January, February, and March are popular months at CIMBA for birthdays. Not only Abbey and Emma, but also Jessica Carrese, Tori Scheidt, Meaghan Hinder, Tommy Thompson, Matt Hanrahan, Marta Crabbia, Stephanie Herr, Graham Ryan, Kristina Rood, Kelly Heesch most of them in February. Who else am I forgetting? There were several more, surely. Anyway, we celebrated a few with “Happy Birthday’s” sung (usually in multiple keys at once) in classes or at lunch. Some we celebrated at the local pizzeria, Al Sole. Luigini, who owns it with her husband Fabbio, graciously lets us use a side room for larger get-togethers that we can decorate with balloons and Buon Compleanno (happy birthday) banners.
Other activities included advisory nights. Each professor has about 14 students assigned to him or her, students who aren’t in the professor’s courses. The idea is to get different groups together to socialize and for teachers to know more students than those in their classes. On Wednesday, 3 March, my advisory group met for a night of pizza making in Asolo. There were 12 of us: Ali Bronska, Rachel Butler, Colleen Carlsen, Dan Cassis, Nate Danner, Amy Daughtery, Dana Dietrich, Ryan Driscoll, Matt Duncan, Cody Hutchison, Kathyrn Kolakowski, and Will Wilhite. Tess Montano, an MBA student at the Asolo campus, met us there to kindly translate for us.) Saverio, well-known for his pizza, opened his doors early for us to come and learn the art of good pizza and to experience making our own. Always a treat, this outing reveals the secret of Italian pizza: well-made dough; good, fresh topping ingredients; and an extremely hot wood-fired oven. The weather is a factor with dough, Saverio explains, as Tess translates. If the weather is damp, use less water with the flour, yeast, and salt; if it is dry, use more. He can form the dough in less than a minute, and no, tossing it up in the air is not an approved Italian method. Although the baking time depends on the toppings and the number of pizzas, most pizzas are ready in 3 minutes.
As students begin to make their own pizza, Angelo, one of the waiters, comes in. He adores Tess and remembers me from last semester. He pours us drinks while we watch the first three brave souls begin. “No, no, no,” exclaims Saverio, as he takes the dough and again shows how to spread it out without ripping it. After deliberating over topping choices, the first group has pizzas in the oven, and the next three go. We laugh at the “No, no, no” as these students too find that spreading the dough looks much easier than it is. Now, I have done this before, so one would think I’d have it down pat. But no, pizza making is not in my future. Saverio laughingly rolls his eyes at me, while Angelo just broadly smiles. No matter, my pizza comes out perfectly – and shaped into a heart, a finishing touch that Saverio does for all the women in the group. The men have the basic round shape!
Lest some of you think that all is fun and travel here, I can reassure you that the weeks between travel, advisory nights, and birthdays are packed with work. My Intercultural students have been reading Frances Mayes’ memoir, Under the Tuscan Sun. Although too young to yet appreciate Mayes’ recounting the frustrating but often rewarding efforts involved in renovating a home, they do understand the cultural experiences of living in another country. Sharing situations ranging from the humorous to the embarrassing in class, we examine the what’s and why’s of culture and the how’s of its being communicated. To name a few such occasions noted in class:
• being hushed at an opera in Vienna;
• having an unfranked ticket checked by a compassionate Trenitalia conductor who got off the next stop just to frank the ticket;
• having an unfranked ticket checked by a grumpy Trenitalia conductor who wrote out a fine;
• reaching the correct train stop with the aid of an Italian who missed her own stop to help;
• experiencing shocked looks by a store clerk at your friendly “okay” hand gesture which does not signify “okay” in Italy.
In Business Communications, students have been working on profile reports of European-based organizations. Some are well-recognized, such as IKEA, Lindt, AC-Milan, Ferrero, BMW, Nestlé, Replay. Many are still family-run and managed, and some have local roots, such as Asolo-based Replay. With presentations ranging from chocolate to cars, shoes to soccer, we learned much about these companies and cultural elements of their business practices.
The library and computer lab are packed at night with students studying for exams and researching for projects. I go to campus at night sometimes to finish class prep that requires internet access and quietly observe. Some students collaborate on a case study or presentation at one of the large library tables; others patiently (or not!) wait in the lab for the internet to connect them to their home institution’s library databases; still others put finishing touches to a report or essay, hoping that the printer will cooperate one more time. Fun and travel, yes, but also much learning happens here, hands-on experiential learning that remains long after the exam or submitted paper is completed.
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