How to Maximize your Time at CIMBA
Written by Madison June 20, 2017
Got to make some Gnocchi!
On our company tour for statics
Last day of classes and I got to go up to Mt. Grappa!
Going through Bassano for Statics!
Managing time:
Now managing time might seem like something easy but when you are abroad in another country it’s a lot different than being at home. One big difference is that when you arrive in Italy there is a large time difference, 6 hours for me and 7 hours for many others. When arriving on campus there isn’t a week to get situated to the time difference, so you must plow through and hope that your body can keep up. Here are some tips I used in order to manage my schedule and maximize the time I had at CIMBA.
Tip number one: Use your schedule
On the first day I was given a schedule with class times and different trips and activities they offer throughout the four weeks. With the given schedule, I read through it and went through each week highlighting my classes and different events I wanted to do. This helped because each week the schedule changed based on the classes your blocks were in. With the highlighted schedules, I would then take a picture of each week so I could reference it on my phone whenever I needed to. It worked out well when I wanted to see if I was going to an event like pasta making or had an 8 am class for that week.
Tip number two: Take advantage of as many opportunities as you can
While traveling on the weekends, the time can pass by extremely quickly. That’s why you need to take advantage of everything you can. Even if you will be tired, you aren’t in Europe everyday. I know that I have been so tired, sometimes I question whether or not I should go to a pasta making class or on a trip to Bassano by night. I know on the last week I almost missed the trip up to Mt. Grappa, but I’m glad it got rescheduled because I would have been sad if I came to Paderno and didn’t get to go to the top of Mt. Grappa. By pushing through and going on these trips, they ended up being some of my favorite memories!
Tip number three: Go to class
I know this may sound like a no brainer but some of the best things I got to do were actually during class. For my Italy live class, we went into town multiple times to practice our Italian. I thought this was great because it tested what we learned in the classroom but in a real-world situation. Then for statics we went into Bassano and drew free body diagrams and found other things that related to statics like trusses, two force members, and more. I think it was great that we had the opportunity to get out of the classroom and explore Italy but at the same time learn about the topics in our classes. This was definitely a good use of my time because at home we would have never left the classroom to learn different topics.
Overall, this program is what you make of it. It can be frustrating at times and the work is definitely hard but the time will go by fast. Just stay positive and enjoy your time in Italy because this is a great program with great people. Before you know it, the time will pass faster then you would ever think. I’m glad I was able to maximize my time and take advantage of everything I could in order to get the most out of my time in Italy.
