Good Old Fun Around Paderno!

Since the travel break (and two events before), we have had a lot of stuff going on!

Starting with two events that actually occurred before my last post, we have had our Kepner-Tregoe Certification class and our third town hall meeting. The Kepner-Tregoe class was an extension of what I described in an earlier post. We had two additional two hour classes to fulfill the certification requirement. This is optional for some while it was mandatory for LEAP students. I would really recommend doing it, however, as it does give you important decision making tools and looks great on the resume! The other event before the travel break was the town hall meeting. This covered logistics for the rest of the semester and was painless. An interesting twist on it was when we had the opportunity to vote on superlatives. It was kind of fun to vote on who is most likely to get kicked out of Oktoberfest, end up in a foreign jail, change the world, and more. We shall see who wins in our own personal yearbooks!

Since being back we have also had a lot of events going on. I attended the history of the wine industry seminar with Dr. Ringleb on Monday. It was really interesting to hear about why red wine is red, why certain glasses are used for certain wines/champagnes, and the effects of cheese on wine. Who would have thought that an aged cheese consumed with red wine actually hides taste flaws in the wine? I guess you learn something new every day! Additionally, we tasted three different wines including the famous chianti wine of the Tuscan region. We learned why different wines are tasted with certain foods as well, which was quite interesting.

After a little wine history we had the option to go to intramural volleyball. Let’s just say volleyball isn’t my forte (so I passed on this one), but a lot of others talked about how it was their favorite intramural thus far.

This week also featured LEAP’s third and final leadership competency workshop. This workshop was on ethics, where we did a variety of individual and group work. I know that sounds like business, protocol, and communication (foundations of business) all over again, but they make it interesting for you here. There was also the opportunity to set up an optional fourth coaching session for LEAP, which I did also.

Other things going on this week were optional things put on by Phi Beta Delta. In fact, they called it Phi Beta Delta week. There was a movie night with the Italians where we watched The Hangover. Don’t worry it was in English and there were Italian subtitles on it. I must say I do miss my movies here. Also, there were two community service opportunities to attend. Again, just more opportunities to make a difference and build up that resume. You could either pick up trash around Paderno or paint benches on campus for these opportunities.

My favorite thing about this week was add a seat to the table! (see the family above). It has been one of my favorite things I have done…so definitely do it. Basically this is where you go to an Italian household and they provide dinner for you. I had a really nice family that lived in Castelfranco right outside an old castle. It was a really nice place and an even better dinner/experience! We ate like kings with a five course meal including cheese nut pasta basted in a nut sauce, a gourmet salad, a chicken and rice dish, gelato topped in tons of chocolate sauce and blueberries, and fruit. I was full to say the least, haha. And the father had us try some of the nicest prosecco the region has to offer. They spoke great English and we talked about all the differences from the states to Italy to Berlin (where they have also lived). They also had the cutest four year old son who requested I play with him in his room for about twenty minutes. No one else was allowed in the room, haha. We colored and played with tech decks…it brought back some good memories. After we went out (with just the student) around the town and met up with some of her friends at their favorite hangout. We stayed until about 10:30 and then headed back to the institute where reality set in (I had a test the following day, haha). But it was definitely worth it!

The final two events that have gone on include company tours and the Canova temple trip. On Thursday morning we had the opportunity to split up and tour different Italian companies. This was cool to see how these companies operate. Some people went to a pasta company (and got 4 things of pasta…kind of jealous), while others went to an idea engineering company, and I went to a manufacturing company named Breton. They manufacture huge machines, stone, engines, and more, and they had the largest factory I have ever seen. A cool fact was that they had just finished something for Kirkorsky Helicopters (I don’t know how to spell it) in the states. We saw it all packaged up and ready to go. They also produce for Boeing, Jaguar, and Red Bull Racing. The sales manager (1 of 3) for the machine department led us around. As I said they have three sales managers for the entire world! He said he is traveling over 250 days a year, which is amazing. Smaller family owned businesses are common here even for bigger companies I found. Since we had this tour in the morning of one of the school days we actually had the classes we missed in the morning on Saturday. This is the only time you will have classes on Saturday. They did set up a trip for us after though to the Canova Temple in the near area!

Well, a night off tonight and then back at it for three days before our final long travel weekend! I’m licking my lips for Prague!