Tyler Returns......to Blogger.com

So here I am, blogging when I should be doing something productive. I haven't been on here in a while, pretty much because it's been so long that I almost forgot that I had this account. I doubt that I'll use it on a weekly basis, though I may, if I find the time for it. As per the usual format of my blogs I will continue to use no indentation, so you'll have to follow along intently to find out what I'm saying. No skipping ahead. I will also always throw in the occasional humor, as I don't like to take life very seriously, and I enjoy joking around, as my readers will say (or maybe it's just me that thinks it's funny, that very well could be). Life is different coming back from Harlaxton. In some ways I miss it, being there and everything. In other ways, I don't miss it. Now I can see my family and friends on a regular basis (more regular basis, anyway), and I really like being an RA here at Evansville. I've met new friends and kept up the relationships that I left here. It's nice to be back. A lot of things have been on my mind lately, and so this blog may revert to it's original purpose, given in the title. I'll start writing about what what I'm thinking about at the time. These things may or may not pertain to anyone else in the world at all, but at least I can record them so that I can get them off my chest. It's a nice way to vent, without getting angry or anything. Not that venting always has to be about anger, it can also be just clearing your mind, and using your thoughts to start a fire, or turn yourself into a dinosaur at will. I mean, these things happen, read a comic book. Well, that's enough for now, but I may be back at some point to put forth some exciting new theories and revelations. I know that you're all anxiously awaiting my wisdom. Well never fear, I always deliver. Until then.........

The End of All Things

This will probably be my last blog entry from Europe. It's hard to wrap my mind around that. It seems like just yesterday I was sitting in the airport terminal in Indy with my mom and dad, being nervous about flying for the first time. Yet now, here I am almost 4 months later, and it seems like no time has passed between the two events, coming and going home. However on the other hand it feels like I've been gone from home for about a thousand years. Funny how that works. Well, Barcelona was very fun. It was a very short trip, but it was well worth it. The weather in Spain was great, not hot, but definitely not cold. It was in the mid to low 60's during the day. We got to see a lot of things in Barcelona, and basically we were doing things the whole day. The first day that we were there we saw 2 cathedrals, the Barcelona Cathedral and the Cathedral of St. Mary. Both were beautiful, and we were able to go up to the roof on the Barcelona Cathedral and get an amazing view of the city. Unfortunately the batteries on my camera died while we were still in the cathedral, so I wasn't able to get any pictures from the roof. The next day we had an intricately planned trek across the city to see all of the sites that we wanted to see. We started out exploring the main park in the city, which was very pretty. Then we went to the zoo, because we all said that we hadn't gone to a zoo in Europe, and that we should have that experience. It was mostly a joke, but we went with it anyway. The zoo was neat, because it had been a long time since I had been to a zoo even in the States. We even got to see some animals from home, which was somewhat comforting, in a weird "these-animals-are-as-far-away-from-home-as-me" kind of way. After the zoo we went to see the bull-ring of the city. Unfortunately it wasn't open, but we did get to see the outside, which was at least something. We then went to one of Barcelona's main attractions, La Sagrada Familia. Started in the early 1900's, it looks like the architect used some questionable mind-altering substances while listening to Pink Floyd (or maybe the grandfathers of Pink Floyd, given the time) and set to work designing this cathedral. It looks like the cathedral used to be a giant candle and it was half-burned, and then lots of religious figures were shaped in the melty-wax. It was weird and pretty at the same time. The other weird thing was that the cathedral was only about 1/3 built, just the front and back, with the middle still under construction even today. They hope to have it completed within the next 10 or 20 years. After that we went to a park that was up on a hill and offered a great view of the city. It was a long walk, but the view was worth it. We then walked to the Archaeological Museum of Barcelona. It was pretty interesting, although there weren’t a whole lot of artifacts. Most of the museum was full of Roman artifacts, as the Romans did colonize Spain right around the big BC/AD switch. After that we made a long trek to the Olympic Stadium, as the Olympics were held there in 1992. By this time it was dark, so we just snapped a few pictures and left. The last thing we were going to do was to see a musical lighted fountain show in the main plaza, but we found out that they only do that in the summer/fall time. So that was Barcelona. I really enjoyed it, and I would go back in a heartbeat if I had a chance. Here at the manor things have been winding down. I got word about a week ago that I got the job as an RA back at Evansville, so come January I will be living in Hughes Hall with a single room in charge of about 20 or so guys. I was really excited about that, because it means that I can spend more time on campus and maybe actually be involved a little more. It also means that I have more freedom to go home when I want to and also to visit Olivia, so that’s good. I’m done with both of my independent studies, Greek and Latin, except that sometime over break I have to take my Latin final by e-mail. We didn’t have enough time to get it set up here, so it was pushed back. I have my British Studies final tomorrow, and then I’m done with school here altogether. I’ve been packing little by little, so I’m about halfway done or so. Thursday my friends and I are going to leave on our trip to Italy and Greece, and then we will leave for home from London the following Thursday. I’m very much looking forward to Italy and Greece, because now I’m actually going to see the places that we’ve talked about in my classes and such. It will be amazing. However it’s kinda depressing to think about leaving, but it’s also a happy time because I get to go home to all of the people that I care about. Not that there aren’t people that I care about here; I have my friends that I came here with, and I’ve made lots of new friends, both from other schools and from my own, and I’m really glad that I’ve met these people. I will miss the people from other schools a lot, and I hope that I will get to see them at some point in the future. It’s nice that I have a wider friend-base at Evansville also. But I’m really glad to go back to the familiarity of home. I’ve missed my family and friends a lot, and I guess I sort-of missed my girlfriend. Ok, so I missed her a lot, and I’m really glad that I will get to see her again :). All in all coming home will be a great thing, especially being back for Christmas, when I can see all of my family at once. I’m really thankful for the time that I had here, the people that I met, and just the overall experience. It will be bittersweet going back home, but there are definite pros to make up for the cons.

Czech-ing Out Prague and Other-Type Catch-Up Things

I've been pretty busy lately, and so I haven't had a lot of time to keep this up for a week or two. I apologize to my faithful readers, this was a long time coming, so now we have it. As I said in my previous post, I was going to Prague on one of my last trips. Well, we went, and Prague was Prague. We really didn't do all that much. Prague was only about an hour and 20 minutes away flying there with the wind with us, and then an hour and 40 minutes on the way back with the wind against us. We got there, and the exchange rate feels like you're getting rich, even though we really aren't. In their currency, 20 koruna are equal to about $1. So when you have 1000 koruna in your wallet you feel pretty loaded, but then you realize that it's really only $50, and you're brought back to reality. Prague is a very pretty city, where almost all of the buildings have some sort of decoration. The sights we saw were a museum of Communism in Prague, the castle, a church dedicated to baby Jesus, and the National Museum. The museum of Communism was interesting, but it was mostly reading plaques on the wall, and looking at a few items from the time periods. The castle was a bit misleading, because the actual castle was destroyed in the early 1900's, and so more modern structures have been built in it's place. Those buildings form a circle, and then on the inside there are some older buildings, one of them being an old cathedral which was very beautiful. The church dedicated to baby Jesus was interesting, and pretty funny. Ricky Bobby jokes were flying the entire time, describing what we liked to think of baby Jesus as. It turned out that baby Jesus was a doll that had quite an extensive wardrobe. Mary really knew how to dress our Lord and Savior. The National Museum was a fairly quick run-through. We got there an hour before it was going to close, because we didn't know the times. They didn't have all that much of interest though, so it was alright that we didn't have much time there. They had some neat anthropology stuff, but that was about it. We were going to see some sites in the Jewish-quarter of the city, but we didn't think about it and went on a Saturday. We got there, and to our surprise nothing was open. When we stopped to think about it, the Jewish Sabbath is on Saturday. Duh. I suppose we were a bit religiously-ignorant. Lots of shopping went on, which I didn't take much part in. It was a good trip, not great, but I can say that I've been to an Eastern European country. A few new things have happened here around Harlaxton. First of all, I got my second British Studies Exam back, and it was a B, which is what I got on the first exam. I'll take it, although I felt like I had done better on this one. Friday was our Costume Ball/Date Auction. It was really fun, and I think everyone had a good time. I went as Walker Texas Ranger, I'm pretty proud of such a brilliant idea. I ended up being auctioned off (it was a silent auction, so no yelling and getting embarrassed) for 40 pounds, or about $80, to my roommate Chris, his girlfriend Kirsten, my neighbor Drew, and his girlfriend Katie. They all pooled their money, so now I have to take them out sometime. Luckily the rules are that I only have to pay for one of them, so I thought that I would just spread it out with something little for each of them. On Saturday a group of us went into town to see Casino Royale, the new James Bond movie. It was really good, and I would recommend seeing it. It's somewhat of a reboot of the series, showing Bond's first real mission. It wasn't just a good action movie, but a good all-around movie. Monday night was our Lord and Lady of the Manor competition. It ended up being really fun, even though I was in front of lots of people. First we had to sing a song with 5 mandatory words in it. I did mine to the tune of Afternoon Delight from Anchorman fame. I was nervous because I don't usually sing in front of people, but people laughed, so it was ok. We then had to dress up like a British character, and then be interviewed. I came out in my black suit with a white-shirt on under it, and a bow-tie. They asked me who I was, and in my best Sean Connerery accent I said "The name's Bond. James Bond." The audience erupted in cheers and applause, so that was fun. One of my questions ended up being an impromptu discussion of how would win in a fight between Chuck Norris and James Bond. I had to think fast, and after a drawn-out story I declared Chuck Norris to be the winner. We then had a short intermission, and then a dance number. The guys and girls were split, and the girls went first, then the guys. We had been taught this dance number in about 10 minutes, an hour before the event. Therefore it was a little sketchy. The girls did pretty well. Us guys got out there, did about one move, and then completely forgot the whole thing. So we just free-styled it, it was basically amazing. After that, two guys and two girls were eliminated. I was in the final 3 guys. We then had to do a mystery event, which was different for everyone. I got to play Pictionary, and tried to explain the concept of a nursing home to some members of the audience through the use of drawing. I thought I did a pretty good job, considering I did my best to draw a diagram of a bed-pan being used as one of the pictures. Someone said retirement home, but my time ran out before I could get them to actually say nursing home. That was the last event, and then we found out who had won. Sadly I did not, but my friend Josh won for the guys, so I was ok with that. Overall it was really fun, a lot more fun than I thought it would be. There are pictures of it all, so maybe you all will see them sometime. I've fallen horribly behind on my photo album, and I apologize for that. I've got all of the pictures on my computer, and so I could just upload them, but I want to have time to give them captions if they are needed. So eventually I will have my album up-to-date, but whether that happens before I come home, I don't know. Time is dwindling down here, and I'm just now realizing that I'm not going to see the people from other schools on a regular basis anymore. It's sad. But I will be glad to be home. It's hard to be away from my family and friends at home for so long. It'll be bittersweet. This weekend me and two friends, Shannon and Bethany, are going to Barcelona Spain. I'm pretty excited about it, because Spain is one of the places I really wanted to see while I was here. Well, there's your update, thanks for reading.

London: The Sequel

I've got a bit of catching up to do. There are a few noteworthy things that have happened in these past 2 weeks. We took our 2nd British Studies exam. After taking it I felt pretty good about it, even better than the last one, and I got B on the last one, so hopefully Exam 2 will be better. I've been getting A-'s and B+'s on the in-class quizzes, and I got an estimated B/B- on my rough draft for the first paper that's due , so I think I'm doing pretty well overall. I found out about the second thing that I was voted in for other than the Date Auction, called Lord and Lady of the Manor. Basically the best way I can describe it is a "creativity contest". We have a few categories: a make up a song that has to incorporate a certain few words related to out stay here, we have to partake in a group dance, there will be an interview, and we will get judged on wearing formal-wear, I think. Oh, and we have to dress up like a British historical character for the interview, but we don't have to answer as the character. It should be interesting. Last Friday we went to London as a British Studies field trip. In the morning we saw Trafalgar Square and the National Gallery. Then In the afternoon we saw St Paul's Cathedral. St Paul's is the biggest Protestant cathedral in the world, built to rival St. Peter's in Rome which was built just a few decades before it (St. Peter's was built a few decades before St. Paul's, not Rome; Rome was built long before either of them, to clear up any confusion). It was pretty amazing to see. There were murals and frescoes decorating all areas of the church. We climbed up to the top of the dome using roughly 78 thousand flights of stairs (maybe a little bit of an exaggeration), and we got an amazing view of the city. After we were done at St. Paul's late in the afternoon we were free to go. Some people went back with the school but my friends and I stayed in London for the night and most of the next day. There were 6 of us, me, Ange, Dani, Brandon, Bethany, and Lisa. Lisa and Ange went to see Mary Poppins at a theater, and the rest of us went around town. We thought about seeing a movie, but prices were very expensive and most of the shows were sold out anyway. So we went back to our hostel and went to bed. Ange and Lisa came back sometime in the night. The next morning we split up. Bethany was just staying with us for the night, and then she went off and did her own thing; Dani went to visit her mom's college roommate who lives in London now; Ange went to see Buckingham palace and then go back to school; Brandon and Lisa went to Westminster and then the Imperial War museum; and last but not least our hero went on a trek by himself. First I went to the Victoria and Albert museum. It was recommended to me by some Londoners whom I met while I was in Salisbury. I didn't really understand the layout, because it was under construction and everything was everywhere, so I didn't stay long, just about 10 minutes. I then went to see Westminster Abbey, though only the outside because you have to pay to see the inside. I also saw Big Ben and Parliament. I then grabbed some lunch and went to see the British Museum for the second time. At the museum I looked at some of the rooms that we hadn't looked at when we were there before. These included rooms about: the Enlightenment in England and it's Classical-era influence, this is where much of the interest in translating Classical works came from; Roman Britain; Central and South American history (Aztecs, Maya, etc.). I also looked around at some of the stuff we had already seen. I found out that downstairs there were rooms dedicated to Greek and Roman inscriptions, which I don't remember for sure but I don't think we saw that the first time. Unfortunately it was closed. I was so heart-broken that I almost cried. Or maybe not. I then met up with Brandon, Dani and Lisa in a comic book store across from the museum that Brandon and I had found on the first trip. We looked around for a bit and then went to the train station. We got back to the manner early in the evening, and I think we watched movies for the rest of the night. It was fun to go back to London, to see new things, but also to revisit former sites of interest (ie. British Museum where I could probably spend the rest of my life and still not study everything as much as I would like). Tomorrow we are going to Prague in the Czech Republic. The first (and only) eastern-European excursion. A full report on that trip later.

So It Does Exist

My weekend to Germany went quite well. It was a lot of traveling, and a little bit of sight-seeing, but overall it was good. As it turns out, the city of Rothenburg (notice the corrected spelling) is a real place, and not just some myth that leads one on endless searches on the internet. Our journey started on Thursday a little after 4pm, taking a shuttle into the train station to catch a train a little after 5. We then took the train and made it to the airport and had to wait for a few hours before boarding our plane. All in all, using planes, buses and trains we were traveling until about 9am the next morning. We were all dead tired. The bed and breakfast that we were staying out was run by an old couple that if they weren't grandparents should have been. The husband picked us up at the train station and then we went to the bed and breakfast. The lady was very apologetic because she didn't expect us as early as we had gotten there, and so one of the rooms wasn't ready. So while that was taking place we had some breakfast. Every morning that we were there breakfast was amazing. They had everything you could ever want, from meats to breads to eggs to sweets. Needless to say breakfast was always a drawn out and filling event. After we got done with breakfast we took about a 3-hour nap and then decided to explore the town. We walked around for a while after meeting up with the 5th member of our party, Rachel, who was staying at a different place than us. First we went to a medieval torture museum, which was interesting, to say the least. Very morbid, but interesting. We then basically walked around for the rest of the day, checking out shops. We tried a traditional German sweet, called a snowball (I don't remember how to say it in German), which was basically fried bread with sugar on it. It tasted like Pop-Tart crust with sugar on it. It was alright, but nothing spectacular. The medieval wall is still up around the inner-city (which isn't very big, maybe 2-miles in diameter), so we walked around that a little bit. The city was very pretty, just a quaint little out-of-the-way town. We then went back to our respective housing and went to bed fairly early. The next day we all met up at the Rothenburg city museum. That was pretty interesting, with the museum being in what used to be a convent. It covered all eras of the city, although it was severely lacking in the Roman-era, which was a little disappointing. We then basically window-shopped the rest of the day, with a stop into the Christmas museum. Apparently the Germans think they invented Christmas. Ok, so not really. They were the first to use Christmas trees though. Another interesting anecdote was that Santa Clause used to have a helper, who's name escapes me right now. Anyway, this helper looked like the devil and was basically around to eat the kids that were bad. Fun stuff, I'm glad I never had to worry about Santa's demon-minions devouring me. There's not much else to say about Rothenburg. That Sunday was just spent traveling back to Harlaxton, from about 8:30am to 11pm. Long day. But it was a fun city, and we mostly just walked around and shopped. It was relaxing though, which was needed. I will be writing up another entry shortly about our trip from last weekend to London. Then I'll be all caught up. Of course I also have pictures that need captions, as well as pictures that need uploaded, but that's another story.

Weekend of Nothingness

Not much new to report. This weekend most of my friends went somewhere, but I stayed here at the manor. It was actually pretty nice. I really didn't do a whole lot of anything. There was homework that I had, and I got that done within due time, but the rest of the time was just relaxation time. It's nice to be away from the go-go-go attitude of travel. It's nice to just sit back and do whatever I want, whether it be to read a book, watch a movie, hang out with people, or to just sit and think. It's a very nice sort of freedom. Friday night I watched some movies. Saturday I did homework, went into Grantham to take pictures of the church they have there (apparently the 6th tallest in England), then attempted to play a game called Dragon Quest in the evening with Dione, Robert, and Catrese. It was pretty well hilarious. It was a Dungeons and Dragons-type game, which none of us had much experience with. At first we were actually going to try and play it, but then we found out that it was missing some cards and a necessary 20-sided die, so we really couldn't play. After that we basically just tried to make up rules to play the game, but we never really got into playing it. Just the set-up experience was good enough, we didn't need to actually play the game. On Sunday I tried out (sounds like a new product or something) the Baptist church in Grantham, which I had never been to. I didn't go to Harlaxton church because no one else was going, and I didn't want to go by myself. The Baptist church was alright, there was lots of singing songs that I didn't know, and lots of overly-happy people. I just didn't get much out of it personally, although I'm sure for many people it is right for them. I like Harlaxton's services better, maybe because they are more simple, and there's less overkill, I guess. I like it when things are to the point, and that's Harlaxton. I don't know if I'll get the chance to go to church again. We're travelling almost the rest of the semester, but I hope that I get at least one chance to go back to the Harlaxton church. So a funny thing happened last week. I got nominated to be in a date auction here on campus. I'm not sure how I feel about it, but I'll go through with it because it's for a good cause, helping British children in need. I'm not actually sure if I'm in the auction yet, as we have a meeting tomorrow, and I've heard that we find out there who's actually in the auction. There wasn't much explanation to it, so we'll see what happens. I almost wonder if me being voted in was a joke, that lots of people could've put me down as "the unlikely candidate" just to be funny. Regardless of if that's the case or not, like I said, it's for a good cause, so if I'm actually in it I'll go through with it. I'm sure it will be awkward, but I'll make it through. I also got nominated again for some Lord and Lady of the Manor competition, which I'm not even sure what it's about. Again, I'm suspicious of the nature of my being voted in, people probably just want to see the awkward guy do something, who knows. Nothing else to report, really. This weekend is Rotenberg, Germany, and I'm looking forward to it as I haven't been to Germany yet. I hear that it's nice there, so we'll test that out.

It's All Greek To Me, Really

Just thought that I would give this update. I got my first Greek Exam back today and I got an A on it! I was really excited about that. It must mean that I'm learning everything that I'm supposed to learn, and by myself, no less. Granted, I can e-mail Dr. Ware questions when I have them, and I've done so a few times, but otherwise I've been teaching myself based on the book and my previous 2 semesters. I hope I can keep this up. I'll find out how I'm doing with Latin soon, as I sent in my first mid-term today. This week has been and will be fairly lax. I have another Greek exam to do sometime this week, as well as two chapters of Latin homework, but other than that there's not much else. It'll be nice to just relax this weekend and not have to worry about the hustle and bustle of travel. Maybe I can get back to reading Plato's Republic, which I've gotten about 70 pages into but haven't read for about a month or so. That or I can start my other paper for British Studies about Roman London and how it shaped the city as multicultural. Regardless, I have some options, and I like that.