this week...

this week has been quite busy for me. i took an exam, visited two companies and got my grade back from the first exam of the year (about two weeks ago) and i got wireless internet in the house!!!

i took the accounting exam on monday. i think it went pretty well. i'm actually sort of amazed at how much i really enjoyed the accounting class, ridiculous right? we mainly focused on managerial accounting, which is concerned with how to allocate costs in order to get a very clear picture of the financial impact of decisions. interesting indeed. yes, i'm a big nerd.

we visited the fratelli rossetti factory on tuesday. it was a really amazing visit actually. we got to see shoes actually being made. duh rachel it was a factory. they really make such beautiful things. then, of course, as you would expect, i bought a pair of shoes...really really beautiful green patent leather loafers...i love (love love) them. the best part? 80 euro...from like 250 or something in the store. designer outlets in italy rock my world.

then we had a couple days of class (blah blah blah). just kidding. i'm still enjoying classes a lot although right now the subject matter is a bit dry...finance and statistical data analysis: both interesting subjects, but taken together are a bit much in the way of technical/interpretive number play. i got my exam grade back from our first test...five out of five (although rounded up from a 4.83). not bad. it's funny though actually how much pressure i'm feeling now to get perfect grades. i just feel like my professors and classmates would expect me to and if i don't they'll look at me funny, as if to say, "i thought you were smart, but i guess not." it seems stupid, and generally i don't discuss grades with classmates anyway, so it isn't really that big of a deal. it's just a strange thing about being in school as an adult, when i have a much larger emotional, financial, and intellectual stake in being at the top, not to mention the ego.

yesterday we went to milano unica (which is one of the biggest fabric and trend shows in europe) and then to the dolce and gabbana headquarters in legnano. in their facility there, they take a garment from a sketch to a sample. i'm not going to outline the entire process here, but if you're interested, email me and i'll tell you all about it. they made a special presentation for us on the structure of the company from an hr perspective and then gave us a walking tour of the facility. we actually got to see the clothing that will be going down the runway in the beginning of march. let me just say, that both the dolce and gabbana and d&g shows will be very good. on an interesting side note...did you know that there's actually a specific verb in italian that describes walking on the runway? "sfillare" is to walk and refers only to walk on a runway during a fashion show. it can describe both clothes and models, so in italian, the clothes literally "walk down the runway."

i love this country.