I can’t believe that this week was our last full week in Milan. I feel like I have lived here for a year now and learned so much but at the same time, time truly did fly L. Although I have had an amazing time exploring Italy, this week was hands-down one of my favorite weeks. We visited Studio FM, a graphic design company located in Milan’s Chinatown. Before coming to Milan and learning about design, I did not know much about graphic design. I thought that graphic design took many years to master and could only be done with a team of artists that knew how to paint, draw and were very technologically savvy. Although this is true, visiting studio FM this week opened my eyes up to the different talents and backgrounds it takes to successfully run a graphic design company. This summer I graduated from UT with an International Relations degree and a Middle Eastern degree focusing on culture, media and the arts within the Middle East. I would have never thought that my studies in the field of Middle Eastern studies would ever make me have such a connection to a project done by a graphic design studio in Milan. The owner of the studio showed us FM studios branding project for the New Doha International Airport that has taken them more then eight years to complete and it is still on going. He explained that most of their time was spent on researching the Arab culture to make sure that everything that they designed was appropriate. For example, in the Muslim culture it is considered inappropriate to have human and animal figures drawn, so when it comes to adding decorative touches to things such as walls, Arab/Muslim cultures replace actual images of people and animals with calligraphy. Before visiting Studio FM, I felt a little bit boxed in while trying to find a job that related to what I studied at UT. I felt that the only jobs that I could do with my degrees were to work for a non-profit or become a translator. I had no idea that with my knowledge, I could possibly help create the designs for an entire airport, from their logo to the different lounges found inside the airport. After visiting FM studios I feel truly inspired to look for job opportunities outside of the box that our society sometimes creates for us.
This week we also got to visit Christo’s Floating Piers. Although it took us about eight hours to finally arrive to the piers it was so worth it! During the long train ride, I got to get to know some of the girls even more, which was very nice. I regret that I did not walk the piers(It was way too hot), but I am so happy that I made the journey to the Island and at least got to see them up close. I was so surprised at myself for being able to withstand such a long day but at the end of it all I would not change a thing. Although it took a group of us more then three hours to get off the Island, I got the opportunity to explore the Island and people watch. I was so pleasantly surprised that thousands of people from cities all over Italy came out in the middle of the weekday in the sweltering heat to visit Christo’s work. I don’t think that back in the United States people would go this much out of their way to visit an artist’s work.
This weekend was my last weekend in Italy and it turned out to be one of my favorite weekends. I had an amazing opportunity to visit my CA Anna’s family in Arona on Saturday. The train ride from Milan to Arona was beautiful and once we got off the train, so was the weather! This past week Milan was extremely hot with temperatures rising to more then ninety degrees. In Arona however, the weather was absolutely perfect with temperatures around seventy-five degrees. From the time that I set foot in Arona to the time that I left, Anna’s parents fed me, I truly had the authentic Italian experience this weekend! First we started our meal with a glass of spiced white wine, for the first course we had homemade pasta with shrimp(to die for <3), then we had a stuffed cheese and eggplant pie, after that we had a simple salad. For dessert we had homemade melon and vanilla gelato topped with freshly picked blackberries from Anna’s grandfather’s garden. We topped off everything with amazing Italian coffee. I had heard that Italians take their digestion seriously but I experienced how serious they took it first hand at Anna’s house. After dinner, Anna’s parents made us take a very small sip of a type of extra fermented wine made of grape skin to help digest the food. We were also instructed to sit down at the table for at least twenty minutes to let the food go down before doing any activity.