This week for work, Dean, Sanj, and I had a meeting with our supervisor Marcello and the two entrepreneurs we are working with, Davide and Pietro. We went over what we have done so far, including presenting our market research we did, as well as revised expectations and learned more about the vision they have for their company. Marcello then took us all out to dinner at an amazing Italian restaurant nearby, where I tried Limoncello for the first time as a post dinner drink. This was such an amazing experience because I was able to get to know them better outside of a work environment, and Dean even made a connection with them, finding out his family is from the same town as them in Sicily. I’m so excited to move forward with this project and see what we accomplish at the end of it.
In class this week, we finished the second half of the documentary ‘The Corporation’, that we started earlier last week. It was really intriguing because it got the class discussing some controversial social issues, including abortion and gun control, which are very relevant topics in America today. We also discussed our weekly Wall Street Journal articles, then worked on our final papers with our groups. In Professor Swain’s class, this week we created a ‘Workplace Encyclopedia’, where we researched more about our workplaces, then presented them to the class. This was fun because I learned so much more about Phloema itself, but also got a better idea of what my classmates do and how their work environment compares to mine, which was really cool.
Outside of school and work, we have spent a lot of time this week exploring Brera, Milan’s design district, for Design Week. We saw some amazing architectural shows, and each store had put up their own unique signs. One mosaic artist even showed us how she makes her prints so meticulously by hand, which was incredible. This weekend we also traveled to Cinque Terre with IES. We were able to visit 3 of the 5 islands, Manarola, Monterosso, and Vernazza, which were absolutely beautiful. My friends and I stayed in Vernazza for the rest of the weekend, where we explored the rocky beaches and ate some of the best foccacia I’ve had, paired with amazing pesto which Cinque Terre is known for. We spent the next day visiting the other islands, and bought some wine and olive oil which this region is also famous for. The whole weekend it felt surreal to completely unwind at the beach facing all the colorful houses, and this is definitely one place I would recommend to anyone visiting Italy.
