The first week of classes we learned more about Adam Smith and also had the opportunity to listen to an employee from Circularity talk about their company mission related to the environment. The presentation by Circularity was really important and one of the biggest takeaways from it was, “There are solutions to our problems. We just need to create a space for these ideas.” I thought that was really powerful and can be used in many different facets of life and society. We need to be open to new ideas and continue to challenge our thinking. Adam Smith was a prime example during his generation where he challenged thinking to continue to evolve and develop. It is clear that regardless of the generation and regardless of our location, we can continue to adapt and create solutions to our problems. 

The first 3 days working at Boutique NB, a company specializing in the management of short-term rentals, opened my eyes to the different rules and regulations that business must follow. In the US, sole proprietorships usually have the least amount of regulations in comparison to corporations. Here in Italy that does not seem to be the case. The owner of BoutiqueNB, Lucia Femio, has to navigate a series of bureaucratic regulations that make her job more complicated. It is interesting to see the high level thinking required for each decision made. I am working with different platforms than I have before, one being KrossBooking, which is a property management booking platform. It’s been exciting to see the level of freedom I already have to navigate the platform and converse with clients. It may not be as common in Italian culture to ask questions and need more “step by step” processes, but I feel like Lucia understands some of the differences between the two cultures and we have been able to find a balance between both cultures. This means that I have the freedom to do the assignments up to my interpretation, but always am allowed to ask Lucia for clarification. Hopefully as the internship continues I will continue to take more creative reign. 

This weekend I visited Lake Maggiore and Cinque Terre and they were both incredible experiences. It is so interesting to see how you can travel one hour in any direction and find something that looks nothing like Milan. A fun cultural difference that I have learned through my travel experience is that when you ask for the check after a meal, most of the time you are usually supposed to go up to the front of the restaurant and pay. In the US most sit down restaurants give you the check and process everything while you still remain at your seat. I think in the beginning a lot of the waiters just took our checks at the seat because we did not know any better, but at Lake Maggiore we were told that we had to go inside and pay, and I realized what we had been doing wrong. While it was something so small, I realized there are so many differences in the cultural customs. 

From our trip to Lake Maggiore!

This picture is from Caroline’s birthday. We all went and got dinner together and then got gelato.

 

This is Cinque Terre. We went to the beach on Sunday and we were able relax and explore the area.