Nixon in Europe

The Tipping Point

2010-01-27T00:18:00.002-06:00

I ordered this book called "the Tipping Point" and started reading it today. Although I'm only through a few chapters I'm really enjoying it. The backbone of the book so far is looking beyond your sphere of influence. When we interact with other people we aren't just touching the surface, we are creating a ripple effect in society. You can do this in many ways, from physically talking to people. To yawning. Chances are that you yawned after reading that. I didn't have to be physically present nor even know you are reading my blog (thanks by the way). Now if you are reading this in public and yawned, another person could have seen you yawned, thus creating a small yawning epidemic. Even blind people can be affected by the minute sound of a yawn! When you present your influence on a person, you are not just affecting the individual. You are affecting society.

Wow that was deep!

I'm going to finish a few more chapters then blog again!

Thanks, Ciao

Nixon

584 Days

2010-01-23T18:53:00.000-06:00

So I'm obviously no longer in Vienna, as a matter of fact it's been 584 days since I last blogged on June 19th 2008. I am going to start blogging again soon. about what you say? no clue, maybe the weather, philosophy, perhaps what i had for lunch (it was perini's). Anyways, I am off to the Iron and Wine Concert at the Paramount. Update coming soon.

As always, Ciao

Nixon

hey er'body

2008-06-19T08:24:00.003-05:00

K so sorry its been a while since ive updated, ive been busy experiencing the city. I went on a trip to Budapest, Hungary last weekend. It was pretty fun the sights were quite amazing and you could definitely feel the eastern european/ former soviet block feeling. But the city for the most part was nice, with gorgeous buildings and monuments all around. Their currency took some getting used to though, 1 Euro = 230 hungarian forinths/1 dollar=160 hungarian forinths. so a meal at mcdonalds cost me around 900 forinths.

I recently have been experimenting around with some photo sharing websites, I have alot of pictures on www.photobucket.com from hungary, in the search bar just search for manchs07, it should pop my pictures right up.

But I probably will only be using picasa by google from now on, it organizes all of my images where i can update them automatically, the URL is http://picasaweb.google.com/manchs07, I will be using that from now on.

CIAO!

sorry

2008-06-18T17:09:00.000-05:00

Sorry I haven't been updating lately, but I have one coming soon... I PROMISE!

Weekend trip to budapest

2008-06-16T06:46:00.001-05:00

Last night we got back from budapest hungary, it was a really good experience. If you want to see pictures go to flickr.com, then search for manchs07, there are more that I haven't uploaded. CIAO

june 10th

2008-06-11T15:51:00.000-05:00

All I did the 10th was class, it was a good day, the girls cooked an amazing meal at night. Ciao

June 9th

2008-06-10T14:55:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was a very good day, we went to Schonbrunn palace after class with dr. patterson and everyone, me and casey were the only ones that took a tour, we weren't allowed to take pictures of the inside, we saw the room where marie antoinette was born, mozart had his first concert and other amazing rooms that were gorgeous.

June 8th

2008-06-09T10:25:00.000-05:00

Yesterday went well, I went to church at school, there were a whole 6 people at the service... then I watched Croatia beat Austria, and then Germany beat Poland, that sums up my day. CIAO

June 7th

2008-06-08T06:55:00.003-05:00

the flea markey

my cigarette case i bought at the market, im using it as a wallet
us at one of the many fanzones spread across town to watch the opening game. The first game in Austria is in Vienna tonight.
the area the fanzone was, the building on the left is parliament, and in the distance is city hall.
this is the front of one of the parliament building, they transformed it, there are dozens of tv's everywhere like this, turkish fans up front were crazy

June 6th

2008-06-06T17:08:00.003-05:00

so im going to a flea market tomorrow, at 7 AM so im gonna go to bed, ill update tomorrow, today was amazing though!

June 5th

2008-06-05T18:01:00.003-05:00

grocery store!
these our some friends in my class, the one on the left is Naim Valiev, he is russian and he is helping us out a ton with everything. The one on the right is Hafiz Muhammed, from nigeria, he is my partner in class
natural history museum
inside the museum as you walk in...amazing!
me and casey at the club
I forgot to mention that i went to the natural history museum yesterday, it was ok, i didn't do anything today besides class. here are pictures

June 4th

2008-06-04T19:22:00.002-05:00

yesterday (the 4th) was good, nothing too exciting, we went to a karaoke bar and a couple of nightclubs after... the nightclubs weren't that great and europeans can't dance... that is all. CIAO

ICH LIEBE DICH

2008-06-03T16:40:00.004-05:00

wow! Day 3 was a rainy and cold (Thank God) Though im finally starting to adapt to the no air conditioner thing. but today was fun, me and Casey went shopping, I bought 3 polos for 20 euro... not too bad.

Tonight we went to see the Viennese Philharmonik...FOR FREE! It was at the same family who lived in Hofsburg Palace (that was their winter home) but at their summer home, which still has a zoo and a hedge maze. That's about all from today, I took pictures at a really good grocery store we found. CIAO!

Philharmonik

Summer home!

Just down the street

Grocery store

The mascots for the UEFA Cup 2008

Danke and Bitte

2008-06-02T17:18:00.006-05:00

Well hello world. I just got back from a good 6 mile walk around parts of the city with Casey... Today was quite good.

Woke up at around 9:30, went to orientation at about 10:15, it was all of us HSU students and three faculty members at IU with coffee in their conference room... they kept trying to recruit us for grad school. After that we went to class, which is the most diverse group of people i've ever met. Consisting of 5 HSU students, and the rest of the students were: 2 from Nigeria (both are in my group for planning IU events, one is named Hafiz Mohammed he is about 30 and he showed me where to eat chinese food for lunch, which I did), 1 from Pakistan, 1 from Russia (Naim is is name we met him yesterday, he showed us around the city and hangs out with us alot, he seems to know everyone and is really nice), 1 from Serbia, 1 from Bulgaria, and a girl named Alba from Albania who is also in my group along with the 2 Nigerians.

Class overall was not that bad, just getting to know everyone and a little reading for homework (Which I did mom). After class we went grocery shopping, I would show you photos but my camera died overnight and I did not realize it :(.

After shopping I did homework and we all cooked spaghetti, we came up with the plan to all put in 14 € a week to go toward food, pots, pans, laundry and everything else we needed done, and we should have money left over in the end which we will divide up and get back when we leave.

But after all the hustle and bustle me and Casey went out to walk around at about 9 PM (2 PM Texas Time) We stopped and had Gilato, Italian Ice Cream.

Down the street just a random picture

Gilatto.... YUM!

After we walked down to Hofburg palace, it was very well lit.

Here is a movie thingamajig:

And then we sat down at a little out door cafe and I had a drink

It was a very expensive shopping district.

Anyways Im gonna hit the hay. please comment so I know people actually read this. CIAO!

1st Day

2008-06-01T10:15:00.006-05:00

ok im really tired so pardon me if this is short, i've been up for 30 hours. So we finally arrived in Vienna today about 2 AM Texas time. We have been walking around seeing the city around our dorm room. Here are some pictures :)

i don't really know how to caption so ill just explain. The one to the left is the plane...the one with old walls is a picture of old Roman Ruins in the center of the city, which date back to Christ.

The Big black granite building is a pretty modern art (gross) building in the middle of the museum district.

The huge building is the Hofburg imperial palace, built in the 1200s, a famous place where hitler made a speech on that podium after he conquered Austria.

The first picture is a church, they are everywhere, this one was built in the 1600s...

CIAO!

YAY

2008-05-31T10:58:00.003-05:00

so our flight from Dallas to Chicago got delayed by two hours, so our Austrian flight left us... but we got to stay in Chicago for a night and will leave on the same Austrian flight at 4:30 PM. We will arrive in Vienna at 9AM their time, about 2 AM our time, I'll keep y'all updated!

So I'm New to this whole blogging thing

2008-04-15T20:13:00.003-05:00

Well I've never actually blogged before so wow here it goes, possibly one of the most important moments of my life.... or maybe not so much. But anyway as I sit here in my dorm room watching Family Guy and postponing making my Leadership Portfolio (just kidding mom, don't freak out) I've decided to write a blog... why is it called a blog anyway?

Anyways, me and 5 other HSU students, plus our professor are going to be living in Vienna over the month of June and taking LDSP-3099-A... But for all of us that aren't robots on the Hardin-Simmons network that is Managing Multicultural Organizations. I'm actually in the class now but once we go over there it will be more of a Human Resource Management class... Riveting I know. But I know the reason I am going over there is to study and make an A in that class... at all costs. Now if your name is Kara Nixon do not read any further.

Ok now that we lost her I can speak the truth... just kidding, of course I'll apply myself in class but I know the majority of what I'll learn won't be from the class, but the people I meet, the places I go, and the experiences I'll have. So now on to my pre-trip, rough draft, travelling plans.

I will be flying out of Abilene on May 30th at 7 AM so everyone that wants to bid me farewell is welcome to... though I wouldn't know why you would get up that early on your own free will. From there me and Dr. Patterson will fly to DFW, where we will meet up with the rest of the group. After that we will traverse to Chicago then straight on to Vienna which I hope to be knocked out on some type of medication... I dislike the ocean and flying so yeah...

Class starts on the following Monday on June 1st. That first weekend me and my amazing friend, Casey Braswell, plan on traveling to Spain to meet up with Norman Trinh, a Theta (the social club i'm in) alumni who graduated in 2007.

As far as the second weekend I don't have anything planned, but I know I'll find something... I'll be in Europe of course.

The third weekend me and Casey are planning to go to Budapest, Hungary. Sweet.

And after class ends on June 27th me and the friends I have over there are going to be backpacking across Southern Germany, Switzerland, and back to Austria. We haven't really planned it out that much so more details will follow. I will be returning to America on July 4th.

That is my rough-draft of what will happen, I will probably end up looking back and laughing at how much I did not follow that. There are several different ways you can contact me now and while im in Europe.

Skype, a type of instant messaging service which allows you to type to me, like a regular IM, but also allows you to call my computer, like a phone and talk to me via microphone and/or webcam... all for free. This will be the quickest way to contact me. It's really quick to download and register, even if you are incompetent like my mother you could do it in like 2 minutes. My "skype name" is michael.andrew.nixon, just add me to your contacts list on that. www.skype.com
E-mail, if you wish to email me use nixo3154@hsutx.edu
Blogspot, even though I am new to this you could always leave a comment and I'll try to get back to you.
Facebook, if you have a facebook you can talk to me on that.

Whew that was long,

Michael Andrew Nixon