There were many changes in the 14th century in Europe. Multiple changes in Medicine and disease break outs led to social changes. The social changes led to the changes in the military and the Church. The famine crisis of 1315 affected social changes and ultimately turned their classes upside down.

As the Plague infected Europe, it killed of 20 million people. This disease had a massive impact on Medicine at that time. Failure to cure the victims led to distraught and loss of hope of many people. Preventing the disease to spread was a top priority of the time. In the upper classes, they would put all the people who infected by it in house, and lock them in there inside out. This way, no one could leave, but others could enter if they were infected. In lower classes, the victims were exposed to everyone. They had no where to go and had to ride out the sickness. Sometimes the corpse would just rot away in the houses, until someone would come by and pick up all the bodies. Mass burials were in order at this point. Farmers were beginning to lose money due to the death of their workers. They began to rent out their land to the government, in order to get money, and they used the land to dig trenches to burry hundred of bodies at a time. This was when the change in social class took place. Doctors at that time used a technique to see if someone was infected by it. The treatment checked the black bile, yellow bile, Phelgem, and blood; if all were balanced, then you were healthy. Natural herbs were also a popular remedy and believed to help. Also used leeches to drain the blood, and remove the bacteria from the blood stream seemed to be popular as well. Surgery was a last resort for the illness. The Church began to interfere, saying that it was sinful to do such a thing. This was a major movement in Medicine.

Warfare in the 14th century changed and regulations changed as well. The military changes caused social changes. They thought that all men were equal as long as you had a weapon. If you had a weapon, then you could fight in battle. Recruiting soldiers was a simple task. If you owned land that belonged to the king, in order to pay him back, you would repay him with service and fight. If you had done something wrong, by breaking the law or committing a crime, the King would order one to fight as well, but you had to enroll another male as well. They would fight defensive. They used dismounted men that would protect the men on horses. They would then use wolf pits and sharpened stakes as blockage or a barrier. 

Changes in the Church were quite important. The power shifted from commonwealth to spiritual rulers. Ultimately pushing the followers away, and making the classes more defined. The conflict with the Church lowered their confidence in authority, making it harder for them to stop this change. The violence caused the pope to move, all hope was lost. 

The Famine of 1315 impacted Europe almost as bad as the Plague. The famine was caused by the massive growth of the population and the radical climate change. The land couldn’t support the climate and the crops couldn’t survive. The peasants who watched over the crops became weak, due to the shortage of food. People began to secretly eat their children. The Famine lasted from 1315-1316. 

I got tickets to the britney spears concert!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I’m so excited about it! Haha, I sound like the biggest NERD ever! But, I’m really excited about it!! 

So I got a puppy for christmas. His name is Tucker, and he is a Yorkiepoo. I could have killed him today! He will not take to this potty training thing and its SO frustrating! Anyway, he had eaten his food, and I brought him outside to play and use the potty. We were outside for a good ten, fifteen minutes, and he didn’t use the restroom. So I brought him back inside and I turned around for a second, and he just let it go. I was like, really? like seriously? ughh!!!!! ITS ANNOYING!

this is probably the most random blog…

EVER.

Ok, so this is an EPIC. Its also an oral tradition, passed down generation after generation. its filled with boasting, which was a MAJOR characteristic at that time and place. Its basically a journey with a hero that faces obstacles that he has to over come. Being, an epic, there are many characteristics that the hero has to go through, in order to make it fit the category at that time, and like always, he wins. It shows its time, through their war-like taditions and boasting. It really introduced the heroic journey that inspires stories like it today. so, it was kind of the first major one. We read it, to learn how oral traditions and epics have changed through out the years.

sooooo this is a very awkward/funny story (its really embarrassing). 

It was the beginning of sophomore year, on a friday night. Me and a few people had been riding around, trying to find something to do that night. We went to the parkview football game, and watched them demolish some school, i don’t really remember. After that, we went to the McDonald’s on Jefferson for some fine dining. We all went in and ordered our meals and sat down and ate. Everyone finished and went and got in the car and started blaring the music. Myself and Caroline stayed back and went to the restroom before we got in the car. The parking lot of this McDonalds is on a slant, the hill goes down towards the car, elevating the building. So….the song “good googly moogly” was playing, no blaring. At that time, it was my favorite song. So I heard it from the building and ran out the fast food restaurant. I decided to show off and jump in the air and kick my feet together. Yeah, well that didn’t turn out too well. My feet got twisted together, and I ended up busting my butt in the middle of the parking lot. My knees were completely busted, bleeding everywhere. The funny part, is that about 20 people saw me do it, and it didn’t even hit me that, that had happened until later that night. This was completely random, but I decided to lighten the “blog” mood!

It’s already January. I have survived the first part of Junior year…surprisingly. This quarter, I will do ALL of my homework, turn everything in on time, and work as hard as possible. I’m kind of nervous about about what we will be learning about. I’m not good at Shakespeare, or poems. So, this will be quite the struggle for me. But, I’ll continue to work hard on everything, and really push myself for the last two quarters. I think that the assignments that you will assign, can only help us understand the writing style of the time period and benefit our ability to write and understand the changes in the different time periods. Doing my homework, ALL of it, will help, and I will get points for doing it. Ah I’m kind of rambling on, but I’m delirious, and it’s the first day back to school. haha

This semester flew by! I really liked second quarter. The books that we were assigned to read were very interesting. I really understand the Victorian Era and Romanticism. Digging for the deeper meaning in the text, is something that interests me. I definetly think that you need to read, in order to understand all the themes, and the writing style of the time period. It all comes together and makes sense. I reccomend taking a lot of notes, and trying to interprate the book differently than anyone else. It makes it more interesting, and gives you a variety of topics to write a paper on. I also think that annotating the books is really important. Highlighting major quotes can only benefit you, when its time to study or write a paper. I like the layered project. Its fun and interesting. I like how you break it down into layers. It takes a lot of stress off of me, and gives me time to really work hard and get my point across. I struggled first quarter, because I don’t really understand post modernism/modernism. It really confused me. I like your teaching techniques, and I think that the homework really does help us understand the novels more. It may be a lot, but in the end it only helps us. I really enjoy your class, and I look forward to next semester!

Well, I interpreted this book in many different ways. I found that there were many hidden messages embedded throughout the text. Mary Shelley wants suspense to be obvious, but at the same time, she wants the less known themes to play a significant role as well. Before I read this novel, I thought of Frankenstein as a BIG, immortal green scary monster,that kills. Now, I have a deeper understanding of the novel and of what Shelley is trying to get across to her audience. For example, Frankenstein is actually the creator of the monster that people identify as Frankenstein.

At the beginning, Victor was a man torn between his morals, and personal interests. He is brought up in a very religious background, that does not tolerate scientific discussions of evolution and other concepts that challenge tradition. As the novel goes on, I see multiple changes in Victor. He goes off to school, in hope to study natural philosophy, in which he is infatuated with to the highest degree. his morals change almost immediately when he arrives at the decision to create such a sin. The sin being, to take on the role of God and create life. He creates a monster void of any love-filled emotions.As the story twists, the monster realizes his agonizing want to feel love. He watches Felix’s family, and realizes how happy Felix is, and he thinks that only love can make someone happy. He envies those feelings and demands Victor to create a companion.

The monster can be seen as a child, for he acts as if he has blinders on. He obsesses over the one thing he wants, a companion. Just like any other kid, the monster begins to throw temper tantrums to get what he wants. However, his tantrums are different from a child’s, and goes on a rampage killing Victor’s love ones. He thinks that he will open Victor’s eyes to his feelings of loneliness. The theme, parenting comes into play as Victor attempts to gives in, and begins to create another monster. But, later he realizes what a mass destruction the two could be, and knows that it will only turn out for the worst. He then stops, like a good parent should, and doesn’t give into the tantrum. And then  the text revisits the theme of religion as Victor stops in his tracks of creating another sin. But, in a way, the effect of his decision, causes him to pay for his original wrong doing.

I really enjoyed this novel. I was surprised at the deeper meanings this novel contained. I really like this time period, the style is different and more complex. I enjoyed finding the deeper meanings and really making sense out of the plot and how nature has an effect on the storyline.

We learned how to identify fibers today. its a pretty odd subject. we learned how to tell if they were natural or synthetic fibers. i dont really like this part, because i find it difficult. i dont really understand fibers. hah im not good at matching fibers, i should say. practicing doesnt really help with this topic, its just one of those things you just have to have an eye for and im not one of those people. so im kind of struggling with it, but we should rap up that section pretty soon and start something new!

Well last class in math we learned how to multiply matricies. It’s a pretty difficult topic. today we just reviewed that topic all day. it gets really confusing, theres so much work that goes into one problem, that it takes almost five minutes to do each problem. she assigned us some text book homework to practice. we have a quiz on it friday and im pretty sure ill do fine, but im scared i will make stupid mistakes. you have to multiply rows by columns and it gets confusing, especially after staring at it for an hour.

I HATE HALLOWEEN!!!

I’ve hated this holiday ever since I can remember. I’m really not into scary things and creepy crawlers. Let me explain myself a little bit: anything that is possibility of happening (murder, and mass murdering sprees) do NOT scare me, but things like vampires, warewolves (my BIGGEST FEAR EVER!!) scare me so bad! Yes, this might be the weirdest thing you’ve ever heard, and I see where you’re coming from, but stupid things scare me. Warewolves scare me so bad, that when I saw the “Harry Potter” movie with the ware wolf in it, I ran out screaming. But, make me see like a movie about murders, I’m most likely the kid in there laughing, it just doesn’t make sense to me. One year on Halloween my mom woke me up with a ware wolf mask on, I started bawling crying, then led to hypervenalating. When I would dress up fro Halloween when I was little, I’d always dress up as happy things like; Sporty spice, Rub-a-dub-dub-a girl in a tub, smurf, rapper, you know, like the good things. I ABSOLUTELY HATE HAUNTED HOUSES. If someone were to pay me like $1,000,000 to go in it, I probably wouldn’t do it. Eww and the night before halloween, i always have nightmares about ware wolves…im pretty sure Im cursed..