Tyler London Summer

Tyler Closeup

I was having fun. Until I woke up hungover at 9 AM.

Off to Paris for the Weekend. I will update when I get back.

posted by tyler @ 11:22 PM 0 comments

Cambridge - Dojo

Lunch at Cambridge

posted by tyler @ 11:21 PM 0 comments

Only in America

Being out of the country for a significant amount of time and getting an unbiased account of the goings in on the U.S. really makes you think sometimes. For instance, in Britain before they issue police a gun they have to go through weeks of extensive training courses and pyschological testing. In the United States, any idiot can go to a gun show and buy whatever type of gun he wants. And on top of that, no one is allowed to trace it thanks to the NRA. Apparently, library books are more of a threat to national security. Maybe that is why Britian has 5 times as many people as Michigan and only 1/5 of the murders?

And another thing. There was a Swiss muslim professor who just gave a talk here. He was discussing a "third way" and how western society and the Islamic religion could coexist, how western Islamic people should move away from the values of the middle east and embrace those of their own society, how Islam should not divorce itself from intellectual life, and how muslims should become more active in the community to alleviate isolationism and misunderstanding. Do we support this guy? No, the U.S. labels him a terrorist supporter and revokes his visa to come to the U.S. and teach. Apparently, they are more happy with the concept of the clash of civilizations and irreconcileable differences. I hope you realize when Ann Coulter says things like we should forceably invade the entire Middle East and Christianize it that these people actually believe that. And not fringe nut jobs but those making policy decisions.

Also, is there any uproar in the American press how Karl Rove, Bush's principal aid and arguably the person running the country committed a FELONY and is facing a jail sentence? This is a man who got his first job from the elder Bush because he admired his initiative when Rove broke into the Democratic Party office, stole stationary, and printed out flyers advertising free beer and hookers. Only in America.

posted by tyler @ 5:15 PM 0 comments

Dinbych-y-pysgod

That is the name for Tenby in Welsh. I was really surprised to find that the language was still in use, at least on TV and on the street signs. I never heard anyone actually speak it. I figured that since the English have been there for 700+ years, imposed a nobility and parliament, a religion, changed all the place names, and refuses to devolve control as it has in Scotland, they also would have eradicated the language. However, Welsh remained the predominate language until the Second World War, when the children from the evacuation during the Blitz came and corrupted the youth.

I was really surprised how bloody cheap everything was. When I was in Swansea waiting for my train, I got a Cornbeef Pie, Chips, and a Coke for 2 pounds!!! I am lucky if I can get a Sandwich and a drink in London for under 6. Aside from the cheapness, Tenby was also amazingly beautiful and I am very glad I went. I see the British countryside and wonder why they had such a great desire to leave, besides the lack of housing, unemployment, little chance for social mobility, religious persecution, and cold weather. Though, unlike most I actually enjoy the weather here. I really like it not to get colder than 30 or warmer than 70. I will put up a more complete set of pictures later on my webshots.

I also am apparently a stud in Wales. I had groups of girls in cars honk at me twice. And my fly wasn't open. I guess theres something that could make me attractive to Welsh girls, since Alex is half-Welsh. The first one was flattering. The second one was not, primarily because it was like a 16 year old girl driving a hummer. How much of an obnoxious asshole do you have to be to own a Hummer in Britain. It is impractical in America, let alone Britain with the tiny curvaceous roads, limited parking, and insane gas prices. So you are that much of a jerk to still actually by an H2 and on top of that are so flippant about it that you give it to your daughter and teenage friends to take it for a spin, as if that isn't a death for some poor pedestrian waiting to happen.

All together it was a very fun weekend. Now I need to get down to the grind and get all of my work done before I leave for Paris.

Cheers

posted by tyler @ 7:19 PM 4 comments

Tyler Boat Ride

This is me on the island cruise that left from Tenby. It was cloudy and bitterly cold in the morning that day. It took a pot of tea, some crab bisque, another layer of clothing, and a warm fire to recover from that one. It was probably the most fun I had while there though, as I love being on the water. Later it got nicer and warmer so I went to the beach.

posted by tyler @ 7:18 PM 2 comments

Tenby Fort

This is the picture of the fort on St. Catherine's Island. It was built in the 1860's as one of "Palmerston's Follies." It was intended to be an early warning post against possible French Invasion.

I took this picture from right outside my hotel, which, as you can see, had an incredible view from on top of the cliff. And, yes, those are palm trees that are indigenous to Great Britain.

posted by tyler @ 7:15 PM 0 comments

Tenby View

This is a picture of Tenby from the South Beach side where my hotel was. As you can see it was an old medieval fort upon which the Victorian's decided to build a resort town.

posted by tyler @ 7:12 PM 1 comments

Punting

Me punting at the River Cam in Cambridge. No one else wanted to do it or lift a finger on my boat so I got quite an upper body workout doing this for an hour.

posted by tyler @ 8:13 PM 0 comments

Platform 9 3/4

For all of you Harry Potter fans, this is me at the famous Platform 9 3/4 at Kings Cross Station in London.

posted by tyler @ 8:11 PM 0 comments

Trinity College

This is a picture from the square of Trinity College, the wealthiest and arguably the most famous college at Cambridge. This is where Prince Charles "studied."

posted by tyler @ 8:10 PM 0 comments

Company, Villanous Company, Hath Been the Spoil of Me.

I apologize to all of my avid readers, or basically just Al, for not being able to post as of late. I have had class, deadlines, and outings with my mom and sister and have not had time to update. The last two nights of my trip I saw Henry IV Part 1 and 2 at the National Theatre. For those of you Harry Potter Fans, Henry IV was played by Filch and Sir John Falstaff was played by the new Dumbledore. I thought the production was excellent, though I thought it quite odd. The history plays of Shakespeare that I have seen have always been really dark, of which these certainly had elements. But, these two plays had an almost comedic tinge to them. Although, that could merely have been due to the presence of Falstaff.

I also broke down and got a haircut. It was looking too long and unhealthy. I also wanted to look nice for pictures and when I went to Paris. It shows off more of my face. I am not sure if that is a good thing or not. Anyways, off to Cambridge for the day, I hope all is well.

posted by tyler @ 9:01 AM 0 comments

Tyler and Alex Bridge

This is Alex and I walking across the Thames on the Golden Jubilee Bridge. You can see the houses of Parliament in the background. We went on a river cruise along the Thames today and also visited a Salvador Dali/Picasso exhibit. Luckily there were at least a few clouds so it wasn't as deathly hot as it could have been.

posted by tyler @ 5:15 PM 0 comments

Breaking and Entering

I did not really do a whole lot of sight seeing today, as I had a full day of class and went to dinner with my mom and my sister. However, I did see something out of the ordinary. When I looked out the window, I saw an entire camera crew shooting a group of people across the street at the courthouse. I then saw Jude Law walk right past my window. They then cut and he came over and spoke to the director. Apparently, they were shooting scenes from his new movie Breaking and Entering. I also witnessed another scene where he simply drove in a circle in a Land Rover numerous times around the block by my building, to the point where seeing Jude Law sitting at a stop light was getting redundant.

I am not really one to gush over famous people. But how many times are you going to witness the filming of a big name actor in a movie?

posted by tyler @ 11:17 PM 1 comments

Tower of London

This is the White Tower which is the oldest building at the Tower of London. I must say there is no better activity while hung over than an early morning hour plus walk through baking city streets. It was, however, interesting to visit the place again. The guide, though he didnt really show us anything, did give some background info that was rather interesting that I had not recieved the first time. It was also incredibly less crowded which was nice. I saw the crown jewels, which are definitely a sight. The royal armory however was really boring. It may be my own personal preference. But looking at endless suits of armor, canons, guns, and spears bores the hell out of me. I probably should have gone and looked at the torture part again but I was starving, exhausted, and couldn't bring myself to go through with it.

posted by tyler @ 11:11 PM 2 comments

Churchill

This is the statue of Sir Winston outside the Houses of Parliament. I took this on the way to visiting the Cabinet War Rooms and the Newly Opened Churchill museum. The Imperial War Museum did a fantastic job in recreating the rooms just as they were at the inception of the blitz. The museum was also very well done with a ton of interactive and multimedia content including rare speeches and audio clips. Needless to say I was in there for three hours running around like a giddy schoolboy.

posted by tyler @ 11:05 PM 0 comments

Bombardment

posted by tyler @ 9:30 PM 0 comments

Monet - Water Lilies at the Bridge

My favorite painting that was in the National Gallery.

posted by tyler @ 10:26 PM 0 comments

Water Lillies at the Bridge

The title comes from a painting by Monet, who is my favorite artist. I got to see a whole room full of his paintings at the National Gallery today. They had quite an eclectic collection dating from medieval times to the early 20th century. Some other highlights included The Arnolfini Portrait by Van Eyck, Venus and Mars by Botticelli, Self Portrait at the Age of 34 by Rembrandt, The Virgin of the Rocks by Da Vinci, and Sunflowers by Van Gogh.

Sadly, however, the experience presented a rather unpleasant reminder of the terrorist attacks in the beefed up security. I was expecting a security level similar to the British Museum, in other words none. Instead, it was almost as bad as getting on airplane. I had to give them a guided tour of the contents of my bag and empty out my pockets and take off my belt to go through the metal detector. They also had at least one and sometimes two security personnel in every single room of the gallery.

I also saw a curious statue that i never would have expected to be in Trafalgar Square. They had a statue of George Washington given as a gift to the British Government by the Commonwealth of Virginia. I thought it was a rather odd place to have an american hero in the midst of many of the great British military heroes. You would think they would have Wilson or Roosevelt or someone who didn't fight AGAINST the British. I am not sure what to make of it.

posted by tyler @ 10:25 PM 2 comments

Oxford

I took my first trip on the Tube today since the terrorist attacks. I traveled to Oxford and took the tube from Euston to Paddington Station, where I caught the train to Oxford. I was very nervous on my first trip but on the way back I was fine.

Despite the incredibly large and annoying crowd of people, It was nice seeing Oxford. The "campus" is spread around the city into 39 different colleges. Each college functions pretty much as its own self-sufficient unit under the umbrella of Oxford University. Some of them date from the 12th century and have amazing architecture and spectacular chapels. I didn't really know where I was going when i got there so I took a walking tour, which turned out to be a great idea. I saw all of the major sites in the city and got to go into Jesus College (where T.E. Lawrence studied) and Merton College (where T.S. Elliot studied).

I thought it was going to be a break to get out of the city but the crowds were horrendous. I tried to buy my oxford sweatshirt in numerous locations, and in a couple places i couldn't even get into the store. When I ordered a sandwich I was unable to even sit and eat in the restaurant. I had no idea it was such a tourist hotspot.

Sorry that I have no pictures to post. I forgot to put the batteries back in my camera.

posted by tyler @ 8:43 PM 0 comments

Group and Gavin at Stonehenge

Here is my entire group at Stonehenge (minus Stashu who is taking the picture)

posted by tyler @ 6:11 PM 0 comments

Detroit News Article

I did an e-mail interview with a reporter for the Detroit News. Here is a link to the article. They kind of misquoted me and it is unfortunate that this horrific event was what got me into a newspaper but here it is if anyone is interested.

http://www.detnews.com/2005/nation/0507/08/A01-241449.htm

posted by tyler @ 11:21 AM 0 comments

Terrorist Attack

There was a terrorist attack in London this morning. There were three explosions on the tube and one explosion on a bus. Two of them were in close proximity to me.

The Bus exploded about two blocks away from the dorm where I am staying. It was on my way to the building where I have class and happened about 15 minutes before I would have gotten there. It also happened a few yards away from the gym that I go to here. I went to the gym this morning and left only 20 minutes before the explosion happened. I thank God that I decided to take a shower at home.

I also thank God that I was able to somehow get phone calls through to my parents and to Al. I would have felt horrible if people couldn't have gotten ahold of me on the cell not realising that they were out and feared the worst. Thank you also everyone for the IMs and e-mails I really appreciate it.

The city is kind of in chaos right now. The entire tube, all buses, and all trains in and out of the city are closed. I think at least the trains in and out should be running by tomorrow. Hopefully, things will be slightly back to normal by the weekend. My trip to Oxford tomorrow is postponed for the present time. I will be staying for the remainder of the trip. I hope all of you are safe and doing well.

posted by tyler @ 11:06 PM 2 comments

Pictures Speak Louder Than Words

posted by tyler @ 8:46 PM 0 comments

Bath

This is a picture from inside the Roman Baths at Bath. It wasn't terribly exciting since I had already been there and listened to the audio tour relatively recently. I did finally get to have a cream tea. We also walked around and looked at the Georgian architecture. The city is really beautiful and is where I would think about living if I were to move to England.

posted by tyler @ 8:09 PM 1 comments

Stonehenge Tyler

Here is a picture of Me at Stonehenge. It was really windy so my hair was kind of in my face when this picture was taken, but that's ok.

posted by tyler @ 8:06 PM 0 comments

Imperial War Museum

After class today I hopped on the Tube to the South Bank and visited the Imperial War Museum for the second time (first time this trip). There were a few things that I found interesting.

One was a quotation from Heinrich Heine, a german poet from the 19th century.

"Where one burns books, one will, in the end, burn people" - Heinrich Heine

The quotation was part of the Holocaust exhibit that is on permanent display at the museum. It was in reference to the Nazis burning of books after assuming power in the early 1930s. It reminded me of an interesting article that I read in Harpers' about the Evangelical Christian Movement in the States. I believe that it was some theologian or priest who said something to the effect of "When fascism returns it will be under the cloak of crosses and bibles." The article pointed out how Nazi persecution begain with homosexuals and then spread to the liberal intellegentsia and finally the Jews. The prospects for the evangelical christian right taking power in the U.S. are quite scary. With pundits such as Ann Coulter seriously calling for ideological purges at Universities, autonomy and freedom of thought for university professors may soon be at an end.

The holocaust exhibit also displayed the enormous educational power of pictures. One could read volumes on the Holocaust and read statistics that are absolutely horrible but not be as moved as seeing one picture. I felt the same way when we did not see pictures of the Japanese atrocities during the Rape of Nanjing in my history class last year because some girl took offense to it. History and real life are offensive. People should be aware of what the human race is capable of doing to one another. Not seeing it is not entirely believing it possible, which has been a detriment to mankind throughout its history.

After seeing the horror of the holocaust, one also must question how these same people who suffered through that could then do what they are doing in Palestine.

"For evil to triumph it is only necessary for good men to do nothing" - Edmund Burke

Another exhibit that I found fascinating, which was not there the last time, was the Children's War Exhibit. The exhibit documented the experiences of children during the Second World War as well as providing an overall experience of domestic life. One of the most poignant experiences was overhearing an older gentlemen and his wife recognizing items found there and reliving their memories and experiences to each other. As Americans, I don't think we understand that war is "real" and happens in peoples homes rather than "over there." I don't think that they have forgotten that in Europe, which may be why they are somewhat reticent to engage in combat when diplomatic options are still on the table, rather than sheer cowardice and effeminacy as some may imply.

posted by tyler @ 1:21 AM 2 comments

I'm soo tired...

The rampant sight seeing has really started to take a toll on me physically, I think I may take a break from seeing things tomorrow. I had an eight hour marathon today. I went with some girls in my group to Abbey Road again. Then we took the train all the way across town to go to Borough Market by London Bridge. It was very interesting with a lot of different looking food stalls. I think I may go back there on Monday for lunch before I hit the Imperial War Museum.

After Borough Market we walked through South Bank to the Globe, and then from there to the Tate Modern. Though no great art afficiando, I found some parts of the Tate collection rather interesting. They had a number of works by Picasso and Andy Warhol that I liked. I also found it fascinating how Jackson Pollack understood Fractals and was able to paint them 25 years before physicists even discovered that they exist. Some of the modern art was a little too much for me though. I couldn't believe they had one painting where the artist simply just took a knife and cut down the center of the canvas. A lot of the sculpture was really off the wall as well. Some highlights were a neatly formed pile of bricks, a steel girder held up be a two dimensional mountain with a bunch of piles of things that looked like turds spread on the ground around it intended to represent God the Creator. They did do a good job providing explanations for a lot of it though, otherwise I would have been extremely lost.

After the Tate, we went to Lunch at a Turkish place called Taz. It is critically highly regarded but I must say that I was not a fan of the food. After ordering tea it came out in a shotglass. They had about 8 cooks and 10 waiters milling around but it still took us almost two hours to get out of there. I think I will go back to pub fare for my one meal out tomorrow. We then walked across the river past St. Paul's and took the tube to Covent Garden and walked around the market there.

Hope All is Well at Home

posted by tyler @ 6:19 AM 0 comments

Temple Church

This is the Temple Church in London. It was built by the Knights Templar to resemble the church in Jerusalem. For those of you Da Vinci code fans this is also the church that was featured in the book. I actually caught the tail-end of a lecture by a priest there about the book, which was rather interesting since he actually took a favorable stand toward Mary Magdalene. It was rather different than the simple Catholic perception of her as simply a whore.

posted by tyler @ 10:19 PM 0 comments

Shakespeare's Globe

This is the remake of Shakespeare's Globe on the spot where it actually was. I was going to go in but I didn't think that paying 30 dollars for something that wasn't even the original was really worth it. I went to the Tate Modern instead, which was interesting but is an old factory and not really worth a picture.

posted by tyler @ 10:15 PM 0 comments

Buckingham Palace

Here is my obligatory Buckingham Palace picture. I went there last night on a long walk from Victoria Station through St. James Park and ended up in Trafalgar Square. I suppose I could be real touristy and go to the Changing of the Guards but I figure If I have seen it once I have had the experience. I am also trying to avoid some of the crowds, though that was impossible today because of Live Aid, Wimbeldon Finals, and a Cricket match all on the same day.

posted by tyler @ 10:13 PM 0 comments