Centralight

Mike Tyle Where he lives: Brussels, Belgium Mike Tyle, '09, has been waiting for a month and a half for the buttons to arrive for the new shirt he designed for C&A's Angelo Litrico menswear collection. Waiting for buttons: it's one of the not-so-glamorous parts of being a fashion designer in Belgium. Mike sketches designs, shops for trims, researches fabrics, sketches some more. "Every month we do a new collection, so there's always something new," he says. " And I love that." After graduation, he moved to Paris to teach English and landed an internship, then a job at a trend forecasting fi rm. It was back to the United States for a two-year stint at Carhartt in Detroit before Germany lured him for a job designing at Esprit. He's been in Belgium since December, as a designer for European fashion retailer, C&A. "Europe is so big and so small at the same time," Mike says. He loves that he can be in Paris, London or Amsterdam in less than two hours. He loves his quirky house key – a monster of an antique key that looks like it unlocks a bank vault. He misses driving, Thanksgiving and lime Tostitos. Last year, Mike traveled back to CMU as a guest lecturer for apparel merchandising and design classes. He told students about designer life in the real world and how it's both exciting and well, waiting for your buttons to arrive. "I'd love to go back again in fi ve years," he says. "I know I'll have even more to off er." If you're headed for a new life overseas and you're anxious you won't meet anybody, don't worry, he says – you will. You might even see a fellow Chippewa. He ran into one of his college roommates at the Paris airport. MIKE'S TRAVEL TIP: An accomplished photographer, (see his work on his website, miketyle.com) Mike suggests photographing the stunning architectural details in Europe's old cities. He has a whole collection of photos of intriguing European doors on his website. Don't miss the french fries in Belgium – they were invented there, Mike says, and you can buy them on just about every street. But don't look for ketchup. In Belgium, they dip their fries in mayonnaise. > Sergey Shishlenin Where he lives: Moscow, Russia Sergey Shishlenin, M.A. '13, misses the rabbits at CMU. It seems Moscow doesn't have any. "Moscow is a busy city, and I really prefer small towns," he says in a Skype interview from his home in Moscow. "That's what I liked about Mount Pleasant. You might see rabbits walking around or maybe even a deer. I loved all the trees and nature. It helped me study. Here, school is going from one skyscraper to another." Sergey and his wife, Victoria Shishlenina, traveled together from Russia to Mount Pleasant in 2011, each to pursue a master's degree in economics. "We got off the bus and said, 'Where are all the people?" Victoria recalls with a smile. Sergey works as a senior analyst and SAS developer at an information technology consulting fi rm in Moscow. Victoria is a marketing analyst at a pharmaceutical company. He says he landed his good job because of his CMU education. "A master's degree in Moscow doesn't give you as many communication skills as the one from CMU," he says. "It's just the technical information. I can communicate with people from diff erent cultures. It's helped me to understand people. Going to CMU changed me, made me better." SERGEY'S TRAVEL TIP: "Drive yourself around the Golden Ring of Russia," Sergey says. The Golden Ring is a collection of historic Russian cities northeast of Moscow. These ancient towns are like open-air museums, featuring unique monuments of Russian architecture. You'll see lots of those cool Russian "onion domes." When you're hungry in Moscow, head for the Mumi Cafe, Sergey suggests. From just north of the Mendeleyevskaya metro you can follow the hippo footprints to this quirky place where you can eat, watch a movie and play board games.

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