Nate Weiss

I was in a night club in Latvia... Russian night club. All of a sudden the dj stopped playing music, and a woman who was dancing on the stage started to get undressed. She proceeded to ask for a volunteer from the crowd, proceeded to dance on him and strip his cloths off.. the crowd started chanting "stavaii" repeatedly which in Russian means stand up... they wanted him to pop a boner essentially.. After this was achieved and the guy was fully embarrassed they gave him a long island ice tea for his troubles....and that's not all! Immedialty after the woman played down and one of the guys with the mic then began inserting a dildo in her. Mind you, at this point women are standing on the shoulders of men in order to see...apparently this was because it was valentines day.. so i guessi was a special occasion! Gotta love Russians

Also in Latvia, i saw something which really made me value what i have. We would always have a nice apartment and all that, but the situation in Latvia was SO bad that people would constantly be eating out of the dumpster. I used to give money to anyone i saw doing this but after a while you realise there is nothing you can do. One morning, walking to training, i saw a guy eating directly out of the trash, and began to greet a fellow friend so happily as if he were eating in a restaurant, then proceeded to eat molded food like nothing, and handed it over to the friend and they began talking about politics like normal while eating from ths dumpster.. may seem like not a great story, but atthe ttime was one of the most disturbing experiences in my life.

I forgot about this... but when i was in Serbia it was right around the time when obama won the election. All the players called me obama for my entire time there

In every country i go to, i constantly have to prove that Americans in fact can play... id say i need get ridiculed, but in the beginning people just expect you to be clueless because they cannot get their head around he fact an American can play soccer well... i remember in Serbia one time, i made a clean tackle on a player, and the ref gave me a yellow card and promptly said "this isn't the nfl" I think the general perception is that we are all brash

Ii wouldn't call it special, but there is something interesting which comes to mind. I played a game in Nurnberg a few months back, and it was right in front of the podium where hitler would give his speeches. They turned the standing area into a soccer stadium. I thought it was mad to think what was going on in the very place i am playing now only 60 odd years ago. Being Jewish playing on that field also had a significant meaning as well....

Poor people party way harder... and without regards Especially in Russian countries... more like a strip club in those places

When we played against Molde from Norway in the Europa league, they purposely tried to throw us off our game which i found funny at that level. The host team is meant to accomodate the guest and is given money from uefa in order to do so. Molde booked us to stay in rooms which were supposed to have two beds, but suspiciously had only 1. Imagine the image of our team captain curled up sleeping in a chair the night before a big game because he refused to sleep in a single bed with another player. Also, for the prematch meal they suspiciously ran out of food and only had one tray for the entire team

But it also matters the country. In Mallorca it's common for people to have sex in the club, but then again mallorca is not a normal place in itself

I loved longford, even though it was a pretty small place.. the league of Ireland has a certain air about it, and the games are usually intensely physical. I have since not seen a more physical league. Every game you would see tackles that make even vinny Jones cringe

I am American, but hold a passport from Israel as well.... USA- Dempsey Israel-Benayoun