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June 21st: Today we had our visit with IBM. This was not with my specific group it was with all management students. It was a bit of a repeat for the IBM team since we have heard a lot of the information in our first visit. I continue to get a few hours of sleep a night but am having a hard time staying awake every time I am there. I am not sure how to cure this issue.
I was very impressed that IBM had mostly women managers speak with the group. It made me pleased that a large company valued women so much. Again the treated us with wonderful food. The only issue I would complain about is the lack of power point etiquette. Even some of my professors have this issue. They put big chunks of text on the slide and just read. There is not interaction with the audience and they are not visually appealing. I am not sure if this is just a skill they are teach our generation but man its difficult to retain the information on top of the language barrier. The last two presenters didn't have this issue. They spoke about smarter building practices and it was wonderful!

June 22nd: Our IBM Project team went back to IBM today. Every time we head back we learn more and more about what our project involves. Our original thoughts seem to be leading us in the wrong direction and we keep making new trails. Once again IBM keeps feeding us great food. We got to leave IBM early today thank goodness because we have a busy day tomorrow.

June 23rd: Today was a mess! Must have gotten a bug today. Had “to go” about every 20mins. I have been getting so dehydrated. Luckily I made it through okay. I had my first graduate exam today in Global Business and Social Responsibility. It was not horrible. Right after that we had our first project briefing. We didn’t have much to report on because we have mostly conducted interviews and not our problem statement. Didn’t do much for the rest of the day, trying to recover from this nasty bug I have.

June 24th: The weekend is upon us! We stayed in Rome this weekend and did more site seeing. I finally got to go inside the Colosseum. We also went inside the Forum which was the old down town. They have preserved so much of the city and it was one of my favorite sites in Rome. Grace has a friend that flew up from Dubai. It was refreshing having a new face in the apartment. We are all getting excited to show him around the town.

June 25th- We went to the castle today. It was very hot. They had great art museums inside and you got a sense of the culture. Reminded me a little of Fort Knox’s in Bucksport, Maine. We heard that this castle was featured in the movie Angels and Demons. Rumor has it that the castle has secret tunnels underneath to hide the pops during wars.

June 26th- Today Brian went to Dispatch. I might be the first day that I really wish I was in the States. It was going to be a wonderful concert and I had really looked forward to the event. They still had fun! During the day we visited the Vatican. They have very strike rules on what women can wear. Shoulders and knees need to be covered. Problem is Rome is HOT. We all brought scarfs with us to cover up and solve the problem. We walked to the top of the dome and got great shots of the city. They walk up the 500 steps was a bit scary and long but so worth it. I spent the day catching up on HW.

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