I noticed some people have already been able to get to their journal pages and make changes. Some others have gone to their page and clicked on the “Add Comment” to leave a comment. That is fine, but I would also like you to click on the “edit page” link (at the top under page tools) and actually add something on the journal page itself, just to get practice doing that.
And thanks to the few of you that fixed your phone numbers on the “Particiapnt” pages. I have added others that were handwritten in class. Let me know as soon as you have a phone number, just in case we need to get in contact with each other.
Read Benihana and National Cranberry for our discussion on Wednesday. Let me know if you have other questions or concerns. You also have the option of leaving a comment here (in addition to comments on the wiki or email to me).
The Paris-Pisa flight is in and the students are on the bus to Florence, but stuck in rush hour traffic. I will head over to the train station to meet them, probably between 7:30 and 8:00. I hope it is not too much later.
They are in Florence, and here is a group picture of the students, with Santa Maria Novella in the background:
The Rome-Florence flight arrived on time and the students looked tired but fine. The Paris-Pisa flight arrives this afternoon, and I will meet the bus when they arrive in Florence to say hi. Orientation starts on Saturday morning at 8:25, and will be held in a nice place called Fiesole, on the hills overlooking Florence. Sunday, if it doesn’t rain, there will be a picnic in one of the parks in Florence (Cascine). Not far from Palazzo Rucellai.
The material you received from Palazzo Rucellai should have included the phone numbers for the school there, in case someone needs to contact you while you’re in Italy. After the first day, you will also have an Italian cell phone number that they can call with the appropriate international calling prefixes. As a final back up, people can feel free to contact me on my Italian cell phone. The local number there is 346-626-3146. From the US, the number would be
It is almost time to finish packing and get to the airport for the Florence summer study abroad program. There are answers to questions on the wiki, but if you have others, let me know. You can post a comment to the blog, a comment on the Question and Answers page on the wiki or email me directly. I will take pictures of everyone over the weekend and update the participant pages (post your short bio if you haven’t already) and get them on the wiki so that we can all get to know each other more quickly. For class on Monday, we will talk about how the course will operate (we’ll go over the blog and wiki a bit more) and we will also analyze (together) a couple of cases. I will post the cases on the wiki for you to read and will talk to the people at Palazzo Rucellai about hard copies. There may be a small charge for the cases and copying, but I’m not sure the exact amount yet. But there will be no book for the class, and the cost should not be very high.
All of the students that will be joining the program at Palazzo Rucellai should have received an email with instructions for accessing this blog and the class wiki. Contact me if you have not.
I am looking forward to meeting everyone next Friday. We should have a great time together in Italy.
I’ve added some information to the wiki site on the Florence Information page. There is a link to the PicCell Wireless web page for student rentals. (note that if you wait to buy a phone that you can use your US cell phone in “roaming” mode for quick, expensive calls in Europe.
There is also a link to the Italian train company, Trenitalia, and to a site that collects low cost airline route information.
Your assignment is to go to the Participants page for the class you’re in and leave a comment with a short biographical introduction for the rest of the class to read. And if you would like to go by a different name than the one I put on the site, let me know and I’ll change it.
And please feel free to leave comments on this blog, if you want. Comments are moderated, but I will post them as soon as I read through them. I do it this way because I don’t want spammers leaving comments here.
The business school is “full” on Friday, so the meeting from 2:00-4:00 will be in the Student Union. We can just pull a couple of tables together and talk there. See you there, or on Thursday in the School of Business cafe.
Note: both sessions are informal and you can come whenever you are free and stay as long as you want.
The Study Abroad Office will have their orientation session for the summer on Monday at 4:00 in the big lecture hall underground between the ITE (engineering) building and the Library. If you have an exam or something, please concentrate on that and contact the Study Abroad office about getting the information you missed. I will be at the front of the lecture hall starting around 3:30 and would love to say hi to everyone. My picture is on the business school website, if you want to know who to look for. I will also run two information sessions in the School of Business Cafe later in the week.
Thursday, April 17, 4:00-6:00 Friday April 18, 2:00-4:00
These are not required or anything, since I will try to communicate anything important here and on the wiki. But it will be fun to meet all of you and have a chance to talk about the trip. Come to one if you have the chance. One other thing: if you think of a question, go to the wiki, go to the Question & Answer page and post a comment on the page. I will keep an eye out, and then copy your question into the page and try to address your question.
a website for decision making, business, economics, and a few other things from time to time
