5 Lessons Learned from Studying Abroad

Over the last year I have had the unique opportunity to not only attend MIP Graduate School of Business in Milan, but also was able to study for 2 weeks in beautiful Barcelona, Spain. The last year has been a wealth of experiences, lessons learned, challenges, and growing both personally and professionally. 

1) Learn from Other Cultures:

Studying in Milan and in Barcelona allows you to expand and grow by learning from and alongside students from all over the world

2) Travel, Eat, and Experience:

When visiting a new city or country, the first thing to do is try the local cuisine and look up all the amazing history and sights to see.  Barcelona is a wealth of experiences. Oh and the food is top notch!

3) Wealth of Knowledge from Professors:

When studying in a new city you are exposed to new professors and industry experts to learn from, as well as adding to your professional network.

4) Professional and Personal Networking:

Studying abroad allows you to meet, connect, and network with people from around the world, growing your network to have a wide reach. This is excellent for job search, knowledge, finding a mentor, etc

5) Cultural Differences:

Every culture is different and different cultures have different views and respond differently to marketing, advertising, new products, etc. Being able to learn about these differences is key in working for a Multi-National or Global Company.

When studying abroad, depending on where you come from, where you are going to, and how you look at and attack your time there will shape and define your experience. Make it unique and make it your own. 

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover.

- Mark Twain 

Grad School Adventures- "J'Adore Paris"

Bonjour!

Over Christmas my girlfriend Christine and I spend 3 very magical days in Paris. What a vibrant and amazing city. It was a great experience and a Christmas to remember! We decided not to plan too much of our trip to Paris ahead of time, until the night before. We googled things to do, outside of the obvious, Eiffel Tower, Louvre, Notre Dame, etc. We also are traveling on a budget, so we try to find things we can do for cheap or free. It is also a lot of fun to read blogs, and travel guides to get insider tips etc. For those who are planning a trip, make sure to allow time for things to not go as planned, and take it with a smile and not get upset. My Grandma Griggs once taught me that it is okay to get lost, that is where memories are made! We used to get in the car and drive and take turns telling her what direction to go next and just get lost. This is a great lesson when traveling; Allow yourself to get lost while traveling, you might just find some of the coolest places, and make the best memories by getting lost. 

We had a blast taking in the Eiffel Tower, walking the streets of Montmartre, and exploring Christmas Markets. Below is our adventure!

Paris was simply amazing, it was a wonderful, magical, and beautiful city. We absolutely enjoyed our 3 days in Paris and want to go back!

Our journey started on the morning of December 23rd, a date never to forget as it is Christine’s birthday. We got up at 6 am that morning to make our journey from the hotel in Munich, to catch a train to the airport and on our flight shortly after 8 am. We landed in Paris around 11 am and jumped on the AirFrance bus that shuttles you into Paris. That was a long bus ride as we were ready to be there and tired from an early morning of travel, finally around 1:30 pm we arrived to our AirBnB in Paris with a beautiful view of the Eiffel Tour out front of the building! We spent our first afternoon in Paris by stopping into a restaurant called Carmine and had a great burger for lunch and shared a bottle of delicious French wine in celebration of Christine’s birthday. We then made our way to the Eiffel Tower and wandered through a Christmas Market. As the sun started to set the Eiffel Tower was lit up and man, it was GORGEOUS! It was a great way to spend the afternoon/evening in such a beautiful city.

The next day we got up and grabbed a delicious Starbuck’s and headed on our journey to Montmartre famous as a “village of sin” from the movie ‘Moulin Rouge’ and is known as the Red Light District and the village of the artists. This is a beautiful part of the city across the river and is set up on hill. We started by wandering up the hill to the Basilique Du Sacre-Coeur (Basilica of the Sacred Heart). Cool story about this Church that we learned from my sister-in-law Kelly is that there are bullet holes in the side of the church. During one of the wars, this part of France was heavily bombed and much of the area was destroyed, except this church, which is why it is known as the Sacred Heart. We climbed up the 300 steps to the top of the dome to see beautiful views of the city as the sun started to come out. It was an awesome church and started our day off right. The night before I read a travel guide of Montmartre because I am a fan of Moulin Rouge and wanted to experience that part of the city, the guide goes on to explain how many tourist take the main road up, walk the stairs, tour the church, get pestered by artist sketching them, and come back down the way they came, “wondering what all the fuss was about”. The guide insisted that we get lost down the side streets and wander around as many famous artist once lived and were inspired in these streets. We started our trip down to find Picasso’s studio, there was only one other tourist that stumbled upon this cool piece of history and we took a picture for her, then Christine rubbed the door knob for some creativity from the great artist! From there, we travelled down Rue Lepic the major street of Montmartre that leads from the top of the hill to the river and stopped by Van Gogh’s apartment where he lived for 2 years. Again we took a few pictures and Christine rubbed the door handle for some inspiration and creativity. This was a very cool part of the trip for both of us as it was such a beautiful village and is not very travelled to by tourist as they all flock to the Louvre, Notre Damn Cathedral, and the Eiffel Tower. For her as an artist and a designer this was such an awesome experience and I could tell her creativity and spirit was buzzing from the energy there. We walked down to the bottom of the hill as it started to rain and we were hungry and craving a beer so we looked around at a couple places and decided to back track to a pub that Christine had pointed out called Pub Montmartre. We were just attracted to it for some reason and as soon as we walked in we knew we made the right decision! When we walked in everyone was standing around drinking wine and everyone was speaking French, which when you are traveling is what we always look for because you know that it is not a tourist trap and bound to be good food! The owner of the bar was working, he spoke very good English and took care of us. Christine had a great bowl of soup while I had the best bacon cheeseburger I have had abroad! As we were about to leave we notice a movie poster on the wall, “The Bridges of Madison County”, everywhere we go somehow we end up with some reference back to Iowa! It is crazy. After that we finally made it to Moulin Rouge! The area there is full of bars, pubs, hotels, sex shops, and other tourist shops and food joints. It was really cool to see this iconic landmark and added to my bucket list; see a show at the Moulin Rouge.

That afternoon did not turn out as planned as were trying to make our way to the Arc of Triumph and ended up across town at the newly built Great Arch. We decided that since we wanted to go to Notre Damn and check out the Church of Saint Chapelle, we went home to change and made our way to the other side of town. Once we got to St. Chapelle we realized that visits were now closed for the 5:30 mass. Christine was really disappointed because this church is one she studied about in school and she has always wanted to see. We headed over to Cathedral De Notre Dame- Paris which was full of armed guards, tourists, and church goers. We got in cue and made our way into the Cathedral to take our places for Christmas Eve Mass. This was such a wonderful experience and was really cool to attend mass in such a beautiful and iconic Cathedral. It was a great way to end the day, on our way home we walked over the Pont de L’Archeveche which is the bridge with all the locks where we saw a couple that had just gotten engaged. We made our way home trying to find a place to eat dinner on Christmas Eve, which is hard to do. We stopped into a restaurant and sat down, we both had a feeling about this place but it was the only lit up shop on the street so we went in anyway. Once we sat down we saw that Christmas dinner was 75 Euro, and most of it was fish (Christine is not a fan) so we embarrassingly got up and left and headed towards McDonald’s as I was getting hangry (hungry angry) at this point and just wanted something easy and cheap. As we got to McDonald’s I saw off to our right a sandwich shop with the cook sitting out front smoking a cigarette, so we changed course and had a very good and cheap meal of a cheeseburger and doner kebab for dinner. 

On Christmas day we got up and headed up to the Sommet of the Eiffel Tour. It was beautiful to see the city from the top. It is such a cool experience, minus that there are SO many people that bug you trying to sell you everything from sketches and selfie sticks, to laser pointers and Eiffel Tower replicas. We then walked to check out the pyramid at the Louvre and walked down Avenue Montaigne which was a beautiful street full of 5 star hotels and all the top designer stores, Gucci, Versace, Armani, Chanel, Yves Saint Laurent, and others. It was a really cool street similar to Montenapoleone in Milan. From there we wandered through their HUGH Christmas market on Avenue Des Champs Elysees and enjoyed some street food and finally making it to check out the Louvre which was pretty cool.  By this time after 6 days of exploring 2 amazing and beautiful cities we were exhausted, we headed back to pack up, take a small nap, and head to the airport back to Milan.

When we finally got back to Milan we were exhausted and thankful that for the first time in over a week, we did not have to wake up to any plans, or an alarm..!

I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas, Buon Natale, or as the French Joyeux Noel! I hope you have a Wonderful and Happy New Years! May 2016 bring you a year of blessings, joys, accomplishments, and happiness!

Feel free to connect with me if you haven't already on Facebook (Robby Napoli) on LinkedIn :https://it.linkedin.com/in/robert-napoli-a5839119 or on Twitter @RobbyNap.

Grad School Adventures: "Munich, Germany"

  

The Christmas Holidays have arrived, and my girlfriend Christine and I decided to do some traveling as we were not going to be going back home to the States. Our journey was set, plane tickets bought, and our hotel/AirBnB’s booked. We were off to spend 3 days in Munich and 3 days in Paris! 

Our initial thoughts about Germany:

• Friendly
• Helpful
• Clean
• Efficient
• Good Food
• Good Beer

*Everything in Germany was efficient, and always worked the way it was supposed to. It felt like being in a toy land as the buildings looked like they were freshly painted, everything was lined up and uniform, and everything was clean. Definitely a different look and feel from Italy just a hop, skip, and a jump away to the south.

We woke on the 20th with our bags packed and embarked on our journey to the airport. When we arrived at the airport we found out that Christine’s carry on was ‘too big’ and therefore had to check it, thanks easy jet. While waiting on our flight there were about a dozen bikers with Hells Angels cuts on waiting to board with us, we found this fun and a little intimidating as we are both big Sons of Anarchy fans. While waiting to board the couple in front of us turned around and said, “man its good to hear english”, we started chatting up this couple who were on an ‘extended’ vacation. They were a couple from Virginia, he was 31, she was 28, and they both decided to quit their jobs and travel Europe before starting a family. They were a fun couple to talk to and hear about their experiences as they had visited quite a bit of Northern Europe and had just finished up their tour of Italy and were headed to Germany for a week and then had a few other destinations before returning back to the States in January.

It really seems that when we travel we tend to meet some amazing people and we both enjoy learning about their experiences. Previously I had talked about a girl traveling Europe from Australia. It is amazing and humbling to talk and learn from fellow travelers, and hearing their experiences really make us believe in what we are doing by chasing our own dreams.

We landed in Munich around noon and made our way to find the train which was easy to find, we were looking at the ticket screen deciding which one to buy when a friendly German guy (he was a pig farmer and had no teeth but friendly none the less) helped us to find the ticket and offered to split a group rate with us making it cheaper for all of us, he did so then he walked with us a bit and pointed us in the direction of our hotel. Very friendly. We also noticed how clean and efficient the train system was. It was easy to understand the signage, you enter on the right always and exit on the left always (In Italy you never know if the doors will open on the left or right and your fighting to get out through the people trying to get on) It was a smooth ride, easy to stand and not fall over (Again in Italy you will go flying to the front of the car when the train begins to stop because they slam on the breaks). 

Once checking into our hotel we met up with one of Christine’s best friends from back in her hometown,Amanda, who used to live in Hamburg, Germany and knows a bit about Munich and it was nice having some people help us with German since we didn't know anything about the city. We spent the first day wandering around, checking out the awesome architecture (Christine loved as she is an Interior Design Student), and trying the different beers and food (which I enjoyed). The food in Bavaria was excellent, being a midwest boy we love our pork, and Germans do too! Win Win in the food department. 

The following day we when to Dachau, which was the first concentration camp and built as a model for all other concentration camps. It was mostly for political prisoners but was definitely horrific none the less. We walked through the city of Dachau to get to the camp and we were thinking about the people who lived there and what they must have thought. This camp was not secret; everyone knew it was there but supposedly the locals did not know the extent of what was going on in the camp. As the survivors of this camp said they wanted all the know and see and never forget about this place and I agree that it is important for all to understand. Our German friend couldn’t imagine why we would want to visit such a horrible place; it was hard to explain to her why it is important for us to see it. We saw the infamous gate which reads; “Work sets you free”, just behind it in the area for roll call and where the prisoners would stand and be tortured for hours. Many died there. We also got to see the inside of the barracks and how they must have lived. Lastly we went to the crematorium where of course the bodies were cremated (this is why I can’t believe no one knew, the smoke and the stench must have been horrendous) I found it interesting that the US military forced all the citizens of Dachau to look at the mound of bodies that were piled up outside the crematorium to see what had been going on there. It was definitely overall a moving experience. 

The following day we visited the Residenz which holds art and treasures of the royal Bavarian families. It was amazing and incredibly luxurious. We spent a good 2 1/2 hours wondering around the museum and listening to the audio guide. It was a wonderful way to spend our last day in Munich. That evening we met up with one of my classmates who is from Munich and her boyfriend and went out to dinner at a traditional Bavarian restaurant. They helped us by suggestions some awesome food and beers to drink, and then at the end of the meal we had a traditional after dinner ‘digestive’ shot of liquor. What a way to finish off our trip to Munich, hanging out with good company in a good local establishment!

We are so lucky to be able experience the world and travel, in doing so we really get a chance to learn and experience other cultures. Both of us are looking to get into international business in our respective fields, which is why we wanted to study abroad in Italy while getting our Masters Degree’s. These experience are helping us really understand what it means, and more importantly what it takes to establish meaningful cross cultural relationships. 

  

  

Grad School Adventures: "Rome"

“Rome”

They call it the “Eternal City”, and eternal and magical it is. I had the pleasure of spending 4 days in Rome last weekend and that was not enough time to spend in the city. There is something to be said about spending time in such a dirty city, where people and trash are everywhere, and public transportation is always packed and unreliable. But the city is full of wonders, it was for a long time in the history of the world, the center of civilization. From the moment we arrived you could feel the pulse and buzz of the city. They say that “all roads lead to Rome”, and it is true! In Europe there are over a 1/2 million roads that lead to Rome.

The architecture and food were amazing! I had the best Carbonara in Rome at a wonderful restaurant called Polese, located at Piazza Sforza Cesarini, 40 Roma. And bonus they had a framed note from the Iowa Hawkeyes Basketball team from a meal that they had while playing in Roma. Also Christine took me to this little Take Away Pizza Shop and it might have been the best pizza I have ever tried, and it is right across from what the Roman’s call the “Cat Sanctuary” which are ruins from 3 old temples, and is right across from the Theater where Caesar was stabbed before being carried to the Roman Forum.

While in Rome, Christine who had lived in Rome for a total of 8 months, was my tour guide. This was both good and bad as she had a lot of good insight, but also was so excited to show me everything that we were always on the move. We started off by visiting the Trevi Fountain, which was probably my favorite moment. It was gorgeous! I threw 3 coins in the fountain; the legend is 1 coin and you will return to Rome, 2 coins and you will find love, and 3 coins for marriage. We also visited Campo di Fiori, translated to English as “Field of Flowers” because the entire piazza was covered in flower boxes hanging from the windows as this was the place where unfortunately, people were burned at the stake. During the day it is an awesome fresh food market, and by night the area where many American students hang out one of the many cool bars in the piazza. 

In Piazza Navona there is a beautiful statue by Bernini that represents at the time, the 4 continents, Europe, Americas, Africa, and Asia. The piazza used to be a circus for water sports and now is a great artsy area. For those that may have seen the show “Rome” on HBO we visited the Aventine Hill, as well as visiting Capitoline Hill which features a HUGE Monument to Vittorio Emanuelle. This was built by Mussolini as his capital building which is known as the “wedding cake” building, and the piazza is where he held his military addresses and training.

Colosseum

Trevi Foun

We also visiting the Colosseum, the Pantheon, walked the streets of Trastevere, which is an area rich in culture where Christine lived while studying in Rome, as well as visiting the Jewish Ghetto, which is where ISU Rome Campus is located. This area still has strong Jewish roots as it was the area the Jewish were confined too during the 2nd World War. On our final day we visited Castle Sant’ Angelo and The Vatican and took in the beauty. It was absolutely gorgeous! They were setting everything up for the Jubilee which started the next day, and unfortunately were not able to tour it. 

Piazza Navona

It is hard to put into words the feeling you get from seeing these views and feeling the history everywhere. It was such an amazing experience and I cant wait to go back over New Years. Also while in Rome we hung out at a few pubs that Christine was familiar with from her time there called the Abbey Theatre and Scholars and I got to meet some of her awesome friends from her time there before. They were all extremely friendly and just a lot of fun to hang with. I have to say that when we left Rome we fully exhausted from long days of walking, and fun nights with friends. 

While there I met a very cool girl from Australia who was traveling Europe on her own and was feeling a bit lost (no physically but metaphorically) and I feel like I met her at the right time to help her see value in what she was doing but giving her some advice and letting her know about my story. We invited her out that evening with Christine’s friends and she had just the best time and ended up staying a few extra days in Rome. She happened to meet us at the time she needed it most, the Universe gave her the sign she needed. She is also a Marketing professional and she is interested in Grad School at MIP Polimi!

Pano of the Vatican Piazza

We also meet people from all over and have stories from our conversations with each one of them, but to me this is what traveling offers, rich experiences, and pure human interaction. Where people from all over the world can meet and share stories and bond and enjoy life. Traveling offers such a unique perspective and teaches you a lot about yourself and about others. I like many others used to say I will travel when I have the time, money, etc, but I am learning there really is no “perfect” time, you just have to do it! I am very thankful that I have this amazing opportunity not only to study in Italy, but also travel Europe. Once here it is very inexpensive to travel thanks to trains, Ryan Air, Easy Jet, public transportation, and AirBNB.

I challenge those who are thinking about taking a trip or to study abroad to do it. You will never regret doing it and taking the chance!

Awesome friends from the weekend at Scholar's Lounge

Christine and I in Piazza Venezia

Grad School Adventures Week 4- "Challenges"

Week 4: October 12-17th

Lesson of the Week: “As you enter the business field (first time/going back into) what value do you bring in regards to industry trends?”

This was a quote directly from one of the Executives from the Board of Directors for IBM Italia. We had an excellent seminar from IBM on the concepts of Big Data. Coming from the IT Staffing world, I spent a lot of time discussing with a large Forbes 100 company what their Big Data/ BI Strategy was and what they were looking to do. I find the concept of Big Data fascinating. I am not by any means a number guy, but the applications of Big Data and the tools that are developed/being developed to source, manage, and implement data that is relevant and useful. One of my passions is the concept of Digital Strategy and interactions online. With the use of Twitter and Facebook, businesses can launch a campaign of a new product line with a #IT (for example) and the consumers can use that to talk about that product, ie; “In line waiting to buy a new #IT” “I am loving my new #IT” or “#IT was not what I expected, very little updates or features added, #overhyped”. The company could use tools or booleans to simply search #IT on Twitter and Facebook and hone in on how customers react, and can make move accordingly. It is fascinating how a simple # has changed the face of social media marketing for business and consumers. 

In regards to the lesson, I think that for anyone looking to move jobs, change careers, or walk into an interview should prepare and walk in with this mindset. After working in staffing over the last 5 years, I have learned how to interview people, build resumes, and set people up for success. But as I was looking at my CV and working on it, I realized it has been a very long time since I was on the other end. I have spent a lot of time and with a little help of MIP Career Services, have been able to concisely and accurately present my experience. I have never felt more confident about my CV!

Switching gears, I have had the opportunity while in Italy to join an American Football Team, the Milano Seamen, and join as a Coach. I have been practicing with them during their offseason training to help coach and show techniques etc. It has been a fun experience for me to teach the game I love to a culture that does not understand or embrace it as largely as we do in the States. It has been a great way to connect to the culture and language and using it to help improve my Italian skills.

The one thing that people in blogs, and travel articles, magazines, etc don't tell you, is how hard it is to move abroad. The first few weeks were a blur sure, we had our challenges, but you still are in that “vacation” feeling phase. It is not for everyone, you have to be able to adapt and rely on yourself. You have to immerse yourself and build a network from scratch. If you are willing to overcome the fear of being afraid to try and fail and you put yourself out there, moving to another country is a rewarding and fulfilling experience and will really improve you as a person and in my case it has improved my relationship with Christine. It has allowed us to grow stronger personally and as a couple.  Understand that living abroad has so much to offer and is extremely rewarding, but those rewards are not without risk and struggle. Nothing worth having or experiencing is easy. 

*Christine and I took an amazing day trip up to Lake Como and visited 2 small beautiful Italian towns, Varenna and Bellagio,  located around a Lake at the base of the Swiss Alps. The views were absolutely stunning, definitely a must go if you are in Milano and want a day trip out of the city that is extremely affordable, the train tickets were 12 euros each for round trip! While in Varenna, I ran into an old friend from back in elementary school that I haven't seen in 20 years by chance. We live in a big beautiful world that has a way of being so small at times. When you travel, you will be amazed at how dynamic this great big world is. 

Grad School Adventures Week 3- "Communication"

Week 3- October 4-11

Lesson of the week:

When walking on the sidewalk you have to keep your head on a swivel, and be looking left, right, up, and down, all at the same time!

Reason being: 1) the sidewalks are never even, 2) they are never the same size, 3) there are a ton of cafes and bars with patio furniture and patrons to be aware of, 4) there a ton of people walking, with animals, and 5) poop, there is not a lot of green space and aforementioned about people walking pets. Oh and pigeons, they are everywhere!

Week 3 has started to level off from being a blur to a feeling of normality. It is still crazy at this point to think that I am not just vacationing in Milan, I LIVE here! Milan is a beautiful city full of energy, fashion, and culture. Being the center of the fashion world it is not uncommon to see a photo shoot happening, oh say on the steps coming out of the metro. It is not uncommon for a guy in sweats on his way to a workout to walk through said photo shoot due to not paying attention to my full surroundings as I try to figure out exactly where I am going. 

By this point we have had the ability to see some of Milan's famous sights including the Duomo Cathedral and checked out a few of its trendy shopping districts. But Milan has a hidden sense of culture, for example in Rome, pretty much everything is historical and has a story. In Milan you could pass a building or church with beautiful architecture and say "oh that's cool" but not be fully aware of what it is you are looking at. I am really looking forward to learning more about this city and all of its secrets and Christine has signed us up for a city tour in early November to do just that!

Growing up I played football throughout high school and in college, and then proceeded to play 5 years of Semi-Professional football for a team called the Des Moines Blaze where we recored a recored of 56-2 with 5 Midwest Football Alliance League Titles and 1 National Championship. So after reading "Playing for Pizza" by John Grisham it was only natural for me to explore that option here in Milan. Milan has 2 American Football Teams, the historic Milano Rhinos, and the current Back to Back Italian Football League Champion Milano Seamen. Unfortunately the Rhinos never called me back, but the Seamen did, and although they already have their 2 imports (former Division 1 Sacramento State QB, and a SS from New Mexico) I am able to continue my love for the game by training with them and helping out on the Coaching Staff. It is amazing that I get to help a culture who does not embrace American Football and help promote it within my small (soon to be large) network in Milan. I also think it will be a great way to use football to help lower the language barrier and improve my Italian. I have a goal to leave Italy speaking the language. 

Week 2 in class has been straight into working in groups and getting our hands dirty. We have a visiting Professor from Germany in for a few days teaching a lesson on STP or Segmentation, Targeting, and Positioning. Over 3 days we went through the process to first segment a market into opportunities, then choose a target(s) market, and our overall positioning. This was done through choosing a specific product. Our group chose the GoPro camera and broke down our STP. I felt like this was a great project, and it was fun to use a hip product as GoPro to learn and create. I tried searching for our presentation so that I could attach as an example, but am unable to find on my Mac. 

One of the challenges in the group work was communication. As English is the universal language of business, and the language used in class we can all communicate effectively. But as you know if you have worked with folks form other backgrounds what you say is not always what is heard or perceived and of course there are language barriers within the language based on how you learned and what you do or do not know. This first lesson was very eye opening and really something you cannot replicate in a classroom, unless your classroom has many different backgrounds. I learned that this is and will always be a challenge of working in International Business and one that I am getting the opportunity to learn, adapt, and hone this skill first hand. 

When it comes time to interview with a International or Global Company and they ask what your experience is working with or in other countries/cultures, how will you be able to answer? What does your Global Network (if you have one) look like? Where and in what field do you want your career to look like?

*Attached are a few photos of our Week 3 adventures including the Basilica of Sant' Ambrogio which is absolutely gorgeous! We also went out to a club with a few of our friends from class and got to see what the Milanese Night Life was all about!

Basilica of Sant'Ambrigio

An old church that was transformed into a beautiful night club

Nightclub Il' Gattopardo

Grad School Adventures- Week 2- "Back to the Basics"

Week 2: September 28th-October 4th

Lesson of the Week: 

"Life is pretty simple: You do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works. If it works big, others quickly copy it. Then you do something else. The trick is the doing something else."

-Leonardo Da Vinci

Week 1 was a blur, week 2.. still a blur, but things are starting to slow down as I get used to my new life in Italy. Back in the States I had a 2 bed 2 1/2 bath townhouse, a car, a large social network, and very good paying job. Life was comfortable. Through week 2 everything has been uncomfortable, but it is a good uncomfortable. In order to be successful we have to push ourselves outside of our comfort zone. A lot of stress was relieved once getting through all the paperwork needed to stay in Italy. I was able to quickly master the train and metro system, now to figure out the trams and buses, small victories though. We were able to add some personal touches on our (very) small but quaintly cosy apartment on the 4th floor. The slanted ceilings cause some annoyances but the apartment is comfortable with red tile floors and natural wood beams and the exposed brick, a traditional Milanese apartment!

The title of week 2 was "Back to the Basics" for the fact that the first week of classes is Marketing 101. Most anyone who took an Intro to Marketing class would be able to get through the first real week of classes. This intro is great as there is a good number of students who do not come from a Marketing background, and for those of us that do have a Marketing background, it is a good review. Also looking back at this after spending 5 years in business and coming back to school to learn, I really look at the material in a much different way. 

One the greatest things for me is meeting and learning about my classmates. We are a very diverse group and to get to know them is EXACTLY why I chose to study abroad. It is very easy to sit in a classroom and talk about a global economy and the importance of International Marketing and learn from a book. That is the science of it, the art of Marketing really comes from immersing yourself in the culture, learning and experiencing the culture, something that you can't replicate in a class room. I am very excited about where I stand in regards to my previous knowledge and the experience I bring and being able to really participate in the class. We have some extremely smart and intuitive peers so I really believe that this will be a beneficial experience. 

I read an article on the Iowa Hawkeyes and how after getting embarrassed last year in their bowl game against Tennessee, they challenged themselves to be better. They chose the book "The Slight Edge" to do this. Every week one of the upper-classmen were in charge of leading a presentation/discussion on what the lesson was. Hence my inspiration for the lesson of the week. I read this book back in undergrad, and it is a very good book and it is incredibly interesting to see how a team has implemented it to create a culture. This brings my point about being uncomfortable full circle. It is one thing to read, learn, and talk about something, but it is another thing to actually act upon it. Thus the reason I chose to leave the States, a beautiful townhouse, a strong social network, and high paying job to do something that makes many others uncomfortable. I am excited about this journey and what it will do for me professionally and personally. I am even luckier that I have someone here to experience this with [my girlfriend]. Everyone wants to do something great, but only a few are willing to actually do it. 

For any of those reading this that are interested in Graduate School and getting their MBA or Master's I challenge you to really research and think about what you want to get out of the experience. Yes that piece of paper is nice to have, but if you have seen the movie "21" when the main character is interviewing for a scholarship in the top school, he is asked; what makes him unique, what dazzles about him and his experience? If you are looking to interview for your dream job, what will your story be?

*Attached are some pictures of Milano, it is a beautiful city!