life after lgo according to becca

Application Time

2012-01-26T13:46:00.000-08:00

I've gotten several comments recently concerning the application and interview process for LGO. I'm re-re-posting my blogs from two years ago, when I wrote epically long narratives about the application process. If you have any questions that these posts don't answer - you are over-thinking it. :) Good luck to all who are interviewing!

Why LGO?

Taking the GMAT

Getting Recommendations

Writing the Essays

Crafting a Resume

Rocking the Interview

**As a disclaimer, please remember I am NOT on the admission board, so these are just my personal views about what I did when I was applying to the program!

New job, new city, new year

2012-01-26T13:14:00.000-08:00

Well…. It’s been a really, really long time since my last post. And, actually a ton has happened.

In a completely unexpected twist of fate, I left Genzyme over the summer and began working at Lilly. I actually loved working at Genzyme, as well as living in Boston, but sometimes life happens and things don’t go as planned. As it was, I needed to move back to Indy for some family reasons, so I regretfully left my amazing team at Genzyme. I heard they are still rejoicing as we speak.

On the flipside, I am now doing a really unexpected, fascinating role at Eli Lilly and Co in Indianapolis, IN. I took a role in payer marketing… yes, really. So, you might say, this does not sound like an ops job, and you’d be right. Basically, I work as a consultant supporting contracting with healthcare payers (ie, insurance companies). My focus is implementing profitable access of Lilly’s drugs across my region…. The idea is that I work with brand teams, legal, government pricing, and account management groups to create and execute deals that will allow patients to have access to Lilly drugs, and will make the company some cash. I work across all Lilly drugs, and I’m really excited to be supporting our entire product line.

So, I work in marketing with a bunch of former sales reps. I’m the only engineer. I haven’t (and won’t) set foot in a plant since I’ve been in this role. However, I’m still using the LGO education. I’m also working to instill some operational and process-based thinking to a group that has historically been fairly siloed, with few norms, processes, or operating procedures. In 2012, my focus will be improving our internal processes in order to allow our group to be faster and more flexible in responding to our customers. It’s a really cool, unique opportunity, and although it may not be traditional ops, I’m certain that I’m going to be able to contribute to my team with my LGO education.

Let’s see, in other news, I turned 30. I celebrated in Vegas with a bunch of friends and LGOs. I was sunburnt and hungover and it was amazing. Next up… an impromptu LGO reunion in FL for Hector’s wedding.

I also relocated to Indy. I miss Boston terribly, but as I look around my amazing downtown 2-bdrm condo, with garage, and private porch, that I own for much, much less than my rent in Boston, I don’t miss it that much : )

A Little LGO Love

2010-10-26T18:52:00.000-07:00

Admissions season is upon us. For potential applicants, it's a stressful time of collecting recommendations, writing essays, and prepping for interviews. For me, it's a time of reliving my glory days in LGO on alumni panels and grabbing free dinners in E51.

One of the major perks of staying local in Cambridge is the ability to head back to MIT for alumni events. Last week, I was invited to participate as the token LGO on an alumni panel for women applying to LGO. I met several other Sloan alums from '04 and '06, and met a bunch of potential Sloan applicants, and event a few ambitious young women who were thinking about joining LGO. I also scored an awesome Sloan pen. After the event, I was able to drop by the Sloan Octoberfest celebration on the plaza in front of the new Sloan building. Octoberfest featured six (yes, six!) different beers on tap, as well as hot pretzels and Paul Buckley in lederhosen; it was pretty close to heaven on earth. It was also the first time that I've been able to check out the new Sloan building, which is totally sick. The opening of the Sloan building this year is actually the second time in my academic life when a gigantic, fabulous, super-gorgeous building for my major is opened the year after I graduated (the first being when Purdue opened a $60M new CheE complex the year after I graduated undergrad). Sigh. I'm apparently not destined to take lectures in shiny new buildings.

Yesterday, I was able to participate on an alumni panel for the LGO Ambassador Day, a day-long event aimed at showing off the LGO program to potential applicants. Participants are able to spend the entire day with current LGO students, attending classes and going to current student panels. In the evening, Sloan Dean Joanne Yeats and LGO Director Don Rosenfield spoke about the LGO program, which was followed by an alumni panel. For me, it was a great opportunity to catch up with Don and the other LGO faculty and staff, as well as some of our LGO and Sloan professors who were also in attendance. I'm always surprised that the continue to ask me to do these panels; yesterday, when I was asked to described the difficulty of the summer semester, I eloquently described it as being "not exactly puppies and rainbows and cupcakes." Despite my inability to sound like a grown-up at these things, I'm thrilled to do them; I love meeting the prospective students and learning more about their backgrounds and experiences, and what they hope to do with an LGO degree in the future. I met a bunch of really engaging, dynamic potential applicants yesterday, and I have no doubt that the class of 2013 will be amazing. I also met a handful of potential applicants who actually read my blog, including one who admitted to feeling as though they "creepily knew me".... AWESOME!

I would definitely encourage anyone interested in an ops to come to campus for an LGO Ambassador Visit to feel the LGO love first-hand. Ambassador Visits are a great way to get a true feel for what being an LGO student is like by taking an actual class, talking to current students, and meeting the LGO faculty... all before final applications are due on Dec 15.

As always, if you have any questions about my experience with the LGO program or application process, feel free to leave me a comment!

New Wheels

2010-10-02T11:40:00.000-07:00

So, when I moved to Boston to start LGO, I sold my beloved car. Now, as a bit of a background…. I’m from Indiana, home of the Indy 500. I’ve always loved everything about cars, especially the joy of driving them, preferably fast. I love to watch all forms of car-racing (although I have a particular fondness for open-wheel racing), and I’ve even worked on a go-kart pit crew for fun. I’m the girl who can tell you the difference between CART and IRL and why it matters, and then change your headlight.

So, when I moved to Boston in 2008, it broke my heart to sell my car (Infiniti G35, rear-wheel drive, sports package, awesome) and adapt myself to public transit. Now, don’t get me wrong, I still love to take the T; I love saving the money, never having scrape snow off my car, and not having to worry about who's going to be DD. However, when I started work, I realized I needed a car to get back and forth to our Framingham site, which gave me the perfect excuse to re-join the ranks of gas-guzzling, environment-killing car drivers.

After what had to have been the most annoying car purchasing process on the planet (thank you, State of Massachusetts’ insane-o insurance and inspection laws), I am now the proud owner of a 2004 Saab 9-3. Black exterior, grey interior. Manual turbo 2.0L. It’s freaking awesome. Ok, it’s actually not that awesome, it’s sort of a mom car, especially compared to my last car. But… it allows me complete freedom to take a weekend trip to NYC without getting stuck in the Chinatown bus. It allows me to stop by Trader Joe’s on the weekend, without having to lug my groceries on the bus. And it allows me to practice my Click and Clack gas-less clutching technique. It’s not all good… I have gotten pulled over twice already on the Pike - but no tickets yet!

My new car looks like this…

Love / Hate Relationship

2010-09-25T16:49:00.000-07:00

There are some really great things about transitioning back to full-time work, and some pretty terrible rude awakenings. Here's my "Top 10 Things I Love and Hate About Working Full-Time."

5 Things I Love About Working Full-Time

The Paycheck. Um, duh. For the first time in the two years I've lived in Boston, I actually have the money to go out and enjoy the city.
The Schedule. I work a pretty reasonable schedule; generally, it’s pretty close to an 8-5 job. The amazing part is once the work day is over, so is the work. Instead of going home to work on problem sets before heading out for an evening group meeting, I can just do whatever the heck I want… go to the gym, have happy hour cocktails with friends, watch 4 consecutive hours of Law & Order on the couch– its all up to me. And that’s beautiful.
The Work. The work in B-school is interesting, but you do much of it knowing your recommendations will never be implemented, and that no actual positive (or negative) outcomes will occur because of your work. Now, it’s different; my work gets used to make actual decisions, which will in some way affect actual patients, and that is huge. I’m certainly more passionate about what I’m working on now than when I was, say, struggling through a Finance problem set.
The Office. I have an office. Like, with a door. And its all for me. Just me! It’s amazing. My last desk at work back in Indy was a cube out on the production floor in a room which had formerly been a men’s restroom. My cube even had a shower drain in it. So, my new fancy digs are a definite step-up. Also, we get free coffee and tea, and its sort of amazing.
The Product. Genzyme focuses on providing life-saving therapies for rare disorders, most of which have no other treatments. It is fascinating to learn about the products and the patients. In business school, it’s not that I didn’t enjoy learning about how Coca-Cola managed to steal business from Pepsi… well, no, I didn’t really enjoy it. I’m so insanely in love with the healthcare industry that it was hard for me to focus so much of my time in B-school on other industries. Now that I’m back in pharma, I’m able to devote all of my time on the industry that I love.

5 Things I Hate About Working Full-Time

The Commute. When I’m out in Framingham, the commute back can take upwards of an hour on the Pike. Additionally, the little habits I picked up in Italy (tailgating, flashing my brights at slow drivers, madly gesturing with my hands) seem to be less accepted in MA than Tuscany. Sigh.
The Meetings. Like every job in corporate America, my job features occasional meetings which could be more productive, leaving me watching the clock until I can get back to doing something more value-added. Like checking my email.
The Structure. There are good and bad things about working a steady job, like the fact that it’s steady. Gone are the month-long semester breaks, where I lounged and traveled and basically did whatever I wanted. Now, I’m tied to actually showing up each week for work. Bummer.
The Fear. Some of the things I love about my job also scare me to death. I love the fact that what I do affords me the opportunity to lead and influence decisions that will impact patients’ lives; and it also scares me to death. I feel blessed to have found such a rewarding job, particularly in this ailing economy, and I’m terrified that I won’t live up to expectations, either my employer’s or my own. In our LGO leadership class, our instructor Jan Klein discussed this extremely common MBA fear with us, and let us know that it’s a fear that nearly all graduating MBAs possess. She coached us to remember that we are impressive people, and to remember not to let fear prevent us from taking the intelligent risks we will need to take in order to be successful. I suppose this fear isn’t really just a bad thing; I’ve always wanted a role where I could be impactful, and now I have the opportunity to have it - and that’s pretty awesome. Anyhow, now that this blog has digressed to reading like Chicken Soup for the Soul, I'll move on to the final item on my list....
The Alarm. In order to work out, shower, and get to work on time, my alarm goes off at around 6am… that's somewhere between 6-8 hours before I generally got up in b-school. Ouch!

all in a day's work

2010-09-21T13:12:00.000-07:00

I recently had some happy hour drinks with LGO alum Jeremy Pitts, who mentioned that he had recently received a Twitter about my blog. Apparently, the LGO recruiting and admissions staff has found that social media such as Twitter, blogs, and Facebook are becoming more and more useful to communicate info about the LGO program to prospective students. Sadly, the conversation made me realize that I’ve been sorely neglecting my blog these last few months. My blog started as a strictly LGO blog, intended to capture my experiences as a student. Now that I’ve graduated, I’ve struggled with exactly what to do with it…. re-vamp it into a blog about post-LGO life? Delete it? Devote the content entirely to bad pirate jokes? It has been an interesting internal debate. However, I’ve decided to continue writing about my next step in my personal journey; the step from full-time student to full-time employee. I’m hoping to capture my experience in actually implementing the skills learned in LGO out in the working world. And hopefully at least a few of you care enough to continue reading…

Anyhow, it is now mid-September, and I’ve been working full-time at Genzyme for almost four months. Sadly, I can’t tell you about the exact specifics of what I’m doing at work (confidentiality agreement and all that jazz), but I can give you the general gist of things. I’m working as a Lean Leader in a corporate Lean/Operational Excellence group. There are five of us, and it’s an awesome group. The group also includes another LGO alum, a Sloanie, as well as some folks with a ton of lean/op-ex experience. The guys are super-duper-smart, and they also happen to be a ton of fun. They work very collaboratively; I get tons of advice and support from everyone in my group, which is honestly very different from any of my previous work teams.

As for my project, I’m currently working on helping improve some of the quality systems and processes, working to shorten documentation cycle-times and decrease errors. The end-goal is to safely, quickly and efficiently provide our patients with the high-quality medications they expect and deserve. If you read my blog much, you might realize that it sounds a whole lot like my internship project… because it is. So, while it may have seemed like I was spending seven months gallivanting around Italy, drinking wine and eating gelato, I’ve also recently learned that I was also developing some very key skills that are now helping me out in my full-time role.

Anyhow, more to come on the trials and tribulations of re-entering the workforce in future posts; as for right now, I’m off to Hong Kong to celebrate current LGO student Kacey Fetcho’s 30^th birthday... whoo-hoo!

The End

2010-07-01T19:25:00.000-07:00

LGO is officially over. On a bright, sunny, obnoxiously hot and humid day about two weeks ago, I was miraculously handed two (yes, two!) shiny new MIT degrees and sent on my merry way into the land of getting up before noon, wearing a wardrobe that doesn't predominately feature sweatpants, and basically having to grow up.

Graduation Day was perfect. It was a gorgeous day, and it was great to spend the day with all my friends and their families. My own family was not able to attend as my mom's not currently able to travel; however, my family was definitely with me in spirit. After graduation, we had an LGO picnic, where Don made a classically Don speech about LGO product always shipping on time regardless of the quality. OK, for the record, Don Rosenfield is adorable. After the picnic, the LGOs headed out on the town for one last hurrah before scattering across the country and globe post-graduation. I can't recall the specifics, but pictures I found on my camera the next day indicated we really had a great time.

Now I'm working full-time here in Boston at Genzyme, and I love it. Its different, its challenging, its totally not what I expected, but its always interesting and I really, really like it. I feel like I definitely made the right choice. However, that doesn't mean I don't already miss LGO.

So, the only question left is... what to do with my blog? I suppose that MIT will pull it down off their admissions site to direct traffic towards current students, who will have more current and relevant ramblings (although I stand by my Chuck Norris and Bengals posts as being completely critical to fully understanding the MBA application process). My question to you is this... would anyone keep reading this if I kept writing? Hmmmm. I'm open to suggestions.

Thanks to all who've read my blog these past two years; I do truly hope I've provided some helpful information. Last but not least, thanks to the entire LGO Class of 2010. You guys are hands-down the brightest, most fun bunch of people I've ever known, and its been a joy and an honor to work and play with you these past two years. Best of luck in all you guys go on to do in the future; I have complete faith it will be nothing but big, big things.

XOXO
b

LGO product always ships on time

2010-05-11T22:34:00.000-07:00

And the thesis.... is...... DONE!

Ah, my epic 67 page thesis is finally done. Advisors have signed, company has approved, and Sloan accepted my copies. I am now, effectively, done for the semester. I mean, sure, I have a few more classes, and a couple final projects, and a final in HR mgmt, but the hard stuff is over. This is an amazing feeling!

So,anyhow, want to hear something funny? So, after all my advisors signed my thesis (after multiple reviews), the company approved, I realized something.... I had a major typo in my thesis. I spelled something wrong.... IN THE THESIS TITLE. I spelled "Pharmaceutical" incorrectly. Really. It's the industry that I've worked in since I was 18. Spelled wrong. An noone (myself included) even noticed. It's just a testament to something I've been saying ever since I got to MIT...."LGO product always ships on time". Ha.

MBA Prom

2010-05-09T22:17:00.000-07:00

So, a few weeks ago we had MBA prom. It was just like my senior prom, only better, because they served liquor. The prom, which is formally known as the Spring Gala, happens each year, and all of the 1st and 2nd year Sloanies can attend. This year, the event was held at Rosecliff, a beautiful mansion in Newport,RI.

Me, Jo and Orietta headed down to RI in the afternoon and got ready (with some bubbly) in our hotel room. Then, we took a old-style trolley to the mansion. We took tours of the house, walked around the grounds, and overlooked the ocean.

We had a fabulous meal, and then spent the rest of the night kicking up our heels on the dancefloor. My crowning achievement of the evening was falling on my a** in my party dress.... it turns out, open bar and 4-inch heels are a dangerous combination.

Here are a few pics of the evening!

Wine Riot

2010-04-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

LGOs are kind of a big deal.... the Boston Globe snapped this shot of a group of LGOs at the annual Wine Riot, a self-described "baller" wine tasting that promised "not to be your parents wine tasting." After a few glasses of vino, LGO shenanigans ensued. :)

Click here for the article

when the music's over...

2010-04-05T00:02:00.000-07:00

So... it's only 6 weeks til classes are over, which means I have to figure out what the heck I'm going to do with my life after classes.

The first point of order was picking my start date. There are many schools of thought on this subject. Many of my classmates are fans of the "Prolong the Magic" school of thought; these folks are delaying their start date for a loooooong as humanly possible. This is a great idea, because these folks will have ample time to find appropriate housing, move to their new locations, and even take a few weeks to backpack around Europe, Asia or other fun locales.

I personally subscribe to the "Make it Rain" school of thought. It turns out, going to school in Boston is kind of expensive, and I currently make $0/year. Finance 101 will teach you that if you have many money streams going out, and no money streams coming in, you will be poor. I'm tired of being poor, so I've decided to start work May 17..... which is actually kind of insane. Classes are over May 14, but that's followed by a week of finals, then a week of break, and then finally graduation in early June. Since I happen to have no finals and I'm working here in Boston, I decided just to immediately start right after my last day of class, even though I won't even technically graduate for a few more weeks.

I'm excited about starting work soon, but it does make things a bit hectic. I'm currently balancing my classwork with hunting for a car, a new apartment, and new clothes for work; seeing as I've given myself a whooping 2 days off between school and work, I can't exactly wait until class is over to work through the logistics of working.

I'm actually really excited about the whole process; while school's been really fun, I do miss work and I'm excited to be getting back into industry full-time. I'm looking forward to learning more about Genzyme and their unique products, as well as getting to know my new team. I am really optimistic about the guys I will be working with at Genzyme. They've already suggested getting together in the next few weeks to get dinner and get to know each other. I've also found out that my first week of work I'll be traveling to an offsite lean training with the entire team. The training looks awesome, and will definitely give me some of the tools that I'll need at work, but it also is a great opportunity to get offsite with my new team and really get to know them. From what I've seen so far, everyone on the team seems really friendly and outgoing, and I think its going to be a great fit for me.

I can't believe that I will actually start work in 6 weeks.... it feels like only yesterday I stepped off the plane from Indy, nervous and excited about starting LGO. Now, I'm nervous and excited to start the next chapter of my life.... wish me luck!

spring fever

2010-04-04T08:40:00.000-07:00

You'd think with all my new-found free time, I'd blog more.... it turns out, I am just wasting my time sleeping and watching The Price Is Right. In an attempt to redeem my blogging self, here is a bit of a summary of the past weeks.

Although I'm still enjoying a relaxed schedule, the spring semester is getting busier and busier all the time. I am taking a pretty light course load, but I'm also working to finalize my thesis by incorporating comments from my business and engineering advisors, as well as my internship company, Novartis.

I also decided to join three (that's right, three) volleyball leagues, ranging from an uber-competitive league to a "hey what's this round white thing" league. This week I had six matches. It's a bit hectic, but I'm really excited to be back on the court so much.

We recently had Spring Break here at MIT. Many of my friends did some pretty ridiculous trips, like South Africa or Korea or Turkey. I decided to save some cash and stay closer to home. I spent quite a bit of time here in Boston having a bit of a "staycation", which involved a lot of daytime television and book-reading. I also went home to Tampa to see my folks for a few days. The highlight of my Tampa trip is as follows: On a Tuesday evening, I went out with my parents for dinner at a beachside bar & grill. There was a band playing Journey and Lady Gaga covers, which was insanely awesome. At one point, a man who was easily in his 60s drank an entire plastic bucket of hurricane, and then took off his shirt and shoes and danced (alone!) in front of the band during "Poker Face". It was hilarious.... and sadly, not that out of the ordinary for Florida.

This past week, the LGOs had an Open House to welcome all the new admits to the LGO Class of 2012. About 50 admitted LGOs came to campus to meet their future classmates, learn all the details about the program, and just have fun in Boston. Since I'll graduate before they make it on-campus, it was the first and only time I'll get to meet the 2012s. To celebrate this one-time opportunity, the LGOs hosted a 3-class party for the graduating 2010s, current 2011s, and incoming 2012s. It was a blast, and the cops only came once, which I consider a major success. Best of luck to all the admitted students, and CONGRATS!

time is on my side

2010-02-15T09:28:00.000-08:00

It's official. I am bored.

So, my first three semesters, I took a ton of classes, typically seven or eight classes per semester. Its normal for LGOs, but it was a lot of work.... I felt like there was always another case to read for tomorrow. However, I wanted to front-load as much as I could into the first three semesters; the idea was to have a light schedule my final semester so that I'd have ample time for my thesis (and for drinking).

At the beginning of this semester, I met with The Don and found out, to my surprise, that I actually only had to take three classes to graduate. WTF? That seems unreal. I signed up for four classes, cause I'm an overachiever. Here is a breakdown of my classes:

10.542 Biochemical Engineering: This is a ChE class focused on applying reaction kinetics, thermo and transport phenomena to diverse biological systems. Its actually crazy-hard, but I like the prof and the material, so I figure I'll manage.

15.317 Leadership: This is the final installment of the 2-year leadership curricula for LGOs. It's a discussion based class. I'm excited to do case studies with my fellow LGO peers.

15.660 HR System Strategic Mgmt: This is a class focused on how to create high performance HR strategies. Its my first HR class, and I'm excited to be learning more about aligning HR programs with desired corporate outcomes.

15.769 Operations Strategy: This is Don Rosenfield and Charlie Fine's class focused on ops. So far it feels a lot like regular strategy, but I'm sure we will get into some more serious logistical stuff further in the semester.

So, I've now been in class for two weeks. Even though some of my classes are tough, its just so much less than I am used to that I feel like I have nothing but free time. I don't know what to do with myself. I managed to get my thesis draft done early, and my advisers have not yet given me comments, so I'm currently in a blissful state of thesis freedom. My four classes have a fairly light workload, and its only about half the classes I've been used to taking. My earliest class is 2pm. It's insane..... I routinely sleep more than eight hours per night. I watch the Price is Right. I go to the gym pretty much daily, mostly just to kill the time. I read books FOR FUN (books that have nothing to do with six sigma or cycletimes!). I recently got so desperate, I spent the afternoon teaching myself the chords to Miley Cyrus' Party In the USA. Yes, really.

Thank goodness for the Olympics. It's nice to basically have no real responsibilities during the Olympics, because I'm free to watch the hours of programming in their entirety. Today I watched several hours of nordic combined, which (I learned today) is a sport consisting of ski jump and cross-country skiing. I got so wrapped up in the competition I was cheering for the American who pulled off a surprise silver medal. And then I napped on the couch for a while. It was a tough day.

I think I need a hobby. Course, then again, maybe I'll just nap on the couch some more.

the continued adventures of winter break....

2010-02-02T20:36:00.000-08:00

So, one of the perks of b-school is that you basically get the longest winter break ever.... mine stretched from late December until today, when I had the unpleasant experience of going back to class after 8 months. Not pretty.

Anyhow, January was pretty eventful. In early Jan, I moved back to Boston. Me and J-Funk moved into a place in Central that literally sits on top of the T-stop - freaking awesome. I spent the early part of the month working on my thesis. It's totally crap, but my "hard work" (read: 3 hrs a day in Starbucks alternating between writing and checking Facebook) has resulted in a complete first draft. Its not actually due until mid-March, so I'm feeling pretty impressed with myself right about now.

The main driver for knocking out the thesis draft was so that I wouldn't have to worry about it during my extra fabulous trip to the Dominican Republic in the middle of January. We have an amazing Sloanie classmate, Pedro, whose family was kind enough to donate their supa-fab DR pad to a charity auction last year. A group of LGOs bought the donation, and the rest is history. A group of 15 of us headed down for about a week, and it was amazing.... we pretty much relaxed and drank the entire time. Pedro and his family were perfect hosts, making sure we had everything we needed, and even planned some fun events like sightseeing and clubbing in Santo Domingo. Amazing.

the resort

sunset

santo domingo

night out

karaoke

karaoke

The only downer to the trip was that we departed for the DR just days after the atrocious earthquake in Haiti, which is just across the border from the DR. I definitely felt guilty enjoying such a pleasant vacation when hundreds of thousands of people were suffering just across the border. My heart goes out to the people of Haiti, and I'm so grateful to all of those who continue to provide support to the region. If you are interested in learning more about how you can help, please check out the US government's website on Haiti Earthquake Relief.

After getting back, the LGOs launched into Knowledge Review, where we basically all get together and knowledge share about the things we did on internship. We also just had all the prospective students for the Class of 2012 on-campus for interviews. It was cool to meet all the prospective students. A few of them actually recognized me from this blog.... I felt like a minor celebrity. I think the fame is going to go straight to my head. Anyhow, best of luck to all that interviewed!

and the offer is signed

2010-01-24T23:46:00.000-08:00

So, after much internal debate, I finally signed a full-time offer for employment with Genzyme. They are a partner company based here in Boston. I'll be working as a Lean Transformation Leader, which basically means that I'll be working to improve processes at a variety of sites across the country and globe. I was really impressed with the strong corporate culture that Genzyme seemed to exude during all my interviews (as well as in all my discussions with current employees). Additionally, I'm specifically drawn to their product line; they focus on making drugs which treat serious diseases and meeting currently unmet medical needs. I know that I will be working on products which directly contribute to drastically improving the quality of life of patients. Also, it's a global role (which means lots of international travel, yeah!) but is based in Boston (which means still having access to Target, yeah!). And finally, I will be working in a group with Sloanie and LGO alums, so that will be sort of awesome.

In the end, the job just felt right.... great role, great location, and amazing products. I'm excited, and am actually looking forward to starting work again ;)

thesis, schmesis.....

2010-01-15T13:40:00.000-08:00

So, up until this point, LGO has pretty much been all fun and games (well, sort of, if your idea of fun and games involves statistical regression analysis and dynamic model optimization). But now the honeymoon is over.... I have to write my friggin thesis.

That's the one catch to the LGO program, in my book.... in order to get your MS in Eng, and graduate Sloan on-time, we each write a thesis that is approved by both Engineering and Management. Its about whatever we did on internship.... or whatever we should have been doing on internship, perhaps.

The general timeline is draft by mid-March for your advisors to review, final version by April for your company to review, approval in May.... just in time for graduation. Some students don't start working on their theses until into the spring semester, but I did some drafting during my internship, and I've spend the past week or so writing it (when I wasn't doing something more exciting, like sleeping). At this point, I'm already seriously ahead of the game - I've got a full rough draft done. Its about 13,500 words, and about 60 pages long.

The only problem is that its total crap. My internship was much more on the people management side of the spectrum, and less on the engineering side. I loved that.... I'm the sort of person who goes into cold sweats when I have to add stuff in my head, so staying away from the engineering side of things was just great for me. However, now I have to write this fancy document about what I did (or didn't do), and right now, its reading like Buzzword Bingo. Phrases found in my thesis:

Enabling empowerment on the shop-floor
Leveraging process visualization
Aligning resources via a clearly articulated vision statement
Fostering collaboration via co-location
Overcoming cultural barriers by creating a sense of purpose

I hate myself.

a palm tree christmas, part 2

2010-01-05T21:13:00.001-08:00

Christmas-time again.... like last year (which you can read about here), I spent the holidays in Tampa Florida with my folks. Christmas in Florida remains a mystery to me; I will never understand how driving around in a convertible with the top down on Christmas Eve, looking at Christmas lights on palm trees feels Christmas-y.

This year was decidedly better than last year, as my mom has fully recovered from last year's surgery, and we were able to spend the holiday at our house. However, just because we were at home doesn't mean that there weren't shinanigans.

First of all, my parents were completely unprepared for Christmas when I landed late in the day on the 23rd - they had been busy doing stuff, I guess. Therefore, the 24th was spent frantically putting up the tree & wrapping presents. At one point, my father emerged from their bedroom with a stack of presents, and asked me to put bows on them. I realized he was outsourcing the bow-making on my own presents to me. That's a scrupulous move, Pops.

Once we got the house looking like Christmas, it was time to do a huge shopping for Christmas dinner. Nothing like braving the grocery store on Christmas Eve to make you truly hate fellow-mankind. Me and Mom took care of the fancy stuff at Fresh Market, while we sent Dad to brave Publix alone. We were about 50% sure we'd never see him alive again.

Once we got home, we were exhausted and decided that real Christmas Eve (ie, food and celebration) would have to wait for tomorrow. Thus, we made a last minute move to put Christmas Eve on the 25th. I mean, we can get away with this stuff in our family.... my folks are total hippies, and so they are just as likely to celebrate Christmas in February as on Dec 25th, if it tweaks their fancy.

I got up on Christmas Day, and started cooking for "Christmas Eve" dinner (we always do the big meal on Christmas Eve, and then do presents and leftovers on Christmas Day). Once I started cooking, all hell broke loose. We realized that my sweet, good natured father had neglected to purchase cream or onions, which somehow meant that we couldn't make ANY of the pre-planned items (which included seared filets with gorgonzola cream sauce, quiche with carmelized onions and mushrooms, french onion soup, and mac & cheese). I believe that me and my mother celebrated the spirit of Christmas Day by simultaneously screaming "Are you f#@*-ing kidding me?" (it turns out we are evil, nasty people who deserved nothing but coal for Christmas). My father went out to scrounge up what he could on Christmas Day. He was able to find Half-and-Half at a Seven-Eleven, which works OK as a cream substitute. Onions were harder.... after trying to buy onions at CVS on Christmas Day, he finally had the bright idea to try a restaurant. The nice people at China Wok were open and sold my dad a bag of onions for $3. Merry Christmas.

In the end, the meal turned out perfectly, and we had a relaxing dinner by a lovely tree. Laughing about how my dad bought Christmas dinner at the chinese take-out place was totally worth the hassle and stress. On the 26th, we had "Christmas", and spent the entire day unwrapping presents, eating, drinking coffee, and enjoying each others company.

I understand that not everyone's Christmas is like my family's version. Wrapping your own presents, doing Christmas a day late, dropping the F-bomb, purchasing dinner supplies at a take-out joint.... this isn't the Christmas that Mariah Carey sings about. However, I love my dysfunctional family, and the amazing stories we always have after a family gathering. And anyways, after spending last year's Christmas in the hospital, it was an amazing feeling to simply be home for the holidays.

decisions, decisions

2009-12-24T04:45:00.000-08:00

So, despite my best attempts to sabotage myself (spilling a huge latte in the lobby prior to an interview, getting the flu during recruiting week, generally being a moron when interacting with others, etc), recruiting went decently and I have a few options that don't suck. So, I'm spending my holiday break trying to figure out how to pick an offer. Here are the best decision-making methodologies so far.....

1. Create an "winner-takes-Becca" gator-wrastling competition for the recruiters. I think this could be a good way to see who's really committed to having me full-time.

2. Do it just like us Sloanies pick classes.... accept all of them, go to work the first day, and then drop the ones we like the least.

3. Let Chuck Norris decide.

In the end I will do what all of us LGOs do.... I will make an elaborate spreadsheet that will not only evaluate the different compensation packages, but will also quantify and compare the intangibles such as location, culture, fit, etc. After making and tweaking and optimizing said model... I will go with my gut and just pick the one that feels right.

Obviously, I'm very lucky, and I'm thankful that I have options... especially ones that do not include selling plasma to pay off my loans.

Ciao, ciao Italia.....

2009-12-22T03:59:00.000-08:00

Today is my last in Italy. It's been a whirlwind week for me, trying to get myself packed and ready to go, as well as wrap up everything at work. This past week, I had all my final presentations & final 1:1s, which means lots of goodbyes, many kisses, and a few glasses of champagne (always a good thing at the office).

I had a farewell dinner last week, in which I was roasted by my colleagues.... my co-worker Fabio, who normally speaks nearly perfect English, had an epic screw-up when he announced to the whole table that "When I ride him home, it makes him scream". My boss really enjoyed that one.

The weekend was spent frantically packing my entire life into a few boxes, and figuring out just exactly I am going to manage to get 8 bottles of wine home on the plane.

Now its my actual last day in the office, and I'm clearing my desk and saying final goodbyes. As is becoming typical for my blog, I've spent the afternoon pondering my departure. It's a strange feeling; I'm excited to come home, but also sad to leave the "bella vita" I've experienced these last six months.

Things I Will Miss About Italy
There is a reason they call it "la bella vita".... it is a beautiful life here in Tuscany. Here are the things I will miss:

Constant Surprises. Everything is different here.... everything! Going to the grocery store is an adventure. It snowed a few inches here recently, and I observed that people wore plastic shopping bags on their feet and shoveled their cars out of the snow with brooms. Its always a surprise here in Italy.

Vino! I live in the best wine region, in the world, period. I can get an amazing Chianti here for about the same cost as Boones Farm back in the US.

Cheap International Travel. RyanAir, EasyJet, and me have forged a long-lasting friendship, one that I will miss dearly. I've traveled to Spain, Switzerland, Germany, Ireland, France, Amsterdam, and all over Italy in my time here, and its been easy, quick, and cheap. I think my flight to Dublin was 5 euros.... you can't even take the commuter rail to Framingham for that in Boston!

Work Experience. It hasn't always been easy, but I have learned a TON here.... I've constantly had to readjust my style in order to communicate and lead in this very different environment, and that's an experience that I'll keep with me forever. Working in another culture has been an amazing opportunity, and I'll be sad when it's over.

Food. OK, eating handmade Italian pasta, fresh caprese salads, and homemade gelato almost every day does not suck.

Things I Miss About America
OK, I'm a total liberal, I love to travel and see new things and new cultures, so I never considered myself a die-hard America lover. However, moving to Europe made me realize how much I do really love America..... not in a ultra-conservative, "let's elect Rush Limbaugh and kill all the terrorists" sort of way, but in more of a "man, I enjoy Target and speaking English" sort of way. Here are the things that I am most looking forward to when I arrive home tomorrow:

Speaking English. OK, new respect for all my Sloanie and LGO pals who's primary language isn't English. After six months of mustering my way through work meetings, grocery store mishaps, and restaurant ordering shinanigans, I can't wait to finally be able to just communicate without having to really think about it.

Shopping. OK, I'm not a total shoppaholic, but I like the idea that on a Sunday afternoon, I can run to Target and pick up groceries, toilettries, cleaning supplies, and maybe a new book. I like that if its 3am and I need toilet paper and hangover gatorade, there is a 24hr Walgreens right up the street that can hook me up. We don't have any of this in Italy.... and I miss it.

TV. I've never considered myself a TV lover. There have been extended times in my life when I have not had cable - like pretty much my entire childhood, as well as about 2 years after college. That said, I guess if I ever really wanted to watch something, I could.... and here I can't. While I enjoy the Italian gameshows (picture "Who Wants to Be a Millionaire" with girls in bikinis) and dubbed versions of "Pimp My Ride" on MTV Italia, I miss being able to sit back and watch a show in english (without the inevitable headache from trying to translate). I guess I like TV more than I thought.....

Beer. I miss beer. Nuff said.

My LGO pals. Miss you kids, can't wait to hang out at the BHP with you again soon (see "Beer", above).

Tomorrow I will begin an epic journey home (Siena to Florence to Frankfurt to Miami to Tampa to Atlanta to Boston!). I'm looking forward to leaving, but I'm already thinking about my next trip back to Italia......

Best and Worst of LGO

2009-12-09T16:45:00.000-08:00

Applications for the class of 2011 are due on December 15th..... I absolutely cannot believe it was already two years ago that I was working on my application (you can read about my application experience here)..... and it's equally flabbergasting (yes, that's a word now) that I'm going to graduate in just 6 months.

Perhaps its the three glasses of Tuscan wine I had with dinner, or perhaps its just the sleep deprivations (its 2am in Italy), but I've begun to wax nostalgic about my time in LGO. I've decided to put together my Top 10 Best & Worst things about LGO.

Top 10 Favorite Things About LGO

1. Don Rosenfield. The man is like a crazy ninja genius. Yes, it's impossible for him to utilize capitalization in emails, but the man can literally remember the name, graduation year, and current job description of every LGO. He is a walking encyclopedia of LGO graduation requirements. And the man is scary with an optimization model. Also, we ate boar together once, so that makes you cool in my book.

2. The LGO office. It's small, outdated, and has a mild rodent program. But its a home away from home, where I can always enjoy cheap taco truck food, and distract myself from studying by chatting with the other LGOs, who also basically live in the office.

3. The fellowship. Hey, would you like a fancy Sloan MBA, for free? Yes, please.

4. BHP Wednesdays. Yes, its a hole in the wall, but its our hole in the wall, where the Brubakers are cheap and rumors get started.

5. Plant trek. Trekking across the country with all your classmates to exotic places like Reno and Kansas City, spending equal time drinking and checking out plants. It was honestly one of the most fun two weeks of my life.

6. Voltron, my core team. Yes, we had our differences (ala the screaming match with Cal over those friggin helicopters), but they were an amazing bunch of people - each one of them incredibly bright, motivated, and unique. What an amazing experience to work with some amazing people. And any group named after awesome robots has to be cool, right?

7. Internships. So, not every internship has been perfect, but we are each guaranteed an internship, somewhere..... so, compared to some of our Sloanie friends who spent the summer working for free at Greenpeace trying desperately to round out their resumes, we each could sit back, relax, and realize we would have a job, somewhere, and we didn't even have to really prep for interviews. Additionally, most of the internships were pretty awesome.... it turns out, spending 6 months in Italy, traveling all over Europe, and being able to experience an international work assignment was pretty freaking awesome.

8. Flexibility. I'm a huge fan of my advisors, who basically let me create my own course, filled with a combination of classic ChE course, supply chain classes, and hands-on consulting work, and allowed me to use this to meet my engineering requirements. I got to take exactly the classes that I wanted to develop myself as a person (which is exactly why I went back to school in the first place).

9. X-Class. OK, I guess its not really an LGO thing, but I adore the fact that I'm in the X-Class. Come on, say it out loud.... doesn't it sound awesome?

10. My amazing classmates. They are the brightest people on the planet. I'm not making this up. They constantly amaze me with the things they've already accomplished in their lives, and they way they each have their own, unique way of breaking down a problem. I've learned so much from them in the short time I've been in LGO. The class also has an incredibly tight bond.... I can't imagine throwing a party and not inviting all 48 of them. If I had a problem at work, it was routine that an LGO (probably at another company) could give me suggestions and help faster than my actual coworkers. Even in recruiting, the environment has been 100% supportive, with LGOs encouraging others who are interviewing for the same jobs. The past 1.5 years has been an opportunity to build a relationships with some of the smartest, nicest folks on earth. And that doesn't suck.

Ok.... so now for the nasty side of LGO:

10 Things I Hate About LGO

1. It's hard. It turns out that I like to sleep, a lot. And sleeping a lot isn't great for going to morning classes. And if you are an LGO, you have lots of classes. And that's a bummer if you like to sleep a lot. Seriously though, its a crazy workload, and sometimes it feels overwhelming, despite the support we get from our classmates and faculty. Two degrees in four semesters is rough. For reals.

2. It's sometimes boring. We have some required classes that made me want to gouge my eyes out, such as systems optimization. If I never have to model again in my life, I'll be a happy woman.

3. We're alienated. Are we Sloanies, are we MIT students? Well, we're sort of neither. The fact that we show up a semester early is great for us to bond with each other, but it makes it harder for us to blend into the Sloanie community..... and being off-campus for an extra semester for internship doesn't help either. We're a bit alienated (by our own doing, mostly) from the Sloan community. I sometimes wish I'd done a better job of intergrating into the Sloan community. As for integrating into the MIT engineering community.... what's that saying, the odds are good, but the goods are odd? Hmmm, maybe.

4. Competition sucks. So, as I mentioned, all the LGOs are awesome, which makes it insanely hard to compete against them for jobs. Its gutwrenching to go after the same offer as your good friend, and all the kind words from your classmates doesn't make it any easier. I also feel constantly inadequate, since my peers are all ridiculously awesome at everything :)

5. We could be more diverse. Since LGO favors applicants that can legally work in countries that have LGO partner company plants, we accept fewer international applicants than the engineering or Sloan school. While I understand it, I still hate it.... the whole reason for going back to school was to learn, and you obviously learn from people who have had different experiences than yourself.... it would be awesome if the program was able to take more international applicants, in order to more fully embrace diversity of thought and backgrounds.

6. We have to write a thesis. Ugh, really? I guess that's the price for the free MBA.

7-10. Math, math, math, and math. I hate math. I'm terrible at it. I hate it enough that it merited four separate slots on my "Things I Hate About LGO" list (well, also I couldnt think of any more, and I'm getting sleepy). Anhow, there is math in every single class I've taken through the LGO program. Totally lame.

Thanksgiving in Amsterdam

2009-12-07T14:11:00.000-08:00

Me, Jo, Drew, and Angelo spent Thanksgiving weekend in Amsterdam. While I didn't eat any turkey, I did give thanks for Heineken.

Here were my top moments from AMS:

1. Staying on a houseboat, with Jonas. For serious. Check out his website here. The shower was in the kitchen, ducks can swim up to your window, yet we still had wifi. Awesome.

2. Watching Jo make "peanut butter cups" out of nutella and peanut butter.... success was pretty limited on that one.

3. Me, after a few hours in Amsterdam, asking the group "OK, um, so really, where exactly are the Netherlands?"

this is the netherlands

4. Finding out there were two bars with the same name after Jo and Drew waited outside one in the rain for an hour, and me and Angelo waited outside in the rain at the other.

5. Karaoke duet with Drew to Grease's Summer Nights. Phenomenal.

6. Van Gogh and Vermeers. We checked out the Van Gogh Museum and the Rijksmuseum and the paintings were pretty amazing. I really enjoyed the layouts of both museums.

7. Waffles and dutch donuts. OK, so Amsterdam has got the sweets DOWN. They have these dutch donuts, that are sort of like awesome little balls of funnel cake, served hot and rolled in powdered sugar. Heaven. Also, they have frosting covered waffles. Amazing.

8. There are lots of normally illegal things that are legal in Amsterdam, but my favorite is that its totally, completely acceptable to urinate outside, in public. They even have these conveniently located public urinals out and about in busy locations. Brilliant.

9. Everybody speaking English!

and finally.......
10. Making corny photos about MIT at major Amsterdam landmarks!

I'm on a boat, Venice-style

2009-12-01T13:46:00.000-08:00

Last weekend, I finally went to Venice. I'd been avoiding it during the high season, since I expected it to be hot, crowded and full of tourists (like me). I'd heard a lot of negatives about Venice, so I wasn't expecting a whole lot. However, as our Lean Professor Steve Spear would have said, I should have prepared myself to be surprised. Venice was hauntingly gorgeous, and seeing the city was perhaps my favorite trip so far since I've been abroad for my internship.

I came into Venice in the AM and parked in this big, industrial looking carpark on the edge of the island. I was not yet very impressed. Then, I waited at the vaporetto stop…. vaporetto are waterbuses. It’s basically like the subway, only boats. I hopped on the vaporetto, and we headed through a rather industrial port area, and then into Venice. And it was amazing. As we turned onto the Grand Canal, at once the former splendor of Venice was apparent. The canal was lined with formerly beautiful homes, rising from the misty water. The homes were splashed in bright colors, although faded over time. It was clear that you needed a boat to do anything, include leave your house. The sheer audacity of building such a grand city in such an inopportune location somehow seems both admirable and sad at the same time.

The most striking thing about the homes is the various states of ruin…. Although many are well-maintained, there is only so much you can do when your front door literally opens up to the salty Adriatic. Many of the lower floors of the homes were warped, mossy, and damaged from the flooding, and some of the buildings are clearly abandoned. Seeing these beautiful, damaged structures was somehow very haunting. I’m not a person who loves perfection, and I’m always drawn to things that are a bit damaged. Since I’ve been in Italy, I’ve loved seeing the fallen ruins of Rome, or the damaged Abbey in San Galgano. Venice certainly delivered a beautiful but damaged city.

I cruised up the Grand Canal, with stops at the Rialto Bridge and finally San Marco. San Marco was very different from the other grand churches I’ve seen in Italy. Because Venice was basically founded as business bridge between the east and the west, it’s not surprising that San Marco is heavily influenced by eastern architecture. Inside, the entire church is covered with amazing golden mosaics, which are supposedly the nicest outside of Constantinople. My pictures don’t do it any justice, but I tried.

Next, I wandered around St. Marks Square and did some shopping. It’s nearly the size of 2 football fields, and I can only imagine its grandeur when it was built.

I spent the rest of my time wandering around, getting really lost, and meeting locals. It was some sort of saint’s holiday, and there was a big festival going on that seemed to be attended solely by Venetians. I wandered around, and bought a gift and a few things for myself, including some beautiful Murano glass jewelry. I also ate a few things from the vendors on the street, including something that I thought was a calzone, but turned out to be a hot cinnamon doughnut filled with whipped cream. Yum. I was given lots of props from the locals from trying to speak Italian…. in such a touristy area, they must be used to obnoxious Americani who speak only in English. My Italian also came in handy to bargain, which got me lots of discounts on the things I bought.

I took one last cruise around the city on the vaporetto once the sun had set. On the grand canal, all the houses had elaborate exterior lighting, casting multicolored lights into the canal. Venice glittered like a jewel on the water. Perhaps Venice hasn’t really lost any of its former glory, after all.

Roma, ancora!

2009-11-30T13:37:00.000-08:00

Two weekends ago I went to Roma, again.... this time with Mo and Drew. To avoid the obnoxious Rome traffic, I took the train down from Siena. On the way, I read a book about Caravaggio, which was funny since I wound up seeing a bunch of Caravaggios, randomly, in Roma.

Once we got there, I checked into my hostel, which was a pain in the ass. It was in a moderately sketchy area near the train station, so I was able to tell lots of nice boys, in Italian, that no, I did not, in fact, want a kiss. Then when I got there, the place was a craphole. It smelled distinctly of onions and body odor. Whatever, that’s what you get when you pay 17euro a night.

We went on a night walk of Rome, and had a bite to eat. Me and Mo got a liter of wine, and Drew got a liter of Coke. Hilarious. We got really lost and sat down at the edge of this big, old looking building to figure out where we were…. Turns out we were sitting on the Pantheon. We are morons.

On Saturday, we tried to take the Archeobus to the catacombs. After waiting for almost 1.5 hrs, the Archobus rolled up, and told us that while they would take us to the catacombs, we probably wouldn’t get a ride back, because the manifestations (aka, protests) scheduled for the day would likely disrupt the bus route. Awesome. So, we took a cab.

Checked out the catacombs, totally weird and creepy. Tried to call a cab to get a cab back…. After 4 calls and much speaking in broken English, I was pretty sure the cab was never coming…. But lo and behold, the cab actually came. A miracle!

The rest of the day we checked out the Pantheon and other old stuff. Dinner was at Campo di Fiori, and involved a lot of wine.

Sunday was more sightseeing, including checking out the Ara Pacis. The Ara Pacis (Alter of Peace) is a 2,000 alter that was reassembled after being found in pieces. On an interesting note, a new, modern building was built by Richard Meier. Its one of the only "modern" buildings in the ancient city center. I loved the juxtaposition of glass and steel against the finely carved marble alter, but apparently Italians hate it, and have vowed to tear it down. Pretty interesting stuff.

At the end of the day, I took a pretty uneventful train ride back. I treated my tired feet to a pedicure when I got back…. Heaven.

Things I Learned in Italia

2009-11-25T12:49:00.000-08:00

So, I knew I would learn some lean mumbo jumbo while doing my project, but I’ve also learned a couple other things in my time here in Tuscany. Not surprisingly, my Italian has actually improved a ton, which is great, because I don’t feel like quite as much of an uneducated jerk every time I have to speak in Italian. Novartis set me up with a tutor at work, who I see for a few hours a week. We work one-on-one, and speak exclusively in Italian. I can tell that if nothing else, the practice has certainly built my confidence & improved my pronunciation. Before, whenever I spoke in Italian, they would respond back in English (or run and find someone who could). Now when I speak, they generally back in Italian, which is flattering. Sometimes it sucks, because they assume I’m fluent and chatter away, leaving me to wonder what the #&*^@ is going on. However, I’ve learned the phrase for “Slower please, I am American” which is effective, and usually gets a laugh.

I’m really glad I worked hard on improving my Italian while I was here – it’s helped me out a lot at work. While work is technically an English-speaking plant, many at the shopfloor level don’t speak any English. When I was executing my pilot, it was all with shopfloor folks, so the ability to run meetings in Italian (and not get lost) was crucial. Additionally, when they had questions, they could just ask me directly, and I didn’t have to worry about finding a translator, etc. Plus, I think it helped me gain credibility with the shopfloor folks, that I was at least making an effort.

In addition to improving my Italian language skills, I have absolutely mastered the art of Italian driving. Every morning, I drink coffee and eat a brioche in my little Lancia, balancing my breakfast on my knees while I shift, and I routinely go twice the speed limit and illegally pass cars on turns. It’s liberating and awesome and I just hope I don’t die. I actually drove an automatic while I was home for Recruiting Week, and I was so in the habit of driving a manual, I stomped on the brake with my left foot as if it was the clutch…. Automatic car FAIL. It was sort of hilarious.

The third, and probably most fun, skill I’ve learned here is to talk really loud while waving my hands around. Everyone here does it…. Communication here is always passionate, always lively. There is no “wait your turn” in conversation, everyone is talking, all at the same time, and thus if you want to be heard, you just go louder. And wave your hands around for effect. It seemed so foreign when I moved here, but now it’s just sort of sucked me in…. I find myself bellowing at coworkers in meetings while oscillating between sitting and standing and waving my hands above my head for effect. And then afterwards, we’ll all calm down by drinking a couple of espressos.

I Want to Marry Ocho Cinco

2009-11-20T05:15:00.000-08:00

I remember the last time the Bengals had a really good season. It was 1988, I was 7 years old, and we went to the Superbowl. At bedtime, in my Bengals pajamas, I would do the Icky Shuffle, and dream of Boomer. Of course, these dreams were shattered by Jerry Rice and the 49ers, and then the Bengals awesomeness took a 20 year hiatus.

But now we’re back. We’re awesome again. We’re leading the AFC North. We have a 7-2 season (which should be 8-1, but the Broncos got lucky, not that I am bitter). It’s officially the renaissance of the Bengals.

And who do we thank for this amazing season? Well, we all know we should thank the lovely Carson Palmer, the upstanding young gentleman from USC who has led the Bengals offense this season. But while we know we should adore the charming young man with the nice smile, he’s just a little too plain for us die-hard Bengals fans.

We crave the 8-5. We love the Ocho Cinco. The former Chad Johnson, who legally changed his name to his jersey number. The man described as the Dennis Rodman of Football, the Bengals Shock Jock. The man who literally does the Riverdance when he gets a touchdown. The man who’s overwhelming ego prompted him to purchase over 1200 tickets at Paul Brown stadium to prevent a blackout in Cinci and ensure his megawatt smile was plastered all over the TV. We can't get enough Ocho Cinco.

Bengals fans have had it tough. For as long as we can remember, the players just up the road in Indy were spending quiet evenings supporting local charities and playing Dungy's “Christian football” all the way to the Superbowl. Meanwhile, the abysmal Bengals were all out stabbing each other, smoking crack, and generally running amuck. But instead of turning our backs on the naughty Bengals, us 'Nati inhabitants simply learned to crave the bad behavior. That’s why we love the Ocho.

It’s not that I don’t love Carson…. But he just doesn’t have Ocho’s spunk. I haven’t had a chance to read Chad’s new book (click here) because sadly, it has not yet been translated to Italian, but it’s absolutely on my Xmas wish list. I can’t wait to read more about Ocho’s acting abilities, which he learned from watching Denzel Washington: "I should be in a Broadway show. I'm that good." Or hearing about how ceased attending classes at Oregon State after one week because "I didn't want people to know how smart I was." And I can't wait to learn more about 85's softer side, which manifested itself when Chad was able to attend one of the births of his four children (the other three, sadly, we during the season, so obviously his personal attendance at the other births wasn't possible). The moment affected him deeply, and he pondered, "I'm holding a little me. Just having little me's around is cool. No lie."

As Mr. Ochocinco laments in his new novel, "I love me some me". And although we know we shouldn’t, us Bengals fans love us some 8-5, too.

Twenty, twenty, twenty-four days to go-ooo-ooo…….

2009-11-19T12:41:00.000-08:00

Just get me to the airport, put me on a plane, hurry, hurry, hurry, before I go insane…

So, I have 24 more days of work at my internship…. That’s it! It’s insane. It has gone by so incredibly fast - it feels like just yesterday I was wandering around Siena, confused and bewildered. Oh wait, that did happen yesterday. Actually, that happens most days here in Italy.

Anyhow, as I begin to wrap up my internship, I figured I’d give you an update on my progress. In case you forgot, my main focus was on improving batch records approval processes. After doing what seemed like never-ending data collection and cease-less pitching of my ideas to gain buy in, I FINALLY piloted my idea to streamline the approval process. I just finished up a pilot in one area, and got amazing data….. huge improvements in cycle-time, low error rates, and the BEST thing ever happened – the people in the area actually liked my idea (They like me! They really like me!) and want to keep doing it forever. Awesome.

However, it’s not all fun and games… I’m still in-progress with a nearly identical pilot in another area, and this one’s been more of a wreck. The area was a last-minute add-on to my scope. We skipped a lot of the planning process, and low and behold – the execution piece isn’t going so smooth. Who woulda thunk it. I think in the end we’ll get good data, but it’s not been nearly as smooth as working in the other area. However, the cool thing is getting to compare the two…. Why was one more successful than the other? What did I do differently that led to more success here than there? So for me, it’s a great way to learn. I hope that site management sees it that way also. :)

So, now I’m in wrap up mode. I’m working to get all my final data, create a final analysis, present that to management, and generally wrap things up. My social calendar for December is filling with farewell lunches and dinners, and it makes me more than a little wistful to know my time in Italy is coming to an end, and that soon I'll be getting on a plane (and then another plane.... and then another plane....ugh) and heading back to the states permanently.

why you should hire me

2009-11-09T12:33:00.000-08:00

OK, it's official.... recruiting sucks. If any MBA student tells you otherwise, they are lying, crazy, or sponsored. Anyhow, LGO Recruiting Week was last week, which meant another trip across the pond back to Boston. The timing was awesome - I got to hang out with friends for Halloween, and attend another MBA prom. Pics below......

However, it wasnt all fun and games. It turns out that interviews are stressful.... and having a bunch of them in a condensed time is extra stressful. Wearing a suit for 5 days straight is stressful (if you are like me, and prefer to wear your lunch instead of just eating it). To make matters worse, I got hella sick. Like, speaking-like-Count-Dracula, sneezing-like-its-my-job, coughing-like-a-pack-a-day-smoker sick. Nasty. So I'm heading into interviews, hacking and wheezing and then wondering why it seemed like they weren't that excited to hire me......

Anyhow, after loads of interviews, I've compiled my Top 5 Answers to the age-old question.... "Why should we hire you?"

5. Because I have fancy sweatpants with pockets that I plan to wear as part of my "business casual" attire
4. Because my doctor is "pretty sure" I don't have swine flu
3. Because if you ask me to do math in my head, I might cry, which might make you feel better about yourself
2. Because I am willing to work at least 30 hrs a week for 120K a year
1. Because I am kind of totally awesome

you say its your birthday

2009-10-22T11:59:00.000-07:00

So, my birthday was Oct 9th..... and it was sort of totally awesome.

Last week, my friends Jena and Jen (yes, really) came to Italy for a few days of fun in Tuscany. On Thursday, we went to Volpaia, a town of 52 people on the top of a hill. All the inhabitants work at the town winery making wine, vinegar, and olive oil.

Then, we went to Le Cantine in Greve, which is basically a wine lovers paradise..... over 200 wines to sample!

Friday was my actual birthday. I flew into Frankfurt, and Drew and Jo picked me up in their bitchin orange Nissan Micra. We drove a few hours to Stuttgart, a pretty big town in southern Germany that is home to the Canstatter Wasen, which is basically a Oktoberfest-like par-tay. We heard that tourists go to Munich for Oktoberfest, and locals go to Canstatter Wasen. Par-tay with the locals, yo!

Anyhow, we went to the Canstatter Wasen on Friday night. It was basically just like the Indiana State fair, only with TONS of beer. it was awesome.

On Saturday, more LGOs (Kris, Tati, Maureen, Angela) came to town, and we went to one of the tents for the day. For 30euro, we got 3 liters of beer, half a chicken, and a reserved picnic table inside this giant tent for about 8 hrs. We drank and danced on the picnic table while singing along to German favorites like "Country Roads".

The following picture was taken at the hostel at the end of the evening, and pretty much sums up the night.

On Sunday, I had to wear sweatpants and dress shoes home on the plane, because everything else that I brought with me was soaked in beer.

I officially love Germany.

Why LGO?

2009-10-12T15:26:00.000-07:00

So, it's mid-October.... a time of fall foliage, football, and first-round applications. I'm guessing that if you’re checkin out my rockin blog, it’s likely because you’re contemplating going back to school. The decision to leave my job, my friends, and my hometown and go back to school full-time was one of the biggest decisions I’ve ever made (and will probably ever make). Here’s a bit of insight about why I decided LGO was the right choice for me.

I graduated in 2003 with a ChE degree, and began working at Eli Lilly, a pretty large (40,000 employees) pharma manufacturer in Indiana. I’ve always wanted to work in healthcare, and I loved my job. I worked in a dry products finishing plant, so I got to see the finished product every day. I loved the environment, but after working for about 4 years in engineering and quality, I began to really think about what I wanted to do long term. I love manufacturing, and decided I wanted to keep my career in manufacturing. However, I wanted to be able to work at a higher level; I wanted to have opportunities to lead and effect change. I realized that I have high aspirations for myself, but needed some additional tools to reach my goals.

At this point, I began looking at MBA programs. Lilly actually has a great program in which they will fully sponsor your MBA at nights if you continue working. I seriously contemplated this; it allowed the option to get an MBA while still getting my paycheck. However, I came to the conclusion that for myself, doing a part-time MBA did not provide the complete skillset I wanted. It would give me a decent working knowledge, but wouldn’t give me the complete package that a full-time program would provide. I decided that for me, it was all or nothing.

So, I started looking into B-schools. At first, I was only looking at traditional b-schools…. HBS, Kellogg, Tuck, Stanford, etc. However, a colleague of mine at Lilly was a grad of LGO, and she encouraged me to check out the program.

For the sake of honesty, I’ll admit to you that at first, I really didn’t initially see any value in a masters of engineering. I don’t fancy myself a terribly technical person, and my long term vision for my career is much more admin-based than tech-based. However, as I began to look into the LGO program, I realized that integrated approach of Sloan MBA and MIT engineering degree does in fact build a very good base for leading in manufacturing after graduation. I was very drawn to the ESD program, which offers a supply chain focus, and seems very much in line with an ops-based MBA. (This is sorta funny now, since I wound up changing majors from ESD to ChE once I was here, but whatever). For me, I began to see LGO as sort of an “MBA-plus” type of program. Now that I’m here, I know lots of other students who see LGO as an “Engineering-plus” program… the engineering degree is flexible, and allows you to get as technical (or as un-technical) as you want. The flexibility factor was a key selling point for me.

Perhaps the most important differentiation of LGO from nearly any other program (either normal MBA or other dual-degree programs) is the financial support provided. LGO is a fellowship; the majority of our education is paid for by the industry partners who support the program. An MBA is a powerful tool… and its also an expensive tool. I didn’t have a trust fund set away for me, so preparing to pay 100K for an MBA at a top school was a pretty daunting prospect. However, the fellowship offered with LGO would basically cover my tuition, so I’d just have to cover my room and board. I knew it would be much easier to leave my job (and my paycheck) knowing that I wasn’t going to graduate drowning in debt.

In the end, I applied to HBS, Tuck, and LGO. After applying, I visited each school for interviews. During my visit to LGO, I had a blast. I felt very much at home in the urban setting, and felts that the kids currently in the program were a lot like me. It just felt right. The other schools I visited were lovely, and I am sure I would have received an amazing education if I’d gone there – they both offer amazing programs, and both locations were absolutely beautiful. However, at the other schools I went to, there was just something a little less comfortable than LGO.

In the end, LGO just felt right to me, and I subsequently decided it was where I was going to go (assuming I got in, of course… you can check out my blogs about the application process here ).

I think the decision to go back full-time is enormous, as is the decision of which program you want to attend is equally important. I’d encourage any prospective MBA student to really think about what you want to do in the future, talk to lots of people, visit lots of school to really understand what you’re getting yourself into. I’d caution any student from picking a program based solely on rankings, etc. Visit the schools, see where you are comfortable, and in the end- go with your gut.

Applications to LGO are due December 15th. You can learn more about the program and the application process at www.lgo.mit.edu.

If you have any questions about LGO, please leave me a comment and I'd be happy to give you my thoughts!

LGO Application Process

2009-10-01T12:08:00.000-07:00

So I’ve gotten a few comments from prospective students with questions on the application process. I wrote about this extensively last year, so I figured I’d re-post my previous blogs in case anyone cares to read my personal thoughts on applications to LGO.

As a disclaimer, please remember I am NOT on the admission board, so these are just my personal views about what I did when I was applying to the program!

Blogs:

Taking the GMAT

Getting Recommendations

Writing the Essays

Resume, Schmesume

The Interview!

Midstream Review

2009-09-18T03:40:00.000-07:00

So I am currently blogging from the Zurich Airport, where I am killing time in my 6hr layover on my way back to the states. Thank god for wifi.... and swiss chocolate!

I'm heading back to MIT for "Midstream Review".... Its a mandatory part of our program. The LGO program realizes that most of our learnings come from each other, so they set aside 1 week in the middle of our internships when we all come together and do some knowledge sharing activities. I expect we will also get really drunk.

The week sounds pretty decent.... we each give brief status updates about what we are doing on our internships, and there is time afterwards for discussion. I have found so far that the LGO community is a wealth of knowledge about, well, damn near everything..... when I struggled earlier in my internship on implementing lean techniques, I did a quick telecon to Texas to talk to Lucas, who is a lean master, and he gave me some really great guidance. I am looking forward to seeing what my fellow classmates have been up to, and to see if there are similiarities between our projects.

And of course, I'm really excited just to see everyone again, I've really missed everyone (well, everyone except for Drew. I hate Drew). Additionally, we all shipped off to internship before the 2011s got on campus, so this will be our first real opportunity to meet them and hang out. We also will do a bunch of knowledge sharing activities with them, too (ie, I will tell them how to schedule no classes prior to 1pm after they get out of core).

To that end, I've been working with a handful of LGOs to plan a camping trip at the end of the week. Let me tell you, you would have NO IDEA how much planning goes into getting 80 engineers out into the woods together on a camping trip. A logistical nightmare! However, we are planning a really fun trip to a campground in NH, and I expect there to be lots of fun times over the campfire, as well as during some canoeing and hiking trips we have planned. The only bummer about the camping trip is that I don't exactly have a ton of gear with me in Italy (nor would I really be able to truck it back over the atlantic for a weekend), so I might be a bit at the mercy of my classmates for gear and clothes..... hey, I bet someone will let me sleep in their sleeping bag with them, right?

Turns out that knowing the words "chalupa" and "burrito" are not helpful when navigating Spain

2009-09-18T03:26:00.000-07:00

More travels..... last weekend I went to Barcelona. I drank a lot of sangria. I stayed in a hostel with a bunch of drunk Germans. As for sightseeing, we went to the old Olympic Park and toured all the weirdo Gaudi architecture. Then we drank more sangria.

I dont speak ANY spanish.... well, beyond Oyo Come Va lyrics and Taco Bell menu items, and the word cervesa. Turns out that was enough.

Pics!

What, no mimes in Corsica?

2009-09-08T11:11:00.000-07:00

This past weekend my friend Monica and I trekked to Corsica for a relaxing weekend of beaching, gambling, drinking, and hopefully meeting French men with yachts.

We decided to take a ferry to Corsica (which is a French island in the middle of the Mediterranean if you didn’t pay attention in Geography class). We drove the Lancia to Livorno Italy, and then I drove the Lancia on a boat. Which was both extremely terrifying and hilarious at the same time.

Pretty much the whole way there, I hummed Lonely Island’s “I’m on a Boat”. If you haven’t seen it, YouTube this immediately (explicit version only…. its ok, a little swearing never hurt anyone).

They are on a boat]

I decided that cruising around on a boat in the Mediterranean is my new preferred mode of travel. Lots of room, and you can buy a beer and sit in the sun. Perfetto.

We docked in Bastia which was gorgeous.

Then we drove off the boat, and as I drove off the ferry, I asked Monica “Crap, what side of the road do they drive on here?”. Hmm, note to self…. Do homework before driving to foreign country.

We drove across Corsica to Ajaccio. Corsica itself was a weird mix of mountains, forests, and beaches. Very varied climate and vegetation in a very small space. It was also really mountainous, which made the Lancia sad.

Once in Ajaccio, we wandered around and got dinner.

We tried to buy a mime as a souvenir, but couldn’t find one. Total BS. Also,the French posted this sign,which made me sad (since I generally swear like a sailor).

That night we went out for dinner and drinks. Monica had the Lonely Planet guidebook, which is aimed at teens backpacking through Europe, and provides information exclusively on hostels and discotheques. Perfetto.

Day 2 was spent on the beach. It did not suck.

The evening involved some gambling (which didn’t really feel like gambling, since Euros don’t really feel like real money), more drinks, more discotheques (thank you Lonely Planet).

Day 3 was spent road tripping across Corsica and back on the ferry. Yeah, never thought I'd be on a boat… it's a big blue watery road. Poseidon, look at me!

baby jesus loves Roma

2009-09-07T10:30:00.000-07:00

I’ve been told that my blog is starting to read a bit like a travel brochure… I’m sure this next post won’t help. But I mean, really…. Who wants to actually hear about work? Wouldn’t you rather hear funny stories about me making an ass of myself in foreign countries?

Also, I've been told that my pictures look all busted. I know this. I don't care enough to teach myself the HTML required to fix it. Deal with it.

For the past 10 days, my buddy Monica was in town. She’s a friend from high school and college…. We’ve been friends forever, and I was really excited to see her.

The first weekend she was here, we went to Rome. We went down on a Saturday morning. It’s a 2.5 hr drive. We allotted ourselves 6 hrs to get there. But we didn’t fully realize Rome’s chaos…..

We started off the trip with a stop to the AutoGrill, which is the Italian truck stop. It’s pure insanity. They offer sammiches and pastries and coffee and its super awesome and super cheap and therefore supercrowded and hectic. I got something called a Texas, which turned out to be turkey and tomatoes on a bagel. Whatever,it was totally delish.

Then we continued on to Rome. I had made an arrangement to park on the outskirts of the city and take the subway into the city. We got there around noon, which was fine… we didn’t have anything planned until 3pm, when we had an appointment to see the Borghese museum. However, once we got to the car park, all hell broke loose. We went to the train station, but there were no ticket machines or schedules posted …. So we couldn’t get on a train (no tickets), nor would we want too, since we had no idea which direction the trains were going. Ah, Italy. We figured out that we could buy a ticket at a tobacco store, but they were all on siesta (and closed) til 2pm. We went back to the carpark, and had them call us a cab. We figured it would be a small fortune, but whatever. Anyhow, we waited in the sun and 85 degree heat for about 30 mins…. No cab. We had them call again, and they were told “Oh yea, there are no cabs available, so we cancelled your order”…. No cab. Thanks for telling us. By this time, the tobacco store was open and we bought a ticket. I actually wasn’t sure if it was for the bus or the train, but by that point I didn’t care. We still didn’t know what ways the trains were going, so we just got on one…. Of course, wrong way. However, it took us to a bigger train station with schedules, so we were at least able to figure out how to get to our hotel. We finally made it to the Borghese, but not until like 4pm…. Like an hour after our appointment.

However, they were nice and let us in. The Borghese was gorgeous…. Pretty museum with many nice Bernini and Raphael sculptures and a bunch of Caravaggio paintings. The grounds were also really nice, and made for a relaxing walk after our busy day.

Borghese

Then we wandered to the Trevi fountain (overrun with tourists) and the Spanish steps (ditto). It was like 100 freaking degrees and crowded and we were getting sort of fed up with it all, so we decided to head back to the hotel around 6pm and take a nap (in the AC!).

Trevi Fountain

Spanish Embassy (by the Spanish Steps, which were just steps and sort of lame)

When we got up, we went to Campo dei Fiori. This was recommended by my officemate Carlo, who is from Rome. When we got there, we discovered that Campo dei Fiori is where all the drunk tourists go…. We didn’t meet any Italians, but we did meet plenty of hammered Brits and Germans. Thanks Carlo! We also walked by the Colessum at night, which was really pretty.

Blame it on the grappa

Drunk Brits

Colessuem

On Sunday, we were wicked hungover. We ventured out to see the Colessumin the daylight, which was really cool. However, our hangovers were getting the best of us… at one point, Monica noted “You know, I’m not really into all this historical s**t”. We hiked around the Paladium and the Roman Forum, and then went for a nap.

Colessuem

That night we went out in Travestere, which had a lot less tourists and a lot more Italians! Yea!

Street performers at Travestare

Sunday, we got our religion on and went to the Vatican. It was so gorgeous, I think that the Vatican could make almost anyone love baby Jesus. We went through the museums and the Sistene Chapel. With all the hype about it, I almost expected it to be a let down. It was not. It was probably the most gorgeous thing I have ever seen in my life. They recently did a restoration of the ceiling, and it uncovered the most vivid, beautiful colors – bright oranges and greens and blues. It was breathtaking.

Monica repents at the Vatican

Saint Peters

Inside the Vatican museums

Late in the afternoon, we headed back to work. On the radio, we heard a folk cover of the JT song Ayo Technology, which was pretty much the funniest thing that I’ve ever heard. I mean, that sond was just begging for a folk remake……

Internship and Recruiting Update

2009-09-06T09:35:00.000-07:00

I know I haven’t posted much this summer about my internship…. Only one previous post (which you can see here ). It’s not that my internship not interesting (it is), but I’m not exactly sure what I can say on my blog that wouldn’t violate my agreement to keep confidential company information, well, confidential.

What I can say is that it has been an eye-opening experience. I came from pharmaceuticals, which is similar but different….. I worked before on oral medications (specifically stuff like depression drugs and antibiotics). These were small molecule drugs that were largely synthesized chemically. Regulations are certainly present, but were somewhat relaxed due to the fact that your tummy can handle a certain level of bad stuff without you getting sick. The typical drug cycle was something like 15 years from discovery to market. Now I am in vaccines…. And it’s all different. Vaccines are made from growing stuff, either cells or viruses or bacteria, which is a lot less straightforward than chemical synthesis. For stuff like flu vaccine, the discovery to market timeframe gets squashed to something like 1 year. And since you are injecting your drug into the bloodstream (of healthy, not sick) people, the regulation and criticality of quality is way higher. Add to all that the differences in culture here in Italy, and it’s pretty much a totally different experience than I have ever had before.

As far as my actual project, I’m still working to streamline documentation. I have begun to focus some of my efforts on improving the review process. I’ve gathered all my data, brainstormed issues, brainstormed solutions, and then figured out which solutions are cheap and easy and impactful. Now, the plan is to actually pilot those cheap, easy, impactful recommendations in the remainder of my time here. I can see what goes well (and what doesn’t) and then make final recommendations from that knowledge. Sorry it’s vague…. But I’m sure the details would only bore you ;)

However, a big part of my internship, besides just the work part, is figuring out if I want to work here full time…. I think it’s pretty obvious that working at a company gives you tons of insight…. which was one of the major drivers for picking my internship. I based my internship choice based on company, location, project (in that order). The reason for this was: I wanted to pick a company that I could theoretically work for when I graduated… this was my top criteria. Second, I wanted international work experience. Lastly, project was important, but seemed secondary to the other two….. to me, even if I had a rocking project, but it was at a company I wouldn’t ever want to work at full time, then whats the point?

Anyhow, at the time, I think we all felt like picking our internships was a stressful and exhausting experience (which you can read about here ). However, it’s basically all starting all over again with full time recruiting, which is beginning now for us. So how does full time recruiting work for LGOs, you might ask? Well, it’s a bit of a process. First of all, the program totally hooks us up as far as partner company interviews are concerned. There is a week in November when we all return to campus and we can interview with all the partner companies.

Where it gets trickier is if you want to interview with nonpartner companies. While LGO encourages its students to pursue careers with partner companies, this is not required, and we are free to interview with who we like. However, most interviews are during the fall semester (at Sloan) when we are all still on internship. So, you have to be creative and work a little harder to schedule phone interviews, or even take vacation from our internships (yes we have vacation) to do recruiting. This is the one time when being internationally based really sucks…. Because I also have to add a 6hr time difference (or a transatlantic flight) into the mix. However, I knew about all of this before I took an international assignment, and the inconvenience is definitely outweighed by the awesomeness of living and working in Italy.

Now, that I am here at Novartis, I have been spending a lot of time talking to people in different divisions, locations, and functions to determine if Novartis Vaccines is the right place for me to make my career. I really love it here; I am surrounded with good people who are passionate about their work – I don’t think anyone could ask for much more from a work group. Additionally, it’s a pretty flat organization that is growing rapidly and is a total meritocracy - all appealing. However, there are some downsides too…. For example, the rapid growth has led to some cultural issues within the organization, and they haven’t yet established a network of LGOs. Some of the sites are not places I would want to work (like rural India). So, there is good and bad. Regardless, I am enjoying my time here, and I am hopeful that I get an offer from Novartis. That said, I’m definitely planning to recruit with other companies too….. if nothing else, I owe it to myself to see what else is out there.

So now in my free time, I’m working on my resume and practicing my interviewing skills in order to prepare for November and the recruiting week. I’ll let you know how it goes. 

Indian Weddings are awesome

2009-08-27T12:35:00.000-07:00

Indian weddings are officially awesome.

My roomie from MIT, Kash (or Ka$hmoney, as we prefer to call him) got married this past weekend. Me and about 30 other LGOs (and SOs) trekked out to Chicago for the wedding.

me and my roomies

My day started on Thursday at about 5am (Italy time.... 10pm Wednesday night, Chi-town time) when I drove my ass to Rome. Which sucked. Romans are even worse drivers than the Sienese. Hopped on a plane and got to Chicago at around 4pm Chitown time (11pm my time). I was tired, but no rest for the weary. We went to a party where Payal (the bride) and the other girls got mehndi, the traditional henna designs, on our hands. Awesome.

my hands

The we went out to Rush and Division. The last time I was here, it was for Kacey Fetcho-Phillips bachlorette party. (She blogs here: http://kaco1.tumblr.com/). I don't remember all the details of that fateful night, but I do remember that I was on the bar, with Kacey, doing shots of Pucker with a little person. The repeat visit to the area was nearly as fun. A few carbombs later, and here's what you get from J. Stewart (who blogs here: http://lgo.mit.edu/blog/stewarje/) and Miss Wonsowicz (who blogs here: http://johanna-lgo.blogspot.com/).

breaking it down!

Approximately 30 hours after I woke up,we headed back to the hotel, where we conned the janitor who didn't speak English to take us to Denny's. I had a cheeseburger with hashbrowns on it.... like, on the actual burger! I love America.

Friday night was the dance party night.... Raas-Garba. I learned that I pretty much suck at Indian dancing, particularly the stick dances. I loved watching all the lovely ladies in Indian attire dancing to the music.... so much color! It was gorgeous.

pretty pretty

On Saturday was the actual wedding and ceremony. We followed Kash to the hotel in a procession.... he looked totally pimp riding on a horse.

PIMP

Then we watched the lovely ceremony. I spent most of the time trying to keep my saree on me.... it was the first time I had worn one, and I was not awesome at keeping all the intricate folds together.

i suck at this

Then we changed and rocked out at the reception. Both the LGO boys and the girls danced for the bride and groom.... the ladies danced to Jai Ho, and I am pretty sure we kicked the pants off the boys with our superior dancing skills.

the bride and groom rock it out!

Paul rockin it out

We also learned that the giant elephant shaped ice sculptures could be used as shot luges. A few shots of Jack off the elephant, and I was ready to party.

I drug my hung-over self to the airport the next day to head back to Italy. It was an exhausting trip, but totally worth it!

visit from mo

2009-08-18T15:54:00.000-07:00

So Mo decided to be daring and take the overnight train down from Basel to visit me here in Siena. Her trip sounds hellacious... she got routed from Florence, to Rome, back to Florence, then to Siena. Ugh.

Anyhow, she popped in on Friday and we went straight from the train station to Montalcino to drink the famed Brunello wine. Its supposedly some of the best wine in the world. Mo drank it in her pjs, it was pretty awesome.

That night, it was decided that my couch sucked pretty hardcore, and that it would be probably better if Mo just slept in my bed. I was fine with this until the middle of the night, when I woke up to the sensation of Mo trying to smother my face with her hands. This is actually not what I want out of a bedmate.

In the morning, we finally figured out my espresso maker so that we could make some coffee and tolerate each other. Now, a side note about my apartment... there is exactly one pot, one baking dish, 5 plates, no bowls, 6 cappucino cups with saucers, and about 12 espresso cups and saucers. I can see what is important here. There was also a weird looking metal stovetop coffee pot thing. It had three pieces - a tea kettle looking thing, a basket, and base. I've had this thing for about 2 months now and hadn't fully figured it out. I finally realized that you put water in the bottom, put the basket (full of coffee) on top of that, and then screw on the teapot looking thing. Heat from the stove forces steam up through the basket and deposits coffee into the top thinger. I mean, you would think that an MIT chemical engineer could have figured this out quicker.....

Saturday was spent at the Palio trial... if you dont know what Palio is, check out my previous post. We spent the day in the sun, wandering around Siena, and eating gelato. It did not suck.

eating gelato

Sunday we crammed in some more sightseeing and wine tasting at Montelpuciano, which produced Nobile of Motelpuciano wine, which is almost as good as the Brunellos. We used my trusty Rick Steves guidebook, which told us about the Cantucci Cantina, a winery with a cute, little old man that likes to give you lots of free wine. Sounded perfect to us. The cute little old man told us he was "famouso" in America and then blatantly pinched my ass. Awesome.

at montalpuciano

creepy old wine man

Alas, the weekend came to an end.... but I must admit I was happy to have my bed back. :)

newer, faster, better, cooler, awesomer blog

2009-08-17T12:36:00.001-07:00

New improved layout.

Same mediocre content.

Enjoy!

jo and becca terrorize tuscany

2009-08-10T13:26:00.000-07:00

Fellow LGO Johanna was in town for the past 9 days on business. She also works for Novartis V&D, but up in Marburg Germany. She is working on an inventory project for all the sites, so she was down for the week in order to meet folks and get info. I was pretty excited, because it meant that I’d have a partner in crime for the week, as well as a fellow American to chit chat with in the office.

She arrived on a Friday, and we promptly headed out for some dinner and drinks. I took her to the Dublin Pub, which is the only pub in Siena. Its like cheers…. They know me by name (and even which beer I prefer!). We sat outside and drank for a while, and then my friend Martin called. He told me there was a contrada party going on, so we decided to go. I asked for directions, and he was like “oh, its, you know, by the Il Campo”. Hmmmm. As it turned out, his directions were total crap, so we found ourselves wandering around down by the city center. Eventually, I went into a bar to ask for directions. The dude didn’t speak English, but between my limited Italian and a lot of hand gestures, he figured out where we needed to go, and even drew me a map. Awesome! We got down there, and it was this giant outdoor party with music, dancing, and drinking. We got a couple drinks, found Martin, and then…. A fight broke out. I thought the Italians were lovers, not fighters? Anyhow, we couldn’t tell what the problem was (Martin figured it was caused by a woman, ha!) but it got a little out of hand and the party sort of shut down. Bummer.

Our first day, we went wine tasting in Chianti, and then ate gelato in San Gimignano, a hill town that is called the “Manhattan of Tuscany” because of its many medieval towers, that look a bit like ancient skyscrapers.

The next day, we went to Pisa and did the totally touristy photos with the tower. Awesome!

Then we went to the beach…. And man was it a process. So, apparently, at this time of year, approximately 59million of the 60million people living in Italy head to the beach on the weekends… so its busy. Also, there aren’t to many “public” beaches here; typically, you need to go to a “bathing house” and pay a fee to get an assigned area on the beach, complete with umbrellas and beach chairs. We headed to Viareggio, and we got there a bit late in the day…. And apparently all the spots were taken. We went to several bathing houses, and none of them had vacancies. It was so frustrating… I mean, we could SEE the beach and couldn’t actually go. We eventually found one place that had openings. After negotiating in French (because I can’t speak Italian, and she didn’t speak English) we found out it would be a small fortune to get one of the spots. We kept looking. Finally, we found a place that was reasonable and had vacancies, and we finally got some beach time. The beach was crowded but fun, and the water was perfect. It was sunny and fabulous and completely worth the hassle!

The work week was fun… it was good to have Jo onsite for coffee breaks, etc. She got to accompany me on such exciting weekly tasks as going to the grocery store. I think Jo was pretty impressed with our Co-Op grocery store, which features a parking garage and escalators for the shopping carts, just like IKEA!

Then this weekend, Jo and I headed to Florence for a bit of a whirlwind tour of the city. First, we had to drive there, which was a bit of a disaster. I used my Garmin to find a parking garage recommended in a tour book, but when we got there it was closed. So I started driving around, and I wound up entiring the “no driving” zone in the center of the city….. crap. We made it out and parked the car, and then heading into the center. Jo started at the Accademia to see David, which I saw the last time I had come to Florence. I went to San Marco, an old monastery that used to house Fra Angelico and Savonarela. Fra Angelico (one of the early masters of religious renaissance frescos) painted all over the monastery, including frescos in nearly all of the little cells. It was crazy… you would walk into this plain, 8x8 tiny cell with a lot ceiling and a little window, very bare and crude, and there would be this amazing, beautiful, colorful fresco covering an entire wall. I found the site to be very beautiful, haunting really. Additionally, since its not one of the “main” sites in Florence, it was fairly empty, making it a pleasant stop.

We met up and then headed for the Bargello, which is a sculpture museum. They have a bunch of Donatellos (including his David) and Michaelangelos. It was housed in an old police station that had been later converted into a jail. There was a large courtyard in the center, circled by “porch areas” which were covered but still open to the outside. The sculpture was housed both inside and on the porch areas…. It was amazing to basically be sitting outside, looking at these amazing pieces in natural light. I’ve always preferred sculpture to other art forms (painting, etc) because of the tactile nature of the works, the fact that they truly are 3D (instead of just a mimic of 3D in 2D). I think the Bargello is my favorite museum so far in Italy.

Next we had a light lunch (including my first entrée salad since moving here!) and then headed to the Uffizi. The Uffizi is focused on painting, and is one of the most popular spots in Florence. We had looked into buying advance tickets a few days earlier and they were sold out, but we decided to go and see how long the line was. We got there and the line was long. Jo waited in line while I went to investigate. I found a ticket office that was offering “same-day” bookings and found I could get a booking about 1 hr later. I bought it and took off, wondering why all those people were in line??? Ah, silly tourists.

We killed the hour by going to Ponte Vecchio and getting a gelato (with sprinkles!) which I promptly managed to get all over my hands, shirt, and pants. Awesome. You can’t take me anywhere! Ponte Vecchio is a popular, touristy shopping area…. and the men who sell their goods there sure know how to attract the ladies. “Ciao bella, come over here!” I’d like to say that I was totally offended, but it’s always flattering to be complemented, even if its just so you buy stuff.

Then we actually did the Uffizi, which features a progression of renaissance art, from the early flat religious art of Fra Angelico and Giotto (think gold and blue pictures of Madonna and Child, with those funny gold halos behind their head) through Botticelli and his famous “Birth of Venus” onto the high renaissance art, when they had finally figured out perspective and could create vivid, lifelike pictures, like Titian’s “Venus of Urbino”. The Uffizi is like the holy grail of Renaissance painting, so it was a great treat to be able to see it, especially without a reservation.

Finally it was time for dinner. We met up with our Sloanie friend Max and his girlfriend. We decided to use the Rick Steves book we had brought for a dinner recommendation. When we got to the restaurant, we saw a guy outside (wearing fatigues, no less) that had this enormous dog on a leash. I swear, it looked exactly like a wolf. Like, EXACTLY. We walked up to the restaurant and started talking to the guy... I try to ask in my broken Italian if its a wolf.... E un lupo? Si, Si he says. No f-ing way, I think. So then I try to ask if its all wolf.... and I say "Tutti lupo?", which is totally wrong, but close enough. He says, "Si, Si, E tutto il lupo". Hmmm. Anyhow, of couse they let the guy and his wolf into the restaurant, so we had dinner together about 10 feet away from a tutti lupo. Only in Italy.

language barrier

2009-08-05T13:25:00.000-07:00

Most of my coworkers speak really good English… but once in a while they say something pretty hilarious. One of my coworkers, who doesn’t have a car, asked me recently if I would “ride him home”. Hmmmm, probably not.

My American jokes fall pretty flat here too…. My coworker Pasquale, who is a sailor, asks me if I enjoy "being on a boat".... I respond I only go boating with T-Pain.... he does not laugh.

There are also some pretty awesome expressions here. To wish someone good luck, you can say “On the back of a porcupine!"…. to which they will respond "Only with iron underpants!" Yes, really.

I am also the walking talking dictionary for all my Italian coworkers. My officemate Carlo works a lot with folks from the US, and this week alone he has asked me to explain the meanings of the words sugar daddy, boozer, goofy, and sketchy. Where is he getting this stuff, really? He also recently asked me if it was “OK to stalk someone”. He was actually pretty embarrassed when I explained what stalking was.

agritourismo and volterra

2009-08-01T13:24:00.000-07:00

So, recently my boss had his 50th birthday, and my coworker Fabio planned a celebration for him at a local agriturismo. We got there at around 2pm, and hung out at the pool all day. It was gorgeous…. Sitting on a hill looking over fields. The only downer was that the “rustic” location of the pool meant that there were tons of grasshoppers everywhere. Ugh, gross.

We then checked out San Galgano, an ancient abby that has fallen into ruins. It has now lost its roof, so the church opens up to the sky. Its beautiful…. such a stark contrast between the gothic arches of the crumbling façade and the bright blue sky above.

Then we headed down to the actual restaurant. I sat and drank wine while some of the others went horseback riding. I like riding, but it was a bit hot for me. Plus, there isn’t a whole lot that sounds better to me than drinking cold prosecco on a hot day.

We had a pretty ridiculous dinner, and I finally tried cinghaile, which is wild boar. It’s popular in this region, and I’ve been avoiding it, but I finally tried it. It was actually better than the pork here, because it was leaner. So now I am no longer a boar virgin.

On Sunday, I visited Volterra, one of the “hill towns” near Siena. Most of the towns are medieval towns perched up on high hills… although they are tourist traps now, back in the day all these little towns were constantly at war with each other, so their hilltop locations were strategic to protect against I invasion. You know, for when Florence invades. Or whatever. Based on the warm, laid back (bordering on laissez-faire) attitudes of nearly every Italian I’ve met so far, I can’t imagine the Italians actually fighting each other…. And I certainly can’t imagine a time when these villages were actually fortresses instead of charming little villages where people drink coffee and eat gelato.

Volterra was pretty. They have natural alabaster mines in the area, so there are lots of little workshops where artists make little bowls and knickknacks and other junk that you don’t have any use for. The city was also once a major Etruscan city. The Etruscans were before the Romans, and there isn’t a whole lot known about them. From what we do know, we can tell they were a pretty advance people with some pretty amazing engineering and art. They had a nice museum as well as some ruins, including a portion of the old wall and a door to the city that is about 2500 years old. Holy crap that’s old!

surfs up

2009-07-20T13:23:00.000-07:00

This weekend I had the opportunity to experience one of the most quintessentially European aspects of living in Italy…. Going to the sea.

I went with friends from work, Martin, Maria and Phillipo. We met up in Siena, and all piled into Philippo’s Mitsubishi Space Star… yes, that is really a car here. Right off the bat, we’re in an accident…. There was a guy riding literally a few inches away from the car on a scooter (illegally, of course…. riding inbetween the two car lanes), and Phillipo didn’t see him, and bumped into him. Everyone was going slow, so noone was hurt, but the scooter guy feel off the scooter into the street. It was actually pretty hilarious. Anyhow, we got everything sorted out quickly, since the guy and his scooter were unhurt, and we managed to finally leave Siena.

We drove about 1.5 hrs, stopped and grabbed a picnic lunch in Follonica. Follonica, a typical beach town, was swarming with people ready to hit the beach. I began to get discouraged, since it looked like the beach day would be ruined by overcrowding. However, Phillipo had a plan. He drove out of Follonica into the country, and then turned down this unmarked dirt road. At the end was a parking lot that was about half full. They tell me, hey – we are there! But all I see are trees and fields….. I’m thinking, were’s the beach? The we start off on a trail into the woods, and they point to a sign “Spiaggia: 1.5km”….. 1.5 km to the beach. Then, I see that the trail turns sharply to the right and heads straight uphill. I notice there are several mountain bikers riding this trail. I am thinking, awesome…. 1.5 km hike on a mountain bike path in flipflops. I have international medical insurance, right?

Anyhow, the hike wasn’t so bad, and actually was a nice miniworkout before laying around for the rest of the day. We finally reached the top, and the view opened up to see a nice view of the wild Mediterranean coastline, as well as the island of Elba offshore. Gorgeous.

Also, the secluded area and hike limited the amount of people using the sea… there were pretty much no screaming kids, and there was a lot of space to layout. Very nice.

Now, the beach in Italy is a bit different from the beach in America. For one thing, I guess Europeans don’t really enjoy tan lines, cause it pretty much seemed like noone was wearing anything. Many women were topless, a few fully nude. Most of the men were wearing itty bitty speedos, or short, tight hotpant-like booty shorts. I felt wickedly overdressed in my tankini and sarong.

The water was cool and surprisingly salty… more salty than the Gulf of Mexico, where I typically beach when I am home visiting my parents in Tampa. There were also a lot of waves, which I didnt expect. I guess in my mind I figured the Mediterranean Sea would be pretty calm, but not so much. It was refreshing and nice to be in the water after the hike to the beach.

Anyhow, we had a nice day and I even managed not to get sunburned, and didn’t break my ankle on the hike back to the car. Good day!

working in italy

2009-07-18T13:22:00.000-07:00

So, there are obviously some major differences between working in the US and working here. I have personally never worked outside of the country (actually, I’ve never worked outside of Indiana!), so this is a big change for me.

The first major difference is the communication style. People here are really warm, really friendly. And they love to talk! About everything!.... including a lot of off-topic information. Sometimes it’s a bit of a struggle for me… I am very direct person, and sometimes here the conversations are a bit less structured than conversations back home…. we always arrive to the answer, but sometimes it takes a roundabout way of getting there.

Everyone I work with has a very strong sense of passion about what they do…. which leads to some very heated discussions. They aren’t disagreements, per se, but the tone is definitely a lot more aggressive than in the States. Also, people here tend to just jump in whenever with their thoughts instead of waiting for a pause, so in a heated discussion you can have 4 or 5 people all talking at the same time. At this point, in order to be heard, you have to start talking really loud, so sometimes I find myself in meetings where I feel like there are 5 people all yelling at each other at the same time. Sometimes it’s almost comical, really. This actually is just fine by me… I am always the loud one at home, so I fit in just fine here.

The actual work day tends to be a bit different too… my old company ran a 7:30-4:30 work schedule, but here people tend to roll in around 9 or 9:30. Things get off to a slow start, and then you wind up seeing people who stay pretty late to get things done as a consequence. As for myself, I am working a 9-6 work schedule that is pretty awesome…. I get to sleep til 8am everyday!

The other major difference is the amount of coffee the Italians drink. If you want to talk to someone, you go get a coffee. It doesn’t matter if you just had one, you get another one. The machines here dispense ridiculously awesome espresso for about 30cents a pop (there is no “American coffee” here – American coffee is just an espresso topped with water). I swear the Italians drink like 8 espressos a day. I am drinking at least 2 or 3 a day at this point…. Drinking coffee is just an integral part of talking to people. It’s like you cant have a work conversation without a espresso in your hand. Perhaps the reason we all come to work so late is because we’re up all night cause of the coffee……

So, there are definitely some differences between working in the States and working here, but its all pretty minor, and its definitely all part of the experience.

The Internship (alternate title: nerdy boring stuff)

2009-07-17T13:22:00.000-07:00

So, I realized that all my posts since I got here have been about travel and fun, and I figured that I should go ahead and tell you more about the actual internship.

I am working at Novartis Vaccines and Diagnostics. Novartis is a huge overarching company that dabbles in pharma, vaccines, and generics. The vaccines division is actually pretty new; in 2007, Novartis acquired an existing vaccines manufacturer called Chiron.

The site where I work is in Rosia, Italy. It is a manufacturing site that does bulk manufacturing, aseptic filling, and secondary packaging. There is also another site in Siena, Italy (which is where I live, 20 minutes away), but this facility is a bit more research focused. Rosia is out in the middle of nowhere… hence, why I live in Siena.

My actual project is to evaluate the current batch record process and streamline the process to increase “right first time” rates, as well as decrease cycletimes. The idea is to get product done right, and get it done quick. Pretty good goals, I would say…. Isn’t that what manufacturing is all about?

If you’re not “in the know”, a batch record in biotech/pharma is a pretty critical thing… it’s the documentation that serves as the primary record of everything that happened to that batch, and the batch records must meet a multitude of compliance and regulatory critierion. The kinds of documentation that must be included in the record is actually dictated by the FDA and other government agencies, so it’s definitely an important document. As such, since there is so much regulation, the batch records can be cumbersome to use, leading to issues. My goal is to streamline the batch record, while still meeting all the regulations and compliance criterion.

In addition to completing the project my company needs to be completed, I am also here for myself…. I have to get all the relevant data and info I will need to write my thesis for graduation. Sometimes, I sort of feel like I have two bosses… my thesis supervisors and my actual work supervisor. In most cases, they agree (so far) on my approach, but I have definitely had to make some compromises between the two groups on minor details, etc.

Like many LFMs, when I first go here, I spent some time doing literature review (reading other LGO theses), trying to see how other LGOs had approached their internships. I also had a lot of meet and greet activities, just trying to get to know the site and all the key resources. Once I got started, I really worked to focus my scope; I wanted to really firmly define the problem statement and goals. Next, I had to make my team. I spent a lot of time figuring out who the right resources were, and gaining permission to pull resources onto my project. Next, I did some chartering activities to make sure that the entire team was focuses on the same goal.

In my actual project, I am evaluating batch records for both bulk manufacturing and secondary packaging. Its good and bad….. good in the sense that I get to work with two totally separate processes and groups of people. Bad in the sense that it’s sometimes a hassle to schedule around everyone’s schedules :) The groups are really different…. One group tends to be a bit more reserved, and one group is totally passionate and loud. It’s always a change to move from one project team meeting to another.

At this point, I am in the stage of defining and gathering data. I have worked with my teams to determine which metrics will be the most useful to understand the current state of the system. I am doing quite a bit of data mining of data that already exists, as well as collecting new data to really understand the current state.

Once I understand the current state, we can figure out where our biggest opportunities are, and we can work to think up and implement solutions… the idea is to implement solutions while I am here so that I have time to get real data after implementation to determine if my solutions were actually beneficial (or not). It’s a lot to do in 6 months, but I’m really excited for the opportunity to DO something on my internship, instead of just working to deliver a model or an analysis!!!

fight me I'm irish

2009-07-16T13:21:00.000-07:00

So, I went to Dublin a few weekends ago. It was AWESOME!

Me, Drew and Jo all planned to meet up the weekend of the 4th to celebrate American independence by drinking pints in Ireland. The plan was to meet on Friday night and leave on Sunday.

First of all, I flew Ryan Air, which meant my flight got cancelled. The next one wasn’t until Saturday night, which would have left me with a whopping 18 hrs in the city… lame. So I bought a Air France flight, leaving Italy to Paris, then Paris to Ireland. Awesome….. until my first leg got delayed a few hours, and I missed my connection. I wound up getting put up in a nice hotel in Paris, and spending the evening there. I ADORE Paris… so it was no big deal to spent the evening there unexpectedly. I went out in the Montmartre area, and saw Sacre Coeur all lit up at night. I ate crepes au chocolate for dinner…. Mmmm.

Then, in the AM I went to Dublin and met up with Drew and Jo. I checked into our hostel, and then we were off. We got a hop-on, hop-off bus pass, which was nice because it rained a lot. The bus drove us around the major sites, like Christ Church, St. Patrick’s Cathedral, and the Guinness Brewery and Jameson Distillery. I loved Ireland… it was steeped in both religion and liquor. Awesome.

My favorite sites were the Book of Kells, a handscribed bible from around 800AD. It is gorgeous… multiple artists handpainted each and every page, and the colors and intricacy were amazing. I also really enjoyed the Guinness Brewery, because they gave us free beer.

That evening we went out drinking in the Temple Bar area…. I have never seen so many bachlorette parties in my life! The on Sunday a bit more touring, and then Drew and Jo took off. I went and got a haircut…. because they actually speak English in Ireland, and I was less worried about winding up looking a hot mess there than in Italy. The nice lady who cut my hair was Latvian, and my hair looks awesome.

Then I headed back and had my first experience on Ryan Air. Its like Southwest on steroids. I guess the way they get away with 5euro fares is that they constant try to see you crap on the plan…. The poor couple behind me got a soda and a sandwich each, and it was like 30euro. Yikes!

Then back to Italy and back to work…… ;(

Palio!!

2009-07-03T13:13:00.000-07:00

Since I got to Siena, people have been talking about the Palio. Most of the time, Siena is a sleepy little Tuscan town. And Sienese people are typically sweet, good-natured, well-meaning people. All of this goes out the window on Palio.

The Palio, simply put, is a horserace in the center of town. The racers each represent a different contrada, or neighborhood, in Siena. The Palio started in the 1600s, and since then it has been a cherished tradition, and one that really hasn’t changed much over the years. It is pretty much the only major event during the year for Siena, so the Sienese *really* get into the Palio. For the past few weeks, there have been a multitude of activities going on to prepare for the race.

Most of the activities have been based around the contrade. There are 17 different contrade, each representing a small portion of the walled-in city center. Its impressive there are so many contrade, considering that probably only 20,000 people actually live inside the walls. Also, the names of the contrade are not exactly your typical mascots…. Here are the names of the 17 contrade:

Aquila – Eagle
Bruco – Caterpillar
Chiocciola – Snail
Civetta – Owl
Drago – Dragon
Giraffa – Giraffe
Istrice – Porcupine
Leocorno – Unicorn
Lupa – She-Wolf
Nicchio – Shell
Oca – Goose
Onda – Wave
Pantera – Panther
Selva – Forest
Tartuca – Tortoise
Torre – Tower
Valdimontone - Ram

I mean, who wants to be in the Goose contrada? Are unicorns native to the Tuscan region? I mean, really. Anyhow, your contrada is determined more by family tradition than actual location; thus, if you were born a Dragon, you will always be a Dragon. And just because you move to Siena, doesn’t mean you get to claim you are in a contrada…. You must go through a lengthy process to be “baptized” into a contrada, a feat which is not often accomplished by expats on internship J

The Sienese have a VERY strong link to their contrade…. And like any other type of sporting “team” events, some contrade have alliances, and some contrade have heavy rivalries. For example, the snail and the tortoise are arch enemies… you would think the slow guys would band together, right? While the Tuscan people generally very sweet, these rivalries can lead to, lets just say, heated interactions with rival contrade members during the days leading up to the Palio.

Over the years, each contrada has developed their own flag, motto, song, and traditions. For the past several weeks, the flags of each contrada have been flying out in their respective neighborhoods, and many activities have occurred to bring the members of each contrada together to celebrate the upcoming Palio. There have been dinners, festivals, and parties. A few weeks ago, I went to a celebratory party for the Tortoise contrada, which was a huge outdoor affair with a band and an open bar J

After weeks of preparation, July 2^nd finally came. Yesterday, I wandered down to the center of town around noon to start checking out the festivities. First, I went to the Duomo, where there is a big parade. Members of each contrade get dressed in traditional midevil costume and parade around. They each have their own drum beat, and they each do their own flag throwing performance. I have to admit… it was pretty cool at first, but after about 5 contrade, it all started to run together. However, I was there with some friends, and we kept up our spirits by drinking liters of cheap beer purchased at the dollar store (there appear to be no liquor licensing laws here, you can get beer to go nearly anywhere. And no open container laws…. Awesome!).

Then, around 6pm, we headed to the race. The actual race is held in the Piazza del Campo… they truck in a bunch of dirt and turn the piazza into a circular track. The block off the middle of the track for people stand…. Like the infield at the Indy 500 or the Kentucky derby. On the exterior of the track, they set up rickety looking stands and scaffolding. Watching from the middle of the track is free, but you need a ticket to watch from the stands. It is my understanding that the tickets for stand seats sell out months in advance of the race. So, we obviously wandered into the center to watch from there.

First, there were about 2 hours of additional parades and pageantry. I was getting a bit antsy, but there was nowhere to go…. They close off the entrances to the “infield” once the festivities start, so you are stuck there for the durations (and no bathrooms!). So, we amused ourselves by drinking more beer. Then, the horses and riders come out. They try to line them all up, but they don’t have gates, so there was literally about an hour of false starts and attempted starts, but then finally, around 9pm…. They were off! The horses raced three time around the track, and it was over. It took maybe 30 seconds. The Tartuca (tortoise) won. As soon as the race is over, the fans rush the track and a giant party starts. The members of each contrada head back to their neighborhood and have a big festival. Lots of drinking, drunken singing, and more drinking went on until the early hours of the morning. Even though we weren’t technically in a contrada, we used the opportunity to drink til the wee hours of the morning too ;)

it leans

2009-06-28T13:27:00.000-07:00

Today I decided to drive to Pisa to see the famed leaning tower. I had a map (in Italian) and a Rick Steves guidebook, and I headed off in the Ypsilon. Pisa is close, about 1.5 hours by car. However, you do need to take the Autostrada to get there. First of all, the Autostrada is a toll road, so I had a pretty exciting time figuring out which line to get into ( Biglietto? Viacard? Telepass? Crap, which one is for stupid tourists?) Finally I saw a sign indicating bills and coins, so I figured it out. Then, actually driving on this thing..... The Autostrada is sort of like the Italian version of the autobahn.... apparently, they used to not have speedlimits. Since 2003, the speedlimit is now 130km/hr. However, the new "limits" haven't exactly been embraced by the majority of the drivers. I stayed around 130km/hr and was amazing at the amount of people just flying by me... or, in the case that I was passing in the left lane, tailgating my ass. Getting tailgated at that speed (when you are driving a car that feels like a cardboard box on wheels) was a little unnerving, but I managed.

So once I got used to driving on the autostrada, I had to figure out just where I was going. I had a map and a guidebook, and they seemed to give somewhat contradictory info.... at one point, I was driving with my knees, trying to read this giant map and compare it to the written info in the book.... I would not recommend this. Next time, I will actually figure out where I am going before I try to go there!

Finally, I figured out where I was headed and made it to Pisa. Next issue... parking. In Italy, there are a lot of car parking lots where you park, go to a machine, get a ticket, and then put the ticket in the window. However, in the touristy towns, sometimes people masquerading as parking lot attendants will "show" you to a spot, and then charge you a fee for the spot for the day. So, you pay this guy 10euro or whatever and leave, and then you wind up getting a ticket from the city anyhow because you never actually got the correct ticket from the machine. Anyhow, when I pulled in, some of they guys were there, and tried to convince me to pay them for the spot. But (thanks to the knowledge gained via my guidebook), I knew they were bogus, and I got to have the satisfaction of shooing them away, as if I was a know-it-all local. Ah, that felt awesome!

After a short walk I found the Campo dei Miracoli (Field of Miracles), a grand grassy field showcasing the duomo, baptistery, cemetery, two museums, and (of course!) the famed leaning tower. The campus was amazing... the day was bright, so the contrast of the white marble, blue sky and green grass was truly spectacular.

I toured the duomo, and like all duomos here, there was an overabundance of frescos and scupture and lavishness that all seemed a bit like overkill. Then, I moved on to the main event... the tower. As an engineer, I find the leaning tower fascinating.... I mean, its an engineering failure that has captivated the masses for centuries! Galileo supposedly proved Aristotle's theory that heavier things fall faster was wrong by chucking a bowling ball and a wooden ball off the top! And it leans! Like, a lot! It's so cool. Anyhow, I learned quite a bit about the history while I was there. The tower was constructed in three stages, starting in 1173. By the time the 3rd floor was built in 1178, it was already leaning. Turns out, they did a lousy foundation in unstable soil, so the tower was sort of doomed from the start. The construction was halted while the Pisans went off and fought and plundered and stuff for about a hundred years, then they started it back up again. They tried to compensate by building one side of the tower to have higher ceilings than the other, which just made the tower lean the other way due to the weight. As a consequence, the tower itself is actually curved. Cool. Construction stopped again in the late 1200s. After the Pisans finished up this bout of warring, they finished up the tower in the 1300s.

I went ahead and climbed the 296 steps to the top, and man... all I have to say is that it definitely gave me a case of vertigo. Also, turns out that there isnt anything in Pisa worth looking at except for the tower, so the view from the tower isnt that awesome. But whatever.

After all that, I walked down to the river (which looked like a river). Then I walked back to the Campo dei Miracoli and got a gelato. It is my goal to have a gelato at each major site I see in Italy. Then, I headed back home. After another "exciting" 1.5hrs on the autostrada, I made it back to Siena. ;)

art hangover

2009-06-24T13:27:00.000-07:00

Second week of work down. Spent most of the time meeting people, doing lit review, and defining my project. I will be working to streamline the batch production records process, which has both economic significance (in that shorter production and approval times means cost savings) and compliance significance (in that the FDA et al likes it when your documentation is clear, consistent, and correct the first time). I think its going to be a cool project.

After the week at work, I went out for dinner with some folks from work. I’ve finally made some real Italian friends, so after dinner and drinks we decided to go out on the town. Italy starts late, so we drank in a pub until midnight, and then we “went out”. Good lord. We went to what I can only assume was some sort of outdoor Italian frat party, complete with a loud live band. The band played a lot of American music, but all the words had been changed to Italian… very interesting. I’ve noticed this on the radio, too…. Today I heard a remake of “This Kiss” by Faith Hill, but I think the revised chorus have something to do with tomorrow…. I cant really figure any of this stuff out, but it certainly makes me smile that country crossover hits of the early 2000s are taking Italy by storm. Anyhow, back to the Italian frat party. I drank the Italian equivalent of a 40, which was 2euro and tasted like dishwater. It obviously gave me a riotous headache.

We stayed out til 3am, and then I got up at 8am to trek into Florence. Due to my Italian 40 experience, I was moving pretty slow, but got perked up by some expresso and the amazing art in Florence. First we checked out Ponte Vecchio, a bridge covered by jewelry makers. The we went to the Florence Duomo (church) which had a pretty amazing dome. Next, on the the Accadamia, where Michaelangelos David resides. David was amazing…. It is hard to describe the beauty and the power Michaelangelo was able to capture in the work. However, my favorite works in the museum, which focuses predominately on sculpture, were the unfinished Slave series. These four sculptures were intended to the tomb of one of the popes, but the project was never finished, and Michaelangelo abandoned the statues mid-process. As they are, you can see the forms of the Slaves seeming to break free from the stone. These unfinished works were eerie and beautiful, and really helped you understand the artist progression from block of stone to a seemingly living breathing thing. They were truly gorgeous.

On an interesting side note, the Accademia was also showing a special exhibition of Mapplethorpe’s works as a part of a celebration of the sculpture of the body. For those who don’t know, Mapplethorpe was a photographer who worked mainly in the 80s and whose work predominantly focused on the naked male human form, and had pretty frank sexual and homosexual undertones…. which lead to his much controversy at the time, as some viewed his exhibitions as being pornographic. I appreciate Mapplethorpe for what he did in his time, by pushing the envelope on what constitutes beauty and art; that said, I like some of his works, but don’t love all of it. However, the pieces they selected for the exhibition were all very structural in nature, and were all classical nudes, and they were presented directly next to the classical nude statues throughout the Accadamia. The structural human forms in the selected photos were a very interesting foil to the sculptures installed at the museum. Overall, a very unexpected and enjoyable presentation.

By the end of the day, I felt like I had a real hangover as well as an art hangover, so I called it a day and headed back to Siena. There is so much more to see in Florence…. But I will cover that sometime in the next 6 months!

tuscan adventures

2009-06-18T13:28:00.000-07:00

First week of work in Italy has come and gone, with not just a few adventures along the way. Work seems to be going very well, actually: my supervisor seems very cool, very supportive of my project. Also, I figured out how to use the coffee machine, which is this elaborate Meet-the-Jetsons contraption that artfully doles out espressos, cappuccinos, and a variety of other café confections for mere pennies. To use it, you have to have this special key that you take to the canteen (not the cafeteria) and load with money. The process is elaborate and fascinating… I mean, it’s just coffee, right? My coworkers take 3 or 4 espressos per day, and they never sissy out and take them with milk. I am going to have to learn to man up and drink coffee like a big kid if I want to blend in here.

I did have to have a physical this week…. It was 1.5 hrs long, mostly because the doctor didn’t speak English and my Italian is still pretty lame. For example, she asked me something at one point, I didn’t understand… so she says “Do you kill animals”. I think, oh, she’s asking if I eat meat. So I say “yes, a few times a week”. She seems surprised, but moves on, asking me what kind of animals. So I say “you know, cows and chickens and pigs”. Now she is shocked. I realize something is wrong, and ask for clarification. I figure out that she asked me if I’ve ever gone on safari or hunted animals…. And I replied, “Oh yes, I hunt cows several times per week”. Awesome.

I also moved into my apartment this week. It’s an old villa that been renovated into rentals. It’s like a minicomplex up on a hill. The buildings were all originally built between the 1300s and the 1700s. It’s insane that I live here. My apt is a single, with a lofted bedroom and a separate kitchen and bathroom. It’s sparse but it’s a lot of space. The kitchen has a washing machine (but no dryer) and the bathroom has a toilet and a bidet (of course… it’s Europe!). It also has a TV, so I’ve been watching tons of Italian MTV. I even saw commercials for the Gillette Body Cruiser, a disposable manscaping shaver. The commercial features a man shaving his chest in the shower and then partying at a club with his shirt halfway unbuttoned…. I am guessing this is not being marketed in the US. Anyhow, back to the apartment. The obvious selling point of the complex is the view. It’s perched up on a hill overlooking local vineyards. Outside my apartment, I have a little yard and a table and chairs, overlooking the Tuscan countryside. This week I’ve been having my dinner out on the patio, watching the sunset. It’s pretty awesome, really.

Also this week I got a car. I was originally supposed to take the bus, but the schedules were awful, so they hooked me up with a rental – sweet! However, there was a bit of a hiccup…. None of the cars here are automatic, and I’ve never driven a stick. Well, I take that back… I’ve driven a stick around in a parking lot a few times, but I’ve never driven on real roads. I’ve certainly never driven around in Tuscany, where the hills are enormous, the drivers are maniacs, the street signs are unintelligible, and rotaries are king. Perfect place to learn, right? The nice HR lady took me to Hertz to show me my new car… a Lancia Ypsilon. It’s tiny and awesome. She and gave me a brief intro to driving a stick shift in broken English, and off we went. Well, off we went after I stalled out 4 or 5 times. Drew, who is awesome and blogs like a mofo here: http://lgo.mit.edu/blog/drewhill/, gave me some advice: when in doubt, give it more gas. It’s better to peel out than stall out, right? So now this is my new mantra. In the past few days, I’ve been peeling out all over town. I feel like a racecar driver!

This week, Paul, who blogs here: http://lgo.mit.edu/blog/witinski/, has been in town, which has been great. We’ve been hanging out after work and sampling all the best gelaterias in Siena. Also, he’s been my primary navigator. So, in Italy, they apparently don’t label any streets, which makes navigating impossible. Since I have to use all my brainpower right now to remember to clutch, navigating while driving is out of the question. Good thing I have Paul. We’ve gotten ourselves lost countless times, but that’s the best way to learn a new city, right?

Made it through the week at work. On Friday, we were back drinking at the Irish pub… this place may be like my Cheers by the end of my internship. We did dinner, and I experienced grappa for the first time after the meal. Grappa, as I understand it, is meant to taste like fire and supposedly helps digestion; for me, all I could tell was that grappa got me drunk.

On Saturday, me and Paul decided to venture out and do some winetasting. We left with a map and a free afternoon. I drove to Greve, which was a bit of a hair-raising ride. The road winds up and down through the hilly countryside. The narrow roads, aggressive drivers, and steep hills pretty much maxed my ability to drive a stick, but again…. I guess that’s how you learn. However, the views were worth the tricky roads…. We kept stopping the car to take pictures, as the views overlooking the wineries were just breathtaking. Once in Greve, we got a bite and some directions to some local sights. First, we went to a local winery specializing in Chianti and olive oil. We walked around the grounds, which were beautiful, and tasted some wines and oils. After buying some stuff, we headed further off the beaten path (read: even narrower, more terrifying roads) to Lamole, a tiny city on the top of a hill. In the plaza outside the town’s only church, there was a wine festival. Six local wineries had set up tables, and we tasted lots of different chiantis and oils. Paul made friends with a tiny old Italian man who made handmade baskets. I bought a bunch of delicious wines that were all dirt cheap. It was really a perfect day…. Wine and sun and amazing views. Who could ask for more?

first week in italia

2009-06-09T13:28:00.000-07:00

The weekend was pretty awesome. On Saturday, I met up with some folks from work and toured around Siena. In typical Italian fashion, we walked for a while, had a coffee, walked for a while, had some wine, walked for a while, had some gelato. It was a relaxing day. I checked out Il Campo again, as well as the other sites of Siena. We went to Basilica of San Domenico , where they have some relics of St. Catherine entombed…. which is uber-important since she’s the patron saint of Tuscany. They had her head and finger on display, which was totally creepy and weird. I also went to the Duomo. It was built in the 12th century, and is this amazing gothic cathedral. At the time, Siena was one of the most powerful cities in Italy, and the cathedral shows this off. It’s all done in black and white marble – it’s very striking. One the most interesting things about the cathedral is that outside the finished cathedral is a long wall leading to a massive one-walled unfinished façade. Apparently in the 1300s, they starting building a massive addition that would have made the cathedral the largest in the world, with the plan that Siena would be the center of Catholicism. However, due to sandy soil and the plague, the addition was never finished, and the center of Catholicism wound up in Rome. The façade of the intended extension still stands and is really pretty cool. Regardless, the current cathedral is magnificent enough, with a Bernini, a Michelangelo, and several Donatellos. The entire floor of the interior is covered in ornate inlaid marble mosaics, which are apparently some of the best in Italy.

After the touring, the group dispersed and I decided to brave the Vodafone store alone, which was a terrifying prospect… my Italian 102 class had not yet covered words like “prepaid minutes” or “roaming charges”. I went, and as expected no one spoke English. I got some prices and info, and left and went on the internet and figured out what I wanted. I went back, and bought a prepaid plan. I bought a cheap phone and 25euros of talking time (about 40 bucks). The nice lady who was helping me gave me a receipt for the 25euros of talking time and (I thought) she indicated that I needed to go to a tabaccaio (convenience store that sells cigarettes, lotto tickets, and phone cards) to redeem the purchase and get the minutes. I thought this was weird, but everything seems weird here, so I went with it. I went to a tabaccaio, and the lady there told me they didn’t do that in that store, so she directed me to another tabaccaio. I went there, and the guy seemed to be totally onboard when I showed him the receipt (although it’s hard to tell what’s going on when it’s all happening in Italian). He entered in my phone number into a little machine, told me that I now had my minutes, and requested 25euro. So I tell him no, I already paid – at the Vodafone store. At this point he starts screaming at me…. Maybe not screaming, but it is loud, passionate and negatively charged conversation. Fast. In Italian. I understand none of it. But I’m pissed…. I start yelling back, in this terrible Italian/French/English mix that I’ve got going on (Fritaglish?), telling him I might be American but I’m not stupid, I will not be taken advantage of, blah blah blah. A nice young Italian steps in who speaks some English, and he basically lets me know that the tabaccaio man didn’t know what to make of my receipt, so he just loaded an extra 25 euros on my phone, and needs to be paid. I decide having extra minutes is OK, so I buy them and head back to the Vodafone store for clarification. They tell me, oh no, you’ve got it all wrong, this is the receipt for your purchase, the minutes are already on the phone, if you need more minutes in the future, go to the tabaccaio. Crap. I AM a stupid American! All and all, it was an exciting experience, and in the end I finally have a phone… a phone with lots of minutes of talk time ;)

Now it’s Sunday, and it’s been raining all day. It’s been kinda nice, actually, just been hanging out at the hotel and getting a few things done. I ventured out to the supermarket…. Since I packed up all my stuff at home a week and a half ago, I’ve been eating out almost constantly and its finally getting to me. Even though I’m just at a hotel, I decided to go pick up a few things to make myself a lunch. I find the supermarket to be fascinating….. it’s funny to see all the American products marketed for Europe (Coke Light, etc) as well as all the stuff that Italians eat that I’ve never heard of. I decided to get some bread and cheese. Bread was easy, cheese was hard. First I got a number in line at the deli…. Then I realized I suck at numbers, and of course when they called me, I didn’t initially realize it. The I get up there, and try to order some mozzarella. Wait, there are like 10 different kinds, how are they different? Whatever, just pick one. How much would I like? Oh crap, they are on metric….. uh, how much is enough? 100 grams? Ok, sounds good. Crap, how do I say 100? This is all going through my head, the deli lady is waiting and mad, other customers are getting mad. I finally muster my order, get my cheese, and leave the deli area. I feel exhausted. And this was just the cheese! I wandered around and got some other stuff, like Italian gummy bears and some coconut yogurt (because how awesome is coconut yogurt?). And a Coke Light, which cost significantly more than a Coke. I wonder why? It's like a skinny tax. As I checked out, the lady asked me if I wanted a “busta “.. I look at her, shocked. What is she asking me? The she says “ busta, bag.”. Oh, a bag! Yes, I would like a busta. Thanks.

I live in Italy - day 2

2009-06-04T13:29:00.000-07:00

Friday I had to go to work. I had breakfast at the hotel (bread, café con latte, and coconut flavored yogurt!) and then went to the front desk at the hotel. The people at my hotel speak a little English, but not much. So, I’m trying to use my Italian as much as I can. I told him “Ho bisogno un taxi” – I need a taxi. He is thrilled I know Italian…. so thrilled, in fact, that he rattles off all sorts of information to me quickly, in Italian. I gather I need to go outside and wait at the top of the steps, and taxi #50 will be coming in 5 minutes. Or taxi #5 will be coming in 50 minutes. Not really sure. This type of interaction has happened to me many times since I’ve been here… I realize that I know just enough Italian to be dangerous. ;)

Anyhow, the cab comes and we head to work at the Siena site, close to my hotel. At the Siena site, they do some bulk processing as well as R&D. A nice HR lady gave me the lowdown on my internship…. Things that are awesome:

- I get free lunch everyday – this is some kind of Italian law. Since Italians eat their biggest meal of the day at lunchtime, this is money.

- I am not legally allowed to be at work before 8am, or on the weekends. Um, sweet!

Then I was driven out to the site I will work out, the Rosia site. It’s about 15 mins away by car. I met my boss, Paul, who was a really nice guy. He’s actually from New York, which is great because his English is great, and he also has experience as an American moving to Italy, and understands some of the frustrations associated with such a move. Paul and I grabbed (free) lunch, which was obscene. Since it’s the big meal of the day, you’re expected to eat bread, pasta with sauce, a meat dish, a fruit or salad, and sparkling water. It was nuts… if I ate that much I’d go into a food coma for the rest of the afternoon!

The rest of the day was spent touring the site, and meeting people. Most of the folks that I met on Friday were Italian. I am finding the Italians very warm and inviting people; by the end of the day on Friday, I’d already received several offers for a guided tour of Siena over the weekend, and one person had even offered to take me to the Vodafone store to help me translate. All and all, everyone seems nice, which is good because as a lazy American who doesn’t speak the language, I’m dependant on the kindness of others to get around.

I also got to see my office…. Yes, I get an office! With walls! And door! I’ve never had a proper office before, so its pretty awesome. I am sharing the office with Carlo, a young Italian gentleman who works in Manufacturing Strategy. My boss said that he put me with Carlo because he’s young and single…. Is my boss matchmaking already?

I also got my computer, which is configured for Italy. They don’t use contractions, so now I can’t say can’t at work…. I typed an email to a friend and was forced into very formal language based on the funny Italian keyboard. Also, the internet is all in Italian. I’ve decided not the change my settings, I am hoping that constant interaction with the language will help me learn. Also, Carlo yells on the phone in Italian all day, so I think that will help too.

Also, today I learned that singergie = synergy in Italian.

In the evening, a few of us from work went to The Dublin Post, an Irish pub in downtown Siena. Like any typical Irish pub, they offered us Italian beers and free bread and olive oil appetizers. After a few rounds, we headed to dinner, where I had the best gnocchi of my entire life for approximately 7 dollars. Awesome. And then back to the hotel to pray with the nuns.

i live in italy.... day 1

2009-06-03T13:30:00.000-07:00

I flew overnight on Wednesday night, landing Thursday AM. We flew Swiss Air, which was sweet because we got yummy Swiss chocolates. I left Jo and Drew behind in Zurich and took a little itty bitty plane to Florence. The Florence airport was tiny… just 1 baggage claim and one guy running customs. He basically checked to see that I had a passport (but didn’t seem to look long enough to verify it was actually mine) and waved me through, no stamp. Oh well.

On the other side of customs I met the Novartis driver, Andrea (a man) who was to drive me to Siena. I’d heard that Italians are fiercely hip in their dress and appearance, and I got my first taste with Andrea. He wasn’t wearing a uniform, but was wearing designer jeans, a super cool button down with some fancy detailing, killer shoes, and a pair of Gucci sunglasses. He had ridiculously coiffed hair. He was by far the hippest, most metro cabbie I’ve ever seen. We climbed in a Fiat hatchback (nice, actually) and headed for Siena. I’m still pretty bad at the kilometers/miles per hour conversion, but I think I am accurate in my estimation that we travelled at 1 billion miles per hour back to Siena, all the while racing through rotaries and careening around turns. Half the time he wasn’t even looking at the road, since he was turning around to chit chat with me. It was the first time in a while that I put my seat belt on in a cab! It seems like the drivers here are good, just aggressive and fast. There were tons of scooters out on the highway too – with all the racing cars, I’d imagine it would be dangerous. Most surprisingly, at least half the scooter drivers I saw were women (all dressed to the nines, even on their scooters). Andrea was totally cool, he gave me a mini guided tour of Siena as we pulled in, and a crash course in Italian pop music, mostly by singing along to the radio (and encouraging me to do the same).

For the first week, I am living in a hotel in downtown Siena (I guess my apt isn’t ready quite yet). So Andrea brought me to the Alma Domus, a hotel connected to the Santuario di Santa Catharine…. Which is a convent. I’ve travelled in Europe before, and knew that my hotel in Siena would likely be small and the bathroom would surely be weird (or shared). However, this hotel takes the cake in bizarreness. The hotel is run by the nuns, which is sorta cool - wealthy travelers are financing the convent activities. However, the nuns run the hotel much like a convent. My room is tiny, no radio and no TV. There is, however, a crucifix above the bed, and no less than 4 other pieces of religious art in the room. My bathroom, in typical European fashion, is a nightmare. It’s the size of a small closet, and there is no dedicated shower… just a showerhead on the wall and a drain in the floor (it reminded me of a boat john, actually, for any sailors out there). However, crammed into this tiny space are both a toilet and a bidet. Ah, funny Europe. Also, there is a curfew here – no joke. If I return past 1am, I cannot get into my room. Seriously. Although I’m not Catholic myself, I went to a Catholic boarding school for high school, and it feels EXACTLY like the dorms! However, there is a small balcony with BREATHTAKING views of the city attached to my room, so I could care less about any of the other weird aspects of the hotel.

After getting to the hotel, I decided to go wander around Siena and grab a bite to eat. Siena is a gorgeous old town, most of the buildings date back to the 11th century or so. It’s a walled city, so there are no cars in the city center. The streets are winding and hilly and made of stone, and they radiate out from the center of the town. As I walked, I popped into a few stores in search of a phonecard or prepaid telephone, and I realized that pretty much no one here speaks English. Since my Italian is pretty terrible, it made communication both frustrating and hilarious. In the end, I managed to get directions to the Vodafone store. Since it was on the other side of the town, I decided to brave that adventure some other day.

Then I headed to the town center, Il Campo. Il Campo is a huge building with a tower that was (and still is) used for civic town business dating back to the 1200s. Around the building is a semi-circular plaza area with shopping and cafes on the outskirts. People sit at Il Campo and chit chat and enjoy a café. So, I did the same. I enjoyed my first meal in Italy, prosecco (Italian champagne) and fresh mozzarella, prosciutto and bread with olive oil. I’m telling you, this Italian diet is pretty much the best thing ever. After my fabulous dinner, I got some gelato. It wasn’t hard to find, since there is literally a gelateria on every street corner here. I am now convinced that Starbucks strategy for the US was modeled specifically off of Italian gelaterias. After my baccio gelato (chocolate and hazelnut), I headed back to the nunnery to call it a night. ;)

orientation

2009-06-02T13:30:00.000-07:00

My first official work day for Novartis was Monday. They have a decent number of interns from various programs (including 4 LGOs) starting in the near future, so they did a orientation for everyone at the HQ in Cambridge. Since our leases were up, they housed me and Jo in the Hotel Marlowe starting on Sunday for the duration of the orientation. The hotel was really fun…. It was a nice hotel (read: fully stocked minibar) but was also pet friendly. I was given a goldfish named Christopher (after the famous world explorer) to keep me company. After the previous few nights sleeping in half-packed houses with half the necessities packed away (at one point I realized I couldn’t take a shower because I’d packed the shower curtain), it was nice to relax and enjoy the big fluffy king size bed and the other amenities at the hotel.

Work started on Monday… well, not work, but orientation. The first day was basically just info the company, products, and strategy. It’s been a long time since I sat through an all-day meeting, so I was a little tired afterwards. However, Novartis definitely tried to perk things up by feeding us every 2 hrs or so, including an ice cream sundae bar in the afternoon – sweet! Second day was focused on lean implementation and a few other topics, and today, we did cultural training.

Now I am sitting in my pajamas in the lobby of the Hotel Marlowe drinking free happy hour sangria and waiting to leave for the airport for my flight. Me, Drew and Jo are all on the same overnight flight from Boston to Zurich, and then we split off - I head to Florence, and they head to Frankfurt. Here’s hoping for a safe flight!

moving on up

2009-05-28T13:31:00.000-07:00

Once finals were over on the 21st, I started madly packing up all my stuff. I moved here from a 2-bdrm home in Indiana, and I didn’t want to store things there (as I don’t think I’ll be going back). So, I brought everything here…. And I mean everything. Packing everything back up was a pain. I didn’t realize how much STUFF I have…. Christmas decoration, lawn furniture, all my baby photos – it was just obnoxious, really. In the spirit of saving money, me and a few folks (Mo, Jo and Jeremy) had decided to get a storage unit together. Today was moving day. Sadly, Jeremy had already left for Witchita, so us lovely ladies were left to do all the heavy lifting ourselves. Thankfully, Drew, Jeremy S, Henry, and Rodolfo helped us out. We started in Beacon Hill, where Mo and Jo didn’t have too much stuff…. But it was all located on the 3rd and 4th floors of old buildings with windy staircases and no elevators. The stuff in my house was easy to move out, but I had a lot of it and we struggled to get everything into the Uhaul… Jeremy’s mattress was the only major casualty (that’s what you get when you leave me to move your stuff). Then we moved everything to a storage unit closeby that looks like the type of place where you’d store a dead body. We only hit one streetsign with the Uhaul, which I consider a major accomplishment. After a pretty exhausting 7 hrs of moving, I am now officially homeless!

finals schminals

2009-05-22T13:31:00.000-07:00

The end of the semester came and went with little fanfare. I had some projects due at the end of the semester, like my marketing project. We were supposed to come up with a game and peripheral for a Wii game. Our team developed Wii Drink, which features waterproof beer-koozie sensors that help you play beerpong and chugging games on your Wii. I had finals in strategy and finance. Strategy was probably my favorite class this year…. I really enjoyed the cases and discussions. As such, I went to class and paid attention, so I didn’t study much for the final. Finance was another story…. I hate math, and I’m terrible at it (don’t tell my ChE thesis advisor that he’s supporting an engineer that can’t add). Also, class attendance was not required for finance. As such, I went once…. the entire semester. Homeworks were not required, so I didn’t really do those, either. 48 hours prior to the final I started cramming… turns out that teaching yourself a semester of forward rates and valuations is a bad idea. After a pretty miserable two days, I took the final and my semester was done!

adventures in visa procurement

2009-05-15T13:32:00.000-07:00

So, things with my internship are progressing well. In case you forgot (I'm sure you didn't!), I'm doing my internship with Novartis Vaccines in Siena, Italy. This will be the first time that I've worked abroad, and the visa process is new (and sort of hilarious) to me.

First of all, the italian government has requested all sorts of interesting stuff.... my high school diploma, proof of funds to ensure I can leave the country (they want me out!), all sorts of stuff. They also sent me some documents to sign.... all totally written in Italian! To ensure I didn't wind up giving away a firstborn, I had a fellow Sloanie who speaks italian help me translate. Interesting things found in the document: I will not be permitted to work after 8pm (fine by me!). Novartis is required to give me free food in the "canteen". I must abide by typical standards of hygiene and cleanliness (WTF?). The document is bizarre and sorta funny, and it makes me look forward to all the other bizarre and funny stuff I will surely see in Italy.

random bits

2009-04-20T13:34:00.000-07:00

So, its been a while since I posted... so here's a ramshackle list of the stuff that's been going on.....

1. End of H1: So Sloan is funny, and has a lot of half semester classes. In the middle is Spring Break, as well as SIP week, which is some sort of funny workshop week that the Sloanies have to attend, but the LFMs are exempt from, so we just start spring break early. H1 is over, which means that my Global Emerging Markets and International Supply Chain classes are over. I will miss my Global Emerging Markets class - it was really well done and informative, and I learned a ton about how business is done in other cultures, as well as basics about macro (a class I've not yet taken). Also, the prof was awesome, even if he does brutally cold call... once I got "So, Becca, can you tell us a little bit about the efficiencies in the Korean banking markets prior to the '97 financial crisis?" WTF. Seriously. Now, in H2 (which I guess stands for Half 2?) I'll be taking Ethics and Marketing. I've (sadly) still got Finance which is a full semester class (I hate it, math makes me want to gouge my eyes out), as well as Economics of Healthcare, Strategy, and Tiger Teams. Sweet.

2. It's Spring Break! So, we've got two weeks off, which is awesome. Kids are doing tons of fun stuff... most of the LFMs are in Eastern Europe on a subsidized plant trek heading to Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic. Drew is a freaking machine, he's been blogging every day there, and as always its hilarious. Check it out here: http://lgo.mit.edu/blog/drewhill/ Drew's blog makes me feel inadequate..... :(

As for me, I'm heading to Tampa, FL on Sunday. My folks live there, so I'm planning on getting some quality family time and getting a tan. I've only got about a week between the end of the spring semester and the start of my internship in Italy, so I'll probably be using that week to frantically pack and move internationally... should be fun. I probably wont be able to visit the folks til after the end of internship, so I'm using my time off now to go see them. I'm an only (I bet you couldn't figure that out from my self-absorbed ramblings) so they get fussy when I go a long time between visits. Anyhow, its like 85 and sunny and perfect in Tampa, I sort of can't wait to get there. ;)

3. St Patty's Day: So, Boston has a HUGE Irish population, and they have this crazy big parade in South Boston, or "Southie" as its called by folks who live there. Its a working-class neighborhood, and the accents are thick and awesome.... think Good Will Hunting. Me, Jeremy S, Angelo and Jeff headed down to see the parade. I was pretty well schmammered by noon. Its a good day when you've been drinking for 10 hours and its only 7pm! Here are some pics:

: Me and Angelo

: Jeff, Rachel and carbombs

: jeremy and his sequined hat

4. Welcome 2011 Admits! So the LFM Class of 2011 was sent their acceptances last week. I've very excited about the incoming class. It sounds like it was a very competitive year; if you were lucky enough to get an acceptance - CONGRATS! If it wasn't your year, please consider reapplying next year once you've had more time to gain some additional experiences. I personally knew three people who had applied this year; two got in (yea!) but one did not. So, the announcement was a bit bittersweet for me.

Now everyone is running around like crazy to plan the Open House. Like everything at LFM, much of the work and planning is done by students. We're planning a 2 day event to showcase the program to those who were accepted. I went last year and had a blast. Its where I met my awesome roomies, and it was the deciding factor in my decision to come to MIT. We're planning events from social gatherings (read: drinking) to panels on schoolwork and student life, and we're planning tours of the various neighborhoods to give the admits a chance to see where they might like to live. I think they are doing a tour of my house (affectionately know as Frank the Tank).... me and Jeremy will have to make sure to get the empty beer cans off the floor before the Admits show up ;)

5. Name Change! So, bye bye LFM.... the program has officially be re-named Leaders for Global Operations. As a member of the Brand and Vision Committee, I knew this change was in the works - i've done a lot of work this semester to gather data from prospective students, alums, partner companies, Sloan faculty and Engineering faculty about their thoughts on the name. I personally thought the name change was needed - the LFM program was started in the 80s when there was a strong focus on "Big M' manufacturing. However, over the years, the program has grown to encorporate logistics, supply chain, and more general operations. For example, Amazon is one of our largest partner companies, and the last time I checked, they didnt manufacture a thing. In my opinion, the program is already focused on operations, so the name change merely reflects where the program already is. So, yeah.... now we're LGOs. Sweet.

So, that's it for now.... hopefully my next post will be written poolside.....

admit weekend

2009-04-15T13:33:00.000-07:00

So, this weekend was the Open House for all the admitted LGO students. Almost all the accepted students came out for festivities on Thursday and Friday. During the day, they participated in panels to teach them more about LGO, life in Boston, financial aid, etc. During the evenings, there were some fun activities to help them get to know each other better.

I was able to go to some of the social gatherings in the evenings, and I was really impressed with the admitted students. They're all bright kids (duh), but I was surprised to realize that most of them are actually pretty cool, too. Wow, that sounds harsh, you might think.... but here's the deal: there is a long-standing LGO rumor that while the even classes are awesome, the odd ones are... well, odd. I can attest to the fact that the X-Class stands up to this stigma - we're wicked cool people. As such, I expected the '11s to be, well, kinda lame. Not true. These kids are definitely fun. I mean, not as fun as the X-Class, but... still pretty fun. ;)

On Friday night, we had a 3-class party.... its the only time that the 09s, 10s, and 11s will all be on-campus at the same time. We celebrated by purchasing 13 cases of beer and partying at Frank the Tank. It was one of a the better parties we've had in a while. The cops came... always a success indicator. Additionally, 3 homeless people crashed the party looking for beer - this would only happen in Central Square. We played some 10 vs. 11 flip cup (aka X-Class vs. Snake Eyes), and while the 11s made a valiant attempt, they were simply outmatched by the X-Class. I'm sure with a little more practice they'll improve. We ended the night by showing the admits Cambridge's finest cuisine: 3am rollups at the Falafel Palace. Yum!