Class:

This week in class we discussed the movie on Monday and … on Wednesday. We had a full class discussion about corporations and how they played a role in the movie and also real life. This discussion was very interesting as we discussed how common it is for corporations to conduct business that could harm the public without reservation for the damage they might be causing. This was further hammered into my head while reading the article about the working conditions of the suppliers Apple uses after they said they would look into them after a string of suicides at one of the factories of their suppliers.

Internship:

I had an interesting week, my boss is vacationing to the US in August and was applying for a visa. First, I didn’t know that a visa was required to vacation to the US for less than 90 days, I also learned how hard it can be to travel to the US. For example, the really easy Visa to get, ESTA, takes a day or two but has some restrictions. If you’ve traveled to a list of countries since 2011 you are ineligible for the specific type of Visa. Iran is one of those countries which is also a very popular tourist destination for Italians, hence more than half of my office having traveled there and thus being ineligible. I spent my entire Tuesday helping my boss navigate US government websites, figuring out how to schedule an appointment with the embassy, and helping her fill out visa applications which were largely in English. She was very appreciative but I didn’t know that traveling to the US was such a chore.

Culture:

I went to Florence this weekend and had the best time ever. Friday during the day we went to the Uffizi gallery, the Duomo bell tower, Duomo Baptistry, and the Plaza de Michelangelo.  Friday night we met up with Professor Gupta in Florence for dinner. I then met up with a really good friend from high school, and a student from Lehigh who grew up in Italy and the UK that is in my fraternity. We all got drinks together and I was very appreciative of both friends showing me around and having a good time. On Saturday we went inside the Duomo Cathedral which was breathtaking, just looking up at the mural on the ceiling for too long made me dizzy, we also went to the Boboli Garden where we laid in the grass and I think I fell asleep, being around that much green for the first time in a few weeks made me feel at home.

 

The mural on the dome of the inside of the Florence Duomo

The steak I got at dinner in Florence, it was amazing!

One of the many statues we saw at the Uffizi gallery, the detail in the statues from this age is astounding!