We are already halfway through the Lehigh in Milan program, and I feel like we arrived last week. A few of us started off the weekend with a local cooking class from a chef who formerly worked at a Michelin Star restaurant for 12 years. Chef Francesco taught us how to make gelato and a waffle cone bowl, as well as the correct way to make a Margherita pizza as it is from his Napolitano heritage. Everything was delicious and we were in the market outside the Milano Centrale station, so we got to explore afterward as well. I will definitely be making these recipes with my family when I get home since we make homemade pizza a lot, but never the correct way. Saturday IES scheduled an alpine trip in Aosta to Monte Bianco. We got suited up in our harnesses for the zip line course and were shown how to navigate the carabiners and zip line trolley. After completing the full 5 courses we realized it was nothing compared to a group of friends going on the actual zip line across the waterfall. The instructor in front of the group went first and once he got over the waterfall he went upside down hooping and hollering. Our jaws dropped as we were clutching our belongings standing on an overlook above the ravine. A group after us on the course also happened to have a Batman with them so it was funny to watch his cape fly as he zip lined. Our group then hiked to Lake Arpy, which looked like absolute paradise. There was also still snow on the ground, which was very apparent when some of us went swimming in the freezing lake.
Sunday was more of a relaxing day, thankfully, since we walked around 7 miles up and down the mountain. I went to Lake Como with some friends and the weather was gorgeous. We walked and shopped around Varenna and Bellagio and found a not-so-secret beach in Bellagio. We definitely learned our lesson because it was all rocks and getting into the water was a struggle. At least there was a large dock out in the water so that was somewhat rewarding.
This week in Gupta’s class we watched the movie A Civil Action with John Travolta. The movie was very interesting as it is a true story about a case in a small town where a lot of the kids had died from leukemia and the parents were convinced it was something in the water that made them sick. Travolta’s character takes the case dragging his small law firm of two other lawyers with him. In the beginning, I was convinced it would be great outcome as all of the evidence was clear but, in the end, the whole firm mortgaged their houses and lost everything to continue trying this case and never got the outcome they wanted. It was clear of what really happened as the tannery in the town dumped their hazardous waste and it got into the water supply. This movie tied into what we have been discussing in this class with business ethics and more recently topics of ESG. We also have kept up the tradition of dinner with Professor Gupta after class on Mondays so this week we went to a local pizza place called Farini to eat.
At work this week I was tasked with inputting technical sheets into an excel file of collections that will be sent for an order. This included things such as the clothing description and image, category and article numbers, color combination, theme of the collection, fabric, price, quantity, and shipping dates. I had to make sure I stayed organized as each collection was for a different store. After work on the way to class, I walked past the children’s store in which most of the samples in the showroom are from and explained to my peers that Chicco is one of Giuba 80’s clients. One of my coworkers, Michela, has some of us over for lunch and made her mom’s recipe of creamy pesto pasta. It was amazing and she gave me the recipe to make with my family so I will be doing a lot of cooking when I get home.
