Happy Halloween! 

The Very Scary Weekend Update. BOO! (Oct. 31, 2005)

Happy Halloween everyone! I hope you are all enjoying the pleasures of candy corn and peanuts on this all too fun holiday. Anybody actually going trick or treating? Justin, Matt, Mike ? No? Well, maybe some of you have kids that you will be bringing door to door so that you can pick through their good candy when you get home.

Saturday- Dad, Kristi, and Kathy spent most of the day working on the lawn and raking up leaves etc. . . I sat on my butt for most of the day admittedly and that was just fine for me. I did have to wash and press my uniforms which actually took up a fair amount of time; so there! Everyone was pretty worn out so they went to bed early.

Sunday- Ahhh yes, sleeping in is a luxury that I will have to live without for a long while. I talked to some people down at Camp Shelby and they said that they were averaging 5-6 hours of sleep. Now, I don't know about everyone else but I enjoy my 8 hours of sleep. Dad made chili and we watched the football game until we could take no more (there really is nothing to discuss, packers and vikings fans unite for the Bears!!!!). It was back to the housework after the game. Somebody decided that it was a great day to start putting up Christmas lights before the nasty Minnesota winter set in and nobody wants to go outside to put up the lights. So we did this into the evening until dark including an 8ft tall blow up snowman (cheesy, I know, but fun none the less). After a quick dip in the hot tub we all played Sequence. I, nor my father, had ever played before but I was teamed up with Kristi. I would say that we played wisely and won 5 games to 1. This is to put it nicely, but I know that Kathy reads this and she doesn't like to lose, but neither do I. It's not like I have to win, but I don't like losing. Anybody who knows me would definitely say that I am a "competitive" person and probably "argumentative" (my mother was a lawyer when I was growing up, what do you expect?). I use quotes because they have actually been said.

So now it is the last day at home and I really must finish my packing. Dad is bringing me down to Minneapolis in the morning to report at the armory, go through briefings for three days, and then Friday I am leaving on a jet plane to Mississippi. I will update one more time before I leave and then I can't tell you when I will be able to post again. They have internet at Shelby but I might be in a tent for a couple weeks first.

Have a wonderful fall day and Happy Halloween!
~Nick~

Home for the Last Weekend

Hello everyone, aren't you glad it is the weekend already?

Wednesday- Let's see, I finally said all of my goodbyes to everyone at Gustavus on Wednesday. I can't really describe what it felt like to say goodbye except that it didn't really feel like I was leaving. Parting with everyone at the time wasn't too difficult, it just felt like another day. When I arrived in the cities that night though I found myself already thinking about the ones I left and how much I felt away from home at Gustavus. Like I have said previously, school is a place where I really feel at home and comfortable.

I met my brother Bryan that night for dinner and we talked briefly about things and said goodbye. Afterwards, I went to Carl's house and we headed to the pool hall with Tom. I played horribly and so I was getting a little frustrated. We ended up watching a movie and going to bed.

Thursday- I went to the Armory to get some paperwork figured before the deployment. Then I met up with Nicole for soup and a sandwich. We said goodbye for the last time and then I headed to Kim's house in Minneapolis. She was getting ready for Halloween in Madison, so she had to get her costume prepped first. Afterwards, we went to dinner at Chili's. we ended up talking for a long time about school and what we are looking forward to after school, our futures etc. . . After dinner, it was back to Carl's house to hang out with him and Emily. We watched Sin City, but I think both Carl and I fell asleep.

Friday- I headed to Best Buy to get a new external hard drive for the trip. I bought a smaller, more compact and durable one so that I can leave my other one at home and not risk loosing everything. Then, it was the long drive to Dad's house on Ottertail. As soon as I got there I began to pack my bags the way that the Army has given me orders to, which you can imagine was not the most efficient way of packing. So, ended up packing two bags into one and had an extra bag to put things in. Dad, Kathy, Kristi, and I went to dinner and then Kristi and I watched a movie and I went to bed.

So there you have it, I am sitting at home updating this blog for all of your reading pleasure. I am trying to add more pictures to my yahoo page, but I have been having problems (I will figure it out today hopefully). Have a great weekend everyone!

Nick "Eagle1" Bope
(For the COD peeps, I am going to get COD2)

An Extended Weekend Update

Hello everyone! I have been busy in the past couple of days so here is what I have been up to. . .

Sunday- Nicole and I went to the Vikings game. We had an awesome time, probably the best game I have ever been to. There is just nothing like seeing your team making a comeback against your biggest rival with a 56-yard game winning field goal with 2 seconds left in the game! After the game I met Eric, Nicole's boyfriend and then I headed back to Gustavus. Ok, just a little Catch Phrase I suppose that night.

Monday- First, I went into Mankato to say good bye to Christina. Second, Carrie and I had an action packed day planned. We headed north to the apple orchards and pumpkin patches. We were looking for a good pumpkin and a batch of apples to make apple pie. We went to two different places and had fun tasting the different apples. We ended up with a 15lb pumpkin and 15lb's of apples for our pies. We then headed into the cities and visited my brother Bryan at his place in Minneapolis and he showed us some of his work for class. Next, we went to the sculpture garden at the Walker. We proceeded with dinner at Chino Latino in uptown. Afterwards, we picked up Tura at the airport and returned to Gustavus.

Tuesday- Apple pie day. Carrie and I, after having purchased all the ingredients, spent over two hours making two apple pies. I had never made a pie before but we managed and they turned out great. I said my goodbyes to more people and we watched "Love Actually" and then good night.

So, there you have it. Now, it is Wednesday and I am packing up the car because it is goodbye Gustavus. Time has really flown bye and I can't believe it is now time to say goodbye to the place and people that I love. I hate leaving school because it is the one thing that has always been there for me, no matter what was changing in my life I always was busy with classes and I guess that kept me grounded. Leaving for Iraq and giving up school for two years is one of the hardest things to swallow, at least maybe my extra years will give me more insight for medical school afterwards.

Goodbye Gustavus! If I didn't say goodbye to you, I am saying it now! Matt, Mike, and Justin you had better not forget about me because I will be back for your graduation. I love you guys!

~Nick~

The birthday boy (Jimmy) and I. 

A much needed update. . .

Hello everyone!

I have to first apologize for the lack of a recent update. I will defend myself by saying that I was sick for the past two days making anything a daunting task. Although, since I was sick I shouldn't have a whole lot to say right? Au contraire! (Did I spell that right, I don't know French!)

So, I think I mentioned that I had been working on a puzzle with Carrie. Well, we finished and we were thirsty for more. So we picked up ten more from Mankato but I don't intend on being able to finish them by the time I leave Gustavus on Wednesday. Anyways, I was sick on Thursday and Friday but I had to pull through for Jimmy's 21st B-day at Stout on Friday night.

I was feeling pretty crappy on Friday morning and didn't get out of bed until about 12:30. But, after about four hours of lamenting I decided that I had to suck it up, be a man, and got to Stout. After all, it only happens once that it is your best friend's 21st and golden birthday. Since it is fall break at Gustavus there weren't many people left, so I asked Carrie if she wanted to come along instead of loafing around the deserted campus. We left from Gustavus at about 5:15 and arrived in Menomonie at about 7:45 or so. Then, things get interesting.

Since I was still under the weather, I decided participating in Jimmy's 21st celebration (i.e. drinking) was not going to be a wise decision. Justin, Molly, Emily, Nicole, and Breanna were there to mention a few. He had quite the par-tay in the basement where I'm sure you could get drunk if you licked the concrete after last night. As Carrie and I thought things were winding down at about 3:00 we tried to find a place to sleep. We reluctantly found a futon that was slightly away from the sound emanating from the basement and the crowds that wandered throughout. We were really kidding ourselves thinking we would be able to sleep. I didn't end up getting a second of shut eye until about 6:00 in the morning, but it didn't really matter at this point. I said goodbye to Jimmy for likely the last time before I leave for Iraq. I am really glad that I could make it out to see him.

As for today, I have been doing laundry and packing with a little bit of NCAA football and a puzzle on the side. I think it is going to be a movie and lights out early tonight. I have to get rested up for the big game tomorrow when I am going to meet Nicole at the dome for the Vikes vs. the pack (I keep trying to tell myself I am just there for the atmosphere and it doesn't matter if we win or lose, but it doesn't seem to be helping. . .)

Valete Amici!
~Nick~

Just one more bag and I'm packed! 

The Bags are Almost Packed

I finally received a packing list yesterday for the items that I needed to put into certain duffel bags. It looks as though it will be three duffel bags, my rucksack, and a personal bag. A lot of the items that I am putting in the bags I can't imagine we will be using. When we get down to Camp Shelby we are getting new uniforms, boots, and miscellaneous for the desert.

I talked to Nygaard again, who is down at Shelby already, and he said they were finishing up there medical refresher course this week. After that, he has no idea what we will be doing in Mississippi for the months following. He is assuming that we will be doing busy work around the base, which will mean long and boring days. When I went through the dental checkup at Ripley the past weekend, the dentist said that my teeth looked great but she wanted my wisdom teeth pulled as soon as I get down to Mississippi. Well, that will be great. I get down there to a new environment and adjust for a day or two, and then yoink I have to get my teeth pulled, face swell up and bruise, and eat mushed up food. That won't be uncomfortable or anything. . .

Well, as time draws nearer to the departure date I get more and more anxious. I wish that they would send me to Iraq tomorrow so that I could come home as soon as possible. I can't say that I am at all nervous yet, especially since I am only going to Camp Shelby first; that is just another day in the Army. When the time comes to leave Shelby and go to Iraq I think my nerves will probably be a little strained, but the only way to do this is to go in with the best possible attitude.

Oops, I have to go to class now. I will finish these thoughts later.

Nick

By request (uncle Dave), the martini light after impact.  

Bryan and I at the St. Croix. 

Tura, Carrie, and I. 

The Weekend Update (Oct. 16th, 2005)

And then there were two weekends left. Two and half weeks and I will be in Mississippi. Here's the update.

Friday- I was calmly reading "A Tale of Two Cities" when Dave told me that we would be "doing things" tonight (AKA people would be coming over to our apartment). As you would guess people came and went but there was a steady crowd over. Carrie and Tura decided to play dress-up with me and my Army gear and yeah. . . I went to bed at about 4:00.

Saturday- I awoke at 8:30 so I could get ready to pick up my brother Bryan from the cities to go Hiking. We went up to Taylors Falls and hiked along the St. Croix and along the old railroad tracks. It was a lot of fun and I really hope that we will do it again sometime. We headed back to the cities and then I drove back to Gustavus. I was tired from the lack of sleep and from the hiking but Dave was ready for tennis when I came back. So we climbed the fence (because the courts were closed) so that we could play for 45 minutes or so. After that, I met up with Pam, Eric, and Carrie for dinner and then we went to "Willy Wonka" at the campus theatre. It was only Pam's fifth time seeing this movie so she was singing and laughing the whole way through, along with Carrie might I add. Carrie and I left Eric and Pam and went back to my apartment to watch a movie. We both fell asleep and I woke up to the credits and woke up Carrie. Good night.

Sunday- After sleeping in for the first time in a long while, I got up to watch the Vikings game. And then turning off the Vikings game. Let's just not talk about the Vikings (maybe later in the week). After the game I began to go through my room and packing things up. After I packed, Carrie and I went to play tennis. We had fun and we got frustrated (it turns out we are both competitive individuals, so it was interesting). It was dark when I got home and now I am writing this.

I hope everyone had a good weekend and is looking forward to a great Monday!!

Nick out.

The First National Bank of St. Peter (now a pizza place). 

. 

St. Peter's first fire alarm. 

The old Nicollet county courthouse? 

A Beautiful Fall Day

It's fall here in Minnesota and the leaves are slowly beginning to change. Today I went with my roommate Justin to downtown St. Peter (where our school is located). Founded in 1853, it is one the oldest cities in Minnesota and is the home of 5 governors. Roughly 10,000 people live here and it hosts over 40 sites on the National Register of Historic Places. I grew up in the Twin Cities, but I have always loved the small town atmosphere. Anyways, we took a stroll through main street to observe some of the buildings for his Urban Geography class. Some of the brick buildings still standing were built when the city was founded.

After the walk through we went into Mankato to eat lunch and get groceries for our apartment (food goes pretty quickly with 4 college students living together). I hope you like the pictures have a great day everyone!

Nick out.

One thing I forgot to mention on my post the other day is that I have a new departure date. It turns out that I will be reporting in Minnesota on Nov. 1st and will fly to Mississippi on the 4th. This means that I have two more weekends left here at school, so sad.

The next three weeks will be flying by so I want to make sure that I say goodbye to everybody and get my things in order. If I forget about anybody, I am really sorry it is hard to keep track of who I have talked to etc. . . Don't feel neglected anyone, I sometimes can't even remember my own name and hence I have a blog to tell everbody what is going on, without me trying to talk to everyone individually. Whew!

I played tennis for a good two-three hours yesterday with my roommates and Mike and Matt. It is difficult to get the hang of, especially since I am used to playing raquetball. I will say though that it is really nice to play outdoors instead of inside a rectangle room.

I set up a photo hosting site today for some pictures for everyone to look at. Who knows, some of you may even be in the photos!!! The site is http://photos.yahoo.com/nickrbope and it is also listed on the right hand side of this page under "Links" My Pictures. Enjoy everyone.

Nick

The Weekend Update

Ok with such an action-packed weekend, this may be a long post. So, hold on to your seats and here goes the update.

Friday- It was decided a while ago that this weekend we would have people over to our apartment for a gathering of sorts and for me to see people before I leave. Carl, Emily, and Nicole came down from White Bear to stay for the weekend. We had a quite a crowd in our place, but luckily only one thing was broken to my knowledge anyways, was the martini light.

Saturday- It was family weekend at Gustavus, which is also Homecoming so there was a lot of alumni around. Carl, Emily, and I made it to the football game and met Lisa there with her aunt. For the first time I managed to go to a successful winning game by the Gusties football, so that was a plus. Jimmy showed up later in the afternoon after having driven from UW-Stout. The Saturday night movie at Wallenberg on campus was "Batman Begins". The movie was less than entertaining to say the least. After that, everyone came back to our apartment again. I received a call from Sgt. Sevre from C Co. telling me that I needed to be at Camp Ripley by 0900 Sunday. This was not good news as I had people visiting me and the drive takes two and a half hours to complete. So, I proceeded to stay awake all night to get my things together to bring up in the morning. The timeline went as so:

2:00 AM- people are returning from the bar and we have the biggest influx of people in our room for the whole night, including one individual who decided to crawl into my bed to sleep.
3:00- I decided that I needed a haircut, so I put my faith in Tyler, Scott, and Tura. I did the first 3/4 and had Tyler finish the back.
3:30- shined the boots
4:00- played with my beret
4:15....6- filled the vacant time by talking to Tura and left at 6:00

Sunday (continued I guess)- The whole purpose of going up to Ripley was to do paperwork and do an inventory of my personal gear. Having not had any sleep, the whole process seemed very long. Insurance, pay, will, medical check up, etc. . . finished by 12:45 or so. Then I went to the other building to check my equipment. I got a lot of new stuff! It was like Christmas, only I didn't give anything. I know have three duffel bags full of equipment, most of which I don't think I will need but it was still cool to get. I got back to Gustavus at about 5:30 or 6:00 and watched a movie. Now my friends, it is time for bed. I haven't been in bed for 40 hours now, so I think it is time to get some sleep. I think tomorrow I am going to setup a site to host some pictures for everyone to see. Good night.

Nick

Here I am. (mirror view) 

A Fallen Friend

"Specialist Jacob T. Vanderbosch, 21, of Vadnais Heights, Minn. was killed [Monday] in Al Haqlaniyah, Iraq, when an explosion detonated near the Humvee he was in" (WCCO).

Jake graduated a year before me at my High School in White Bear Lake. Although I didn't know him that well, I remember him being well liked by many people. It only took a matter of time before we lost somebody from our hometown. My prayers and condolences go out to his family and friends.

News from Mississippi

After returning from up north, I went to visit my brother Bryan in Minneapolis. We only had a short visit as I had to pick up a roommate (Dave) from the airport. Heading down from the cities to Gustavus, a friend of mine who is down in Mississippi gave me a call. His name is Matt Nygaard, but we usually just call him Nygaard as we generally call people by their last names in the military.

Mississippi is HOT! By this I mean that it is temperature hot, not fun. He is also a 91W (medic) and has been going through a 21 day medical refresher course to update his CPR and EMT validation along with some other high speed training. He said after that, the training schedule is quite empty which makes us all wonder "what in the heck are we going to be doing for so long in Mississippi?". He couldn't answer, and voiced the same sentiments that we just wish we could get over to Iraq as soon as possible.

They are staying in barracks now, after having been in a mock setup of a base in Iraq since they got to Mississippi. Cell phone use is possible if you can get a signal but internet connection is limited unless you have a computer with wireless and the internet isn't down. I guess hurricane Katrina put a big damper on the base's access to the net. So, it was good to here from him and know that they are at least trying to stay busy down there.

Football. What in the heck happened Vikes? Oh I know, Daunte Culpepper happened. Am I the only one who thinks that he should be benched? He couldn't do anything on Sunday. Our most valuable player was definitely our punter, at least he was making plays. Even the Packers managed to give Carolina a run for their money on MNF last night (don't get excited fans, they still lost). So that leaves our division in a three way tie for first with the pitiful record 1-3 (vikes, lions, bears, oh my) and the pack second with an 0-4 record.

Oh well, you can't win em' all. Have a great day everyone!
~Nick~

The Weekend Update

Sorry it has been a few days since my last post. I bet your mouths are watering now!?! HEHE.

Let's see. Friday Justin, a good friend, came down to visit us at Gustavus. (Although you're at the UofM now we still think of you.) I joined in with the Ultimate Frisbee team for a little workout, which might I add, was a more work than you would expect. That night we went out to a party hosted by the frisbee team with quite a few people showing up, including a few bats. Once or twice a year they have what they call a "cave party", which literally is a party in a cave. It was a great group of people and fun was had by all. Of course the night wouldn't be complete without a couple rounds of Catch Phrase back at our apartment, and we dutifully accomplished this.

The next morning I was supposed to meet my brother Bryan in the cities, but I had to start heading up north to meet my Dad for a get together at his house. (Sorry Bryan, I will see you tomorrow :-). Quite a few people from the lake showed up to say good luck to me and to wish me well. Dad, Kathy, and Christy did a great job putting things together and I really appreciate what they did (Thanks guys). I'll also add, that I received copious amounts of sunscreen and lip balm. I guess I am ready to go now!

Now of course today (Sunday) is the best day of the week. Yes mother because it is the Sabbath, but also because it is a day for the most holy of sports too. Yes, the Vikings play at 3:15 and I can guarantee I will be watching. Don't lie to yourself mom; if the Vikings were on TV in Arizona you would rearrange the services at church so that you could watch them too.

Well, my attitude for the rest of the week hinges on the game, so let's hope they win or my posts may be a little carboy this week. I hope everyone has a great rest of the weekend.

~Nick~

Oh, I almost forgot. Nobody has told me the answer to my question from the last post (except Lizzie but she doesn't know what she is talking about). So I'll give you a hint: it does come from a great piece of literature.