Soaking it all in: EWAPs, Hiking Mt. Grappa, Company Visits, Carnevale, and MORE!

I cannot believe that my semester at CIMBA is already half-way completed.  I still remember the first week, meeting all my new classmates, making sense of the hectic schedule, and frantically organizing travel plans.  Now, it seems that we have known each other for a much longer time than 6 weeks, the first week schedule is easy compared to our weekly workload currently, and all my travel trips are planned out for the second-half of the semester.  That being said, I will admit that it was not until this past week that I truly appreciated what CIMBA and Paderno del Grappa have to offer.  I participated in two Evenings with a Professor (EWAPs), attended my first LEAP coaching session, hired real employees from Bangladesh for my management project, visited and analyzed a glass company, ate lunch with a professor Friday afternoon and hiked Mt. Grappa with another professor and classmates following lunch, went to the local pizzeria that evening, attended Il Carnevale on Saturday, and even went to a Sunday mass at the local church!  Some of these activities were new for me, but, once again, the theme here is to push your limits and you will get so much more out of your study abroad experience. So, about those EWAPs I mentioned…

The first EWAP (Evening with a Professor for those who maybe skimmed the first paragraph) took place on Monday evening.  I had signed up in the office to do Wine Tasting, but as a result of my coaching session, I was not aware that the bus departure time moved to 10 minutes earlier so I missed my bus!  Thankfully, the MBA students who assist the undergraduates are very helpful and Manuel (one of the MBA students) made sure I was able to attend another EWAP that night: pizza making in Asolo!  The pizzeria we attended for this event was usually closed on Mondays, but the owner opens his doors for the CIMBA students.  I had never met someone as passionate about pizza as this man.  For an hour and a half, he took us through the process to create the BEST pizza.  He did not speak a lick of English which made it even more entertaining as his body language conveyed his emotions more so than any translation.  Numerous times throughout the night he jokingly told us to leave his store because we did not know the key ingredients to make a good pizza.  He pretended to be heartbroken when he learned that some of us had eaten microwaved pizza back in the States!  Finally, it was our turn to make our own, customized pizzas!  With his guidance, we created an assortment of personal pizzas in teams of three.  He recommended artichokes for my pizza to complement my meat choices and it was squisito.  Not to toot my own horn, but it was the most mouthwatering  pizza I have ever tasted!  There was something about his dough, perhaps the olive oil, that really made the flavors pop in my mouth.  I told the owner that I will be returning in the near future!

The second EWAP  I attended was by pure chance.  As I was helping my friend sign-up for the EWAP in the main office, I learned that I had mail.  I was a Valentine’s day card from my parents in which they left me a gift of some Euro.  It just so happened that the amount of Euro they gave me was the same amount to attend the EWAP so I signed my name up as well!  This EWAP was for a three-course (more like 5 course!) meal at an agriturismo.  An agriturismo, by law, is a restaurant that must produce at least 80% of its food on its own land. As you may have assumed, this means the food was unbelievably good!  We were first served gnocchi in white cheese sauce dish followed by a thick spaghetti in a darker nut sauce. Best pasta ever, hands down, no comparison (sorry dad). Imagine the best pasta you have tasted and now imagine that it was the same pasta, but naturally grown from the land outside wherever you ate it and served fresh.  Following the pastas, an assortment of vegetable dishes were placed on our table to compliment the large meat dishes that followed.  There were potatoes, spinach, onions, chicken, sausages, and even ribs.  All of which were tossed with specific herbs and seasonings to create a tastebud paradise.  Meanwhile, the students were enjoying each others company and learning more about our professor.  I forgot to mention that with the pizza making as well.  Not only do we eat great food, but these EWAPs were great opportunities to get to know our professors and learn some valuable advice that cannot be learned in a classroom.  Once again, I want to give a shout out to my parents because that was an awesome night!

My first LEAP coaching session was surprising.  I had expected to meet my coach and dive into tips and methods I could use to accomplish the goals I had written.  Instead, it involved me digging deeper into myself than I had ever done before and getting past the uncomfortableness to discover what really is the reason that I am not accomplishing all that I want in life.  I found that I felt that I knew the answer the entire time, but I had dig through many layers/barriers to pull it out of me before I could admit what was holding me back to myself.  It was as if I was shielding myself from the underlying cause and refused to accept it as true.  Deep, I know, but it is hard to describe the sensation of digging through self-barriers to understand yourself!  Thankfully, my coach was right there with me and kept me on track.  I do not think it would have been possible with out my coach by my side.  Right before I acknowledged the underlying self-obstacle that I want to improve for this semester, I felt a tightness in my chest.  This feeling quickly subsided and changed into relief after I knew the answer.  It was a strange process, but one that is definitely worth taking in my opinion.

Now onto two events on the business career side for this week: hiring my first Virtual team employee and visiting the manufacturing floor of a glass company.  For our Intro to Management project, we are required to outsource certain parts of our project using Odesk.com.  Thus, we had to create a job description, sort through applicants, interview, and ultimately hire an applicant and give them their work instruction.  The process was much more time intensive than I expected, but my partner and I were finally able to surpass the language barriers and learning curve to make, what we think, was the correct decision. Some pitfalls we had to overcome include outsourcing our thinking(resulting in high wage prices), scheduling overlapping interview times, dealing with language barriers, our first Skype interviews, negotiating payroll, and creating a process to identify the best candidate.  So far our employee, Roksana, has performed well and it is the coolest thing to be able to say that I am managing a virtual team.  I wonder what employers will think of THAT on my resume…

Visiting the manufacturing floor of Veneto Vetro, a large family owned glass company in the region, was another great learning experience.  Veneto Vetro produces high-quality glass products for marine vehicles, buildings, cars, etc.  For my operations management class we not only visited the company, but also we were required to evaluate the company’s operations.  This added a whole new dimension to the tour.  Instead of passively listening as the manager explained Veneto Vetro’s operation processes, we were actively searching and asking questions to gather information about their visual management system, inventory lead time and work-in-progress, safety, supply chain efficiency, etc.  It made the tour much more interesting and I feel that the manager gained respect for the CIMBA students from the thoughtful questions that we asked him.  I left the company visit with more appreciation for the complicated process involved with manufacturing high-quality glass and a much clearer understanding of what it means to be an operations manager!

As I hinted to in the EWAPs, one of the highlights of the CIMBA program is the approachability of the professors.  They are not here solely to lecture us on axioms and theorems, but also want to get to know us and genuinely care about helping us succeed.  My Friday afternoon perhaps will communicate best my point.  On Friday, classes ended at noon and we had the afternoon free to travel or hang around campus.  Knowing this earlier in the week, members in my management group and I had scheduled a lunch meeting with our management professor, Professor Ancona, for a corporate coaching session to ask project questions.  He complied and even accepted my somewhat awkward proposal to drive us to a tasty pizzeria for the lunch.  During lunch, he answered our management questions, but was open to discussion outside of class topics.  We spoke about his real life experiences, our own experiences, our favorite foods, personal lives, etc.  It was obvious that he was interested in learning more about us and wanted us to be successful.  I know I took much more valuable information out of our lunch discussion than I have in the majority of the classes I have taken in college.

Following lunch, my international economics professor, Professor Kline, drove me and a few classmates to the base of Mt. Grappa to hike!  Friday morning he had sent out an email to his students asking who would be interested to hike the mountain that afternoon.  I informed him that I had already scheduled a lunch with another professor, but I did want to hike in the future.  I expected to have to wait until next time, but he worked around my schedule and made sure I was able to attend by driving in the opposite direction to pick me up (hence why I am wearing a button-up shirt in the pic)!  I am thankful that he did because hiking Mt. Grappa may have been my favorite experience in Paderno del Grappa thus far.  The mountain was beautiful (and much steeper than I thought!) and the hike offered a great opportunity to  bond with other CIMBA students.  The coolest part of the hike was the “psychedelic” view from the mountain.  We had walked high enough that we had entered the mist so when we looked out from the mountain it appeared as it the landscape was pulsing!  It was “trippy” to say the least.

My group decided to take an easy weekend and did a day trip to Venice for Il Carnevale on Saturday.  I am glad we went because Venice was alive with brightly colored costumers and masks galore!  It was the second weekend of Il Carnevale and next weekend will be the third and final weekend.  My advice is to attend during the Wednesday through the actual day of Il Carnevale  because that is when the majority of the festivities are and when more locals wear masks.  This weekend, while it was still fun, it was primarily tourists who were wearing the masks.  Also, I heard of all-night Kings & Queens masked balls during this time period that sound like a blast (if you have the 500 or so euro to attend that is)!  On Sunday, I did something completely out of the ordinary and attended mass at the Paderno del Grappa church.  I am not very religious, but my friend wanted to go and I told him I would tag along to soak in the culture.  I am glad I did as it was an exceptional cultural experience and, with intense focus, I was able to decipher the theme of the sermon (as it was in the Italian language) – to turn the other cheek and not strike back.

There you have it.  Another week at CIMBA and another week of new experiences and lasting memories.  Upcoming is the second travel weekend which means that Seamus and I will be touching down in Istanbul, Turkey on Wednesday night!  Looking forward to a travel experience like no other and the plentiful stories I will have for my blog post.  Elveda! (Turkish for goodbye for now!)