Blogger-Biography

Transcription

Blogger-Biography

Blogger-Biography
Blogger:
Asztalos Gina
Date of blog:
01.09.12 – 20.12.12
Programme:
Erasmus
Biography:
Gina Asztalos is from Hungary, and is studying for a master's degree in strategy and
international management at the University of St. Gallen. She completed a semester
as an exchange student in Milan (IT) between September and December 2012. Visit
her blog to read about her time in Italy.
Do you want to know more about the Erasmus?
Visit our actual blog
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programmes?
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19. September 2012 14:17
It's Wednesday, so blog day. Another week has passed by and I have many things to tell.
My Italian crash course was over last Saturday with the exam. Consequently, my evenings are free but I actually miss spending some time with the class, learning about
different cultures, and hearing about tips and special touristic destinations in Italy. The follow-up course will start next week and I only have 2X2 hours a week of Italian. But
still, better than nothing. Plus, I bought an Italian book, I just have to find time to read it.
After the Italian exam, we headed to a dance school to check out some free dance classes. We didn't choose an easy start... teasing moves and the sexy voice of Christina
Aguilera were the most essential components of my very first burlesque class. I have to admit that I immediately fell in love with it! The next class was not so exciting and
new, indeed it was slightly boring for me to do basic salsa steps, considering that I did ballroom dancing for 10 years. The last class was one of my new favorites, zumba.
Since it was a free class, my personal space to move was rather limited, but the instructor definitely had the right spirit to lead the class, so all in all I had fun. Unfortunately
the schedule of the dance school is not too optimal, which also means that no more burlesque classes for me this semester... In addition, it turned out that every dance
school and gym asks for medical certificate and without having that you're not allowed to take part in any class. We're still trying to find a way to get such a certificate, since
we're still visiting some dance schools and looking for the perfect deal. Worst scenario is running around the block. I really don't wanna do that... As an alternative, we also
thought about organizing our own dance classes, but we would not end up losing calories, I guess.
Sunday morning was tough. I had to wake up at 6:15 to catch the train to Verona. It was really worth to go. We had a guy from Bocconi as a guide who is originally from
Verona and he told us many stories about the city. We saw the Arena, Juliet's balcony, the 2 main squares and the garden of the castle. Last, but not least, we tasted the
typical drink of Verona, the spritz. The garden under Juliet's balcony was super-crowded and the walls were covered with layers of chewing gum. We could not find a place
to put our letter as we only found little notes on the wall and it seemed that no secretary would come to pick it up. Sunday was a very tiring day, but we were compensated
by the amazing atmosphere of the city and by Romeo's kiss.
Monday was a very happy day with surprising news. The latest Financial Times rankings (http://rankings.ft.com/businessschoolrankings/mastersin-management-2012) came out and the SIM program is again considered as the best master in management program. I suddenly started to feel homesick and wanted to
be back and meet all my friends and classmates in St. Gallen and celebrate together this amazing success! The next day I met a very motivated girl was Vietnam, whose
dream is to go to study at the St. Gallen University. She was kind enough to invite me for an aperitivo and I was glad to share my experience and recommendations with
her. I was really impressed by her enthusiasm and dedication.
This weekend, we're going to Cinque Terre with my friends. I'm really looking forward to see those cute, colorful houses at the hill side and hear as the waves hit the shore!
For sure, I'll have a lot of things to tell next week too.
One more thing I wanted share with you! I've been here for about 3 weeks and I made some observations about the behavior of Italians and came to some insightful
conclusions :) If you ask an Italian guy to help you, especially about directions in the city, he'll never say 'I don't know', even if really has no clue whatsoever. He either
stops someone else on the street and asks and goes on until he gets an answer or he just points in a direction very confidently and makes the impression that he's 100%
sure about the way :) This second option might be a bit annoying, but it's funny how they can't admit they don't know the way. That would probably hurt their ego. Teh other
thig I have experienced is that they like to play very banal tricks. Yesterday I had the change to choose from puding with cacao and puding with cacao as a dessert. I can't
complain. He really gave me the (impression of a) choice. Sometimes it's again a bit frustrating but I realized it's a matter of attitude. Actually, now I react to these situations
with a big smile and appreciate that these people take their time to break the anotherwise mechanic routines of the day.
Btw, I still haven't received my ATM card, which is annoying and I keep spending an awful lot of money on travelling. If I can give you an advice, go on hte first working day
of September and wait for your card no matter how many people are standing in line before you.
With this I finish this week's blog and I start gathering my thoughts for the next week. I wish you guys a great week wherever you are, whatever you do! :)
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12. September 2012 13:43
It's been about 1.5 weeks since I'm in Milan but it seems like I've been here for already a month. Actually, as I'm trying to remember the past days, it shocks me how
difficult it is to refresh what happened which day... I think this is actually normal and the reason for losing the feeling of time is that so many things have been happening
around me. I can say I'm over the initial difficulties and I'm starting to feel like being at home.
I managed to apply for my ATM (Azienda Trasporti Milanesi, not to be confused with Bancomat) card for transportation, but I'll receive it only at the end of this week, so I
have to buy tickets every time I travel. Since 1 ticket costs 1.5 euros and I have to take the tram to school, transportation is pretty expensive for me these days. If I had had
time to wait for those 200 people before me in the line last week at Duomo metro station, I would have received my card right away... but too late now...
Travelling has become much easier, streets are starting to be familiar and I'm starting to memorize stations and metro lines. So the initial stress about moving around in the
city is gone :)
I have also managed to arrange most of the administrative issues, or at least they are on track, so I could start enjoying my exchange life a bit more.
One night, after Italian class, I went out for an exchange party and there I met 3 girls with whom I always hang out and we organize programs every day. 2 of them are
Belgian, but have Italian parents and the 3rd is Brazilian. We went to see the Vogue Fashion Night Out, but since we were too late thanks to a broken door lock, we could
not visit any of the stores. Nevertheless, we heard that Shakira was around and from that moment on VFNO was not so interesting anymore, rather, we started to walk in
detective mode :) Unfortunately, I couldn't manage to get a picture with her, haha!!
Last Saturday we went to Ikea to buy some pans. It was really far from the city center, actually we went outside Milan with the shuttle bus that left from the last but one stop
of the yellow metro line. On Sunday we travelled to the Como Lake with the exchange students, which was a really beautiful trip. We took a boat trip and we took the
'funicolare' to see the scenery from the top of the hill. This Sunday, we are going to Verona with the exchange students and to prepare for the experience, tonight we'll
watch 2 movies, Romeo and Juliet and Letters to Juliet. and we'll eat pasta, just as Italians do :)
This past week we have gone for Aperitivo 3-4 times, which is a very typical thing in Milan. The concept is that you pay 6-10 euros and you get 1-2 drinks plus you can eat
as much as you want from an assortment of different food, such as pasta, pizza slices, salad, fruit, etc. I find it a very nice way to spend an evening before going to a club.
One of the best places to have an aperitivo is Via Navigli, where you can find many restaurants with such an offer. Drinks that I recommend are Bellini and Rossini, but if
you are looking for something stronger, get a Negroni, which is the most famous drink in Milan.
Besides all the fun exchange activities, courses started this week and I was surprised how organized they are, with very clear expectations, and teachers have very good
English here, even though they are originally Italians. The workload of the courses typically includes team projects, case studies, business games and exams and the
quality of teaching is very high. So far, I'm very glad with my choice! I am taking the following 3 courses:
Management of Fashion and Luxury Companies
International Business Management (advanced topics)
Project and Event Management
All of these courses are 6ECTS, as most of the courses at Bocconi, so I have 18 ECTSs. Besides this, I'm writing my thesis in the topic of Brand extension of luxury brands
and I'm looking for an internship as well. With this workload, I'm planning to travel to some nearby places in Italy and make the most out of my stay in Milan. The Fashion
Week will start soon and my professor told us that there are free events too, so I'm very excited about it. Also, I can't wait to go to the Fun concert on the 18th October.
Soon I have to leave for my Italian course and on Saturday I already have my exam for which I need to prepare a presentation in Italian. Gonna be fun! :)
I'll get back with new impressions and experiences soon!
Ciao
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5. September 2012 07:59
I'm Gina and I'm going to keep you updated about my Erasmus exchange term at Bocconi University in Milan for about 4 months. But before I go into details about how I
find the Italian culture and my life as an exchange student let me shortly introduce myself. I'm a 24-year old Hungarian girl, I did my bachelor studies at the Corvinus
University of Budapest and last September I started my master studies at the University of St. Gallen at the Strategy and International Management master program. Since
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the 1st September, I've been living the life of an Erasmus exchange student at the Bocconi University. The reason why I came to Italy is that I've always been somehow
attracted to the culture, the gastronomy, the language and the mentality of the people here. In 2009 I spent a summer in the middle of Italy as an animator. I worked in a
hotel and picked up some Italian, thanks to the fact that Italian people don't really speak English, or if they do, their accent is just so funny it's hard not to smile at it. It's
exactly how the guy talks who went to Malta...
There's one more thing I have to say before I start writing about my impressions in Italy. As a bachelor student I was considering going on exchange but I did not make the
move finally. One of the reasons is probably that I had too many doubts and I was lacking information. Therefore, I decided to help other people make a more informed
decision and hopefully I'll inspire students who are hesitant about taking part on an Erasmus exchange.
So let's get started. Packing back in Hungary went smoothly, partly because I'm getting used to squeezing my most essential stuff into suitcases and partly because of the
packing list I prepared a couple of days before I departed. I was lucky compared to students who came by plane as I was travelling by car and hence, saved myself from a
great deal of frustration. We started out at 4:30 am from Hungary on 1st September. I was longing for the new experience but it was also hard to say goodbye to dear
friends and family.
As soon as we crossed the Italian border, we stopped for a capuccino and found ourselves in a middle of a loud, disorganized crowd in a few minutes. Honestly, the
12-hour travelling was less tiring and frustrating than those 10 minutes spent at Ristop (rest stop next to the highway) waiting for our cappuccino. As I said it's not my first
time to meet Italian people, but the experience was a bit overwhelming suddenly. Finally, we arrived to Residenza Arcobaleno, one of the dorms of the Bocconi University
and two African employees welcomed me at the reception. Pretty international surrounding suddenly :) The dorm looks quite nice and there's plenty of space to pack. To
celebrate the smooth moving in, we went out to have a truly Italian dinner (pizza) with my parent.
The next day, I was planing to go to Lake Como with the exchange students, but unfortunately I couldn't make it on time. Here, I must note, that trams are coming and
going in a mysterious way here in Milan, apparently completely disregarding the schedule. In no way comparable to Switzerland... But anyways, it way raining so I decided
to go next week. Eventually, I went to do some grocery shopping at the closest store, called Esselunga. It seems to be a nice, big store, with good prices (definitely better
prices than in Switzerland). Barilla, prosciutto, nutella, seafood, hundred types of mozzarella... I was wandering around the isles in the store literally for about an hour,
looking through the products and trying to remember what I need to survive the first week. Besides buying some essential food, like pasta, baguette, fruit, vegetable and
some meat, I invested in a flower to improve my microenvironment in the dorm and I thought why not practice some Italian ina fun way? Cosmo!! I must say there're a lot of
picture in it, but I did enjoy reading some article in this beautiful Italian language! Sunday passed by with little action happening and i knew busy days are ahead of me with
lots of administrative stuff to do. Therefore, I quickly updated my friends and family.
Monday!! Checking in went easily, getting the season ticket for public transportation did not... After having found the place to buy the ticket (at ATM point close to Duomo,
approximately 30 mins walking from the uni) in pouring rain (Duomo could not raise my attention in the given circumstances), I got a number and a form to fill out. I saw like
200 people (not joking) sitting in the room but I didn't want to think that they're all waiting for the same thing as I'm desperately aiming for. Then I checked the screen that
said 437. Guess what my number was... 612. The funniest thing is that the girl right behind me in line where we got the number received a piece of paper for the exact
same document with 806 on it! I'm still wondering how that is possible. In 5 minutes I realized it's not going to be a quick 'buy your season ticket a t a booth and go', so I
decided to go back to the uni for my Italian crash course. Oh, that seemed too easy in my head... Getting lost in Milan and being late from my first Italian class were not
proud moments for sure.
Our Italian teacher is a very nice woman and the first 5 hourse of the class passed by with interesting conversations where I got to know people from Argentina, Brazil,
Belgium, the Netherlands, Spain and the US. I must say all of them are very open and motivated people, happy to see new faces and explore different cultures.
The coming days will be extremely busy with all the welcome events for exchange students where I can meet many many new people and hopefully make some
long-lasting friendships. I'll keep you guys updated!
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10. Oktober 2012 16:45
Finding your passion is not easy. Or at least not for everyone. Dan Peterson is one of those lucky guys who found their passion early on in their career and managed to become one of the
most renowned personalities of his field. But who is Dan Peterson? In 2008 he was named one of the 50 most influential European club basketball personalities over the last half-century. He
received the Coach of the Year award for Italy twice and he is nicknamed 'The Coach' for his legacy in Italian basketball. He coached teams in the US, Chile and Italy and led Olimpia Milano
till the European Championship Cup title. We can safely state that he has accomplished something outstanding in his life. Yesterday, my professor invited this great man to the class and we
were fascinated by his stories about his early career, his mistakes and about his advices on how to lead a team to victory. But not only his stories were great. He is a 76 years old man with
the energy and memory of a 25 year-old. He is truely amazing.
Then there is Marco Bizzarri, head of Bottega Veneta, one of the most famous Italian luxury brands that's famous tag line is "When your own initials are enough" and its unique weaving
technique called intrecciato.
He came in (first of all, he is tall, really tall) ad blew us away with the incredible story of how he turned around the company when he took over the position of CEO in 2008, the year of the
financial crisis.
Both of these guest speakers spoke so passionately about their job and their teams that you felt that they are the luckiest guys on earth, because they enjoy every bit of their work and they
find a sense of self-accomplishment in what they are doing. They seemed so perfect.
Fortunately, Dan Peterson is a very entertaining and student-friendly person and revealed the early stages of his career to us, so at one point of his talk he said: "Do you think Dan Peterson
was born to be a genious coach? NOOOO!" (eventhough he did think he was the best coach already at the age of 26, as he had already written a book on basketball). During his career
people kept asking him: "Do you know what your problem is?" Not only did he not know what his problem was, but he did not even know he had a problem! :) He was so self-confident and
sure about himself that he didn't even realize he had a problem. One perfect example is when he was confronted with the remarks from his boss that he is not a coach. This hit him really
hard, as he was actually in the position of assistant coach. The criticism was that even though he was great with techniques and all the field-related magazines, books and coach manuals
were lining up on his shelf, he didn't have his own philosophy of coaching. He definitely was not happy with this criticism, but he was willing to accept it and took some time to think about it.
Marco Bizzarri was telling something very similar, when he explained how some people can be a pain in the a** when they come and criticize and challenge every word you say. Noone likes
criticism and noone likes when the soundness of his ideas are questioned. Still, this happens all the time. You can shut your ears and ignore the criticism or you can resist this temptation and
be open for others' opinions. As he was pointing it out, it is not easy, indeed it can be particularly annoying, but this is the best way to grow.
I have to say this is not the first time I hear this and I'm sure you also heard this before. Still, for some reason it really made me think this time. These days I'm looking for internships and
before my application gets out, I want to make sure it's constructed in the best possible way, so I have sent it to people from all different backgrounds and asked them to comment on it.
Sometimes I just want to scream out loud (sometimes I really do) and I ask myself why I did this in the first place. Comments are often contradictory, confusing and annoying, but every time I
reach this point of frustration I remind myself to the words I heard during this week and I try my best to incorporate all the comments I received.
I also wonder why these very speeches made me change and made me think differently about criticism. Maybe because I heard it from 2 very successful and passionate people on the same
week, maybe because of the spirit of the exchange term I'm more open, maybe just because I'm becoming more mature, all 3 of these or even something else I didn't realize yet. I really don't
know. But I reached the point when I have to say I'm really thankful for these critics, because these people take their time and energies to help me succeed, when they might as well just
ignore the whole thing. No matter how annoying it seems initially, it serves my good at the end of the day. Dan Peterson would not be called 'The Coach' if back than he hadn't listened to his
boss and Bottega Veneta would not be one of the leading luxury copmanies if Marco Bizzarri wouldn't have kept listening to the challenging thoughts of his colleagues.
I'll finish today with Dan Peterson's note, which I like a lot: "God gives you only one miracle a week." I know what mine was, and I took the chance. Do you know yours?
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4. Oktober 2012 00:05
Good news! I could finally start using my ATM card from the 1st of October, but in order to celebrate properly this joyful moment, ATM workers organized an almost full day strike on the 2nd
of October. Very nice gesture, I really appreciated it! This consequently meant that students living at the Arcobaleno Residence (one of the many dorms of Bocconi, typically hosting exchange
students) had to take a taxi to the school, unless they were patient and lucky enough to catch a tram that came unpredictably and occasionally. So we agreed with some of the Arcobaleno
residents to meet at the reception of the dorm at 9:55am and take a taxi to school so that we arrive to the 10:30am class. The plan sounded really decent, but as you can image it did not go
so smoothly... We were naiv enough to think that on a day of nation-wide strike, we would call a taxi company, they would pick up the phone, greet us warmly (as btw they always do here)
and send us a taxi in no time. The first probelm we faced was that all the lines were busy and the only thing that could make us feel less stressed about the situation was the Italian music that
was played while we were waiting for someone to pick up. We soon realized this was a pretty hopeless endeavor so we decided to go to the tram stop and wait for the miracle to happen.
Meanwhile, one of the guys tried a whole different strategy and he went in between the lanes and kindly asked the drivers if they happen to go in the direction of the city center and if they
were willing to take some super-ambitious students to school. The answers were disappointing. It was 10:20am and we had no other option than waiting for the tram. Some had already given
up and decided not to go to school that day. The weather perfectly reflected our feelings and totally reminded me of St. Gallen weather: foggy, grey, chilly, although no mountains. Still, some
of us were desperately waiting for the miracle that finally did happen :) A taxi was turning onto the nearby street and it had 4 empty seats! I wouldn't have imagined, but in no time, we were at
the school and I was sitting in class at 10:31. It was almost completely hopelessly and actually my day started great! :)
So there I was at the International Business Management class, listening to case study solutions about Crocs (the bold colored, funky-looking shoes) prepared by some very talented
students. Again, I felt I'm in the right place with the right people. The other day we had the chance to meet and listen to Claudio Gubitosi, the founder and director of the Giffoni Experience,
previously named Giffoni Film Festival. It is a great event that is happening all year round, but the most known and most famous week is during summer, when kids aged between 3-24 years
gather to watch movies and discuss about those, their problems and interact with movie starts, producers and each other in a highly international environment that is hosted by the little town
of Giffoni in Southern Italy. This event conveys true mediterranean values and besides entertaining, it provides a very multifaceted educational value to kids participating at the festival.
Tomorrow, we will listen to a presentation about Bottega Veneta and will have the chance to address our questions to Marco Bizzarri, President and Managing Director of the famous luxury
company. Next week, we'll get introduced to the project that we will work on with L'Oreal. So it's really all about gaining practical experience, applying our theoretical knowledge and facing
real-world problems in a highly international environment.
Finally, just to share some less-school related impressions and news, I bought a nice Carpisa bag (thereby not joining the "Fake Louis Vuitton bag Club", as many many Italian women do
here in Milan) to spice up my weekend (which I basically spent at home, 1st time without travelling) and on my way back from the center I had a 15-minute long ITALIAN conversation with an
elderly man who was really patient and tolerant about my difficulties and mistakes. Something less Italian, but very enjoyable, yesterday we made a reunion with my 3 friends here in Milan
and we went out for sushi night! It was such a rich dinner that we didn't even take the last dish.
Oh, and something very Italian: the long due picture in front of Duomo! :)
.
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26. September 2012 00:28
YESSSS! I bought my ticket for the FUN concert, which takes place in Milan on the 18th October. Can't wait!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQkBeOisNM0
That day I was simply planning to buy the ticket and go home, but Milan had very different plans for me. With my new friend who I met on the first week we went to Piazza Duomo to find the
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ticket office and we ran into long queues of young girls. The lines were leading to black booths that turned out to offer all sorts of beauty treatments for free. My friend and I got carried away
by the opportunities and ended up having a free manicure and a free hairstyling. But this was not the end! We both gave interviews in our mother tongue after the manicure and I was filmed
by an Australian team who were recording some moments of the Milan Fashion Week for a TV channel. Canon took a picture of us to help them promote their brand and we received a free
bag as well. Incredible day! The entire day was improvised and exactly because of this, probably one of the best days so far in Milan!
As an exchange student, part of the fun is obviously party time that is a must-have throughout the semester. We checked out another fancy club, Le Banque, the other day where the music
was the best so far compared to other clubs and it is very centrally located, which is definitely a plus.
My ranking till this point is the following:
1) Le Banque
2) Hollywood
3) Old Fashion
4) Just Cavalli
We were lucky enough to be invited to a private party as well this week at Terazza Martini by two Italian guys who are groupmates of my friends at Bocconi, The place is very close to the
Duomo and is very very fancy. Because of the Fashion Week it was full of tall, skinny models and rich people so for sure it had a very different atmosphere from that of exchange parties. The
most important thing that we observed is that people don'T try to get to know other people present at the party but stick to their little group. This didn't really bother us and we were not shy to
enjoy ourselves and the aperitivo. Oh, and I almost forgot to tell, all of this was for free!
Ok, for this week, no more free stuff. On the other hand, I finally managed to pay for my rent, just after having been notified for the second time that they block the card to my dorm room if I
don't send them the money immediately. Needless to say that for some mysterious reasons I never received neither the original bill nor the first notification. Anyways, the ISD office was very
helpful again, as always and the problem seems to be solved now. One thing that I particularly like is the one-stop service, which facilitates a great deal all the otherwise bureacratic
processes. Therefore, Bocconi deserves a plus! :)
Btw, bureaucracy... 'Tessera in lavorazione.' This is the sentence that has started to annoy me recently and in English the sentence means that they're still working on the card. I'm serioulsy
thinking ATM is doing it on purpose that you don't get the card for weeks and you're forced to buy tickets every day. I don't even dare adding up all the money I've spent on travelling in
Milan...
But let's stay positive and see the bright side of life. Trips! Another must-have if you're on exchange :) The highlight of the week for sure was Cinque Terre!! For those who have never heard
about it, it is a collective name for 5 tiny (really tiny) cities on the Western coast of Italy, just below Genova. As the nice weather is soon over we decided to visit this amazing place with 2
Brasilian friends of mine. In order to be able to visit all 5 cities on Saturday and leave time for 2 more and some relaxation on Sunday, we had to wake up at 5am on Saturday. For sure, we
were more than compensated by the experience and the scenery. Monterosso, the first city from the North is the most touristic one with nice beach. Vernazza, Corniglia, Manarola and Rio
Maggiore are smaller and less touristic but they all have their own charm (Corniglia's charm partly lies in the fact that you appreciate it more after the more than 1km uphill walk with suitcases
and backpacks in 30 degrees). Cinque Terre is all about colorful houses on the hillside, little shops and restaurants along the alleys and stairs, the sound of the sea, the locks all along the
way from Manarola to Riomaggiore (Via dell'Amore) and the huge rocks along the coast. On Sunday we had time to visit the castle and the church in Portofino and spent the afternoon on the
beach of Santa Margherite Liguria. That was the perfect place to reflect on the past 2 days. I was truly mesmerized by the scenery and by the food as well. Sea food, pasta, proschioutto e
melone, tiramisu, cappucino, gelato... I think I made the most out of the last weekend :)
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Time to enjoy the days again in Milan! Time to do some shopping! ;)
Ciao ragazzi!
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31. Oktober 2012 23:23
The Italian language and culture have been part of my life for years by now. It probably started when my dad first went to work in Italy and came back with a loooot of presents, including my
favorite chocolates (Baci with the littel quote inside and pocket coffee) and our favorite present with my brother, the huge easter egg, which was for sure bigger than my head and there was a
toy inside. Since he spent a lot of time in Italy, he learned the language and often used it during conversations at the dinner table. Buongiorno, andiamo, ciao, bambino, basta and many
others were not unusual to pop up.
Then me and my dance partner started to take lessons with Italian teachers who were really funny. I loved when they said bravo or brava, first of all because it is a nice word, and second of
all, it meant we are doing sth good
They have there own way of pronouncing words, like they ignore the letter 'h' at the beginning of words and they would put an 'h' at the beginning of
others. Just to illustrate, they say 'and' if they talk about 'hand' and they say 'helbow' when they talk about elbow. Also, they tend to pronounce words with 'gn' (e.g.ignore, recognize) in a
funny way, because they use the same sound in these words as it is in 'gnocci'.
To continue my experience with Italy, most of the times we went for vacation to Lignano Sabbiadoro where I ate my first real Italian pizza, gelato and prosciutto with melone and spoke my first
Italian words.
One summer I decided to work abroad and obviously my first choice was Italy. I spent 2 months close to Perugia and 2 weeks at the Garda Lake. A week before the job started I took my
father's books and I went through hundreds of pages of Italian grammar. It was not all new for me as the pronounciation was pretty familiar, plus I learned French for 5 years before that,
which is quite similar. By the time I came back from Italy, I was pretty communicative and some months later I got my intermediate certificate in business Italian. Now, I'm taking classes at
intermediate level, cause I didn't use the language for about 2 years and I want to refresh it.
Recently, my experience in Switzerland made me realize that I'm not that bad with speaking and understanding the language. I was too shy to use it during the first couple of weeks of my
exchange semester, but last week, I was forced to use it, since my German knowledge wouldn't have helped me. I can say 'die Katze kann hoch springen', but I'm still looking for the
situations when that sentence comes handy... So these days I've become more willing to use Italian in my daily life and I realized there are some words that I particularly like and I picked my
5 favorites below:
dai
basically it means 'come on' but you can use it to encourage someone or if you want to express your disagreement (dai, that's not true!) or when a friend is hesitating between studying or
going out
(dai, you can study tomorrow and anyways, we are all going!)
boh
I first heard this sounds (this is not even a word I think) when I spent a night in Rome with some friends. I remember passing by some columns and I asked my Italian friend if he can tell me
the story or some interesting facts about those architectural wonders and he gave this sound: 'Boh!' I immediately knew he had no clue whatsoever and he was totally neutral about the whole
thing, like it was totally usual to walk by robust, ancient columns I only saw in my history course book before. Since I'm here in Milan, I've heard this 'boh' several times and I find it very
expressive. I should also start using it!
allora
This word is soooo typical! The reason I like it so much is that it gives me time. Last week I had to explain a lot of things in Italian, when I was on the train (without a properly printed out ticket)
and when I was in the Orange store (phone company in Switzerland) trying to cancel my subscription. Since sometimes the right word is 'on my tongue' as I would say in Hungarian, but it just
doesn't come out, 'allora' served me well. You can say it as slowly as you want and it doesn't change the meaning of what you're saying in any sense. In English its meaning in this usage is
closest to the word 'so'. It is such a common word that my professor in the Management of Fashion and Luxury Companies often puts it in between sentences without even noticing it
Piazza XXIV (ventiquattro) Maggio
Unfortunately I've never taken a picture of this place (really don't know why), but next time I'm there, I'll definitely take one for you! This square is in the centre of Milan and it's worth seeing it
once you come. Still, it's not one of my favorties because of how it looks like, but because of how it sounds. Every time I hear Piazza XXIV Maggio, I find it to be the most perfect Italian
expression. The rythm of these words and the sounds create such an amazing blend that I can't get enough of it!
quindi
I heard this word so many times but didn't know its meaning for long. I heard it on the metro when people were on the phone, in the store as customers were discussing which pasta to take
(then they took both
), when students were discussing some math problems next to me at school and in many other contexts. It was a bit annoying hearing it all the time and not knowing
what it means. Then came the rescue and my Italian crash course professor reveiled the secret. It's used in sentences with the meaning 'therefore', 'thus', 'hence' and some Italian synonyms
are 'dunque', perció' and 'allora'. It's interesing but I never really hear 'dunque' or 'perció' in conversations, quindi, it's not only me who is so biased towards quindi
I'm pretty sure this list is temporary, and there are numerous other beautiful and myterious words, such as farfalla, magari, andiamo, cappucino, appuntamento, etc.
Allora, why don't you share your favorite Italian words, expressions or sounds with me?
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26. Oktober 2012 09:21
Hello again
As you'll see this post has a couple of new things, first of all I discovered I can put propoer smileys
and you'll see and most importantly hear some special videos!!
Let me wrap up what happened last week in a nutshell!
I'm back safe and sound from St. Gallen, Switzerland and finally have time and internet connection to write my weekly blog. This week was again not a usual one. First of all, my boyfriend
came to visit me and I could get away from my studies and worries for a while. Fortunately the weather in Milan was fantastic and we could walk around in the city. I saved some sightseeing
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spots for these 4 days and resisted going to the top of Duomo and to Parco Sempione before he came, so that it won't be too repetitive for me. We had nice pizza, amazing gelato with hot
chocolate in the cone, tiramisu and of course real Italian coffee.
Walking on the top of Duomo!
Excited!
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Oh, yeah, he did cross between the lions! Have I told you about that before? If not, I will tell it in another story and then you'll know why it's such a big thing!
I know it's hard to see, but believe me, there is a castle behind us
See! This is the castle in Parco Sempione!
And, we're going in!
Remember that I bought my ticket for the FUN concert weeks ago? I was very excited to go, but unfortunately by the time my boyfriend decided to come, the tickets were sold out. Still, we
were optimistic (or rather idealistic) and went to Alcatraz (the venue of the concert and at other times venue for crazy exchange parties) and were hoping to get a ticket for him. Incredibly, in 5
minutes we were in! There is a crazy group of people buying and selling tickets before concerts and we got lucky! The best part is that we bought his ticket for 20 euros while mine cost 23.50!
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Believe me, I was not hoping for this much of luck! And then on, for 1,5 hours I was carried away by the energy of the band and the screaming audience.
Surprise for you! I hope you'll like the videos below!
They opened with 'Carry on':
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3e1gF7JyWg0
then they were singing Black or White from Michael Jackson:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZB5cbIDk3wQ&feature=youtu.be
Aaaaand the long awaited first hit:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=91M2pifV-AU
And their closing song at Alcatraz - dedicated to my sweetest friend in Korea! Happy Birthday!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lmf-xC1-mS0
(Jeez, I started this post 4 hours ago! Uploading videos to Youtube takes an awful lot of time... So you'd better enjoy it, hehe!)
There was a small twist of events, as my boyfriend figured out at the airport on Sunday night that his plane left on Monday night. So basically he spent a day more in Milan than we expected
In hindsight the little drama with crying and extensive hugging at the Cadorna train station seemed really funny. I got to see him considerably earlier than I thought, actually in 3 hours. I
think this will be a great story to think back years from now, plus a great argument to fight back if he is criticizing my memory (which he does rather often... and he has a reason
) Then
when he actually managed to catch his train, saying goodbye was already a bit easier, also considering the fact that he got off at Cadorna metro station and I travelled on for 5 more stations
to Milano Centrale FS to catch my train to Zurich.
So there I am in the station and I wanted to print out my ticket for which I received a code in an e-mail and I had that e-mail printed out earlier. For some mysterious reasons I couldn't print it
and asked an Assistance personel to help me. He causally managed the situation by saying that I can just get on the train with my printed-out e-mail... Of course! 'll get back to this point later.
I arrived to St. Gallen by midnight and the city was so foggy I could hardly see the buildings on the other side of the street. I was there for only 2 days but my muscles hurt for climbing an
insane amount of stairs, not to mention the fact that my account really didn't like the prices there. I remembered St. Gallen was expensive but when I bought a simple breakfast at school for
more than CHF8 I really felt it on my skin and enjoyed every little bit of that meal. I skipped half of the meals during my stay first of all because I had no time for eating, and second of all I felt
so guilty spending that much for food. The Consulting Days were good, I participated at a workshop and visited almost all the company booths. Plus, I quickly met my thesis advisor and the
best part: ran into some dear friends. It was nice to catch up with them after so many months. I don't know when I'll see them again, so we really appreciate these times.
So, my stay in St. Gallen just passed by in a blink and I was heading back to Milan. Getting back to the story of the train ticket... I knew there would be problems with that! Bottomline, I had to
pay CHF 77 as the Swiss controller didn't accept my e-mail print-out on my way back. On top of all this, the customs officer came and put his certificate right into my face and asked me if I
have a visa. I was pretty much confused and shocked by the question so I just said: I'm from Hungary. I don't really get why he asked that, but anyways. Then he went to his colleagues who
in general looked very intimidating and showed my passport smiling and told them something. I was really excited about the outcome! Finally, they gave it back and left. I would actually love
to know what they were talking about, but my German is far from understanding such conversations, not to speak about my Swiss German... So, my frustration is pretty much hitting its limits.
Too bad there was a 2-year old kid on the train... Normally I'm patient with kids but this time, it was too much. I hadn't had eaten since breakfast and it was 8pm, the nicely announced
cafeteria was closed on the train and the person pushing the trolley with food could only give CHF back, which I definitely didn't want. So I was left with the crying kid and 3 sips of water.
Finally I arrived to Milan and I remembered there is a nice restaurant around the dorm, where we ate with my parents on the first days here. I was pulling my suitcase in high heels with my
last energy reserves. It was 23:30 and guess when they close? At 23:00. So I already accepted the fact that I won't eat that night. I mean noone has died of skipping half of the meals in 2
days, so I was pretty confident I would survive till the morning. I quickly made a skype call to let my family know I arrived and then realized I could make some instant soup!! What a great
idea!!! So I'm rushing towards the kitchen on my floor in the dorm, with my pot and the 2 other ingredients
But noooo.... apparently the dorm management decided to limit our cooking
efforts and prevent us from eating cooked food between midnight and 6am. Nice, so I was eventually left with starving for the night.
As you can see, I did survive and already had some nice meals during the day :) It's mid-term break here at Bocconi, so I don't really have classes, although my online agenda says I have
one on Monday and on Tuesday, but I'll double check that with my friends. I'm planning to sumbit some applications and make a grand plan for my readings. And I expect a but less moving
and adventure for the next week, haha.
I'm not sure yet if we'll go for a halloween party with the girls, but there is always a chance. Costum ideas are very welcome!
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17. Oktober 2012 00:37
Ciao ragazzi! :)
This week I really felt that days are considerably shorter than usual. Sleep deprivation has been a major issue recently for me and I can only hope that this weekend I can make up for the
missed hours of sleeping. :) (today I felt an irresistable urge to buy my first anti-aging eye cream in my desperation and I have very high expectations!)
Last Tuesday me and my team got a case on LEGO for the International Business Management class and we had 1 week to solve it. That wouldn't have been a big issue if we had started on
time. But, my team voted for starting only on Friday, thus we had to work like crazy to finish by Tuesday. On top, the team is an extreme mix of people, a German, an American, an Italian and
a Chinese. Plus me, Hungarian with Swiss education backgrounds. It was not easy to proceed fast with so many different backgrounds especially under such a great time pressure. The
Italian always wanted 5 minutes break and kept saying we are totally fine, piano, piano (slowly, slowly, no need to rush). The Chinese had great ideas but we needed to have a considerable
amount of patience to understand those due to his problems with English. The American was definitely not a quiet person, and the German kept setting 15 minute deadlines for finishing
slides and was definitely not convinced by the Italian who kept saying we're fine... and was asking for another break. :)
Honestly, it was a great challenge to bring everyone on the same page and reach concensus. The German guy and I were most of the times on the same side and we had to convince the 3
other members, who all had different opinions, if at all... Bottomline, next time we'll start earlier and know what to expect from each other. And for risk management I'll apply the anti-aging
cream regularly, haha!
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To continue my world trip, I had a skype call with some of my classmates from the St. Gallen University (my home university) to decide how we go on with our SIMagination project. For those
who don't know about it, last year we started working on a social project in Togo, one of the poorest countries on earth and we have supplied a school with more than 900 books, held
business workshops to advise school kids on how to manage their businesses, plus we provided scholarships. You can watch 2 short videos on Youtube if you're interested (side note: it's my
voice :P):
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HY5z0RwNrZo&feature=relmfu
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bG9riQpNLuM
So, I sent my team a doodle about 2 weeks ago and out of the 9 people, 4 managed to be available for a short virtual meeting. The Austrian guy was calling from Singapore, the ChineseCanadian girl from Germany, the Turkish from the Netherlands and I from Italy to discuss about how to continue our activity in Togo. The Swiss couldn't join us, as it was 4am in Canada and
the other Austrian guy was travelling around in Asia. The remaining 3 were absent for some other reasons. We were very efficient and were done in 1 hour (shocking difference b/w the 2
teams, especially knowing that we actually were in the very same place with the LEGO team)! So after the call the Austrian guy in Singapore went for a dinner invitation and I was finishing
my morning coffee (a late one) :)
The world tour is not over yet! Yesterday, at 11:30pm my phone rings in my room, the receptionist is calling me and aks me to go downstairs to pick up a mail. I had no clue whatsoever what
kind of mail arrived as I was not expecting any. So, I go down in my pyjamas and I'm very excited to see what I get.
This is what I received!
A dog-eared postcard from the other side of the world, from my South-Korean friend, who I met about a year ago in Switzerland. First of all, I can't even recall when I received a postcard for
the last time in my life, second of all, I realized that this little piece of paper with the cute scribbling on the backside had been travelling for exactly 2 weeks just to eventually arrive to the
reception of the Arcobaleno Residence. I was staring at it for minutes with a smile on my face that a 5-year old has when he gets back his toy. It's such a wonderful and undescribable feeling
when you realize how many people care about you all over the world! You wanna just hug them all!
With my 3 friends (2 Belgian and 1 Brazilian) here, we are planning to pick a date, about a year from now and organize a reunion somewhere in Europe, outside of our home countries. It
would be so amazing to meet again, all 4 of us. Otherwise, without planning we'd have to be damn lucky to run into each other!
At this point, my world tour has come to an end for a while and I can't wait to see my boyfriend tomorrow who is coming to visit me for the weekend! I have my FUN concert ticket, but he
doesn't asit was sold out by the time he decided to come so we'll give it a try tomorrow and see if we can buy a ticket at the entrance. If not, we'll change the plan and go for the Latin night! :)
I wish you all a great weekend! :)
CIAOOOO!!!!
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21. November 2012 15:31
Hi again! :)
How was your weekend? Mine was sweet
I went to visit a friend of mine who studies in Bologna, I know her from elementantary school. Fortunately I managed to keep
the weekend free so I could enjoy every little moment of my stay in that wonderful city without having to worry about university stuff. But before I tell you about the show
itself, let me give you a glimpse into my friend's apartment, where I stayed for 2 nights. She has 6 flatmates, 2 from Cameroon, 1 from Morocco and 3 are from different
parts of Italy,inculding Sardinia, Naples and Sicily. I was definitely not expecting to be exposed to things like seeing the girls sewing beautiful hair extensions, learning
about the Arab culture and listening to all sorts of Italian accents. I took the courage to use my Italian and they really appreciated it. Actually I realized how much better it
would be if I lived with Italians during my exchange term. I was really flattered when they told me I don't have an accent, but I think I still have a loooong way to go to feel
comfortable speaking Italian. My friend speaks fluently, so I was quite spoiled during the weekend and I could save myself some difficult moments (like the ones I'll have at
the train station, when I'll be trying to complain about the fact that they debited 55 euros on my account, because I couldn't print out my ticket to Switzerland and I got to
buy another one).
Saturday morning we were more than excited about what was awaiting us in the center of Bologna, in Piazza Maggiore. The endless variety of tastes and shapes were
mindboggling! There were shoes, bags, cartoon figures, like the Smurfs, Snowhite with the 7 dwarfs, there were cosmetics sets with lipsick and mascara, tools like hammer
and screwdrivers, iPhones and iPads and even bread and salami, all made of chocolate! But take a look at them yourselves!
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Surprisingly I did not have an irresistable urge to eat chocolate. After the 3rd tent I felt completely neutral to chocolate. This is probably because of the fact that there was
so much chocolate around and I got overwhelmed by it. On Saturday night I bought some chocolate for my parents, boyfriend and friends here in Milano, but I could not
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afford to buy a lot, because it was very expensive. 100 grams cost 4 euros!
During the weekend we walked a lot in Bologna and I saw a lot of interesing things thanks to my friend! She has been living in Bologna for already 3 years so she is like a
local. Today I show you the secret of Neptun and the rest, I'll show next week
You have to find the right spot to stand and look at the sculpture carefully...
CAREFULLY!!
Look, it's his finger
The rest of our adventures in Bologna, I'll show you next week
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14. November 2012 23:58
Officially, there are 24 hours in a day, even here in Milan. Still, I have the impression that my days are definitely shorter! I take my vitamins in the morning (my mum wants
to make sure I'm not getting sick...so far, so good) and it feels like I just took it like 5 hours ago! The days in my calendar are getting crossed out faster and faster, and the
worst part, my exams and projects are getting closer which terrifies me at times. Time seems to have been speeding up. Since I hate to be in a hurry the week before the
exams I made an excel sheet (oh yeah, some of my friends will not be surprised by this and will just think: "Some things just never change"
) and now everyday is a
challenge to keep up with the plan. It gets rescheduled day by day, but so far, I've been quite good with finishing the plans. I also realized that what's not in my calendar,
doesn't exist. I guess a psychologist friend of mine could give a better definition for this phenomenon, but now you just have to be happy with mine
. So what I figured
out is that as soon as I put something into the calendar, even though I might as well just push 'cancel' on it, I have this urge to do it. I hate going to bed knowing that I didn't
manage to finish the plan and I had to postpone it for the next day. I really don't know if this is good or not (sometimes it gets pretty annoying) but that's how I work these
days.
Now, despite this tight schedule, I still want to make the most out of my exchange term, so I have some plans for the rest of my stay. This weekend, I'm going to visit an
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elementary-school friend of mine in Bologna. This already would be an amazing trip, but it gets even better, cause I'll see, smell and taste the finest chocolates from the
best chocolatiers from all over Italy! Yammyyy
http://www.cioccoshow.it/
Yestersday there was some sort of expo at Bocconi, in the new building (called Velodromo), where all of the theaters in Milan represented themselves at a little booth and
promted their programs to Bocconi students. As I said before, there's always something going on here in Milan
. Before I came one of my dreams was to go to La
Scala, but as I heard it from so many people, it's kinda hard to get a ticket just a couple of month before the performance, and tickets are sold out till next year. So I gave
up on it already. Well, yesterday I got a little booklet from the representative of La Scala and I found 2 great performances!
The first is obviously Romeo and Juliet (ballett), which is a special preview for students and it only costs 10 euros! It is right before the exam days, but we agreed with my
Brazilian friend that since we tend to stop studying anyways in the evening before the exam, we might as well go to La Scala, just for a change, and watch Romeo and
Juliet
Plus, if for some reason panic breaks out that night and I realize I still have to spend 3 hours reading through my notes full of beautiful frameworks and concepts,
I can just stay at home. I would lose 10 euros. That's not the end of the world.
The other performance is a Christmas concert on the 20th of December. Well, that night is our last night together with the girls and we were planning to go for an aperitivo
and then for a last legendary party. Since the concert starts at 8pm, we have to skip aperitivo, but actually we agreed that we can do that whenever we want so that's not a
big deal. The only problem is that online we couldn't find the cheap tickets, only ones that cost more than a 100 euros, which we believe would be a bit too much to pay as
a student, so today we gonna check it out at the EGEA bookstore close to Bocconi, where they are selling tickets (at least according to the website). We hope they'll still
sell the cheaper tickets. Otherwise we'll be stuck with aperitivo...
Actually the fact that we're already planning our last night out freaks me out a bit. It undoubtedly signals that the exchange semester is getting closer to its end. Funnily
enough, a couple of days ago, I started to feel homesick and I was craving for some food that is only available in Hungary. One is my all-time favorites is Túró rudi. Just for
you to have an idea what it is:
It is sweet and it is a mix of cottage cheese and chocolate, which might not sound as delicious as it is in reality. This was basically the only food I was willing to eat for
breakfast till I was 10 years old. On Sunday, when there was a one-hour broadcast of Disney cartoons on tv (my mom's favorite hour of the day, as we were willing to sit in
1 place for an entire hour), it sometimes happened that I ate 3 bars of Túró Rudi! This doesn't happen anymore, but certainly it remains one of my favorite food. Besides
that, what I really really miss is my Grandma's soup. There's for sure nothing comparable to that!!
As I was expecting it to happen some day or another during my exchange, I was feeling a bit down last weekend, missing my friends and family, the places in my small
town, the convenience that I can drive around with car and I'm not forced to take the tram or pay for taxi after 2am when I'm trying to get home from a party. Then suddenly
a realized it makes no sense to feel homesick. Why? I'll be home in 6 weeks, I can talk to my parents and friends on skype and I already know that as soon as I get home,
I'll miss the Italian pasta and cappuccino, that are not comparable to any other, I'll miss the taxi rides at 3am in the morning with nice music and awkward conversations
with the taxi driver while giggling in the backseat with the girls, I'll miss the streets, the parks, the shopping areas around Duomo, the clubs, the restaurants on Navigli, the
aperitivos and most of all my amazing friends in Milan! So, enough of feeling blue and homesick, and let's make sure we'll have thousands of moments we'll never forget
and thousands of others we don't want our grandkids to find out about!
P.S.: Pictures of chocolate shoes, chocolate bags and chocolate sculptures coming up soon!
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8. November 2012 02:15
Hello again,
Do you remember the L'Oreal project I'm working on with my team? Well, we got the task to develop a new fragrance for Diesel, the fashion company, mostly known for
jeans and its unconventional advertisements, like the one below with the gay sailors:
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The fragrance has to be developed around the concept of tattoo, therefore, we did a little field trip and visited some tattoo shops in Milan and tried to explore the 'world of
tattoo', why people get tattoos, what they mean, what the trends are, etc... Apparently here in Italy, it is rather popular to get a tattoo or maybe even more than one, and at
one of the shops the owner said that because of the economic crisis, there is a boom in demand. People don't have money to buy nice new cars or big houses, but they
can afford to get a tattoo, which can be easily shown and gives them some status. That was a bit surprising, I doubt that happens in Hungary...
Just out of curiosity we asked for the price, even though none of us in the team wants to get a tattoo. They told us that you can get a small one for around 70 euros and the
price goes up even till 1000 euros if you would like to get something really elaborated that covers a considerable part of your body.
It was raining all afternoon as we were doing our field trip and since the shops are unfortunately not next to each other (why would they be??) we had to walk a lot. The
worst part was that my feet were all wet cause somehow water leaked into my boots and all night I felt like standing in a puddle. So having been quite exhaused after the
trip we decided to have some fun just to compensate for the hard work
We started with a great aperitivo at Maya, in the Navigli area. Below you can see my dinner. The thing is that what always happens is that I go through the choice offered
and everything seems to be so delicious that I want to take a bit of all of them.
First problem: the plates are kinda small, so it's already a challenge to fit everything on such a small furface (actually the aperitivos are all you can it, so I could come back
and fill up conveniently another plate, but I can't wait to taste everything
)
Second problem: the tastes mix and you can't even tell what you're eating, but probably some sort of combination of chicken, shrimps, eggplant, salad, pasta, 3 kinds of
cheese, and a bit of mussel shell... Yes, it can happen... at least happened to me and believe it's not good...
Third problem: you have to make sure you 'keep some space' for the tiramisu that arrives around 10pm. Actually this is the problem I'm normally least worried about among
all, cause as we always say with my friend, girls have a separate stomach for desserts
After we have tasted all sorts of food and collected energy to go up on 'stage' (and our coats have finally dried), we headed to the karakee bar some 100 meters away from
Maya. The place is called Cristal and you can go to sing there every night!
The guy who's putting on the songs was really going the extra mile and even if he didn't have a specific song he looked for a karaokee version on Youtube
On the
other hand we all found it a bit wierd that even though people were lining up to sing, he grabbed the microphone and performed a song on his own. This would only happen
in our countries (Belgium, Brazil, Hungary) if there's noone willing to sing and the guy tries to keep the party going. Apparently here it doesn't work like that.
I also have to note that Italians sing all the songs BY HEART! This caused some embarrassement for us, as we didn't manage to be on beat a couple of times and despite
the fact that the lyrics are written right in front of us it happened that we lost track of the words... not to even talk about being off key at some points.
concluded that the most important thing is that we had fun and no glasses broke.
But anyways, we
Plus, we brought some life to the night! Italian love songs are undoubtedly really
beautiful, but when you hear 20 of them during 1 night and no offense, but they sound almost the same, it gets rather boring. We had the impression that there are no
happy songs in Italian, which we can't believe to be true. Next time we'll thing Volare!
To save you from suffering, we didn't record the songs, but below you can see the list and some pictures. The funniest one was Balada, which we sang with my Brazilian
friend and another guy from Brazil. Basically it was them two who sang the entire song (I must say it wasn't easy even for them!) and we jumped in for the
'tchetchereretche' parts. I guess you can image the overall effect, haha.
So this is the list:
Shania Twain: Man, I feel like a woman! - love this song, it was a great start!
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Gusttavo Lima: Balada (Tchetchereretche)
The Tokens: The lion sleeps tonight
The one that I want from Grease
John Lennon: Stand by me - the closing song
And finally a picture of the best exchange karaokee crew!!
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13. Dezember 2012 04:42
until Saturday, 22 December 2012, 20:00:00 (Budapest time)
It is
days,
hours,
minutes,
sec
Less than a million seconds. Well, that's a lot of seconds, but it's all relative. I'm gonna be back home in 247
hours. Exciting and scary at the same time, so I stopped the countdown. It just freaked me out that I have so little
time to spend in Milan with my friends. The worst part is that I spend most of this 14853 minutes with studying for
exams and memorizing list, tables, and more lists.
The uni is sending e-mails with guidelines to check-out and the cleaning lady is asking me when I'm leaving.
These are clear signs of the final stage of my stay. Checking-out is a typical Italian procedure. You need to get a
Library Form signed, obviously at the Library, which you have to bring to the International Student Desk (ISD).
Where is the form? Well, tricky! You can only get the form once you fill out the uni evaluation form which asks you
basically to compare your home university and Bocconi based on many criteria. Then, when you're done, you can
download the form. Great, now the only important thing is to be lucky enough to catch them in the office
The other very important thing is the collection of the deposit I paid before I arrived. For that I have to line up first
at ISD, get a sheet signed and then I can go and line up again at the bank and claim my deposit in cash. I really
don't know when I have the time for so much lining
Based on my experience in the beginning of the year, I
think I can safely say bringing my slides with lists, tables and more lists would be a smart idea.
Btw dorm... we pay EUR600/ month, which is, let's admit, not a small sum... For this money, you would expect
some basic services right? Let's say heating! Nooo, Arcobaleno management has different ideas about basic
services. The heating periods were posted in the elevator:
7-10am and 8-11pm. Great, so you can feel free to freeze for 10 consecutive hours during the day above your
lists, tables and more some lists. Even worse. Finally it is 8pm, you kinda have the hope that soon the
temperature hikes above 19 Celcius degrees... well, you're wrong. I got so pissed that I wrote 2 complaints about
the heating system. 2 days later they changed the heating hours. I sort of want to think it was because of my
complaints
The new hours are from 6-11am and from 5 to 11pm. Only 6 hours in the cold room. Wonderful!
Now this was the moment when my radiator thought it was too much and the room temperature was not changing
from 19 degrees. That was my 3rd complaint. Today, the janitor came and I saw how much dirt came out of the
radiator, which caused the problem. It would be nice to clean the radiators a bit more often...
This little snowman was my only comfort during the cold days.
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Even though we have different understanding of basic services, I really appreciate that they decorated the dorm
entrance and we have a small Christmas tree
Actually just a couple of days ago they even put a big one! Very
festive!
Talking about festive... tonight we are finally going to see the Piazza Duomo in Christmas decoration. Expect
some photos for the next and at the same time last post!
Now I go for my first Bocconi exam... keep your fingers crossed please!
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7. Dezember 2012 15:45
Pitching the Diesel project - check!
Monday: Selected as top 3 team - well, check...
Monday: Meeting my South Korean friend here in Milan after more than 5 months - check! :D
Tuesday: Interview in Frankfurt - check!
Wednesday:Last supper by Leonardo - check!
Thursday: Presentation of Natura case - check!
Thursday: Presentation for L'Oreal - check!
Thursday: Laundry - check!
Thursday: Washing dishes - check!
Thursday: Catching up with family and friends - check!
Friday: Preparing for exams - high time to get started!!!!
In a nutshell this was my week. It doesn't seem to be too packed, but believe me, it was the craziest week during my exchange semester. 5-6 hours of sleep for 4 days in a row is just not
enough for me. But finally it's over and I'm ready to study for my 3 exams that will be on the 12th, 17th and 18th December.
Today is a big day here in Milan. The first time that it's snowing :D All my facebook wall is full of comments like 'IT'S SNOWIIINGGGG!' and Christmas song links. I tried to take a picture but
you can't really see it, so I'll wait a couple of hours till it actually accumulates on the streets. Then, I'll go out and wash my face in the first snow. If you do it, you'll be pretty all year round :) I
can't risk that!
Last Sunday was the first advent Sunday, so I bought 4 candles in the very last minute. It was so nice and I was so excited to light the first candle. Too bad I forgot to buy matches... Since
there's only electric stove in the dorm, noone has matches. I tried my chance and posted on the exchange group that I desperately need a lighter, so those guys who smoke and live at
Arcobaleno Residence, please help me out. Noone :( No candle lighting on Sunday... The next day, the first thing I did was to go to Esselunga and buy matches. I couldn't find them
anywhere, so I went to ask a staff member. I quickly Google translated the word to Italian (had no clue about how they call it) and I asked the lady where I can find fiammiferi. I can't explain
her expression, she didn't understand the word! So, I tried to act it out. It was hard I must admit, but finally she got it and sent me to the other end of the store. I couldn't see it so I asked
another guy, but instead of embarrassing myself with saying the wrong word and trying to act it out again, I just showed a picture on my phone. The answer I got was unfortunately 'no'. They
don't have matches in Esselunga, because of the policy that they don't keep anything that is connected to smoking. He suggested me to go to the corner tabacchi. So I went, cause I really
wanted to light my candle and I showeed the picture to the guy behind the cashier. 'Fiammiferi?' he said. Are you kidding me? It does exist then and I was right! It was just the lady at the
store who didn't speak proper Italian... Anyways, Finally I could light my candle :)
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As you can see, it's not only me who is in a christmas mood... My little dog normally wouldn't let us put a santa hat on his head and he would pull it off with his paws, but this time to
everyone's surprise, he was even posing :) Isn't he cute? I think he thought the less he resist, the sooner he is free from this whole circus... :D
For those, who still don't have Christmas feeling, here is a great performance from Robbie Williams :P Enjoy!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hyk0b0cOogk
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17.07.2013 11:03
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29. November 2012 00:07
As I promised last week, I'm telling you the rest of our adventures with my friend in Bologna. Below, with the help of the pictures, you can follow us on our trip. I hope you'll enjoy and that
you'll go to this beautiful city one day!
This was my first moment to see the famous tower of Bologna, actually there are 2, but in this picture you can only see the top of the smaller one (to the left of the bigger one). But don't
worry, I took a better picture
This was taken because I was not sure that if we go closer the whole tower would fit on the picture, haha.
This nice palace (Palazzo d'Accursio) is on Piazza Maggiore, and it used to be Bologna's Town Hall, but for a couple of years already it is a museum. As I told you before, the tents that you
can see at the bottom of the picture were set up for the Chiocco Show. As Piazza Maggiore is in the heart of Bologna and it used to be the market place hundreds of years ago it was a
perfect venue for the Show.
Below: oOne of Bologna's typical streets. Narrow, full of shop windows and of course a lot of people. Plus, you can smell a mix of fresh panino, sea food and cheese... interesting experience.
This time, it is real meat and not just a tricky piece of chocolate
This amazing cheese wall with parmesan cheese blocks probably wouldn't have caught my attention if it wasn't for my friend. Honestly I didn't realize at first that it was cheese... This
chocolate show really messed up my judging skills
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Oh yeah, it wasn't even advent period and some parts of the city were dressed up for Christmas already as you can see some of the decoration below on the picture. There was even a
Christmas market, which I found a bit early and full of kitsch.
Interesting fact: walking under these arches is a real pleasure. Why? My friend pointed out 2 things. First, since Bologna is basically full of these, you can literally walk around the city without
an umbrella even if it is raining cats and dogs. How convenient! Well, the second reason is less obvious. As I was told, the colomns of the arches have heating sticks attached to them so that
you don't feel cold as you're going on a shopping tour in the city. I was quite sceptical about it until I actually saw it. Still I think it is kinda luxurious to heat Piazza Maggiore and I'm sure it's
partly a marketing catch... Plus, how about global warming?
Voila!! The 2 Towers! Really huge, right? And both of them are leaning, especially the smaller one. The taller is called Asinelli (almost 100 meters) and the smaller is called Garisenda (almost
50meters). They were both built in the early 12th century by the richest families. Before lunch, my friend had this amazing idea to go up to the top
You probably know from earlier blog
posts that eventually we didn't manage to buy a season ticket to gyms or zumba classes, so I was a little bit worried whether I would be able to make it to the top... She had no mercy on me,
we started marching!
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26 meters accomplished. I'm still wondering why they don't tell rather how many meters are left?! That would be so much more useful (although probably other tourists are more prepared
than I was and already know the height of the tower and they can just do the math...) So, without knowing how much is left, we kept walking up...
Another thing I never understand, and this is generally true for most of the towers I've climbed. The stairs, as you can see are maximum 1 meter wide and there is a 2-way traffic. Why? Why
can't they make wider staircases? Look, there's so much space wasted in the middle! Anyways, we used the time productively and while my friend was waiting for some tourists to pass by,
she took a picture of me
And I could take a break...
Here we are, on the top of BOLOGNA! There are crowds flowing on the main street and if you watch it closer, you can see Piazza Maggiore towards the upper left corner, with some white
tents.
Bologna la Rossa... Apparently Bolognese people are obsessed with the red color and most of their buildings are painted with a shade of red or orange. Besides that, another reasons why
they call it the Red City is because of its political situation (Bologna was the home of the Italian Communist Party).
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Now enough about sightseeing, time to take some pictures, just to prove to friends and family we actually did visit Bologna
After spending some 15 minutes on top of Bologna we descended from the Tower. It turned out to be more challenging than going upwards. The staircases are not only narrow, but the steps
are so small that my size 37 feet hardly fit. It was really worth it, but for some time I don't wanna go up to towers.
Interesting... You know what inferno means? It is the Italian word for hell. This and the surrounding streets used to be the Jewish Ghetto in the 16th century.
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Oh, this was my favorite in Bologna!! Yes, we are still in Bologna. Behind this little window you can see the little Venice. Isn't it just too cute and picturesque?
After all the walking and climbing we were ready to eat some typical Bolognese food. My friend took creschioni and I took bruschetta, this way I could taste 2 dishes. I really liked both of
them! The massive amount of cheese on top of my bruschetta hindered me in finishing the meal, so I only ate half of it.
now, the dessert... Haha, no, we didn't eat all this, indeed we didn't eat any dessert. I just really liked this huge pyramid of giant Nutella jars and we were asking ourselves what they are filled
up with...
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In the evening we went to see the Santo Stefano Basilica, which is also called the Sette Chiese (The Seven Churches, actually there are only 4 that remained). The octogonal church that you
see below used to be a baptistery in the 11th century. Pretty amazing that we can still see it in the 21st century.
We arrived to the final stage of our Bologna tour. I hope you enjoyed it and you also think it deserves a visit! As we were quite exhaused after the tour, we closed the day with a nice cocktail,
while smiling at the Italians' obsession with football. The bar we went to had 2 flatscreen TVs and everyone, no matter if it was a guy or a girls, was staring at the screen. We were having a
pleasant chat about some nice memories when suddenly half of the people jumped up and shouetd something. The first goal! After that it was clear who was cheering for Milan and who was
cheering for Naples. I think we were the only ones who were not watching the screen but instead the reactions of the people. I don't even know who won, but after the game was over, the bar
suddenly emptied. We also finished our drinks and went home.
I'm really glad I went to Bologna, at the moment it seems that this was my last trip during my exchange. The coming 3 weeks will be all about presentations and exams. Hurrayyy!! :/
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17.07.2013 11:03
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I don't know if you realize the emphasis
I learned during this exchange semester that exaggerated hand movements that is so Italian must be translated even in written documents. One
exclamation mark is not an exclamation mark. Plus the additional information that for some reason always appears on every single announcement just proves how much thought was put into
the formulation of the announcement initially... Now the punch line is just coming! This note actually confuses me. It appeared in the elevator (the general place of every important
announcement, so I assume they assume we are all lazy which is a good assumption
) .... so it appeared in the elevator yesterday, 18th December. As you probably noticed, Christmas is
soming soon and exchange students are going home. Well, I tried again and again to count how someone who reads this note on the 18th December can check-out 20 days before his/her
departure (which is most probably 20th or 21st Dec) from the dorm.... WITH Bocconi, that is Housing Service.... REMEMBER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
my hands moving very VERY expressingly now).
Seriously, I need help!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (I hope you see
Enough of the check-out process and Arco notes (here I have to admit they always cheered me up and I will miss these little, confusing, Google translated notes that welcome me as I come
home from a stressful day
).
I promised you some pictures...
Above I think you know what you can see
Last week we went to the Christmas market that in fact had nothing, really NOTHING!!!! to do with Christmas, there wasn't even vin brulè or
chocolate for which all of us were craving. We spent loooong days locked up in our rooms reading slides with lists and tables and more lists
so we naivly thought we could treat ourselves
with some nice chocolate and warm drinks. Anyways, we ended up at McDonalds... (yes, McDonalds in front of Duomo, in the country of amazing coffee and gastronomy) and we ordered hot
chocolate. We came for hot chocolate and we were not willing to leave without it! We had the greatest laughters in those 2 hours (even though there was no alcohol in the hot chocolates...
are actually who knows??). I'm absolutely convinced it was the result of having had deprived ourselves from all the fun during those days and at that moment we could laugh literally at
everything... It was a night to remember!
Now that the exams are over, I suddenly don't know where to start things... When I was studying for the exams and I got distracted with the stuff I have to do I always told myself: forget it
now, you'll do it after Wednesday! Well, it's Wednesday and I'm afraid I don't remember everything I postponed... for sure I need to do Christmas shopping, need to pack, need to meet
friends, need to line up in front of Scala to try to get in for the Christmas concert and make sure I have a decent plan to entertain my parents when they arrive (btw, they really deserve it, so
I'll try to do my best to stay awake on Friday, after our last, epic party with the girls, unless of course the world really ends
home. Just in time! Exactly as the announcement, haha!!!
). Other than that, I don't know. I think I'll remember once I'm
Look, I also took some pictures at the reception! Isn't it nice of the management to bring some Christmas feeling to our lives?
The big tree:
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and the small tree
Let's face it...living at Arco was not a paradise. Just as an example, I had to make my peace with the fact that curtains never arrived to my room (till the middle of October I had some hope
but then I just accepted the fact that the curtains will stay in the bags in the laudry room). But I have nice memories overall. Not once did I have to change sheets!
Well, I think the remaining 2 days will be pretty intense and overwhelming in every sense, but that's part of the exchange experience. Tomorrow's party is expected to be a memoreable one to
end the semester worthily. Then all of us return home... SWEET HOME!!!!
We don't know when or where (if ever) we'll meet again, but one thing is sure. We influenced each other's lives and noone can take away all the fun, unforgettable and crazy moments that we
lived through and the bonds we made during these 15 weeks
A lump in my throat and a big smile on my face!
Even though sometimes it was tough to find time writing these entries, it was great to reflect every week on my experiences and I'm sure I'll miss it a bit... I hope some of you reading these
lines got inspired and will end up spending some amazing months in a foreign country and will have at least as much fun as I had! Take your chances and make the most out of them! You
won't regret it!!!!!!!!
With this last entry, I would like to wish you a heart-warming, joyful Christmas with your loved-ones and a new year full of laughter, new experiences, new friends and dreams
coming true!
17.07.2013 11:03
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Ciao!
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