Hi! Today's blog assignment for Core Concentration is to tell what our plans or things we are looking forward to are for the upcoming spring vacation.

I don't really have many plans, to be honest. I just want to spend time with my family relaxing. I hope I can also get caught up on my schoolwork and prepare for the fourth quarter as well as go some places with my loved ones. We've never really been the type to make elaborate plans for vacations, but it helps that both of my parents are teachers who won't have to work during my time off. I hope it will be warm enough to go swimming sometime during the week and that I can get my phone fixed. 

I'm sorry for the brevity of the post! Have a nice spring break!

Happy Tuesday. Today, we used 5th Period to take a standardized writing test, so we are writing our Core Concentration blog entry today. The assignment for it is to tell what our favorite topic from the Middle Ages was and why.

My favorite thing to learn about in the Middle Ages unit was either the Black Death or the Magna Carta and the Hundred Years' War. I also enjoyed learning about the Church and how it ran in the later Middle Ages. I thought the simulations for the Benedictine monks and the feudalism simulation that involved candy were both very interesting and fun. I liked learning about the Black Death because it had a massive impact on Europe and changed the face of world history. Mrs. Frazier didn't do a simulation relating to it but rather taught us how quickly the Black Death spread by showing us BrainPop videos and telling us about an exercise she did with her students in past years involving glitter that spread through the whole school as quickly as the Black Death spread through Europe. The Magna Carta was also fun to learn about because it's what gave the foundation for English government and democracy. Much of our Constitution is based on the Magna Carta. It was very interesting to learn about European feudalism and compare it to the Japanese feudalism we had previously been told about. The Crusades were also very compelling to be taught about, since I'd heard the term used but didn't know what it meant. So far Europe was probably the richest unit we've had so far all year. I look forward to learning about the Renaissance and the Scientific Revolution in a few weeks and months.

NOTE TO SELF: http://www.classtools.net/fb/40/E2mfdS PASSWORD: medievals

Happy Thursday, and welcome back to late start days! Our blog assignment for today is to explain what the Black Death was and give details as to how it affected Europe in the Middle Ages.

The Black Death was caused by a pandemic of many forms of plague. All were of the same disease, but they could be transmitted differently. Most commonly, the Black Death was spread and identified by large dark spots in specific areas of the human body called buboes. This form of transmission was most common and is known as the bubonic plague.

The bubonic plague started somewhere in China or the Far East in 1333 and was spread by merchant ships coming to Europe. These ships contained rats who had been infected with the disease. Fleas on the rats quickly spread the disease back to humans. The first European outbreak occurred in 1347.

At the time, there was little basis for treatment of diseases and most medicine was based on religion rather than science. This was unfortunate because the Black Death killed extremely quickly. Typically patients died within a week of catching the disease. Men in suits and masks walked from door-to-door carrying out ineffective methods of treatment. The only way the Black Death died out was by letting it go naturally. This happened within four years -- the Black Death as we most commonly know it was gone from Europe by 1351. However, it had already done massive damage to Europe. It wiped out 25 million people between the years 1347 and 1351; almost a third of Europe's population! The Black Death is seen as a major point in both world history and medical and pandemic science nowadays, and I can see why.

I'm shocked, to say the least. This offer came completely out of the blue. I wasn't even aware our Holy Lands were being attacked, much less that even the common people unlike myself needed to fight. Apparently the pope holds fighting off invaders of Jesus' territory very high to him. But why was I chosen to go? Again, I had literally no idea.

I can't say no to my uncle's offer. I, too, think of it as important to protect the Holy Land and I wouldn't doubt it for a second. But why the sudden change of character from Pope Urban II? My training as a person of height in society is not to begin for more years. I wouldn't draft unprepared people like the peasants below me, either. I wouldn't select anyone untrained for a position.

Another thing I'm apprehensive about is the trip. It's thousands of miles from England to Jerusalem and there are many new climates I'd be forced to face on the way there. There's news already that the first cross-bearers, who were also the poorest, were attacked by the invaders and Jews before even making it to the Holy Land. How should I be any different, even if I'm more prepared? Sometimes I wish adults would think more clearly before making life-changing decisions for other people. I don't know how to fight or even shield myself and others against vicious foreigners. All I'll have there and on the way there is the protection of God and my own good grace. My uncle calls the wars to be fought "Crusades". That means "marked with a cross", but it sounds too much like "tirade" and "raid" to bring positive connotations to my head. 

Why me, of all people? Why did I have to be born to the most noble king of France? Why did my father have to make an alliance with the people in a faraway country? And why did I, the youngest, have to be engaged to someone I don't even know and have never seen?

I want to run away, but I know I can't. What would the consequences be? I'll either be stopped or punished somewhere along the road. Plus, I've no idea where I would go. Running away would be a disappointment to my family and I'd be shunned and possibly murdered, even if I am technically royalty. I don't even know where this new prince lives or who his parents are. If I had been a lowborn, I would probably be working in the fields, miserable by a princess's standards but peaceful by a peasant's. But now I am being forced to marry a boy at the age of thirteen and live with him for the rest of my life for the sole purpose of sealing a deal. Sometimes I wish these politics didn't involve selling people. Sometimes I wish my father wasn't so selfish.

I don't understand why he couldn't marry off my older brother, who's just two years my senior. Thirteen is too young, I think, but apparently it's not too young to have your young life cut off as if you were an object, not a person. I don't understand why he didn't just give money instead of me. What would my mother think?

But I can't say no; I can't put myself at risk for anything. I can only hope for the best in my future spouse and less misery in adult life. I can't disappoint my father or do anything that would potentially make him angry at me. I'm still a child, after all. I guess I have to be obedient and solemn, like a queen. I can't say anything.

Dear Diary,

I am frightened yet again as I write this because I have just been taken as a servant to a man I barely know. I was wandering through a village that had previously been destroyed by pestilence when I heard a voice. The person behind it was literally a bear. The pushy ex-jester took me in as his boy slave and is now forcing me to work for him without pay on the consequence of public death in my own home village. I only even started running because I am a wolf's head and have been vulnerable ever since my mother died. I don't know where we will go next, but right now I am camped out behind a tree in the forest we are resting in. He says he has business in Great Wexly, but judging from the way he speaks of everything and everyone, that could be a lie. I know I should trust him because he told me not to call him "sir" and does not wish to think of me as only a servant, but he even said that like him, there are two sides to every bear. I can't run away, because that would unleash the vicious side, wouldn't it? But so far there does not appear to be a sweet side. All and all, I'm very confused, but I can't say that I'd rather be back in Stromford or even dead. I just hope that I can gain my liberties in Great Wexly and learn more about my mother and my father. All that is keeping my faith intact is the cross of lead that I still carry. Maybe sometime soon I will learn my letters and be able to work on my own without being found. But for now I have someone to work for, even if it is not much of a living and I could be punished with death for disobedience. I will just have to look to God now for help if there is any. 

I was having a pleasant day farming in the fields when I smelled the smoke.

That was my first observation of the event. I was taught when I was young to run whenever I encountered that, so I did. I made a mistake, because what I saw I could never prepare for -- the familiar flames at such a high level and mass were what was shocking. But the carnage really had me in. I saw burning bodies and thankfully I caught the perpetrators. Out on the dock near our village were ships still being unloaded. All of the possessions in our town were being knocked out of their places. A raid! But there hadn't been a raid on our village in hundreds of years!

I stayed curled up in a bush near the hills for safety. I had a good view, and thankfully I didn't recognize any faces. My family and most of the other townspeople must have evacuated -- smart move. The wreckage was monumental, but after a few hours, I began to see the sails moving away. I recognized them. Vikings.

I felt like I was going to be sick. I thought they were only a legend. There were still no people clearing back into the village. What had they done? Had anyone killed? What was left, if anything? I wanted to know. But I was thankful that I didn't.

Our Core Concentration blog assignment for today is to write about Charles the Great, or Charlemagne, and his contributions as well as his importance to the history of the Middle Ages. This ties into our History class quite well as we are beginning our unit on Europe during the Early Middle Ages and following the fall of Rome.

Charlemagne was the leader of the Franks, whose culture would later blend with the Romans' to create the French. He is a significant part of English history, but after his death he adapted the French title "Charlemagne". The "-magne" suffix comes from the Latin root "magna", which means "great" or "large", so "Charlemagne" is a portmanteau title that literally translates to "Charles the Great" in English. Some others who have been given the title are Alexander the Great and Catherine the Great. He was honored with it because of his involvement with the spread of Christianity and development of early European civilizations in England, Ireland, and Gaul (now France/Spain). 

I'm not sure when Charlemagne was actually born, but he seized control of Ireland and other key parts of Europe in the 790s, roughly the same time that Viking raids were taking place to the north. He had a lot of great visions and ideas for keeping his states and other areas of rules intact and was known for being kind to his allies, but merciless toward evildoers. His establishment and development of England and Ireland proved to be the basis of Early Middle Age civilization especially in regards to justice and religion, the latter of which he was quite devoted to. His discoveries and contributions have also given us a clearer knowledge of Europe's human geography and a better understanding of the world after the fall of Rome. Usually when thinking in a linear fashion, Charlemagne will be one of the first figures to pop up after Byzantium's fall to the Turks. 

This period in history especially interests me because a lot of other history units that we have studied were taking place or flourishing near it. This was before the Heian period in Japan and during a rapid spread in Islam.

Our Core Concentration blog assignment for today was to name what we are most excited for in the coming winter holidays break. My answers are pretty typical, even though these are only the first few.

I'm most looking forward to Christmas. I'm not religious, but I like to think of it as a secular winter holiday that is more about family, joy, tradition, and gift-giving than it is about Jesus. We have a lot of traditions established on Christmas and around this time of year. I can't believe December has gone by so fast! It seems like just yesterday I was wishing for Thanksgiving vacation to be here. Now the school year is almost halfway over. I'm looking forward to the warmer weather after break, too, but I like the cold for now. I like staying in and getting warm with my family even if the cold is comforting sometimes. Just this morning it was 32 degrees outside and frost was all over my lawn. It makes me excited for Christmas, which is in only 5 days. We're about halfway done with decorating our tree and should finish putting up the ornaments tonight or tomorrow night. We don't have any special dinner traditions for Christmas, but my parents will probably go out to dinner tomorrow since they won't have to work (they're teachers) for three more weeks.

Another typical but true answer is that I'm looking forward to sleeping in instead of waking up before the crack of dawn to walk in the cold to a long bus ride to school. My Core teacher, Mrs. Frazier, mentioned to us today that tomorrow is our last day of waking up early before the three-week vacation. I'd rather relax and pace my work out over three weeks than risk being stressed out by the immediate schoolwork at hand. I'm pretty proud of what I've done this quarter, too, and I'm excited to be let off from always worrying and panicking about my grades. 

Either way, happy holidays! I hope, whoever is reading this, that your winter vacation is lovely. Make sure you celebrate and enjoy what Christmas is really about.

Our Core Concentration blog assignment for today was to write what we think the most important idea that Japan borrowed from earlier Asian civilizations China and/or Korea was.

First of all, I'd like to get something clear. Taking inspiration is not "stealing". Cultures do this all the time, and often, it's the basis for new discoveries and legendary cultural artifacts. That said, I also want to put out that all of the ideas that early Japan borrowed from China or Korea were important to its development as a civilization.

Personally, I believe that the most important and essential development that any civilization needs is a system of writing, so this is what I think the most important thing other Asian states contributed to Japan. Without a system of writing, history can only be preserved orally, which often ends with history being distorted and misconstrued. Until they began to venture out and explore other civilizations, Japan had no central system of writing. After they invited Chinese scholars over and sent officials out to the Asian mainland, Japan eventually adapted Chinese as its writing system. This was hard at first because the Chinese and Japanese languages are very different, but they eventually preserved their history through writing.

Nowadays the Chinese and Japanese alphabets aren't similar at all and Japanese uses a character system using symbols called kanji for words instead of letters. There are more than 700 characters in the Japanese alphabet. Seems hard to learn. Still, there are visible similarities between the writing systems even today.