Gustavus Adolphus! (and European History ramblings!! yay!!)

I got mail from Gustavus Adolphus College. XD I think it's funny cos I actually know who he is. lol. (the Protestant king of Sweden during the 30 Years War, by the way) Anyway, it's in Minnesota, which is really farther than I want to go, but I'm still amused. I also got mail from. . . the Washington University in St. Louis and the University of Chicago. All a bit far for my tastes.

While I'm on the topic of European History, we're doing these presentations on British history in, ah, English. (this year is british literature year) So I did the Middle Ages (I can't hear that without thinking "Richard Cory!" cos last year the drama that they did at our school, the middle production, which is in winter, they did 2 one-act plays--"Richard Cory" and "The Middle Ages". Richard Cory and the Middle Ages. Richard Cory and the Middle Ages. Richard Cory and the Middle Ages. ::coughs::) which was fun and all, and we presented yesterday and I got to drudge up my European History knowledge from last year, and I didn't have to use that many references for my section (well, I was doing religion and the common beliefs and motivation and thinking of the time). We presented yesterday and I think we did well. Anyway, today the Renaissance went, and they were good. Then the 17th century went. Well, the group contained people I don't like, but I can tell this isn't bias because it's fact! They defined their time period as 1600-1700. Then they were talking about major events, and they said the Protestant Reformation. Ok. . . I can live with that. Then they said that Martin Luther was very important during the time period. . . wait, that's it. They said that it was during this time that he posted his 95 Theses on the cathedral (I can't remember which one. I want to say Gutenberg but that's the Bible and the printing press and all. . .). OK. I don't remember Martin Luther's exact lifetime from last year. But I do remember distinctly that his earlier works were in 1515 and 1520. I'm just wondering how long he lived. ::narrows eyes::
They also were going through the Kings and all of the time, and they did a really bad job considering they had the Cromwell stuff and the Glorious Revolution and the Restoration and all, but that I might be biased on. What they definitely did do was forget James II! Me and Katie and Kristen were yelling at them :D Cos like, the kid who was doing it (who I have to admit, I loathe. . . he definitely was in our European History class though, so he should know this) went from Charles II to the Glorious Revolution!! I was like. . . wait. . . wasn't Charles II the one who was really laid back because he didn't want to "go travelling" again? But he didn't have any kids (in wedlock) so they had to get his brother, James II, who was going to start a Catholic line, right? And James II is the one they deposed! Wait, I have Kings and Queens of England and Great Britain right here! (katie was using it for our project. we didn't spend much time on england during the middle ages, I think we might have been just doing general europe at that point. then we started to focus on italy and france, and it wasn't until the Revolution and all that we started to focus on England--so they should have been able to do a good job on that one!) Ok. Yes. I was right. good. Anyway, how could they forget James II? So we yelled at him. I decided to let the Martin Luther thing slide, though ;) I'm so benevolent. lol.

that was fun :)

OK. Also on the topic of Europe, there's a trip to France in April. Like, with the school. Although it hasn't been completely approved yet, but I really want to go. Usually during the vacations I just want to sit and chill and do my homework, and I've already been to France twice, but wow, they make this sound really, really good! I definitely want to go. We go to Paris and spend time there, then we take the TGV (train de grand vitesse, or "of great speed") to Nice, where we look around and we're going to go to a perfumerie, and we're going to go to Monaco! I've never been to Nice or Monaco or the Rivieria (sp?) before, so I'm really excited and really want to go! (it's $1700 though. . . not so bad, considering we get breakfast and dinner every day and a tour guide and bus and all)

Next item (I knew I'd forget so I made myself a little list)--Taye Diggs is going to be on the 5:30 AM news on Channel 11 (the WB) tomorrow!! I'm going to record it, not get up and watch it :D lol. I've been watching Darhma (sp?) and Greg (and also Will and Grace) every day and during D & G there was a commercial for the 5:30 news and me and Katie were freaking out!! lol. Wow. I gotta see that. btw, if you didn't know Taye Diggs was the original broadway Benny in RENT and he's very sexy and he went out with Idina Menzel (original Maureen and even sexier--I had icons of her, remember ;) mmm, Idina. . .) for a while, I don't know if that's still a thing or not.

And Mikey (my older brother, who is a freshman at SUNY Fredonia) is coming home tomorrow! He'll arrive at around 8, I think. :D I'm excited. David is coming home on Friday (and he has a surprise for Katie which I know but I'm not going to post here just in case) and Katie is uber-excited! lol. She's really cute and funny, too :) Is good! And we get a three day weekend cos of Columbus. Now, he may not have really discovered America, and he may not have done it on purpose, but my god I love that man ;)

ok. I have to write essays for social studies. I don't like US history anywhere near as much as European, and it's not just because of the teachers. ::sigh:: But don't tell Friedman I said that ;)

oh yes! I now own The Neverending Story. Thanks to meiran, who reminded me how much I love that book. Love doesn't cover it. Worship, I suppose ;) She posted about it in bookreports and I realized I needed to own it. However, I got it off amazon.com and it doesn't have the 2 colored print. It has italics and regular. So I'm kinda peeved. My dad said maybe he'll keep looking, which would be beautiful.