As we have not started Professor Gupta’s class yet I cannot report on the contents of the class. What I can talk about is the information I have learned through the WSJ articles I have read due to the WSJ article summary assignment and just the articles I get emails about in general. WSJ has many topics that I find very interesting from sports, to real estate, to food and lifestyle. The article that I chose to focus on was about the justice department suing Live Nation/Ticketmaster to limit their monopoly and foster more competition in the ticket sales and live entertainment market. Other than that I have read a couple of articles about real estate and the arrest of Scottie Scheffler and look forward to reading about more topics! Normally I am not someone who reads the newspaper or pays much attention to the news so I believe this class will be very eye-opening to me and allow me to broaden my knowledge of various topics

I really enjoyed today’s internship seminar. I thought it was really comforting to know that some people are going through the same culture shocks in the workplace as I am. I also liked listening to other people’s experiences in their internships that are different from my own experience so far. Professor Swain has given us very good advice so far about how to adapt and thrive in such an unfamiliar environment and I appreciate her for it. I think it is very cool that things that would be considered not a big deal in the United States like getting coffee or lunch with someone hold a lot more value here in Italy. I am however not a huge fan of how relaxed the work culture is especially when it comes to timing and scheduling. While I am pretty go with the flow in most aspects of my life, when it comes to work I would like to have a routine that is not so much “play it by ear”.

I have greatly enjoyed meeting my fellow coworkers and getting to know the ins and outs of Easylife. The people who work there are all very nice and it is a small company which I like. Every day so far I have been offered coffee and I happily agree although i am still getting used to drinking a straight shot of espresso. I work with a woman named Alessia who deals with a lot of the marketing of Easylife and she has been very welcoming to all of my questions and even likes to ask me a lot of questions about the program and life in the United States which I appreciate! So far I have only worked on small tasks like posts for their social media and translating some of their Italian presentations into English so I hope that I will be able to start working on bigger, more important tasks soon. I will say however I am not a fan about the response I get when asking about my weekly schedule. I would like to know what to expect for the week so I can plan out my days, but most of the responses havebeen “text me on whatsapp later and we can figure it out” or telling me the morning of what time I should come in. It is kind of frustrating, but I am hoping that as the internship progresses we can reach more of a stable schedule

Finally, my favorite part is talking about all of the things I’ve done so far to try tp immerse myself into the Italian way of life. We visited Lake Maggiore this past weekend which was an amazing day trip. It was beautiful and I had so much fun exploring all of the islands and I am greatly looking forward to our upcoming trip to the Alps this weekend! I have also just loved exploring the streets in Milan. So far my favorite area is Navigli, the canal district, which is extremely close to Aparto. Through our Italian boot camp, I have started trying to use the basics we have learned while I am out and about even if I get a laugh back when I try to speak to someone in Italian. I also went to an AC Milan game which was very exciting and fun to watch because the crowd was so energetic!

Went to the AC Milan Game!!

Boats docked at one of the islands on Lake Maggiore

Me and Sophia in front of the lake!