Ciao

Hey everyone,

So this will be my last post until I get back to Lafayette and what better way to start it off than with a thank you to everyone who has been following my blog. I also want to extend this thanks to everyone who made this trip possible and the ones that kept in contact with me these past 6 weeks. I would have never made it through without you guys.

Enough with the tears now and on to more serious things. In these past 6 weeks I have learned a lot about the Italian culture and business compared to how we do things in America. The Italian culture is much more laid back and nothing seems to bother a business owner. Many of the businesses do not have business hours because the owner decides when to open and close at his or her own discretion. When looking at the restaurant business you can easily see the service is terrible. This is due to the fact that in the Italian culture no one tips for service. If you have ever worked in the restaurant industry you will know that this must be a terrible place to work because even though they are getting paid more here you make more when leaving it up to the customer to tip you.

The Italians are also very friendly toward their own women and American women. All you have to do is walk into a coffee shop or pretty much any business where there is a man and woman working and you will eventually see the guy touching on his female co-worker. In a normal business back home this would be considered harassment or in some cases wouldn't actually be done in front of the customer. It seems as though there is no human resource departments at many of the businesses here. I believe the main reason for this is because many of the businesses here are owned by family's so the kids and relatives work at the businesses so it is a lot more unprofessional. I am anxious to see what I notice about different aspects of business when I get home in Lafayette and how I apply the business practices Italians use here that seem to work, most of the time.

Since my homework assignment is complete I might as well tell you guys about our last couple of days in Florence. Sunday we woke up to go see some things we weren't able to see in the past 6 weeks. After touring the inside of the Duomo and the museum behind it I had to come back home and sleep because, of course, after 6 weeks I would get sick in Italy on the past couple of days. The rest of the day was wasted with me drugged up in bed. Yesterday we packed and started cleaning our apartment until our farewell dinner. We all met up as a group and had a nice last dinner with our fellow students and teachers. George, the leader of the trip from UL, said a few words that had everyone laughing and made us all wish we wouldn't have to leave so soon. After dinner everyone headed to the grand opening of the Hard Rock Cafe Firenze. We all watched the band for a little while then went to one of the apartments and hung out until we decided to go out to a bar. On the way there I decided I would be smart and come home and sleep because I still felt like I was going to die in Italy.


Today is our last day in Italy and we are cleaning up the rest of our apartment and are going to have dinner one last time with the group. We have to be at the airport at 4:30 in the morning which should be so much fun. Wish me luck that these flights go as planned and I will be back in Lafayette at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow.... Get ready guys because it will never be the same.

Mrs. Vanessa's Final Project

The Practice of Sustainability and Recycling in Italy

            The minute you arrive in Florence, Italy you get a sense of a laid back slow moving culture, except for the people on Vespas. One thing that the Italians are not laid back about though is their will to keep their city clean and free from trash. With the amount of people who travel to the historic district of Florence, not keeping up with the cleaning would turn this beautiful town into a slum. 

• ·         The first thing I noticed about the cleaning practices is the street sweepers that are constantly going up and down every street all day. Every so often the driver will get out and sweep the sidewalk off before continuing his duties. This eliminates the great amount of cigarette butts and debris that tourists clutter the streets with.

• ·         Right behind the street sweeper is something we are very familiar with and that is the trash truck. This truck travels the streets of Italy all day every day picking up the bins of trash that line the streets. I couldn’t imagine having to carry my trash to my local trash bin rather than putting it out in my own bin in front of my house. Most of the streets have these bins very close together but I have seen a few streets that have none and it is a good walk to the nearest one.

• ·         Right next to these garbage bins are a different lighter blue bin. These bins are made for people to put their glass bottles in such as all the wine bottles we have drank so far in Italy. These bins also allow for you to put your plastic bottles into. The truck that picks these up lifts them into the sky over the back of the truck and opens a chute on the bottom which allows for everything to fall straight into the truck. Watching this was awesome; to bad I forgot my camera at home.

• ·         The next big recycling move the city takes that we do not see every day in the states is recycling of boxes. As you are walking down the streets in the late afternoon on certain days you will find that in front of every business there are piles of cardboard boxes. If you were to wait around you will eventually see a truck that is similar to the trash truck come around the corner and a guy following it throwing these boxes into the back. This practice shows that not one piece of cardboard is left behind.

• ·         Recently we traveled outside of Florence to the valleys of Chianti to see how wine is produced. Many of us went into this trip thinking that wine was easy to make and it is a get rich quick job if you are in the right area. We were all proven wrong as soon as we stepped foot off of the bus. The first vineyard we toured used regular practices of wine making such a pesticides and produced 25 million bottles of wine a year.

The second wine vineyard we went to practiced sustainability when it produced its wine and used the acts of nature instead of the hurtful practices of man. Our tour guide explained to us that no harmful pesticides are used on any of the plants. Instead they use the elements of the land such as planting non harmful bugs that will eat the harmful bugs. They also plant certain grasses in between each row that add nutrients to the soil that helps the grapes grow. This vineyard relies on the natural weather to grown its crop instead of adding their own water. 

After comparing these two wine vineyards we can see that the second one cares more about the future and sustainability of the land rather than making a perfect crop every year. 

The last thing we learned is that just because a wine is organically made does not mean it is better than a wine made using pesticides but you will always feel better when drinking the organic wine.

• ·         There are a couple of other small practices that make a difference in Italy that could also help the United States with its recycling problem. When going to the supermarket or other stores you must pay 10 to 20 cents per bag you use. This forces people to use their book sacks or reusable bags so plastic does not get eaten by the environment and harm anyone.

• ·         Another practice I only read about but never got to see up close was the use of the brown bins you see on the streets. These bins were put into place to collect organic kitchen waste along with leaves and grass.  

       As you can see Italy has many practices that support recycling but it still isn’t where the Florentine government wants it. Their goal is to have 40% of material being recycled but they are at about 27.5%. It would be interesting to see how the USA compares to the amount of recycling done here as compared to there. So when you see piece of trash laying on the sidewalk next to the trashcan join the Italians on their fight for cleanliness and pick it up. 

http://www.theflorentine.net/articles/article-view.asp?issuetocId=4944&browse-by=BeGreen

What a week....

Hello everybody,

So it's been a few days but this is due to the crazy week we had. The group made it back to Florence at 7 in the morning Monday and had to rush to Italian class. We were supposed to have our final test but they failed to tell us it got pushed back a week. We weren't to happy because we could've skipped class and got some sleep but at least we had another week to "study".

Tuesday we took our last trip as a whole group together to Siena and San Gimignano. After a short bus ride to Siena we were greeted by our tour guides who took us for a short walk through the city. Our tour guide was a native to the city and pointed out the most important sites of the city. The city is divided into 3 different mountains and 17 districts. The district you are born is is your district for life no matter if you move into a different district. The people of Siena take their status very seriously and they hold it with a high prestige.

Another interesting thing that happens twice a year in Siena is the historical horseraces. This horse race happens in the citys center piazza. It looks like a bowl and at least 20,000 people fill in the center and the horses race around the circle. Sometimes horses and even the jockeys die because of the tight corners.

After a quick lunch we went off to San Gimignano. It was a small town and we went to "The World's Greatest Gelato Shop" which wasn't to bad but they mostly all taste the same after a while.

We were all way to tired by the end of this. We came home and rested up for our wine tour the next morning. It was a pretty successful day.

Can I get some damn service?

Being from a place that believes that time is everything and you must not waste a minute on anything, Firenze can be a horrible place to live. Just when you think you will lose your mind at how slow the service can be one day you open your eyes and realize that maybe this is the right way to do things. From the restaurants, to the supermarkets you can bet you will be waiting at least 30 minutes when you ask for the check or a drink or your food. The Italian culture is very laid back. They believe that they should work to pay their bills and necessities and have enough for a small vacation. Many businesses do not put business hours on the door because they open and close whenever they feel like it which can make things difficult when you are looking for something.

The restaurants hire servers and pay them minimum wage, sometimes even more. The result of this means that the Italians do not tip when they go to a restaurant but instead pay a service charge which is around 1 euro per person at the table. This is completely opposite from how we do it in the states because as a server you rely on your tips. The better service you give to a customer the better the tip is. In Italy this means that since the server is not getting tipped they only have to do the minimum to get by because they are getting paid regardless. The average American sees this as being a terrible business model but after living here for over a month we see that the average business owner and it's employees are perfectly content. I noticed that all of the servers help each other out because you do not have 1 server but numerous ones who take your order and bring out the drinks and food.

So when you are out and about at your local restaurant remember, if your server takes a few minutes to bring your drink it could be worse so just deal with it. Oh and if you ain't tipping you ain't sipping as we say in the bar industry.

Paris Part Deux

Hey guys, this will be a short one because I just got internet and it is about 2 in the morning in Paris. We are all having a great time. The group got to see the Louvre which was awesome. For anyone who has ever read the Davinci Code or has any bit of education you will understand why this is an amazing thing for someone to see. When I came to Paris there was two things I wanted to see: The Eiffel Tower and The Louvre. I was able to see both of them so that was two checks off of my bucket list. Hopefully once my camera decides to work I will upload the pictures to this blog and the previous one.

Oh and P.S. the metro wasn't so bad out here which kind of makes up for the 12 hour train ride gone wrong.

The life of public transportation part deux/Paris minus the pictures

Hey guys, it's Friday night and I just wanted to check in and let everyone know how Paris is going. Wednesday night we had our movie night for our management classes. It was pretty fun especially knowing that we were leaving for Paris right after. After the movie was over we rushed home and grabbed our bags and after talking with the kebab guys and waiting 30 minutes for a taxi we were finally off to the La Stazione de Firenze. Our train had a slight 10 minute delay and at around 10:30 we left the station for Paris. The group found our cars and made friends with our new bunk buddies for the next "12" hours.

We finally fell asleep and woke up around 8:00. We were all excited until we realized that the stops were running late but figured it wouldn't be more than an hour of a delay. Yeah well after about 5 hours of a delay we finally arrived in Paris. Our train was supposed to get there at 10:15 but when we checked our watches it was about 3:00. Once again the train failed us, but we were just glad we had finally made it.

The group immediately rushed to the hotel and dropped our bags off and went walk around the city to get our bearings. After grabbing dinner we decided it would be a perfect night to go see the Eiffel Tower. I must say that the amount of money I have spent on this trip was well worth being able to see the sights I have seen so far including the Eiffel Tower.

We found us a place on the grass and planned on staying until the sun went down and it lit up. Some gypsies were running around selling bottles of wine and champagne so we all hustled them and each bought our own bottle of wine. Little did we know the sun does not set until 11:00 P.M. in Italy. The four hours of sitting down drinking wine was well worth it once the tower lit up. After watching it for a few minutes the wine finally wore off and we were all freezing which meant it was time to head home back to the hotel.

I will edit the blog with pictures so check back later tomorrow.

2 weeks to go...

Hey guys this will be a short one because no much has happened this week. We got back at about 12 Sunday from the Amalfi Coast. Monday morning we had Italian class and our management class. I realized in class that I have learned more about Ethics and Economics in this one semester than I have learned my last three years at UL. It is weird that when you come to a new country it is easier to learn things taught in a classroom. The reason for this is because the course is designed to be taught with examples in everyday Italian life.

Monday night we went to a Mexican restaurant. Who would have thought it would be some of the best Mexican food we had. Last night we had Sushi at Mr. Sushi which was not bad.

You would think we would be eating all Italian but it gets a little old having it every day and night. Plus the best pizza I have eaten in my life is probably back home in Louisiana haha.

I'll be in Paris for the next 4 days so I will probably not be able to talk to anyone so see you guys Monday morning at 7.