and term 1 (our lives with homework) begins

Since term 1 has started (this past Monday), I've slept a total of probably 17 hours in 4 nights. The excitement and newness is keeping me from getting stressed out, but adjusting to life again with school (vs. work) homework is a process! LOTS of reading.... for all seven of my term 1 core classes: Managerial Economics, Marketing Fundamentals, Entrepreneurial Management, Organizational Behavior, Information Systems, and the numbers classes as I'm calling them (even though all the classes involve numbers), Quantitative Analysis and Financial Accounting. 

I can't say which is my favorite yet (we just started!), but I'm pretty sure I will learn a great deal from all of them. I'm looking forward to getting to know my group mates better, to writing a business plan, to being able to develop strategy using tools I could never have understood before like income statements or human resources frameworks, and to learning - I like being smart!

I think where I'll have to concentrate on managing my stress, more so than with schoolwork, is the job search. It's hard not to compare yourself to others. And, even though Career Services and the students from the previous intakes make you feel positive, like the opportunities are out there and you just have to grab them, internship and job applications add a whole new layer of homework. My short-term strategy: 1. Keep meeting new people. They keep telling us to network for a reason - every day I feel like I meet someone new who worked for a consulting firm or company I'm interested in. 2. Get a million emails sent! This weekend. Now I need to follow up with these people I've met, and with all the Georgetown and IE alums available to me online via alumni databases. Another recurring piece of advice I've heard over and over again at my short time at IE is to ask good questions. If I ever get any of these informational interviews, they'll be my first chance to ask some of those excellent questions to figure out what company fits me...

The during-the-week partying has definitely died down, although tonight I attended a big, important party - Thanksgiving! Ingredient shopping, cooking, and ticket sales took up a bit of my reading time this first week, but I love this holiday, so it was definitely worth it. Two out of the three previous years I was living in Torino, I brought the Thanksgiving experience to my co-workers in Italy. That involved pie baking the weekend before, planning out each night what I could cook ahead of time and where I could store everything in the fridge, reserving at the local butcher shop a turkey (because they had to go out an hunt me one, not a typical thing to sell/buy whole Turkeys in Italy), and taking Thursday off work to complete the masterpiece. Last year in Torino and this year in Madrid I collaborated with a group effort - much more fun, and fewer dishes to cook! This year, I am thankful for many things - the health of everyone in my family, the support of my boyfriend, but most of all, for having had the sense to choose this great 13 month experience at IE and to have met some pretty cool people so far. 

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!!!

my favorite gelato and a book presentation

I'm still in Italy, and in the past few days I returned to Torino once again to visit my old co-workers. The first stop I made, however, was to my favorite gelateria (ice cream parlor) GROM. Their flavors are so rich and distinct, I believe, because of the high quality products they use. This time I had their crema di Grom (crema or cream ice cream is essentially custard), ricotta con fichi canditi (ricotta cheese with candied figs), and marron glacé (candied chestnuts). Their flavors vary according to what's seasonal in each month of the year. GROM is definitely a business I'd like to study more in depth. From their website:

"The idea is to apply to the artisanal gelato production, a principle common to all the best restaurants in the world: the purchase of absolute top quality raw materials.
With this purpose in mind, at the end of 2002, Guido Martinetti and Federico Grom set out to search the best that agriculture has to offer, from the Langhe to Sicily and Central America. The standards are strict: only fresh seasonal fruit, coming from the best consortia in Italy and from our farm Mura Mura no colorings or artificial additives, Lurisia mountain water for the sorbets and high-quality whole milk for the creams, organic eggs and a selection of the best cocoas and coffees from central America."

They started in Torino and in the last few years have expanded across Italy, to Paris, and even to New York. While they use biodegradable and environmentally friendly products, my question is, with their geographic expansion, how do they make up for the carbon footprint of transporting all these green products?

This is one example of why I think it would be extremely interesting to study supply chain management if I want to be able to consult on corporate social responsibility initiatives.

What else did I do this weekend? I went to the presentation of a very interesting book called Essere Maschi (To Be Males). The event was part of a series of seminars in a conference put on by the group Maschìle Pluràle, an association of men that now has chapters all over Italy. The group formed partly in response to the feminist movement in Italy in the 1980s to help men "find places and instruments to start a research on their identity, on their relations with women and with other men, on their place in the world, on the perception they have inherited from their bodies, and on their sexuality" (translated from their website). The title of this weekend's conference in Torino was "That dark object desire: the male sexual imagination and the issue of prostitution." My former employer, the Tampep Association, was involved in the events because we help victims of human trafficking forced into the European sex trade. The book Essere Maschi by Stefano Ciccone addresses all these issues. It was interesting because during my three years at Tampep we had always sought to involve more the male perspective, especially to help us reach out to the clients of the women we helped. Hopefully this joint event has helped Tampep in laying down the groundwork for future projects. In addition to all I learned about working with the public sector and about project theory, development, and management, I think my time with this NGO will really help me in business. Working as they say "on the grassroots level" really gives one perspective on all the many various stakeholders in social and commercial phenomena and on the importance of detail in implementing any project that aims for social change.

practicing being a businesswoman / fashionista for life

So I'm back in Italy again! Sorry for anyone reading who thought that this was going to be about Spain - I promise, it will be!

This week I've been helping my boyfriend and his brother design some bijoux for their stores. It was fun to see the immediate turn around. I designed 10 or so pins for women's scarves or coats, and five were sold the next morning! Last spring when I visited Madrid to check out neighborhoods, I also helped the bf buy merchandise from the wholesalers south of Sol. I also went with him a month ago to the MACEF trade fair in Milan. He left yesterday for China to stock up on the newest beads and bijoux. 

Watching my boyfriend and his brother start their jewelry businesses from the ground up motivated me in part to apply to business school. Through their eyes I've learned a little bit about the bureaucracy of opening a business in Italy. More fascinating still, I've seen what they pay for earrings or necklaces that I might have bought for 10 times the price or more if I didn't have them to supply me... It's really interesting to enter the world that goes on behind the small business, to see where they get what gets put on the shelf.

Fortunately, I don't like about 1/2 - 3/4 of what my boyfriend sells, so I don't steal too many possible sales from him :) I've learned to head his advice when going with him to buy wholesale: don't get what you like, get what those "boring, fad-following, tacky" teenagers or ladies like, because that's what's in the market, that's what sells, and that's what's paying the bills! So that's why five of my pins sold yesterday, I didn't make anything I'd actually want (I did that this morning hehe), I made designs I thought would sell, and so they did! Of course there are business where that's not the case, but that's not what my boyfriend nor his brother are currently dealing in.

Too bad I don't want to go into jewelry design... it was just diversion for a day for me. My ideal small business would definitely involve food... This weekend, we attended the local chocolate festival, and thank God I can't find the names of the vendors because I'd be way too tempted to seek them out and buy more absolutely amazing chocolate. Believe me, I've had my fill for awhile.

This morning, I delivered some new merchandise to my boyfriend's shop in Genova and sat down for lunch to enjoy some testaroli al pesto. Genova and the Ligurian region in general is famous for its pesto. While I've been to Genova numerous times, bought fresh pesto in the grocery store in Torino, and even made my own, I had never actually had any in a Genovese restaurant. And... the jury (me) likes my own pesto better! That's the way it goes in Italy, the food is always amazing, but everyone has their own little recipe. What I had for lunch today was a little more garlic-y and a little short on the basil for my preferences. Here's a picture of the same dish I made for my family this summer. I was given the testaroli pasta as a gift from my coworkers before leaving Italy. It came from the specialty "slow foods" store Eataly that started in Torino, but now has several locations, including a brand new one in New York. 

Doing touristy things reminds me of the magic and beauty of Italy... it balances out my love/hate relationship for the country. I tell everyone I never want to live here again, but really, as I'm contemplating what to put as my first choice office for 2011 summer internships with consulting firms, Rome is definitely a very close second right now to Madrid. I think with the right, challenging yet rewarding job, I'd be happy establishing myself permanently in either place... as long as I eventually get to buy my Mediterranean farmhouse with a killer garden... and maybe a small vineyard :) Dreams!

i'm so lucky

Yesterday I went to Torino to visit my old co-workers at the Tampep Association. As I was taking the train back to Alessandria through the dark, Italian countryside I couldn't help thinking to myself, yet again, how lucky I am.

My choices + coming to Italy various times for various periods over the last five years have given me so many things... friendships that will last a lifetime across continents, a wonderful boyfriend, great travel adventures, a gastronomic education, and an amazingly complex, challenging and dream (at the time) job.

It was so nice to walk into the office where I spent my time nearly everyday over the past three years. It was fun to talk about how in my absence, office politics have stayed more or less the same, about how everyone's lives are going, and about how the work is increasingly complicated...

Working for Tampep involved many difficult situations, we worked mostly with trafficked migrant women who have been forced into prostitution in Europe. The situations we encountered, plus all the other environmental and political disasters of the world kind of made me really doubt at times the goodness of humanity. But it's stories like my co-workers told me yesterday, for example, of the kind man who helped them pull the Association's little van out of a ditch one night when they were doing street outreach work, or the time when a few local fast food chain employees gave us free extra food at the end of the night to pass out the women we met on street, that make me believe again.

I really hope with the super job I find after the MBA that I can give back financially to Tampep, and to similar causes.

last days of freedom!

I'm down to the last days of my pre-Madrid, pre-IE Business School MBA life! This is my last week of playing around in Italy before starting the apartment search Saturday in Madrid! 

In reality, my "IE Business School MBA life" started two years ago around this time when I started studying for the GMAT,  and I never stop bothering my boyfriend with business ideas that I can't wait to try out with IE's supposedly great entrepreneurial resources. We made a mini-trip to the beach this past weekend... chilling out with this view in sight made me think up of a million ways to find work in a nice beach town.

view of Portovenere from Isola Palmaria beach

But then again, how could I choose just one? Beach town, that is. Better to travel the world working first, see many great beaches, and then figure out a time-share plan... Hehe... The key is to dream big, and that's what I plan on doing throughout the MBA! Good luck to me and my future classmates, especially with the upcoming apartment searches!

loans and learning

Today my Sallie Mae loan should be arriving in the coffers of IE. According to Google, the exchange rate is at 1.2714 euros to USD, not too bad. I'm not sure, however, how that digital exchange will all work out between Sallie Mae and IE, I guess I'll just have to see once I get my hands on my Caja Madrid account information. More updates on that later.

During my blitz of meeting up with old friends and spending time with my boyfriend in Italy, I've been reading Lords of Strategy by Walter Kiechel. I have to recommend it anyone like me researching a career in the consulting industry. It gives a really great into to the industry's history and tools of the trade. I'll be taking it along with me to the beach for the next two days, maybe I'll finish it between lying in the sun and the train rides.

vacation in Italy

I'm not quite over the jet lag yet, but I've had a few good days so far in my mini-Italian vacation. I'm staying in my boyfriend's new apartment in Alessandria, basically a mini-Torino. It's got that ex-industrial, northern Italian feel. And thank goodness for all those southern immigrants from FIAT's glory days in the 60s because all the good food I've been eating here so far is from the Bella Napoli restaurant down the road! How I do love frutti di mare (fruits of the sea, i.e. shellfish).

Besides putzing around this little town with my best friend visiting from Paris while the bf works during the day, I've also already had the chance to escape to the country a little. One of my other U.S. expat friends and her Italian husband bought a large cascina (farmhouse) this spring in the Piedmont countryside. I was with them when they signed the papers, and then also after when they sat a little shell shocked at a nearby restaurant drinking a celebratory glass of bubbly. I think they got a great deal - huge, already-possible-to-live-in house, vineyard, fruit trees, profitable hazelnut crop... At the same time one of my Italian co-workers bought a one bedroom apartment for the same price in the city!

Take a look at this backyard!

And take a look at the contents of the goody bag I got to take home!

What does all this have to do with my MBA? Well, just coming back to Italy makes me think about the same things I wrote two posts ago - where do I want to live and when? Do I want to make somewhere in Italy my permanent home? Or Spain? Shouldn't I probably be sending informational interview requests now to firms' offices in these places as a priority over China or Dubai? Yes and no. It's hard starting over in new cities, but I also love jumping into new experiences, languages, cultures... So I'll keep discussing and rehashing this subject for awhile until I figure out what's possible, what's the best for my career, what will allow me to pay off my loans and to have a good quality of living.

informational interviews and moving around the world

Today I started my draft email to send out to those lucky industry experts I will be requesting an informational interview with. Oh networking... I think it's actually a really good skill to cultivate, not just for business, but for life in general. Building up one's self confidence by reaching out to the seemingly unreachable, or learning to ask for what you want are not things most people can actually do. I ask myself so many times why I always have to decide on the most difficult and complicated paths... but in the end, I know it's the only way I feel challenged and happy with my life, because I've truly taken advantage of every opportunity I could, even if it's been lonely or demanding.

Within the various consulting firms I'm interested in, as I decide to who or to which country offices I want to make a contact with, I have to ask myself a lot of questions about my future. At first, the MBA seemed like a little breather - I'd have a bit of time to just learn and casually network before I had to decide my whole future. Au contraire! some of these internship applications for next summer are supposedly due before the IE November intake even begins! Even though I already started to outline some of these decisions in my b-school applications, I feel like I have to make so many decisions again too soon!

The first thing that comes to my mind is: I want to keep exploring! 

I am enthralled by China and its huge investments in solar energy and how its and other BRIC countries' development will affect the world economy, and natural environment... and so, how cool would it be to be where it's happening now, work a few years in China - yes please! I took a summer course in Chinese. While we only got through four basic chapters, it's a start! 

I also would love to re-learn Arabic... I was really good, I swear!!, at the end of undergrad. But then I decided to go work for an Italian NGO and I was paying more weekly for Arabic tutoring than for groceries and I had to give it up to survive my professional adventures in Italy. So what about working a few years in the Middle East? Where I could see how the energy industry is changing... But, will these offices even take me if my language skills need major work? 

Or will I want to stay in Spain? I'm afraid of falling in love like I did with Italy (although after actually living in Italy for awhile, and having to deal with their postal system and many other inconveniences, shall we say, I decided I'm only going back on a permanent basis with a much better salary). Spanish was the first foreign language I ever learned. And, I love siestas! My mother's family is from Sicily, and the last few years I've been able to go visit our cousins there in August, and nothing is more delightful than mare, mangiare, dormire, mare e mangiare di nuovo, e dormire di nuovo (translation: seaside, eat, sleep, seaside, eat again, sleep again). Taking a nap after lunch is truly a luxury everyone should experience. Spain's also a big investor in wind and solar energy. And speaking of energy, Madrid is just full of it! I can't wait!

So, I guess that I want to intern in places that I don't want to live in forever - I want to take advantage of the opportunity to move around the globe while I still don't have anything like a house or car to look after. But I do eventually want my own vegetable garden, and a library with room for a piano... in other words, to call a city home and maybe plant some long-term roots. I think ideally I'd like to work in a firm's offices in China, or Spain, or the Middle, or even South America for a few years, and then relocate to their San Fran office and travel out of there around the world. 

Good luck to myself in making this work! The first step in achieving anything is wanting it as my boyfriend says!

packing

I leave for Europe in 8 days! Before heading to Madrid mid-September to apartment hunt, I'll be visiting friends and old co-workers in the Piedmont region of Italy. While I'm excited to go back to the other side of the pond, which has been my home since May 2007, I'm going to miss my family a little more this time around! This is the first summer I've spent at home  (Omaha, Nebraska, USA) since I was 18. It was fun, especially since all seven of my younger siblings are now older and have developed very unique and independent personalities. The hardest part, however, about going back to Europe are the baggage restrictions! I am doing some major strategic planning to get all of my cute suits, new shoes, plus my "I can only buy this in the U.S." items (i.e. Tylenol PM, baking powder...) in to the two suitcases allowed...