Tiffany - A Week in Germany and the Czech Republic

Berlin

Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe



Currywurst is amazing!

I have seen so much in just one short week...I’m not even sure where to begin. Our first stop this week was Berlin and I would definitely have enjoyed it a lot more if it wasn’t SO coooold. Berlin is a beautiful and modern city. We spent the day exploring the city and started out with the East Side Gallery. The East Side Gallery is essentially an outdoor art gallery. It is a small portion of the Berlin Wall that still stands and has been painted with murals by artists from all over the world. This is a very powerful and creative gallery. We were also lucky enough to be in Berlin during the Christmas Market which is open only a few weeks per year. The lights, Christmas decorations and amazing food made this one of my favorite parts of the trip.

Athena - Argentina - 10 things I think about Argentina

In honor of one of my favorite sportswriters, Peter King, I've written a list of 11 things I think I think about Argentina. This is something that Peter often does in his blogs and is just a good way to gather a bunch of random thoughts. So here goes...

Tiffany - Barcelona - La Sagrada Familia!

Beautiful from a distance

Inside La Sagrada Familia 

Exterior of La Sagrada Familia

 

Front - Nativity Facade

I saw the most amazing church today! La Sagrada Familia is a church designed by a famous Catalan architect, Antoni Gaudi. Gaudi designed several other buildings around Barcelona but this one is by far the most amazing. Construction on this church commenced in 1882 and finished....well, its actually still being constructed and isn't scheduled to be finished until 2026 (100 years after Gaudi's death when only about 25% of the church was completed). Gaudi actually lived in the church during the last few years of his life, dedicating 100%

Athena - Argentina - Yummy for my Tummy

I think you all know that I love to eat. Well, there' say ton of great restaurants here in Buenos Aires and unfortunately there's no way for me to eat at them all (but I would if I could). So to try out a few new places I went on a 'food tour' with my friend Coral. We were in a group of about 25 people and had 3 different courses at 3 different restaurants. Everything was delicious! The company that put on the tour was fuddis.com.ar (I think) and our guides were friendly and lots of fun too.

Coral, a girl from Australia & me

   The tour happened in Palermo Soho. Our first round was appetizers at an Italian place. We're talking cheese, thinly sliced meets, some kind of fried potato and cheese concoction, bruschetta but with beef instead of tomatoes, fresh bread and white wine. Deliciosa! Everything was great.
   The main course was at the restaurant in the Evita Museum, which has a large outdoor patio (these are rare in BA). They served fish, but since I can't eat fish I had ravioli stuffed with pumpkin & cheese. A-MA-ZING! And of course there was more wine and bread.
   Desert was at a place that was more like a cocktail bar and it had a really cool atmosphere. The actual desert was some type of pudding with a dollop of ice cream on top. The pudding had mandarin oranges in it. I'm not a huge pudding fan, but at least I tried it. The ice cream was amazing. And we had champagne.
   The food on the tour was fabulous and the people we met were pretty cool. There were native

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Argentinians, Australians, people from other parts of Argentina, honeymooners from Spain, and two gay couples from the US, one of whom met my friend Coral's mom on a different trip. Small world.

Athena - Argentina - Marc Anthony Concert

This past Saturday I finally got to see an artist who I've enjoyed listening to for a long time - the famous Puerto Rican salsa singer Marc Anthony. And what made it even better, was going with a group of Puerto Ricans. These girls had so much passion and were so proud to be from Puerto Rico. They came dressed in Puerto Rico headbands, shirts and flags. I loved it! And watching them sing a long to every word, dance, and try to get Marc's attention with their Puerto Rican flags was amazing. I just love being around people who are completely enjoying the moment.

And yeah, Marc Anthony was pretty amazing too. In an era of voice box and fake singers it was great to see/hear someone truly talented. On every song his voice was amazing and he also danced a little. It to put on a great show. I was a little sad when he didn't play my favorite song (No Hay Nadie) but I got over it. And even though the stadium was packed with people and the floor covered with water & mud) we still had a phenomenal time. Marc is a great performer and I'd love to see him again.

Tiffany - Venezia - Mother/Daughter Trip

SO glad I had the opportunity to see Venice with my Mom. We took the train from Central Milano and arrived in Venice after about 2.5 hours.  Venice is truly an amazing and unique city with no vehicles, lots of water taxis and lots and lots of tourists to fill them. Very few people actually live in Venice these days because it is so expensive. Those families that can afford to live there have either sold or rented their property to the government for town functions or to support tourism in some way. We went on a 2-hour walking tour which included a gondola ride. The weather was chilly but the sky was clear so definitely a great day to enjoy the city. I loved the gondola ride but our gondolier was a tad rude and refused to serenade us (not exactly like in the movies. :)) Interestingly enough, the couple who ended up on the gondola with us was from Cary, North Carolina...small world.

Beautiful Grand Canal

We had the opportunity to visit a small town right outside of Venice called Murano which is a group of seven islands about 1 mile north of Venice. We caught a water taxi and it was very convenient but in my opinion way too expensive (about $11 each way for about a 15 minute ride). Anyway, Murano is famous for glassmaking and  I enjoyed it mostly because it wasn't as crowded with tourists as Venice and I bought some really cute glass jewelry.

Mom enjoying the gondola

Tiffany – Milan – Ending My Exchange and Welcoming My First Visitor!

Mom really enjoyed the Duomo

Class is over! Let the traveling begin! Over the next month, I have plans to visit 5 additional countries and I am SUPER excited. Today, I finished my final presentation, bid farewell to Bocconi and traveled directly to the train station to pick up my best friend, my Mom! Everything was going so well until I received a call from my Mom while en route. Our plan for her to take the regional train from the airport to Milano Centrale station was ruined by a train strike which actually occurs pretty often in Milan. Mom had to take a bus to another station and with the help of a very kind passenger from Nigeria was able to call me to tell me that she would have to meet me in a different location. Another random act of kindess. :)  (see previous blog post for reference). 

Halftime at Italy vs. Germany

Mom has really been a trooper. While it took me almost two weeks to recover from jet lag, she was able to take a quick nap and head out with me to the Italy vs. Germany soccer match at San Siro Stadium. She was also amazed by the huge crowd, incredible stadium and extremely passionate fans.  Tomorrow we head to Venice and I am really looking forward to exciting times with Mom. 

Athena - Argentina - 1st World Problems

Yes, I know it's been a while since I last blogged, but trust me, I have lots of good stories to share with you once I catch up. This week I've been facing lots of first world problems, mostly related to technology. The keyboard on my laptop stopped working. For a few days I managed to get by using the onscreen keyboard (which I previously didn't know existed). Then the power button stopped working and I could no longer turn my laptop on. Yeah, that's going to be a problem. So I no longer have a laptop that works and this complicates things a little bit. Plus I was using my laptop to charge my iPad, as my iPad charger stopped working a week after I got here. And I also forgot to pack the charger for my camera so after that died 2 weeks into my trip I've had to use my cell phone for all of my pics. Technology hasn't been my friend so far. And I'm seriously, desperately hoping that nothing else breaks on my trip. I don't think I can take losing another piece of equipment! So forgive me as I get used to typing everything (term papers included) on my iPad.

The non-tech parts of my life are going well. This week I went on a food tour, bought tickets to see Marc Anthony in concert, and had a crazy late night 'adventure' getting home. More updates coming soon.

Un abrazo!

Below: Getting ready for the good tour

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Tiffany- Italy - Random Act of Kindnes

Today was a rainy day so I went to the laundromat to dry my clothes. Many apartments here have a washing machine and a clothes line outside for drying. At the laundromat, there was a sign on the dryer that I couldn't completely understand so I opted to type it into my phone translation app before loading my clothes. A man spotted me typing (and probably looking rather confused) and approached me with a sentence in Italian of which I could make out about 3-4 words. We both quickly realized that my understanding of Italian and his understanding of English were about the same. Despite this, he reached for my coin and started the machine for me.
We spent about 10 minutes discussing basic personal info in broken Italian/English. He was from Cairo but has been living in Milan for several years. He also has a sister who lives in the US but has never traveled there himself.  Right in the middle of the conversation he asked me to follow him and with plenty of hesitation I chose to oblige. We went next door where he offered me some coffee and managed to tell me in broken Italian/English that he wished me good luck in my studies. We then went back to the laundromat where he grabbed his clothes, kissed me on both cheeks and went on his way.

These types of random acts of kindness are what inspire me to travel the world, meet its people and strive to be a better person. 

Tiffany - Milano, Italy - Flash Mob!

For the final project in my Brand Management class we worked with Janssen (pharmaceutical company under  Johnson & Johnson). Our task was to propose a digital strategy to support their Diabetes Awareness Campaign. In Italy, the prevalence of diabetes has grown in the last 10 years from 3.7% to 5,5%. More than 3 million Italian citizens have diabetes and it is estimated that at least one million people have undiagnosed diabetes. 

There I am, under the R

As part of the campaign, Janssen organized a flash mob and we were invited to attend. The flash mob was held in the Galleria Vittorio Emanuele (right in front of the Prada flagship store :)) Several of my classmates and I reviewed the dance steps ahead of time and attended the flash mob. This was my first flash mob experience and it was actually  really cool. They ran the dance routine 3 times and I finally joined in on the 3^rd time (see picture: I can be seen above the “R” in Cure).

Tiffany – Switzerland – From Lost in Translation to the Beauty of the ALPS!

View from Jungfraujoch (11,333 ft. above sea level)

Waiting for the train

After almost four hours, we arrived in Zurich, Switzerland by train. Now…I knew before I left Italy that I was traveling to the German speaking part of Switzerland and knew only 1 word of German so I mapped the route from the main metro station to our hotel out in advance. Despite my planning, I found  exchanging my money to Swiss Francs, purchasing a ticket and navigating the metro to be the most difficult yet. I’ve gotten by in Italy and France by looking at words and sometimes being able to tie them to Spanish (which is the language I am most proficient in outside of English). Here, I was lost.  At one point, my roommate Erica actually used a compass on her cell phone to help us navigate to our night out on the town. MBA students can be quite resourceful. 

During our first day, we traveled about 4 miles outside of the city of Zurich by train and took a cable car  to Felsenegg to get a view of Lake Zurich, the city and surrounding areas.

View from Felsenegg (2625 ft. above sea level)

Our second day was truly an adventure. We took an 11 hour tour through Zurich, past Lucerne and Interlaken and up to Jungfraujoch, also known as the top of Europe at over 11,000 ft above sea level. Our journey to the top started with a ride on two different cogwheel trains through the mountainous landscape that took about 50 minutes each. Halfway up, the snow started to fall and once we reached the top, which was absolutely beautiful, it seemed as if we were in the middle of a blizzard. At Jungfraujoch, we were able to see amazing views of the surrounding glaciers and mountains, walk through a tunnel completely made of ice (Ice Palace) and venture outside into the 8.6 degree F weather. I nearly froze but genuinely enjoyed this once in a lifetime adventure.






Tiffany – Italy – The Leaning Tower of Pisa

I vaguely remember back in elementary school when I learned about the Leaning Tower of Pisa. Since then, I never thought too much about it, why it leans, or how much it leans. Today I had the opportunity to reflect on my learning from elementary school. The town of Pisa is a small town about 1 hour (by train) away from Florence. I wasn’t aware prior to my arrival that Pisa is also home to the University of Pisa (52k students).

From the tiny train station, I could see and confirm that the tower does in fact lean….substantially. For some reason, I imagined that the lean would be slight and that I would have to look closely in order to see it.
When we arrived, we walked from the train station, past the many vendors selling everything from fake Prada bags to Pisa key chains and to the office to purchase un biglietto for 18 euro. Since the tower is actually a bell tower to the Pisa Cathedral our ticket allowed us access to see the Cathedral and Baptistry as well. Our tour guide told us the story of how the tower started to sink after it was built in 1173 due to an inadequate foundation (soft ground). Through the decades, efforts were made to reinforce the tower as the tilt increased until it was finally stabilized in the late 20^th century. Although there are only 294 stairs, the climb was more difficult than expected due to the angle of the lean. (It’s funny, I say 294 as if it’s nothing but if I were back at home in the US, I would have searched and searched for the nearest elevator. I walk SO much more in Europe!)
*excuse the occasional and random Italian words. It helps to practice!

View from top of Leaning Tower with Pisa University Stadium




View of Pisa Cathedral from top of Leaning Tower

 

Athena - Argentina -Singing in the rain

 Happy November! I can’t believe it’s already November…and that now there are just two months left in the year. Craziness! It seems like I say this every year, but time really is flying. Today it’s raining pretty hard.

Rainy day view from my apartment

 There was a thunderstorm that came in last night and hit some areas pretty hard, but that was just a warm up. A larger storm is in the area now, some flights at the airport were cancelled and now there’s lots of rain. It’s definitely one of those days where you just want to stay inside & curl up on your couch and watch TV or read a book. I would love to do that, but nope, I have to actually leave my apartment and venture out in the rain. I’m meeting with my Spanish tutor for 2 hours today. We’re working on some of my assignments for class (papers that are written in Spanish) and I’m sure she has lots of feedback for me. Learning a language is challenging but I like it. Sometimes it’s frustrating, sometimes I realize how basic my Spanish is, and other times I get excited when I remember something that I learned. Overall it’s like a big bag of emotions, changing from day to day. I do feel like I could be working harder on at learning more and hope to do so in the upcoming month.

One other update from this week: On Monday evening I went to Chinatown after class for dinner with friends. The food was yummy and the restaurant was mostly authentic. It somewhat reminded me of my trip to China. It was so nice to have multiple dishes for dinner instead of just one, how we do in the US. And it reminded me of my team that I worked with in China and I have to say that I miss those guys. The best part was the dumplings. I LOVED these while I was in China and they were great at this restaurant. I want to go back to Chinatown in the daytime so I can see more stores & restaurants.

Dumplings at dinner. They disappeared fast!