✌🏽️ IULM

Welcome back to my amazing blog!!!  Unfortunately I haven't had the time to talk about my amazing experience at our field trip but (as promised I will write more about my adventures as soon as I get wifi connection)
As  for academics, this week we learned about fashion & design with Antonio Catalani. We learned about the similarities as well as the differences of brand and products. During the second day of classes we took a field trip to the galleria and viewed the differences. It was very interesting. Catalani had us do a final presentation over an Italian designer store with a group of four people. Our presentation was over ETRO which is a family owned designer store. It was very interesting to find out more over the history and their iconic product. We were required to view our store in person and given the opportunity to discover more on our own.. Even though I am not interested in fashion I did enjoy our assigned store and learning more about other Italian based fashion designers. In conclusion, we said our final farewell & happy birthday to our beautiful tutor, friend, & advocate- Ilaria! I will miss you Bella. I've enjoyed my time in Milan. Thank you for being so kind & open-minded. Until next time, Baci! 😘

Second Week of Classes

Hello everybody, 

I've just completed another successful week at IULM. This week was very busy and had classes that lasted pretty late, but I've survived. 

On June 13, 2016 we met a professor by the name of Guido Ferilli, whom taught our small class about Cultural Economics and Creative Industries. During the first couple minutes of the course he questioned how much we knew about economics and what we were studying at the University of Nebraska at Kearney. Initially, he began class by teaching about culture as an elaterian or also known as “spiritual cultivation,” which is the pre industrial economics that were ruled by gift economy of mecanstism rather than by market transactions. In addition, Ferilli also taught us about Culture as learned (mass) entertainment that works as the structure or framework because it organizes into cultural industries by developing their respective consumer markets. Culture as the social basis for the generation of meaning and value are added into postmodern industrial economies, culture tends to become a basic platform for construction of individual and collective identity models and tends to assume the character of public goods.

Tuesday morning we met a Fabrizio Vagliasindi, he taught us about Gamification- the rules of gaming. He states the goal is ALWAYS to maintain and engage the attention from the audience. Two main elements needs to maintain the goal from occurring is to keep progression and achievement, which lead him into teaching about the properties of the brain and how it works and the mechanisms used. An example he used was frustration, if you are playing a game and you cannot pass a certain level you become frustrated which leads you to either achieved a certain level or become to frustrated to come back to the video game. Later on he talked about the three generations of gaming. Pioneers as the first generation which began in the 1970's. Digital Native began in the 1990's, and the "Touch generation" which makes me giggle a little bit inside. Furthermore, in the afternoon we met with Alberto who taught us about Cinema. The most important piece of information I recall from his lecture is the fact that he said people will travel to a certain location thinking that a film was recorded in that city but it reality it was filmed in a different location this known as cinetourism. 

On Wednesday morning June 15 we met Dr. Antonella Ardizzone. She lectured us about Music and the different characteristics of the sector, trends and case studies. Thursday morning- June 16, 2016 we met with Gianluca Peluffo, he had a different method of teaching the course by using videos and different pictures of landscapes. My understanding of the films were that every building has its own personality and flavor. All buildings are rich in texture and he also said himself “I don’t want to say that one building looks better than another building, but instead I like to think these two buildings are two completely different in texture, framework, and color.” 

The last course was with Antonello Fusetti who also had a different method in lecturing. We greatly appreciate the professor that took the time to lecture us in English and their patience even though it is not their primary language they did an excellent job at explaining and teaching. However, Antonello’s lecture was in Italian and had us using the translating devices. He described design as the meaning to draw in Italian. He then said it is what happens in the next generation and the generations after. The best example was dresses. Ladies all over the world have worn dresses in many centuries. However, the dress you see nowadays are a lot different from the way they would look in the past. Think about the dress that you’re grandmother, mother, and sister would wear. They are completely different, the shoulder are covered, puffy, uncovered, long, short, tight, loose. Different characteristics all because of design. I've enjoyed this week of classes as well as multiple field trips we had. Stick around to hear more about the field trip days and see pictures! 

- Jessica De La Torre

Classe Italiana

We've just completed week one of our studies at IULM. Our teachers Massimo & Filippo were very helpful, understanding, patient, and full of life! We learned basic Italian in less than a week and took our final exam. Our exam consists of eight parts. The first two parts of the exam were articles. An example of an article is Lo Zio, which is an Italian translation for the Uncle. Instead of being Il, Le, La, or Gli it is Lo because lo is to be placed in front of words beginning with "S" or "Z." The third part of the exam was making a phrase with specific words. For instances, Andare a, "Tu e Andrea andate in Chesa." - Andrea and yourself were at Church.
Moving on into part four of the exam we were to read a question or answer and fill in the remainder of the phrase. " Da dove vieni? io venue da Stati Uniti D' America." Where are you from? I am from the United States of America. Fifth part of the exam was passato prosimo, which is a verb and time. Io ho escalato la musica ieri sera. I have listened to music last night. The sixth part was naming hobbies and food "Chibo"some of the italian hobbies are quite similar to Spanish. The seventh part was relative pronoun, "Che" means that as well as what depending on context. "Cui" means whom/whose depending on context. Example: Davide Sono e ragazzi che vanno a Roma. Davide and the boys are going to Rome. The last part of the exam was to give a summary of myself in complete Italian language.
 - Io mi chiamo Jessica De La Torre. Io vengo di Nebraska. Io sono nata en California. Vengo dagli Sati Uniti D' America. Io parlo Inglese y Spanolo. Io sono bella. Io sono bassa y giovane. :)

Left to Right Front Row (Mandy, Jessica (Myself), Stephany, Jordan, Cleo, Natali, Jazmin, Martha)
Right to Left Second row ( Mei, Lisa, Mary, Margret, Lindsey)
Left to Right third row ( Jada Johnson, Masashi, Massimo (Teacher), Zach)
First Milan Study Abroad Group :)