I can’t believe we are already halfway done with our stay in Milan! While the days are long and packed with activity, the weeks have truly flown by. The week got off to a good start, as I decided to stay in Milan on Sunday to explore the city, and shop near the Duomo. It was great to spend one free day to relax, and have a day to reflect on our adventures thus far. One highlight of the work week was celebrating Sam Rosen’s birthday on Thursday. Sara made a reservation at Terrazza Forure near Navigli for all of us to have a nice dinner, and it was great sitting all together to enjoy a great Italian meal. Once the weekend came, it was time for our Alpine adventure led by IES. I had a lot of fun at the ropes course zip lining and enjoying the views of the mountains. After returning home, we watched the long anticipated Inter Milan vs Manchester City soccer game near the canals. Even though they lost, everyone was crowding the streets watching on any television that could be seen.

 

Now that I have settled into working at my internship, I feel more comfortable asking questions, and speaking up amongst my colleagues. On Monday, I went out to lunch with two other interns that live in Milan and have been working at Simplifhy for the past six months. They were both the same age as me, and it was nice to talk about common interests we had like music and traveling. One of the interns, Sam, also works at a hotel as a server near the Duomo, and he spoke English really well. He helped me understand what was going on in the office and almost acted like a translator at times. Unfortunately, both interns finished their six month internship on Friday, so my last day seeing them was Thursday. All eight men who work at the office in Villasanta and I went out for lunch that Thursday as a celebration for Sam and Georgio’s completion of their six month working period. It was nice to see how this small startup office has a tight knit, almost family-like dynamic, and I am grateful that they have been so welcoming to me throughout my time so far.

 

This week in class, we watched The Corporation. It was interesting to hear the different case studies and the comparison of corporations to psychopaths. I liked our discussion regarding why do the managers, who consider themselves good people, make unethical decisions such as supporting child labor and polluting the environment. I agreed with others in the class who said that when the directors operate under the name of the corporation, which is a legal entity, they lose a sense of accountability. Under the guise of a brand name, the public has no single person to blame. Since the directors know that no one can sue them, and rather the company will get sued, they do not care as much.