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!