Nick DeMichele's Love for Traveling Shines Through his Day-to-Day Life

Nick DeMichele's Love for Traveling Shines Through his Day-to-Day Life

by Tiaju McCalup, ENGL 336

Nick DeMichele standing outside of the Fine Arts Building at Frostburg State University.

     

     Although only a junior at Frostburg State University, 20-year-old Nick DeMichele carries the credits of a senior year student. Entering college with 32 credits from various Advanced Placement and dual enrollment courses, DeMichele has been able to get a jump on his plan of study. With most of his GEP credit courses out of the way, it has not been too difficult for him to double major in political science and English, while also minoring in journalism. 

     DeMichele's passion for his majors and minor are evident through the extracurricular activities he is involved in on campus. Interested in political science, it is no surprise he is the treasurer of the Student Government Association, which he enjoys because they do important things to actually make an impact around campus. Perhaps his best college experience however, has been working for The Bottom Line, the university's student-run newspaper. On his fifth semester as a member, DeMichele went from writing articles to designing the paper after teaching himself the ins and outs of the ever so complex Adobe softwares: Photoshop, InDesign, and Illustrator.

     After earning his bachelor's degree, DeMichele plans on attending law school or entering a political science graduate program. With that, he hopes to work in international politics at the State Department or at an embassy. His reasoning for this is, "I've always liked politics, just because my skills come together," and because he has always enjoyed traveling. 

     The extensive amount of stamps on his passport can be accounted for from his two study abroad trips. In the fall of 2014, DeMichele lived in England and was able to visit Scotland, France, Germany, the Czech Republic, Austria, and Italy. More recently, this summer he traveled to Asia, visiting Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Japan.

     With so many places to choose from as his favorite, he says, "Italy is just magical. It legit feels like you're stepping back in time," then quickly corrects himself for saying legit as opposed to legitimately. 

     The frequent travels have not tired DeMichele. In fact, he plans to go back to Europe, this time to see the Netherlands, Belgium, Denmark, and Ireland.  

    Such traveling opens one up to a world of experiences. One being the Christmas markets throughout Central Europe he visited. They consisted of things like a huge Christmas tree, several vendors, homemade ornaments, and gingerbread houses. The smells of cinnamon, beer, wine, and cheese surrounded the Alps of Germany and Austria. Similarly, he states that as soon as you step on the train at Strasbourg on the French border, "everything smells like beer and cheese."

     With the topic of food constantly coming up in discussing the places he's traveled, the food that most stuck out was the, "really weird, real exotic street food," found in Taiwan at Taipei night markets that were open from six p.m. to midnight. Though the night markets hosted other exhibits, DeMichele says he visited for the food, one dish in particular being a conch shell with a bed of pineapple topped with a bed of fried shrimp with dessert mayonnaise on top. 

    DeMichele's love for traveling also influences his love for cooking. Though he hasn't attempted to replicate his favorite dish found in Taiwan, he has tried making the German dumpling dish, Späetzel. Since he ate a lot of French onion soup and baguettes in Paris, he has whipped up a few of his own bowls of French onion soup saying, "oh my God, it was so good."

     As one of his main reasons for deciding to attend Frostburg, it is no surprise that DeMichele is an advocate of the study abroad program offered. Since his study abroad stay in England of the Fall 2014 semester, DeMichele has been speaking to students interested in gaining that same experience. His advise to them: plan early since flights can be expensive even though staying is relatively cheap, to go sophomore or early junior year, and most importantly, "Once you get there, make the most of it."

     DeMichele has even more hobbies when he is not designing the school newspaper, at an SGA meeting, traveling abroad, cooking, or working in the Provost office or Honors Program office. In his free time, he enjoys reading, swimming, camping with his family, spending time with his two dogs, and watching Netflix. His completion of several series such as Breaking Bad, Dexter, 30 Rock, The Walking Dead and several others led him to say that he is, "Possibly addicted to Netflix in a way that is quite unhealthy."