Wednesday, September 26, 2012

Studying for History

Today, thanks to all of the Jewish people in the neighborhood, I don't have school. It turns out that today is Yom Kippur, the most holy day of the year in the lives of Jewish people. The theme of Yom Kippur is repentance and they have to fast for twenty-five hours.
I like not having school on Wednesdays. It makes the week less intense. I got to sleep in this morning until 8:45, which is something of a miracle in my case, because I usually end up waking up early on weekends as well as on weekdays.
At around 11:00, I started to do my homework. Aside from a small breaks at around lunchtime and two, I have been studying all day. I have my first big history test on Friday, and I'm kind of freaking out about it.
I have to know practically everything about Medieval Europe. That includes things like Thomas Aquinas, The Hohenstaufen Empire (which is just fun to say) the Hundred Years' War, and the fall of Constantinople. These things aren't that hard to keep straight, but don't even get me started on the monarchies of France and England, and that's not even mentioning all of the Popes of the Medieval Period. Why couldn't they all have had different names!? It's very difficult to keep straight Pope Gregory IX from Pope Gregory XI, and I don't even know who Pope Gregory X was. Then there's all of the Philips of France, the Henrys and Edwards of England, and the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire that I have to learn.
It is fun though, to learn about all these people and what they did. I also get kind of amused when people fight for power. I was very amused when I learned about the Golden Bull, which was when the Luxemburgs of the Holy Roman Empire set the number of electors of the emperor to seven people, completely eliminating the papacy from influencing the election. I am also amused by the names that are associated with the kings of France. There's Philip the Fat, Louis the Quarrelsome, etc. How terrible would it be to be remembered as "Louis the Quarrelsome?" I would want to be known as Aki the Valiant or Aki the Good. John II (he was captured by the English at the Battle of Poitiers during the Hundred Years' War) was known as John II the Good. I would just despise being known as Aki the Quarrelsome or Aki the Terrible (like Ivan the Terrible)...
The thing is, the test is only 35 questions, and they're all multiple choice. It doesn't seem that bad, but I'd much rather overstudy than understudy. That's true for any type of examination. So if you'll excuse me, I have to go learn about Muscovite Russia.

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