trip to Prague didn't happen, Marina, Giovanna, Sim, and I decided to go to Lugano for the day. Lugano is a small town in the Italian part of Switzerland about fours hours away from St Gallen by train. I had actually gone through Lugano on my way to Rome a few weeks ago. 

Lugano is by far my favorite place in Switzerland. Part of that could be due to the fact that it had been raining for over a week in St Gallen, and it was 72 and sunny in Lugano. It is very obvious that Lugano is Italian-the architecture, the food, the people, all seem very Italian.  Like in Geneva, the #1 spot in Lugano on TripAdvisor is the lake. Which was gorgeous. 

You could rent out paddle boats to take out on the lake. We figured that with our luck, we'd end up in the lake, so we didn't rent any, but tons of people did. There were also a lot of people out sailing. From what I could tell, the majority of the boats were sunfish, which I can easily sail. So I was very jealous of everyone out on the water. 

We found an Italian restaurant for lunch, and walked through the park along the lake eating gelato. There was a small beach, filled with people sunbathing. We sat with our feet in the sand for almost an hour, just soaking up the sun we all had missed in St Gallen. 

Like I said, Lugano is easily my favorite place in Switzerland. It might even be my favorite place in Europe. It was just so pretty, none of us could get over the views. 

On Sunday, we went to an FC St Gallen game. FC St Gallen isn't very good. From what I've heard, none of the Swiss teams are very good. We played FC Basel, the best team in Switzerland. And lost 3-0. The game was definitely an experience. We were in the standing area, behind one of the goals, where all the really intense fans are. There were two guys leading cheers and chants for the crowd (well, our section), and I certainly learned a few new curse words in German.

At one point during the second half, about a dozen flares went off in our section. They're not allowed in the stadium, so the people with the flares all had masks on. The picture I got of the flares looks like I'm at a riot. The game was definitely crazier than any American football game I've gone to. 

I've spent the past week at the university studying. And I plan to spend this upcoming weekend studying too. It's crazy how fast this semester has flown by. I'm looking forward to being done with finals, but I'm not looking forward to leaving some great friends.