KANSAS CITY, MO, USA
My first favorite place is Kansas City, MO, my hometown. I believe that it is the perfect midsize city in America, but that is a topic (probably more like a TedTalk) for another day. Overall, KC is known for BBQ (which tends to be a bit sweeter than Texas style), Jazz, and a huge amount of fountains (Kansas City allegedly has the most amount of working fountains in the world!). I personally love how Kansas City, despite having around 2 million people in the KC Metro area, still feels like a small town in that everyone knows each other. One of my favorite places to go hang out with friends is the Plaza, a shopping district modeled after Seville, Spain!
PS: Kansas City is mostly in Missouri, which I know is confusing. Kansas City itself was actually founded before the state of Kansas, and both are named after the local Kansa Native American tribe that was originally on that land. There is also a Kansas City, KS, but practically everything notable about Kansas City is on the Missouri side.
Plaza Shopping District in Kansas City, MO: Wikipedia Commons
Kansas City Skyline overlooking Union Station: Wikipedia Commons
AREZZO, ITALY
My next favorite place, and the place I consider to my second-home, is Arezzo in Italy. I studied abroad in Arezzo in Spring 2019, and I threw myself into local Italian life. One of the first things I did when I arrived was get to know a few local Italian university students like Lisa, Marta, Christian, and Giuseppe. Uniquely, that semester, I also spent a couple hours a week as an English Teaching Assistant at a local high school, teaching Italian teenagers about different aspects of American life such as slang, sports in America (especially football), holidays, food, common idioms, etc. Through this internship, my coordinator, Laura Terrazzani, would frequently invite me to her apartment for authentic Italian meals with the rest of her family, and I was also invited to several school events such as an Italian improv show (all in Italian, oddio) put on by some of my students! When my family came to visit, it quickly became their favorite place in Italy due to its unique local history as a major Roman city and the host of a bi-annual joust (La Giostra del Saracino), and its general Italian small-town charm. I know I will be back to visit soon, because I have made some life-long friends there.
Overview of Arezzo: Wikipedia Commons
Piazza Grande in Arezzo: Wikipedia Commons
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