Seeing the Sights

Monday: Class, gym, sports bar. What else could I possibly say?

So...Fitzgerald used to hang out in Bassano Del Grappa, therefore I have to hang out in Bassano Del Grappa. Tuesday after our first session of Kepner-Tregoe problem solving we decided to have a little girls afternoon and check out the near by town of Bassano. It's about 30 minutes from campus so eight of us decided to pile in a taxi at 4 pm and off we went! It was really foggy and got dark super quick so we didn't even make it to the historical wooden bridge, but no worries we occupied our time with shopping. I was presently surprised at the amount of shopping and sales in Bassano. Like wow! It was all I could do to not buy everything, I had to keep reminding myself that the leather is cheaper in Florence and the clothes are better in Milan. I already know that I need a down-jacket. It is so beyond cold here and my peacoat, North Face and Tri-Delta pullover just aren't cutting it. The United Colors of Benetton has a lovely jacket and it's 70% off but I can't find it in the right size AND color between Verona and Bassano. The hunt continues...Eventually we decided to stop at a recommended pizzeria which was delicious! I had a great risotto di scampi for dinner which was a nice change from the CIMBA pasta diet. After dinner, despite the cold we headed over to a gelateria for some yummy hazelnut gelato which really hit the spot! Sounds like the perfect end to the night..right? Wrong. Naturally we have to end our night at the Al Sole (the pizzeria outside of campus) Why? "Because everyone's doing it!"

The Center of the Piazza

Wednesday we had yet another chance to leave Passano! Two great days in a row!! Team A took a bus in the morning to Asolo which is a little less than 10 minutes away. Asolo is home to the CIMBA MBA campus which apparently used to be a monastery? While we were there we hiked up a ridiculous set of cobblestone stairs to La Rocca which is a 1400 year old fortress. It was locked but we American students know no boundaries and are very intuitive so we broke in (just kidding, the lock was loose, but we still didn't pay). The fort was a little run down but the view was magnificent! It was a little foggy outside but we still got some really "artsy" pictures. We also stopped by the castle turned prison turned par of Caterina Cornaro-Queen of Cyprus. It was cool. Before we left the majority of the group stopped by Cafe' Centrale for a little espresso and a treat before heading back to Paderno for yet another K-T session in the afternoon.

Inside the fort

View from the fort

The day finally ended with a lovely European etiquette lesson hosted by ours truly, Dr. Al (the director and founder of CIMBA). For those of you who know me I'm sure it will come as no surprise to you to know that  I totally loved it. I cannot wait for our first formal, gourmet dinner tomorrow night! Food provided by our tuition, vino provided by Dr. Al. Cannot wait. 

As we say in Paderno: Cioa tutti! (We like to pretend that it translates to Hey y'all)

What a Weekend!

Welcome to the "Padirty"

How do Saturday classes sound? Yeah, they are AWFUL, but we have to have them before we can start a normal  M,T,W,TH,F school week. Naturally, I wore Red and White on Saturday to support my Wolfpack in their big game despite the time difference!  Luckily after class was over I had the liberty of leaving campus and walking to the next town over! It's called Crespano Del Grappa and it is just as cute as can be! I went with my friend Mary Clare and we hunted down some coffee and a pastry. Needless to say it was so nice to get off campus and go on a stroll through the country side. We made it back in time for dinner, which was...pasta. I think I am getting tired of it.

After dinner the 24 hour marathon began. All the girls decided to ditch the jeans and put on skirts and dresses to our trip to a night club outside of Bassano Del Grappa. At 23:45 quarantacinque studenti pilled onto a charter bus that drove us trenta minuti away from the good old "Padirty." We ended up at this swanky night club called La Casa Dei Gelsi. Look it up. Seriously. This place was massive but within no time it was packed. I'm not much into the club scene but for the first two hours that we were there it was pretty fun. I kept a good distance from the Italians and it was still pretty easy to find the Americans despite us being the minority. After a good while of non-stop dancing I was ready to sleep. We are so used to going out at 20:00 and being back in by 24:00. We were stuck at this club until 4 because that's when the bus driver was scheduled to come back to pick us up. Eventually a couple of us found a lounge area inside that was pretty empty and quite so we hung out there until it was time to go. However, when we all left at 4, the club showed no signs of slowing down. Italians know how to party. When we got back to campus it was 4:30 and I was not in bed until 5 am of what is now Sunday morning. By the time I had gotten home the Wolfpack had pulled out a major win against UNC which helped me to sleep easy.

The club!

Juliet!

7 am Sunday morning: I wake up, the marathon begins again because it was Verona time! The bus left at 9 with 25 of us and it was an 1 hour and 45 minute bus ride to Verona. I slept most of the way. Once we got there we headed straight for the Piazza Bra' and had brunch at Bar Liston 12. I got a much needed prosciutto and formaggio omelet and a good cappuccino. Dogs are no strangers to large crowds and they are welcome everywhere, even inside the cafes! I basically had brunch with a Greyhound. After spending some time in the Piazza and around the Roman Arena a smaller group of 6 girls made our way around the city. Every once in a while we would catch up with some other groups but for the most part it was just us. We saw some of the major land marks such as the Porta Borsari, the famed House of Juliet, Piazza dei Signori, Tombs of the Scaligeri Family, Church of Sant'Anastasia (magnificent!) Ponte Pietra, Roman Bridge, Castello San Pietro and the Duomo...just to name a few. The whole city was truly magnificent, the city is preserved in time. The House of Juliet on the other hand was just about as touristy as could be but I totally took pictures with the Statue of Juliet and "rubbed her breast" for future luck with love, we'll see how that goes.

Vino time with Mary Clare!

Toward the end of our adventure in Verona we decided to do as the Italians do and take a vino and gelato break at one of the cafes in the Palazzo Ragione. We just sat and people watched for a little over an hour which was really neat. Oh yeah, and we also went shopping. I got a really cute new sweater and the United Colors of Benetton was having a 70% off sale in the whole store. I could honest go on for days about an adventure that ended when the bus left at 5 pm. Italy is simply stunning! The history and the culture are so well preserved and I cannot wait to get out and see what else this country has to offer!!!

Part of the crew!

Life after L.I.F.E.

Finally! After two nights of Tylenol PM induced sleep and and a normal class schedule for three whole days I think I am BEGINNING to adjust to Italian time. And while nights at the sports bar and pizzeria are factored into our nightly routines, I've been skipping out. Monday through Wednesday we had class followed by a LIFE debrief. Thursday Team A had the Da Vinci challenge all day which is a low ropes team building exercise. We did the trust fall, trust run. the wall, the spiderweb, and this "me-that-never" thing which was like crowd surfing followed by a back flip. As much fun as Thursday was I cannot talk about Thursday without mentioning the fever...So all of Team A is pretty sick with the common cold, sinus infections etc. Well this girl broke a fever at 6 am Thursday morning. It was awful. But naturally, by 9 am when we had to be ready, I was good to go. Fever gone, nausea suppressed, headache under control. Thursday night I opted for a movie with some friends in the Hawk Room which was a much better plan.

Pre-Trust Fall

Post-Trust Fall

Friday has been much better! All we had was a "Survival Italian" class in the morning and then a travel orientation in the afternoon. House keeping came today which is always a bonus (that's right, I get clean sheets, towels and a clean room every Tuesday and Friday). I got in a good nap and a trip to the gym which is not much to speak of. It's got everything you need but it is all a little out dated. American students are only allowed in the gym during certain hours out of respect for the Italians. I've never felt more at home than I do between the hours of 14:00 and 18:00!

Tomorrow we have a full day of class and then 45 of us are hopping a bus to Bassano for a club opening (???) and then 25 of us are turning around on Sunday and going to Verona for the day (O Romeo, O Romeo)!!

Fino alla prossima volta!

LIFE

LIFE: Leadership Initiative for Excellence aka the MOST INTENSIVE LEADERSHIP TRAINING EVER.
I'm talking about a 2.5 day deal that incorporates sleep deprivation, a lesson in neuroscience, and a heart monitor to help better your leadership skills. I can't say specifics but I learned how to use "I" and I said it a lot. Never have I ever talked to so much about myself. The whole program has been divided up into 3 teams. I am in team A and there are 44 of us so we went through LIFE first. We were isolated from the rest of the students and by the time we were "set free" we had almost forgotten that there were 126 student in CIMBA, not just us. As past of our seclusion were specifically told when to eat (as in "you may now have your dinner"), when to talk(we were life Pavlov's dogs with the bell), and where to be at what times. These 44 students, after 2.5 days, know more about me than 85% of my friends back home do. They told me things about myself that no one, other than family, has ever shared with me before. We were constantly told to "trust the process" and I resisted it up until session 5 (there are a total of 6 session), I thought it was all so superficial and bs. I finally gave in during "graduation" in which the founder of CIMBA and ALL of the professors were in attendance. We each had to recite a poem titled Success by Emerson and, due to the environment and nature of the training, it was one of the hardest things I have ever done. In the end, it was worth it though. Oh, and did I mention that we broke a board during LIFE, yep, I sliced through it like butter!

Post-graduation: The Pizzeria! Team A went to the pizzeria for a well deserved celebration while Teams B and C were in Venice and Bassano Del Grappa. On Sunday I didn't get up until 9:30am. That was the first time since I have been here that I have missed a sunrise, seriously. A group of us went to Church on campus at 11 which was really cool because while it was still in Italian I was able to follow along because all Catholic services are the same. After that we went had a delicious pasta lunch, again, and began planning out first Travel Week! Thirteen of us are going to Venice for Carnivale, Prague, Berlin, Amsterdam and Brussels!

I am excited to get back to class tomorrow and to continue leadership training and team building with my lovely Team A, LIFE class 1038!

Walking in a Winter Wonder Land

I woke up to snow on my first morning here in Paderno! It was such a treat and I am proud to say that I have seen more snow in the past 48 hours then I have in the past year! Of course, all of the Northerners just laugh at us Southerners. The past two days have been so crazy. We actually started class to all of our surprises. Everyone was under the impression that classes didn't start until February 4th but apparently that is just when the regular schedule begins and all of the orientations and leadership stuff ends. Classes are TWO HOURS LONG. Every day I think I lose my mind a little bit more but all of the teachers are so cool! Tonight (16/1/2013) we all went to the local pizza place for dinner (AMAZING) and a lot of the professors were there. They came up to the table and had a drink with us, mine even remember who I was after only having once class with me.

Tonight was the first night the pizza place has been open this year so we really had a good time. We came back from the "mall" which is like half mall/half COSTCO and decided to walk to meet everybody. *Side note: we all bought pillows at the mall because the pillows in out dorms are a sorry excuse for a pillow, it was kind of funny to see 50+ Americans walking around with pillow* The Pizzeria is about  half a mile up the road so it's not too bad of a walk. We all decided that we needed to give the sports bar a break but I am sure we will be back there again soon! When we left the pizza place to walk back to campus it was snowing again and walking in the snow in the streets of Paderno was really a treat. Accept the drivers are INSANE! When you see a car coming, day or night, you jump into the ditch (there are no sidewalks) and hope for the best. I did see my dream car in white parked on the side of the street outside of campus! Judging by the cars, I think this is a really wealthy area...

We are all still turning in early because of the 2 hour classes and the jet lag. It's exhausting! Hopefully the blog gets a little bit more exciting as I get settled here! 

Buona notte! 

To Venice With Love

What a flight! Boeing 767 is the way to go and the United flight attendants were more like hostesses, always making sure the passengers were comfortable and had something to drink. I had the pleasure of sitting beside a very nice young man from Ukraine who was good company. He and his family used to live in the States but then they moved back so he was just over there visiting. The 8 and a half hour flight consisted of three movies (Pitch Perfect, The Avengers, and My Fair Lady), surprisingly decent food and no sleep. When I finally got to Munich and found my gate for Venice I also managed to find a group of CIMBA students who were also on my flight. Most of them were from Iowa and were pretty used to seeing snow but I was beyond excited to see the snow in Germany. The flight into Venice was by far my favorite though. At cruising altitude you could clearly see the tops of the Alps penetrating the upper level of the clouds which was really neat! When the plane finally descended through the clouds we were directly over Venice and you could clearly see all of the little islands and canals through the city. I had arrived (and so had my luggage)! In VCE out group of six had multiplied into a cult of 50+ American tourist. We boarded a bus and were headed through the winding streets of Northern Italy. The houses are beautiful and so in keeping with the history of the cities. People even have small vineyards in their back yards which is wild!

Upon arrival to Paderno we checked in, picked up books and got rooming assignments. I managed to get a single beside some guys from Clemson (the only other southerners I've met so far in the program). After a delicious pasta dinner in the cafeteria we all decided to go to the campus bar. Yes, the campus has a bar (side note, we share the campus with a Catholic Italian boarding school for high school students and the campus is the size of the Court of Carolina). It was crowded but so much fun, and so much like a college frat party. That part was a little eerie. Anyway, I got to meet a good portion of the 126 students but I am sure I will get to know them all REALLY well during out THREE WEEKS OF ORIENTATION. Classes do not start until the 4th of February. But the night ended as early as it started because none of us have a sense of time.

Over all this has been a successful 24+ hours, Italy looks promising. And best of all...my curls held and looked flawless and no headache...ever!

It is now 10:47pm in Paderno del Grappa so, Buonanotte!

Wheels up!

Oggi è il grande giorno! Packing was molto difficile but in the end it all fit and weighed in at 49.5 lbs, the carry on is trying to kill me weighting it at 35 lbs.Saying goodbye to everyone was not quite what I had imagined it would be like but it was still nice. I hated to leave NC on such a warm and sunny day but that is a small sacrifice to make for my upcoming adventure. Upon my arrival at RDU I had a HUGE surprise from my sorority sisters, (shout out to Marion, Erin, Jenna, Kathryn, Meredith and Sydney) who came to see me off which was really sweet. After going through TSA and getting settled at the gate I realized I hadn't had lunch yet so I found a Five Guys and enjoyed an all-american cheeseburger, it was great. I am quite confident that I am going to be a minority on my flight to Munich but it should be fun being that the majority of the flight seems to be Italian! Well, I'm off to Germany, fino a domani!