I had been preparing for this program for months, constantly talking about how nervous and excited I was and what I would be doing the entire summer. I knew I would be immersed into a different culture but I never had any idea what was coming. I hugged my cat goodbye and left for the airport where I said my goodbyes to my family. After a grueling day of traveling, anxiety and airport food my plane was about to land in Milan, Italy. Coming off the plane many emotions stirred around in my head. WOW! I had just landed in a foreign country alone where I knew no one was definitely the loudest thought in my head. I thought to myself I finally got to call my parents after the 12 hours I had spent traveling, but then the reality of the time change had sunk in. My day was mentally and physically over but a new day in Milan had just started. I quickly changed my focus to the task of finding staff from my program wearing red t-shirts to help me get to the city center and my apartment.

I paced back and forth the massive airport for any sign of someone in red. It must have taken me 30 minutes to find someone since the program’s booth was located at the opposite end of where I had come out of the terminal. Panic started to overwhelm me from the irrational fear of them not finding me, and I bothered every single person with a red shirt in that airport. Finally I saw one last person in a red shirt, I went up to them and asked “are you with IES?” finally he responded “yes, come with me.” A few quick seconds of relief came over me until I realized I was the only student for the next hour at the airport, meaning I would have to continue my travel day unsure and alone. Which is exactly how it continued. Now I was tasked with finding a train that was supposed to take me to the city center. The only problem with that was that I had never taken a train alone, and definitely had never taken any form of public transportation in a foreign country. The feeling of successfully being able to commute with the huge amount of luggage, fear and unknown was both scary and rewarding.

Once I had figured out how to make it to my apartment I was greeted by staff and told to come down in an hour for a tour. I knew no one on the tour, but managed to spark a conversation with Abbey and Maggie who ended up being two of my best friends on the program.

As soon as I had a chance to settle down in my apartment, and with the time change, I went straight into the work week. I am studying textile and apparel management so when I got a message about a potential interview with Francesco Magila umbrellas I was ecstatic. After some research about the company I gathered that it was a small business, passed down through generations, and expensive. Once I had the interview I was shocked about how down to earth and chill my boss was. The conversation was super casual and he basically talked the entire time which I was surprised by because usually an interview is about the person interviewing not the company. During the end of the call he said he wanted me to intern for him and gave me the Instagram handle for the past intern the previous summer. After speaking with his old intern I realized that working for him was going to be a great experience and a lot of fun.

Oh boy was I right, I was very lucky that Francesco spoke great English and it was easy to talk to him. I was also excited because my co-intern was a girl from my class in college. Thankfully I had Claire there because we were very lost on our commute into work. Once we finally got there we got the lay of the land and knew exactly what to look for on our first day of work. On the first day of work I ended up taking the wrong train OOPS! Finally I figured out how to get there and met my boss, to my surprise he was easy to talk to and very friendly as he explained what we would be doing.

Throughout the two months working for him I learned a lot about Italian culture, work styles, and myself. Something to note: yelling is normal in family businesses, not just yelling across the room I mean screaming on the top of your lungs loud. This was a shock to me because in American culture it’s considered rude but in Italian culture it is completely normal. Coffees are an everyday necessity in the work life culture, so we went almost every single day to grab a coffee from the local cafe. It was also interesting to see the difference in professionality and communication styles in Italy and the U.S. I found there was much more yelling during normal conversations as well as a more relaxed and stress free environment. Overall I am so glad I got the opportunity to work in Milan as an intern and will take this experience with me wherever I go.

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Learn more about this blogger’s study abroad program: Global Internship: Milan (IES)