The moment.

Posted on December 1, 2012 by Ania

I haven’t written for a while but after a short break… welcome again.

I hope you’re all recovered after Sandy’s attack! I’ve heard that your pre-departure meeting was rescheduled but you ended up having a nice time in MODA Cafe that I used to visit quite often to grab a coffee while preparing myself emotionally to come to Italy

How have been these weeks for us, FIT students in Florence? Well, to be honest quite good. We attended an interesting Meucci milinery workshop and everyone had fun creating his or her own hat, we had also an amazing Thanksgiving potluck thanks to FITSA and obviously we’ve traveled a lot across Europe and even outside the continent on our own or with friends.

I’m also a part of the yearbook team and we’ve been working on it. It’s a lot of fun and you feel so satisfied when you see some results that look quite nice. If you enjoy writing, creating layouts or taking pictures, it’s definitely an extracurricular, you should join.

Now, similarly to the schedule of New York City’s campus, we’re approaching the time of final exams. Then, we’ll be enjoying the winter break and everyone’s so looking forward to it. However, December in Florence is not only about studying – FITSA is organizing a brunch in a place called Ganzo, we’re also going to see “The Nutcracker” and we’ll be ice-skating. I believe that on the 18th we’re also having Christmas dinner. I’m so exited!

I’ll see you in the mid-January! Can’t wait!

If you have any questions concerning you arrival or your stay in Italy, please feel free to ask.

Get in the zone with some good music and a little motivation!

Posted on November 26, 2012 by Zachary

I apologize for my lack of posting! I’ve been very busy, I can assure you, here in Florence. The semester is coming to an end (we have only three weeks left), so right now is crunch time! It’s time to focus, get down to our study grind, and obviously make the most of the last few weeks of 2012!

Some people, like me, need a little extra something to get going. My #1 motivation is good music: without it, I will just sit around like a sloth (which is nice too).

Here are some of the jams coming out of my iPod. Take a listen, have a glass of wine, and get to work!

Backseat(Rimer London Remix) – Staygold; Rimer London is an English electronic group I recently discovered. They usually stick with catchy female vocals, deep synthetic sounds, and a pop-beat.
Beta Love – Ra Ra Riot; This band is one of my favorite, and they’ve come back with a great new single. I can’t help but to sing along with it everytime I hear. ** I will find a betttaaaa love! **
Stayin’ Alive(K Theory & TYR Remix) – The Bee Gee’s; It’s nice to have an oldies throwback to get us all nostalgic. This is a remix that will have you’re feet tappin and your pencil snappin! (If that made any sense)
Lifeline – Angels & Airwaves; a song from the Twilight Breaking Dawn Pt. II album, which was very well done with indie artists.
Slow Motion(Dr. Luke/Benny Blanco Remix) ft. Three 6 Mafia – Ke$ha; An unreleased gem by none other than KESH – there is no such thing as a fashion student who does not like her.
Sun – Two Door Cinema Club; Another one of my favorite bands, who’s in it to win it. Great song for any time of the day.
Play Cards to Your Heart – Groove Armada; a song that gives me memories of my favorite television series, Skins. This is chill music for studying, or for pensively pretending like you’re studying.
Numb ft. Eminem – Rihanna; From her new album, Unapologetic. So good, Her voice is divine and Em’s rap is swagalicious.
Devil’s Tears – Angus & Julia Stone; This song makes me happy and sad at the same time. It’s essentially just a beautiful song, and is not too distracting to listen to while you multi-task.
Ivory Road – King Charles; Lyrically genius, this song makes you think about your life and what you’re doing with it. It takes a few listens to get into it because it’s so quirky, but give it a chance and let your musical sense be tickled

In conclusion, now is the time to snuggle up with a cup of tea and get working on our endless amounts of projects, essays, exams and presentations that are due in no time at all. Let’s rock the rest of the year with good music and straight A’s!

Bacini a tutti!!!!

-(DJ) Zachary R

Blonde Ambition

Posted on November 14, 2012 by Zachary

A couple of weeks ago, my classmates and I were graced with the presence of Nita Tucker. She’s a writer, journalist, relationship-expert, consultant, and the founder of The Florentine — Florence’s only newspaper written in completely English. She is truly an inspirational woman, and if you don’t believe me, ask Oprah, who featured Nita on her show some years ago. One of our wonderful professors happens to be good friends with Nita, and thankfully she was in town and was able to stop by to share some of her wisdom. She shared a lot about her life and what she’s been through. At the age of 50, she realized that she had never lived in Europe (a dream of hers), and felt that it was “now or never.” Having been in love with Italy and particularly Florence, she made a decision to drop everything and come to Firenze with minimal cash and few people to call a friend. This, my friends, is cold, hard, precarious chancery. Her husband was not as supportive as he could have been, and her children were young, but she had a feeling in her gut that this was the right move. She told us about her struggles, and about her triumphs. She experienced things significant enough to write a couple of books about. Eventually, Nita took it upon herself to begin a newspaper in English—a brilliant idea, considering the second most common language spoken in Florence is English, after Italian, naturally. It was a huge risk, and certainly required guts on her end. She sacrificed a lot in order for the Florentine to work out, but today it’s read by English speakers and Italians alike. She told us that some English professors in Florence use articles from it to help teach their students English. Not only are their issues all over town, but they are present online, with an easy to navigate website. Evidently, things worked out for Nita, and this brought her to a socialite-status in Florence. She spoke about being friends with the Ferragamos, and on her website you’ll find photos of her posing in beautiful gardens, looking intellectual at book-readings, and speaking with Ted Kennedy. Nita is not your average American-turned-Italian.

When it all boils down, Nita is just an ambitious, curious, sweetheart. She’s got strong intuition, lofty goals, and an incredible drive. She’s got insight like you’ve never seen, and this has been displayed in her speeches and in her books (she’s published about 5). She was kind enough to inform us of her favorite hot-spots in Florence, which was definitely helpful for us students. Aside from all of this, she gave us some great, unforgettable advice.

Here are some things that stuck in my mind:

“If you see an open door, go inside. You never know what you’ll see or who you’ll meet.” We were told that people here are generally open-minded and inviting. If you receive an opportunity of any kind, take it! What’s the worst that could happen?
“Try to be interested, not necessarily interesting.” This reminds me to show people that you care about them and what they have to say, as opposed to superimposing your supposed “greatness,” and being selfish.
Florence is definitely not the place for shy/timid people. Everybody here is very outgoing and charismatic.
Italians are all about establishing relationships, through which people are overtly amiable and helpful. There is not so much customer service as there is kindness and personal relationships. If you’re nice, people will reciprocate. If you enter a store and simply say hello, you will be well respected.

Hearing Nita speak definitely opened Florence up to me, and explained a lot of the traditions and customs that I have seen but not quite understood.

Don’t panic!

Posted on October 22, 2012 by Ania

I’ve been looking at the FIT in Italy Facebook fan page in order to find out what questions you want to be answered. It seems like lots of you are worried about some of the technical issues.

Well, there is definitely nothing to be stressed out about. Even though, you are 4159 miles away from New York, everything can be worked out.

Let me give you some tips…

1. How do I register for classes?

In the past the FIT in Florence Office was responsible for registering all students for classes. Since Spring’13 semester, you’ll able to do that on your own. You choose the schedule that suits you best and attend classes together with your friends. Very convenient. Also, if you’d like to enroll in any other classes beyond the IFMM curriculum, you’re more than welcome. Exactly like back home.

2. I love being involved in school’s activities. Are there any clubs I can join down there?

Of course! We even have FITSA here. They are responsible for organizing all of the fun stuff. We already went to a soccer game, had a potluck, had a hiking trip in Fiesole, we just came back from Perugia Eurochocolate Festival and soon we’ll be taking cooking classes! There’s also a yearbook team (I hadn’t known about that until I came here) who work on a student yearbook. It’s very exciting. If you’re a sport enthusiast… Unfortunately, there are no teams here but if you’re eager you can play basketball, volleyball, tennis, jog, row, do yoga or pilates. No worries, you still are fit at FIT.

3. I’ve been thinking about becoming RA in New York next year but can I still get a chance while being in Italy?

This position stays open as well. Under these circumstances, the Residential Office enables you to e-mail your application.

4. I want to intern the semester I’m back from Italy. Would it work?

Sure! If you probably know, before registering for an internship course, you’re obliged to attend an internship orientation meeting. It can be done here in Italy as well. Just e-mail the Resident Director and she’ll explain everything to you and arrange it.

5. I would like to get an internship… Is it an option?

It might get sort of complicated but nothing is impossible. You just need to meet certain criteria that concern your student visa. Same thing with getting a job. It’s not that horrible – I’ve been through that in the US because I’m an European Union citizen. If you enjoy writing, they offer some editorial internships at the Florentine (a weekly newspaper, the only one for English-speakers in Florence). As Zach wrote in the previous post, we found out more about it when Nita Tucker, the creator of it, visited us during our lecture.

However, keep in mind that studying abroad is about something more than gaining experience through interning. It is also about the culture, adjusting to environment you’re unfamiliar with and simply enjoying the surroundings. Believe me or not, it’s all about broadening your horizons and making you an even more competitive candidate for a job.

If you have any more doubts, please feel free to ask!

I’m attaching some more pictures from the school you may attend in the closest future. I also wish you a great pre-departure I know you’re having very soon.

Ciao!

Mid-October

Posted on October 19, 2012 by Zachary

Hey yall. I’m sitting home on a Friday night, writing my second blog post, after a tiresome week studying and living in Florence. Looking back on the past few days, it’s been pretty jam-packed. This past week was midterms, so you can only imagine our sleepless nights and our endless test-taking/project presenting. Renaissance Art required a ton of memorization and analytical thinking. We had a huge project due for The Business of Licensing class, so we were busy putting together a succint/informative physical presentation, and slaving away at our 28-page research paper on licensed goods. Leadership Development for Retailing had us quizzing each other with note cards non-stop, and I think we all basically know how to be managers at this point.

On Wednesday, we had one of our weekly FITSA meetings. We discussed some recent group activities, such as a hike through the mountains to Fiesole, our most recent potluck dinner, and a soccer game at Florence’s own “calcio” stadium. We also discussed things we’ll be doing together in the near future, ie: The Perugia Chocolate Festival (the BIGGEST chocolate festival in EUROPE and we are going TOMORROW!!!!!), more soccer games, cooking classes, and a trip to Venice for Carnival.

As I just mentioned, tomorrow we will be waking up bright and early to go to Perugia, where they hold a MASSIVE annual chocolate festival, called Eurochocolate. We are so extremely excited to stuff our faces with nothing but chocolate for an entire day. They apparently have some pretty groundbreaking choco-related things there, like a map of Italy (important monuments like the Colosseum/Duomo di Milano included) made ENTIRELY OF CHOCOLATE. As a big choco-head, I am personally excited beyond belief.

Today, we took a trip to Prato to see one of the biggest/most well known textile-industry locations in the world. It’s been producing yarns and wool textiles for over 1,000 years, so it was a pretty significant amount of fiber-observing/touching. We went to a Textile Museum, and did a lot of standing around, watching machines do their thing, spinning, stretching, manipulating and wrapping up long strings of fibers being spun into yarns. We saw the entire rainbow, every imaginable color of yarns. HOWEVER, I will be doing a separate post on this because I have so many fabulous photos to share from today.

Also, some of us were paid an in-class visit from Nita Tucker, who is an author, public-speaker, and is the founder of The Florentine, which is the only newspaper in all English in Florence. She was very inspirational, and has been on OPRAH!!! Perhaps that means as much to you as it does to me? She also told us some of her favorite places to go in Florence, which we are SO grateful for. Anyway, I will be wiring a special blog post just about her as well, so just put this thought in your back pocket.

So… to make a long story short, we finished midterms, went on a fun field-trip to Prato today, and will be going to the Chocolate Festival tomorrow. Things are swell for us here in Italy, to say the least. Also, I feel it’s worth mentioning that my friends and I found a GREAT Mexican restaurant and had delicious burritos (4 euro!) and a ginormous plate of nachos with salsa and guac (sort of hard to come by in Italia) (5 euro split b/w us!). I was feeling filled to the brim with Mexican, bean cheese and rice filled lovin’.

Below are some photos I took, hope you enjoy! Until next time, I’m Zach, 3rd year FIT student, studying abroad in Florence and loving life! xx