Friday was a long day. We started with our first 2.5 hour Italian class that we would have for 3 days a week before eventually dropping down to 2 days. At 9:00 in the morning that was definitely a wake up call. After class we stopped to try gelato again and I did not so successfully order in Italian this time. But it was great. See photos.
We had one last orientation session on that Friday and this involved a required-by-the-Italian-government "Safety in the workplace meeting" as well as our final task the "Rush Hour Test". It was as lame as the name is but I was glad that they made us figure out where our job was. Essentially, we had to head out at 2:00 to find our workplaces and send a picture to the internship coordinator that we had found our way. I ended up finding out in my session the previous day that I would be working in the Startup Incubator along with three other IES interns. We were together working for three different companies, ZesTrip, Gourmet Italy and Pikablink, but were all in an open area room which meant that we could commute together.
The commute was rough. For one 2:00 in the middle of a June Milan heat wave is not fun to walk in period but our google maps also made us walk most of the way, which we researched the next day and could take the metro to cut out at least 15 minutes of walking. (We would later start going home before our Italian class ending at 11:30 and work starting at 1:00 to grab lunch and not carry our computer around the whole time.) But our commute involves metro from Saint Ambrogio (or Lanza our home station) to the train station of Cadorna where we have to take a surburban train pass Milano Domodossola to the Bovisa Politecnico stop where the Politecnic university is. We then walk about 15 minutes with only about 5 minutes of shade, passing a lot of super cheap university cafes that we plan to visit, and eventually walking upon the PoliHub which consists of several brightly colored modern buildings.
By the elevators into the office
This first day we knew that one of the girls had a meeting with her boss but the rest of us hadn't heard anything. We walked in, literally dripping sweat (not lying), thankful that we did not have to meet our bosses. We took a picture of the doorway and as we were waiting for the elevator, my bosses come out excited to meet me. I held a 10 minute conversation while I constantly wiped sweat off my face and tried to be positive about it being so hot. They showed me around the office with a color scheme of white, yellow, green and blue, large text like "Enjoy" on the walls, glass conference rooms, a large "Arena" or cafeteria-type room for collaboration and even foosball and pingpong on the rooftop terrace. It was super cool but we were dying of heat so I was very thankful when the introduction ended.
Some graffiti on the walk home
We survived the 45 minute commute home with the reminder that we were visiting the Spa that night. Milan has a spa that is located on natural springs and has been featured by Vogue. (crazy). We had reservations at the spa, which we found was only 40 euro to go to and spent the rest of the night relaxing in their element rooms of fire, water, earth, the hot and cold pools, the jacuzzis and waterfall rooms, the rock tables that pour burning hot water on you, the glass room full of people in robes eating candies as well as fantastic bruschetta and fresh fruit and the open bar of chapagne, wine and fresh squeezed juice. That was awesome. We spent some time also at the outdoor pools soaking up the city and relaxing after our first few, and very hot, days.
We went to Just Cavalli the night club that night, owned by Roberto Cavalli. That was an experience. We walked two miles to get to another group's apartment then from there went two miles to get to the club (which was only about two blocks from our apartment...). It was a fun night of dancing but after hours on our feet and reminding ourselves of the cover charge we were ready to go home and sleep.
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