2010 Nealon Christmas Party

Hello Family - Uncle Tom and Aunt Anne will host this year's family party/Yankee Swap at their home on Saturday, December 18th. Party starts at 5:30.

We'll order food again this year and ask everyone to pitch in. This has worked well with everyone bringing an app, dessert, and/or wine/spirit. We'll follow-up with an evite so we can keep track of what everyone plans to bring.

Call Ann and Tom with any questions. Can't wait to see everyone. Jack, Chris and Jeff will be home from their studies abroad, so we'll be able to hear all their stories!

Ciao from Florence

My Italian residency has officially lasted a month, so i figured it would be a good time to update everybody on what I've been up to. The entire experience has been crazy so far, between endless amounts of homemade food and countless amounts of private vineyard wine (mom, countless is an exaggeration) it is safe to say that I am establishing quite a liking to Italian culture.

Upon arriving in Florence all of the students were put up in a hotel for the first couple nights during orientation. After a quick two days, we were immediately placed into our home stays, which has turned out to be a great experience in and of itself. My roommate and I (Billy Solano) have been placed with a 65 year old widow by the name of Mariella. She has been great, every night she cooks a homemade Italian meal for us, and even does our laundry once a week! She speaks good English, and is very involved in American politics, creating some very interesting table conversation between our little Italian family.

The first weekend of travel that my roommate and I did was to a region called Cinque Terre (5 towns) which was a very picturesque scene with five little communities built into the cliffs along the coast, we also made a stop in Porto Fino which is an Italian port full of private yachts.

The next weekend we made the trip to the 200th anniversary of Oktoberfest. This was truly an unreal experience. Picture 6 million people drinking and singing for two days straight ( I like to refer to it as a big Nealon Christmas Party). Aside from the festival, Munich is a very cool city, with very good food and a unique European culture.

This past weekend, Billy and I made the trip all the way up to Copenhagen , Denmark to visit a couple college friends of ours. This was another great experience, and we managed to go to Sweeden for the day on Saturday. Denmark was pretty unique itself, mainly because everybody could speak both Danish and English, which i found surprising from a Scandinavian country. I have picked up a couple souvenirs along the way, and look forward to telling everybody stories.

Until Next Time,
Chris

Jon's new show - premieres this week

My latest project premieres this Thursday at 10PM on the DIY network.

Update from the other side of the world

Hi Everyone,
I know it has been a little while since my last update, so I figured upon my return from Spring break would be the best time to post something new. On Monday, I arrived back to Monash University in Melbourne after a jam backed 10 days traveling up and down the east coast of Australia. The trip began with a flight to Brisbane, where we spent our first day at the Australia Zoo petting Kangaroos and appreciating the many accomplishments of the late Steve Irwin ( the zoo is essentially a shrine to the man). After spending the night in a hostel, we boarded a ferry to “Fraser Island” where we swam in one of the world’s largest fresh water lakes several meters above sea level. The water was crystal clear, and reminded me a lot of a much larger, much more Australian (if that makes any sense) Long Pond in Wellfleet. The next three days proved to be the best of the trip, as we boarded two pontoon boats to the Whitsunday Islands where we hiked, kayaked, and enjoyed several beverages by the pool at the South Molle resort off the coast of Northern Australia. After a relaxing three days, our trip took a shot of adrenaline upon our arrival to Cairns, where I spent the next 4 days white water rafting, bungee jumping, bar crawling, and snorkeling in the Great Barrier Reef. Many stories, and a very Irish tan later (I know many of you can relate), I can safely say it was an experience like none I have ever had before and will surely never forget. Despite understandable misconception- yes, I do go to school here and it is back to reality, as I am currently going through the end of semester crunch time, and beginning to prepare for finals.
I hope everyone is doing well, and am looking forward to seeing you all in a month and a half.
Talk to you soon ,
Jeff