Quick Look at Nick's Current World-Wide Network

Blue= Friends from Exeter

Yellow = Friends from Boulder

Green = Family/Family Friends

Red = Two or More Friends in One Country

List of my Family and Friends Studying, or Traveling Abroad

Alicante, Spain – Mike Anson – Exeter/Soccer-Semester Abroad

Sevilla, Spain- Alissa Eggli- Boulder-Semester Abroad

Barcelona, Spain- Micaela Bloomer- Exeter-Semester Abroad

Lugano, Switzerland- Lindsay Hodgman-Exeter-In her 3rd year at Franklin College

Bern, Switzerland – Ben Utter-Cousin- Studying International Law and Trade Policy at the WTI

Dublin, Ireland- Dave Meline-Exeter/Soccer-Semester Abroad

Florence, Italy – Deven Tentindo-Exeter-Semester Abroad

Copenhagen, Denmark –Jess Blais-Exeter/Family Friend-Semester Abroad

Athens, Greece – Jordan Clarke – Exeter -Semester Abroad

Nairobi, Kenya- Katharine Wilson- Exeter- Semester Abroad (boot camp edition)

Moscow, Russia-Wilson Zinnurov-Cousin-Acting (has since returned)

China – Kaleigh Armitage-Boulder – Traveling (will be in Thailand soon)

Chiang Mai, Thailand – Matt Pope –Exeter/Soccer- Semester Abroad

Wollogong, Australia- Sam Lanman- Boulder-Semester Abroad

Melbourne, Australia- Helen Lederman-Boulder- Semester Abroad

San José, Costa Rica- Anna Nicolopulos- Boulder – Semester Abroad

Río de Janeiro, Brazil – Evan Farr- Boulder/Soccer-Semester Abroad (+traveling?)

Thanksgiving Day Pictures

Beach football post-game shot. Note 'Miguelito' front and center.

Note the bib-style napkins; Pat and I ate until we couldn't eat any more (and drinks were never-ending as well, which never hurt anyone...except for that one guy).

Migueléte really slaying the crowd with harmonica, guitar, and vocals. He's got the works!

Post-"Turkey Bowl" shot of the group. Good people right here.

Happy Belated Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving day in Alicante was a great time. Group football game on the beach during the day (with a gamecap dip in the Med for me) coupled with a giant banquet dinner that night made it a really great day.

Miguelito (or should I say 'Miguelete') put on a performance of two OCMS songs in front of the entire group (close to 150 people?) along with our friend Adam. Mike sang and played guitar+harmonica and Adam provided additional vocals. He closed it out with "Wagon Wheel" which was a huge hit as would be expected!

The last two days have been another group trip, this time to the nearby city of Valencia (3rd largest city in Spain). Today we visited the newly famous "City of Arts and Sciences," which included giant aquariums with whales, sharks, heaps of other fish, and a dolphin show. Dolphin show was really cool. Dolphins jumping 15+ feet out of the water, throwing humans around, and being very impressive and well-trained.

Pics to come.

Nick

Kelly and Mom come to Spain

Alright.  Well Mom and Kelly came all the way to Spain to bring me a camera and this is what I have to show for it.

And for that, this is a tale of pictures (who likes reading anyways).

Background: Pics are from Alicante and Barcelona.

Helllllo there

Queen of the Castle

Fire Away

La Mar

La playa de San Juan

Madre real

Ahhhh

Sooooooooooo good

Of course, upon arrival back home after Barcelona!!  Oh Lucio, you are in my bed as often as I wish Jessica Alba was.
Yeah, all the time.

Michael

Update!

Drenthe (A Dutch guy who used to play for Real Madrid) scored one of the best free kick goals I've ever seen live to give Hercules the lead and 2-1 victory in their game against Real Sociedad last night. Click icon in the bottom right for full screen.

Last Couple of Weeks and Sevilla

Saw my second bullfight (two weeks ago now). I knew what was going on a lot more after reading Hemingway’s guide to bullfights, Death in the Afternoon…went with my friends Craig and Mike L. We saw the 16 year old matadors we'd seen fighting two months prior sitting in the row in front of us. I'm maintaining my prior stance on bull fights in general. It's culture! This was a top end novillada (amateur bullfight), with the winner gaining rights to be a full on matador next season in Valencia. Lots of extremely dangerous contact with the bulls. A banderillero had his leg broken after being tossed a solid 7 or 8 feet in the air.

The night before that had been spent with those two friends and 3 other girls (two of whom were full on Spanish). Great night of practicing Spanish and staying up late. Now on to a recap of Sevilla.

Columbus' tomb!

Flamenco performers.

Trip to Sevilla was a total success really. Jennifer and the good people at CIEE really put together a great trip for us all. This was a 2 day trip that is included in the study abroad experience. Nice 8 hour bus ride each way and $40 of spending money for four meals. Not great for the students who don’t like bus rides…luckily I am considering joining the endurance driving circuit, so it suited me just fine to be passing the time in my seat as we were making moves back and forth across southern Spain. Upon arrival we very quickly made our way to a private Flamenco performance, the type of dance that Sevilla is very famous for. Very technical and emotional.

We were then free to go out and take in the Sevilla nightlife. One of my favorite nights out since I’ve been in Spain; most everyone in the bar area is hanging out on the street and it takes the form of a giant block party. Pretty awesome scene, and I had several successful and relatively long spanish speaking interactions as the night progressed. Good times.

Large-scale breakfast buffet upon wake-up! Hell yeah. Had a group visit to the Catedral de Sevilla in the morning, the third largest cathedral in the world. Some real cool history lessons to be had about the Muslim-Christian influences in Sevilla and specifically the Cathedral which was formerly a giant mosque and was actually totally modified/changed (but not fully razed and replaced like most mosques were after the Christians retook Spain). The Cathedral was a real center for the conquistadors and mariners of Spain to come and pray before their voyages, and Christopher Columbus’ remains are actually currently in the Cathedral after a journey back and forth across the Atlantic (back to Sevilla due to the Spanish-American war in 1898). I discovered these facts from our tour guide who spoke Spanish for us at the slowest pace imaginable. Nice to know I can comprehend that a bit at least. Also visited the Gardens of Alcazar, the Plaza de España, and an oldtime Jewish barrio?(something about Don Juan having lots of women there? I was becoming less attentive at this point…)

It was a funny scene throughout the weekend with many of us not having gotten our full night’s sleep either night and most struggling with their abilities to embrace the historical/architectural/ cultural aspects of the weekend. There were several groups of us…mostly attentive, partially attentive, and disruptively unattentive!

Catedral de Sevilla

Glimpse of Sevilla from high in the cathedral, you can just make out the famed Guadalquivir River (provides boat access to the Mediterranean).

Gardens of Alcazar

Gratuitous palm tree and statue.

This should leave Miguelito room to tell the epic tale of his night before the departure to Sevilla in addition to other anecdotes of the past few weeks.

Shout outs to the EHS boys soccer team, tough luck with another semifinals loss, and to everyone back home reading this, miss you all.

Nick

Long Time No Write

Alright well the past few weeks have been busy busy.  And what that means is we've had a few four day/three day weeks due to holidays and what not.  Longer weekends = busy.  This past weekend our entire group went to Seville.  More or less 75 Americans all together.  Needless to say it provided for quite some excitement.  By the end of the weekend I couldn't even control myself:

Mierda!

 Please excuse me...

Well I don't have the time to write a proper entry tonight, but look for one tomorrow.. if you are devoted so to this blog.

Michael