My biggest accomplishment is living three different lives in Italy, one more than Hannah Montana. The students at Paderno have two different class schedules: A-Days on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday and B-Days on Tuesday and Thursday. The third life, you ask? Well, that’s whatever happens traveling on the weekends.
As we approach CIMBA’s semester halfway mark, the travel week, our A and B classes will flip days. So, I am taking full advantage of having Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays off. However, one of those three days, I push myself to wake up at 8:00 am, brush my teeth, and shower before breakfast. Breakfast is only served from 8:30-8:30 am, so I usually get down there with 10 minutes to spare.
Italians are huge on sweets for breakfast, contrasting my interest in bacon, scrambled eggs, and chocolate chip pancakes. My newly developed Italian palate now craves meat and cheese accompanied by yogurt, a chocolate croissant, and two hard-boiled eggs. The time between breakfast and my Resident Assistant office hours is strictly for cleaning my room and/or watching Law and Order SVU. After figuring out the culprit, I then hold my office hours at the CIMBA main office.
After office hours, I look forward to eating my pasta with either steak or chicken at lunch in the cafeteria. During lunch, I have a good time talking to my friends or practicing my atrocious Italian with some of the school’s high school and middle school students.
My A-Day classes consist of “Introductory to Financial Management” and “Italy Live,” expanding my knowledge of finance and the Italian language and culture. After these classes, I usually work on homework. Wednesday is traditionally my laundry day. However, it can vary between laundry and playing 5v5 indoor basketball. Since it is starting to get warmer in the 50°F’s (10°C in Italy), my friends and I have been playing late-night basketball outside. After completing three Apple Watch rings playing basketball, I end the day eating some dinner with more pasta. My procrastination has finally caught up with me at this point in the day, so I finally do my homework and study for upcoming tests and quizzes. Even though I like to get all my schoolwork for the week done at once, my procrastination limits me to finishing my assignments shortly before it’s due.
Staring my B-Day classes are far more difficult than my A-Day classes, considering I wake up two hours earlier. The silver lining to waking up for my B-Day classes is that it forces me to wake up for breakfast at 8:00 am, followed by my morning class, International Management, at 8:45 am. Luckily, the CIMBA classes have a short break halfway in to prepare me for my next class, Entrepreneurial Strategy. My two classes are then followed by lunch then my final class, Consumer Behavior. Once I get done with all my classes, I try to make it to the gym. However, I sometimes take a nap and wake up fifteen minutes before dinner.
My break activities vary between how I feel during the day, whether A or B. For example, a scoop of gelato thirty minutes away is sometimes well deserved after a long day. Other times, I will go to the sports bar for a nice glass of white wine and conversation. Sometimes, during my lunch break, I stop by the tabacchi (equivalent to a small convenient store) to grab some deodorant, Pringles, and cards.
Lately, the CIMBA program has been coordinating great cultural activities to keep the students engaged. Our most recent activity included playing sports with local Italian high school students. Wow, can those kids play soccer! Along with immersing ourselves in the Italian culture, a couple of weeks ago, we had our first authentic Italian gourmet dinner, which was an insane experience trying new dishes and executing proper gourmet etiquette.
Weekdays are always something new in Paderno. CIMBA has done a great job in keeping the students on their toes, keeping us wondering which activity we will take on next. As travel week is just around the corner, our classes will switch, but our excitement for new activities stays the same.