Gallivanting around Paderno

After all of the travels, I thought it was necessary to take a slight break from travels and enjoy what Paderno and the nearby cities had to offer! CIMBA received a visitor - one of my best friends, Melissa! It was so nice to have another sense of home on campus :] The Thursday she arrived we spent at our local sports bar - one of the three bars of choice here at CIMBA. That's an overstatement. One of the three bars that is even in Paderno. haha. It was a great night of relaxation, chatting and prosecco.

The next day, a group of us decided to combat the great Mount Grappa. There are numerous different hiking trails right around Paderno because we are so  closed to the mountains. Our goal was to climb to the top where there is a museum. Unfortunately we were led in the wrong direction up a nearby mountain. Let's say I felt like dying 15 minutes into the hike. My legs are definitely not as long as my fellow hikers and so it was quite a task just keeping up. All else, I blame on the elevation. hah. We hiked for a total of 4.5 hours and saw some amazing sights. There were roads leading up the mountain and we decided we wanted to off road it. This meant at some points we were trekking through big rocks and climbing up steep areas. Very worth it.  I worked out muscles I didn't even know I had.

 
That night, a big group of us decided to go to a night club/bar called Jamila in a nearby town, Bassano Del Grappa. The charge to get in was relatively pricey, but it was worth the experience (and included a drink with it). Right away, a few of us girls met the owners of the club and got to practice some of our Italian lingo, which proved to be inefficient anyway because we could hardly hear in the place. The bright side of it was that we got free drinks pretty much the whole night! Those drinks included yummy concoctions with strawberry vodka, but others, just tasted like mouth wash. It was a very nice atmosphere with live music and immense people-watching opportunities!

One interesting sight was at the beginning of the night, young girls put on a fashion show. It wasn't just a fashion show of clothes though, they weren't wearing much at all. Wasn't expecting that. Also wasn't expecting them to be only like 15-16 years old!

First CIMBA Gourmet Dinner

Included in our tuition is three gourmet dinners put on by CIMBA. They take us to three different restaurant locations which specialize in different types of food. Previous to the dinner, we were giving an Italian and Business Etiquette Seminar to prepare us on how to eat. This was pretty similar to the ones that Carlson offers, but it included some information on some of the things that Europeans do differently.

Lesson #1: Never bring your unfinished cocktail from the reception area to the dinner table. It's considered extremely rude.
Lesson #2: When you are done eating, fold your napkin slightly and place it to the left of your plate.
Lesson #3: Start with the silverware furthest from your plate and work inwards. It's like a game trying to figure which goes first and what comes next.
Lesson #4: Continental style is where the knife remains in the right hand and the fork in the left hand.
Lesson #5: In Italy and France, when a hand is free, it must be up to the wrist (in Italy) and to the fingertips (in France), it must be placed above the table. They call the left hand the "sinister" hand and "never know what you are doing with it under the table".
Lesson #6: Even if you don't like wine, take a little anyway. It is rude not to.
Lesson #7: When a toast has been proposed in your honor, you should not take a sip. Drinking to yourself is not a good signal.
 

 The food was pretty good, considering I didn't know what was exactly in all of it. We started in the reception area where there were many many many different appetizers (prosciutto, quiche-like things, cocktails, and many elaborate sides).

The first course of the main meal was a rice dish mixed with some cheese and something like eggplant? We also received some white wine. Next course was the shells stuffed with something. Tasted like chicken. The main dish was an onion-like vegetable (but definitely wasn't an onion), potatoes and lamb? Again, tasted like chicken. With that, came some red wine. My favorite course, of course, was dessert. We got authentic vanilla ice cream drizzled in many different berries. So good. With that we got a dessert wine that was pretty tasty. Overall it was a fun experience. The total time lasted about 4.5 hours. Got our money's worth!

Travel Weekend 2: Florence!

Busy busy busy! It's been quite the task trying to remember the vivid details of my travels as it has been a long time since my trip to Florence. School has picked up, which means tests, projects, presentations, papers and busy work, of course. On Friday January 28th we had a segment of what is called our "CAP Program" (CIMBA Advantage Program). Here we had the first step to a KT Certification (Kepner Tregoe - a consulting and training service for strategic problem solving). It was a longggggggg day prying apart decision making, but most likely will be worth it in the end. After that all day seminar, many CIMBA students took a shuttle to Florence. Once we arrived there and after checking into our hostel (one of the better ones I've seen - Plus Florence), we walked around the calm and quiet city. Of course, it wouldn't be a proper arrival without a late night stop at McDonalds. Italian McDonalds though, are unlike ones we are used to. The McFlurry's, phenominal. Has hardened shell chocolate with pieces of cone swirled in - yummm. We followed the noise in the small quaint streets to find clubs filled with American students. Someone we spoke with said there are about 10,000 American students per semester that study there. Although I loved Florence, I don't know if I would have wanted to be surrounded by THAT many Americans. Makes me appreciate being a "small country town girl" here in Italy.










        The next morning we went straight to a local cafe that, get this, SERVED BREAKFAST AMERICAN STYLE! The cafeteria at CIMBA serves nothing but 2 types of bland cereal, pastries and yogurt - with the occasional granola and hard-boiled eggs. There was nothing we wanted more but some scrambled eggs, bacon/sausage, toast, pancakes and some American coffee. Post-stomach satisfaction, we took a visit to Florence's Duomo, and of course, paid to walk the dreaded hundreds of stairs. It was worth it though as you can see from the views in the picture to the right. We spent the rest of the day walking the streets, bargaining at local markets (I bought a scarf that started falling apart 5 minutes after I got it - luckily only 4 euro!), admiring all of the leather which Florence is prominent in (luckily an honest sales man, with the cutest puppy, said if I don't spend over 300 euro for one I am probably not getting anything of good quality - so I forewent that thought), visiting numerous pizzerias and smaller restaurant, eating gelato OBVIOUSLY (I guess florence has the best gelato in Italy, but my sweet tooth couldn't tell the difference), and visiting the historical sites.

A little later in the day we decided to head over to "the bridge", or at least that is what we called it, where there were many different jewelry shops and the "locks of love". When I hear locks of love I think of donating hair, but THIS locks of love was literally chains and chains filled with locks that people have engraved with hearts and names of their significant others. It was pretty cool to see, and I guess the tradition is to throw the key into the river right alongside the walkway. There are many different spots in Europe where this occurs, but I believe this was a pretty prominent one. The friend we met in the leather store (with the cute dog) told us to find the point on the hill past the river where we could see all of Florence. We went out searching for that hill and instead walked about 45 minutes out of the way to a castle. It was a nice walk, as it wasn't too chilly out and we got to see some side streets and houses in Florence.

We reached a hill where we could actually see the point we were supposed to be at, so we decided to make our way over there, despite the long detour. I am very glad we did, because it was a beautiful site. Even though we were quite a distance away, it made Florence seem so close and small.

 
After a long day of walking, we went back to the hostel to take a quick snooze and get ready for a fun night ahead of us. At this point, we were all craving a big juicy Steak Florentine (Florence is know for this, hence, Florentine). We found a fun little American bar on a street surrounded with other "hot spots". I believe it was called "Sizzle"? I could be making that up though. There, we indulged in some drinks (strawberry daiquiris :] ), onion rings and very large t-bone steak. The cut of meat was 40 euro, so we decided buy a couple and split them, but I am pretty confident I could have finished one on my own. I can still imagine that wonderful meal like it was yesterday.

We met up with some fellow U of Mers who were studying in Florence and they took us to a nearby Irish pub called the Lions Fountain. This again, was filled with lots of Americans and it was cool to see the ceilings covered in American t-shirts (saw some from St. Olaf, Iowa and Wisconsin).

The next morning we woke up early and went looking for David in Academia. It was a really amazing sculpture to see up close and personal. I still have no idea how that thing was made so flawlessly, but job well done Michelangelo.
                                                                                 
  I guess you could say we were somewhat pooped, and decided to jump around from cafe to gelato shops the rest of the early afternoon. During our stay, Florence was experiencing a train strike. Luckily we caught on and decided just to cab it straight to where the bus would pick us up. Unfortunately, many of the other students traveling didn't catch on, and we ended up waiting for them for quite some time. Guess that's Italy for you; transportation is so unpredictable. Once we arrived back in Paderno, lucky us got to study for a finance quiz! Overall it was a very successful trip and I would go back to Florenzia in a heartbeat!!!

Travel Weekend #1: Milano e Lago di Como

During orientation, the director of CIMBA announced to the students his wishes that at some point on this immersion we get lost, get on the wrong train, make a wrong turn, miss the bus, or I suppose, have something relatively unfortunate happen that would put a dent in our travels and as a result "build character". Such kind words, haha. Well, on our first weekend trip, his wishes were granted. A group of 8 of us had plans to travel to Milan for the weekend - somewhat of a last minute decision in hopes to catch an AC Milan game (which fell through). On Friday, a large group of us participated in CIMBA's Da Vinci Challenge - a series of physical challenges, exercises and leadership building (5 foot trust fall, body surfing, eleven individuals climbing a straight wall with nothing to grasp onto but each other, human knots, and the list goes on). Soon after, we took a taxi to a train station where we had to catch a connecting bus to another train. Long story short, the stereotype that Italians are always late is true. Our bus just never came. As a result, we missed our train - the last one of the night - and had to spend the night in a grungy hotel in Padova, Italy (Hotel Monaco) so we could catch the earliest train at 5:45 a.m the next morning.

It turned out being a lot of fun and forced us to get a head start on seeing Milan! Immediately, we saw The Duomo, a gothic cathedral that took five centuries to complete! Duomo is the largest gothic cathedral and the second largest Catholic cathedral in the world. After walking around a bit in the City Center and taking some pictures, we decided to climb the stairs of the Duomo and get the roof top view. It was absolutely incredible. I can't even explain the detail on that building - let alone all of the buildings in Milan. They are made of such high quality stone and materials. Much of the building was under restoration so we didn't get the complete authentic view, but nevertheless, it was amazing. Being the design capital of the world, we were surrounded with stores such as Prada, Louis Vuitton, Mercedes Benz and ones that actually fit up our ally like H&M :] I felt it was too early in the trip to splurge on clothes in Milan, but it definitely would have been memorable!

Our teachers here at CIMBA warned us of 3 typical scams that occur throughout Milan (other than simple pickpocketing). 1.) People will come up and put "free" bracelets on your wrist and once tied, will charge you money for them 2.) People will give you bird seed to feed the pigeons and then charge you an arm and leg for it 3.) Human statues will pose and distract tourists while their belongings are taken. In Milan, we saw dozens upon dozens of men trying to scam us with the bracelets! I find it funny how many of them targeted the boys, seeing as they're more gullible and all :) During the rest of the day we visited Castello Sforzesco, toured the inside of Duomo, walked around the City Center and financial district, "spun on the bull's balls'' for good luck, witnessed Italian students protesting university reforms, and pigged out on street vendor sandwiches, the best gelato I've ever tasted, Milanese "fast food" (a dough ball filled with rice, meat, peas, sauce - kind of like a pot pie), and cannolis :]

That night we decided to go to a sit-down "Italian" restaurant. I say "Italian" because it was owned by chinese people?? Very interesting, but the food was good! We then went to a bar close by our hostel. Ironically, it did not at all resemble an Italian bar, but looked like it came straight out of America - cowboys, horses and all. It did have slot machines there, though, which I found very interesting. Even the tabacchi's (small local stores) have slot machines in them too! 

Sunday morning, we went back near the City Center and walked around a park by The Arch. It was pretty chilly at 35ish degrees, but the sun was out which helped a bit. The park somewhat resembles Central Park in New York, so there were many beautiful things to look at. So many people brought their dogs on walks, and for some reason, they are all extremely tame. Rarely did I ever see a dog on a leash. 

Passing through the metro, we saw that trains to Lake Como were only 6 euro round trip and the ride was only an hour long, so we decided to go! We had a 6:30 p.m train home, so we only had so much time to visit there. I would go back in a heartbeat. I keep saying how beautiful everything is that I see, but this was a different kind of beautiful. There was nothing but hills, mountains, colorful houses, and water. It was a peaceful place to be.We rode a trolley up to the top of a big hill where we were able to see absolutely everything - even the Swiss Alps! There was a quaint coffee shop at the top so I ordered a cioccolata calda, or hot chocolate. I guess true italian hot chocolate is closer to pudding, and that is exactly what it was. I had to use a spoon to finish it up! All in all, it was the best I have ever had. 

When we came back down, it was time to take the train back to Milan. The rest of the night was filled with good quality bonding time during all of the train and taxi rides :] We arrived back on campus at about 10 p.m. while the Packers were playing to go to the superbowl. Overall, it was a great trip, and I am so glad I went. Opinions from many said that Milan was not at the top of the list of places to see compared to others, so I am VERY curious to see other Italian cities because Milan was wonderful!! This week is just filled with classes and homework. One marketing assignment was to observe and document interesting things about Italians - let me tell you, that was a piece of cake. The PDA here is unreal. People kiss heavily on train stations (or generally everywhere), men keep women very close to them, and bunches of girl friends hold hands. Meat dishes here are rare to find. We are typically served some kind of thin cut of veal, pork or chicken in the cafeteria. Not even comparable to America. Menus mainly consist of pasta, fish and wine. Toilets here are just, weird. Some of them are literally just holes in the ground. Others are extremely low to the ground and you have to face the opposite direction that Americans are accustom to. Plus, the fact that in some locations you have to pay to use the restroom is just insane to me. I think it's safe to say I have just been avoiding public restrooms at all costs. Diet Coke is Diet "Light" here because the word "diet" is looked down upon. As expected, Coke in general here does not taste the same. Nutella is the rage! There are Very little accommodations or accessibility for the handicap. Drivers do not yield to peds whatsoever. Where I have seen, there are very few shoulders or sidewalks. Graffiti is EVERYWHERE. Portion sizes here are tiny. Breakfast almost doesn't exist to Italians. Out to eat, individuals have to pay for water and there are cover charges. I could go on and on.

That is all for now! Heading to Florence this weekend. Can't wait!!

First Days on Campus

These past few days have been absolutely incredible! I have had little to no time to update or be in contact with anyone - it has been busy busy busy! Overall, I have been winging it the moment I stepped foot into the airport - and wouldn't have it any other way. The travel over here went very smoothly, and since I LOVE flying, it was all very exciting for me. I went from being on the biggest plane I have ever seen, to the smallest. Plane food: Not as bad a I thought it was going to be! A small group of us flew from Minneapolis to Amsterdam, from there to Venice, took a bus to the Mestre train station (might I add, not fun lugging 2 huge suitcases up and down stairs), took the train to Bassano Del Grappa (a larger nearby city) and then shuttled it to campus. It was amazing because throughout Venice and the smaller towns it was extremely foggy, ground to sky, but right when we entered Paderno the fog dissipated and the sun came out!

When arriving to campus, we got all settled in our rooms and headed to the local "sports bar" for happy hour. Pretty ironic that it is called that given it resembles a small, quiet cafe. It is off campus next to the gym, so pretty sure that's how it got its name, haha. A great find there is Prosecco, an italian sparkling white wine that is made in the Veneto region (the one I am currently in). Only .90 euro a glass! The rest of the night was filled with orientation and dinner. Dinner here is not served until 7 p.m., which means I have like 3 dinners, because frankly, I just can't wait that long!

Yesterday was the first day of classes. I am enrolled in International Marketing, Consumer Behavior, International Finance, Italian for Travelers, and Money and Banking. I am actually looking forward to the material in these classes and the teachers seem great - just not ready yet to start back up!

Since I arrived I......took a 2 hour walk to nearby towns with my lovely roommate, Yuliya; ate at the local pizzaria with some friends and paid 3.60 euro for a coke!; have been to a few leadership seminars for orientation; went to the Tabacchi (local store) for a wonderful Italian sandwich and a Coke "Light" (no diet here); spent much time at the local sports bar with students from other schools; had about 8 meals of "pasta red sauce" at the cafeteria; snacked endlessly on nutella and butter biscuits; took a shuttle with many other students to a mall in Crespano where Yuliya and I acted out every object we needed to find :]; and have just been going around taking pictures of the wonderful views here!!!

Pinch me! This all feels like a dream! I am having such a wonderful time; fun group of MinnesOtans and love the people here. Currently planning a trip with some friends to Milan this weekend! It's only 3 hours away, and thought we could see Duoma, some museums and hit up a Saldi (sales in the months of January and July)!

Awaiting Departure

On January 16, 2011 I will be leaving to study abroad in Paderno Del Grappa, Italy for approximately 4 months. If you wish, you can follow my adventures on this blog as I will do my very best to keep up with postings! Very excited for what is to come!