March 29, 2019 Class

Well, you totally did not wonder why I did not write my blog yesterday, but I will still tell you why:

I did not have enough battery on my laptop to write a blog at the time. I mean... my laptop turns off at 5% and I only had 8%. I also had to finish a German PowerPoint before the classes ended. But I knew I had time to write the blog between yesterday and today. Right now, I am tired out of my mind and still have to write this blog. I want to go to sleep so badly but I know that after writing this, I probably will not for a couple of hours.

The group whose presentation I liked the best was the first one: with the children of Athens and those of Sparta. I was laughing my butt off and did not stop until their presentation did.
I liked the pancake-like food that Katie and i-forgot-her-name did were pretty good but their project was something done in a rush and without much thought put into it. Although I was surprised they actually did research and all.
Tibo(?) and other-guy's presentation was plain boring. I feel like they portrayed no emotions toward the subject, therefore all students were very bored. Perhaps even Mr. Schick. If they liked the subject and showed interest toward it, we all may have been able to understand better and enjoy the presentation at all.

March 28, 2019 Class

Well, our project was a complete mess. For the first 10 minutes of class, I did not know where any of my group members were. Mr. Schick looked like he was having a bad time well before we came I came into class and after our project was over, he seemed even more upset. I do not know what is going on. Because I asked a friend of mine who is in another section if the same happened in her class, but she said that he was fine and probably just expecting more from the honors students.

After the presentation, I checked to see in which range we qualified in the rubric and it was a C/D average. I am literally DYING.
I will not be able to rest the same after the presentation until I get the grade back. I will not be happy when it comes, but at least I will be able to rest in peace and not freak out. My grade will probably be brought down to a D before the quarter even starts 🤦.
I was at least able to be in first honors the first three quarters of the school year. Am I happy? Not exactly. Disappointed? Very.

I really hope we serve as a reference on what not to do for future groups and fellow classmates.

March 25, 2019 Class

Today's class was a project preparation day. Honestly, it sucked. Nobody has done anything. Everything was left to the last minute. And, I believe I speak in behalf of all of the groups in all of the sections (or at least the honors section). The pillars of my group were absent today and I feel we're going to do very poorly, or at least I will. I am definitely NOT excited about this. I think the due date for the project should be moved towards either Friday or Monday of next week. We did not have enough time to prepare.  In less than fifteen minutes into the class, all the groups were done discussing their plans, that is because they have none.
At least the test on Ancient Greece was not as much of a failure as the Ancient Greece project will be. I got one question wrong. Which wasn't great... but I will be OK. At least I get one 'ding'.

March 22, 2019 Class

So... we had the Greece test yesterday. I did not study beforehand because I was too tired. I had come back from a doctor's appointment which I attended right after school and had come home at six. To then have dinner with a pile of homework I also had to do. I was tired and decided to go to bed earlier. So that I could rest and, if for some reason, I had awoken earlier than normal, I could study. But that, of course, was not the case. Instead, I had to study in between classes. The class right before Western Civilization was the one in which I studied the most--Biology.
Mr. "Jonnah" Gzanna is one of the most chilled teachers I've ever met. I was studying mid-class and he did not say a word. Special thanks to Alita Pirozzi who helped me throughout the entire class. She helped me review all eight pages of notes TWICE. I could not have asked for a better helper.
As to how the test went, I believe I got at least one wrong because I confused the Aegean and Adriatic seas. Pretty dumb, am I right? I must have gotten that one wrong, and perhaps another one, too. So I got either a 95% or a 97.5% on the test. If I got a 95 percent on the test, my grade would go up to a 94.13% to end the last quarter; while with the latter grade, my grade would go up to a whooping 94.71%. And, in the rare case I did not miss any questions (a very rare case, indeed), my grade would be raised to a 95.31%, which in complete honesty, would not do anything noteworthy to my overall GPA. therefore, it is not of my interest.

Greece Notes #8

Greek, important philosophers

• Socrates
• Unlike most people at the time, he turned to science and logic--instead of mythological gods--for explanations on how the world worked.
• Socratic method: fostered critical thinking.
• "The unexamined life is not worth living."
• "I cannot teach anybody anything. I can only make them think."
• Charged with serious crimes of:
• Impiety (disrespecting the gods) and
• Corruption of Athens' youth.
• At his trial, he descripted himself as the stinging gadfly of the lazy old horse that Athens was.
• He did not deny what he had done, but instead had asked for free dinners for life.
• Found guilty by Athenian jury and sentenced to death by drinking poison hemlock.
• Plato
• Was a student and follower of Socrates.
• He wrote out Socrates' teachings and described his trial in Apology (which at the time meant explanation).
• Another famous book of his was called Republic.
• In it, he wrote about Socrates' discussion of justice and an ideal state.
• Socrates, Plato, and Aristotle believe the perfect society would be one were philosophers such as themselves lead the government.
• It is one of the most influential books on philosophy ever written.
• Aristotle
• A student of Plato (who was a student of Socrates)
• Helped to foster the idea of Athens as an intellectual destination.
• His school--the Lyceum--focused on cooperative research--building on knowledge gathered from all over the world.
• Did Aristotle invent the internet?
• Not exactly, although he did dream of having sum of mankind's knowledge easily accessed in one location.
• He wrote extensively on numerous topics such as:
• Logic, physics, biology,
• Ethics, politics, rhetoric,
• Motion, theatre, poetry,
• Metaphysics, psychology, dreams, et cetera.
• Also tutored Alexander the great.

Creece Notes #7

Is teh United States a republic (the people vote for their leader and the leader makes decisions) or a democracy (people vote directly on issues that concern them)?

The Greeks' gods interaction with humans is what makes their relationship unique.

• Examples are:
• Poseidon (god of the sea) interfering with Odysseus.
• Aphrodite (goddess of love) had lovers who were both gods and men.
• Dionysus (a demigod of wine) was the son of Zeus (basically, god of gods) and Semele (a human princess).

• Greek city-states military forces
• Spartans
• Greeks certainly were warlike people, but especially the Spartans.
• Spartans were known for having a rough, ruthless infantry--soldiers who fought on land.
• Spartan boys were trained since age seven.
• Athens
• Athenians also had a great infantry, but their navy was incredible.
• Their most efficient weapon was the trireme.
• It was a technological marvel which was rowed by up to 170 men distributed among three levels.
• It was the fastest ship at the time, which could also be used as a battering ram.
• Phalanx
• Close-rank, dense grouping of warriors on land.
• Armed with long spears and interlocking shields.
• Soldiers would advance slowly towards their enemies until ranks were broken.
• Then, the soldiers would take the place of the person in front lowering their spear.
• Persian War
• Greek army
• Soldiers used iron weapons (so that ordinary citizens could afford to arm themselves).
• Armed with spears, swords, and shields).
• Foot soldiers (hoplites) were trained from an early age.
• Often fought in the phalanx formation.
• Had a "home field" advantage.
• Were motivated to preserve their nation so that they would not have democracy taken away from them.
• Persian army
• Had huge numbers of soldiers.
• Were a long way from home.
• It was a professional army composed of soldiers by hire (aka mercenary).
• Sequence of attack
• Archers, who do damage from afar.
• Cavalry (horses), which disrupt communication between the enemies' generals and soldiers.
• Lightly armored infantry.
• Carried spears, swords, and bows.
• The Greeks were victorious and formed the Delian League.
• Which took taxes from all of the citizens in the city-states that made up Greece (especially Athens) and used the money toward military growth.
• Built up army to be able to defend Greece from another attack and invasions.

March 18, 2019 Class

Today, we were given the choice whether to have today as a meeting day with our group or Friday, along with Monday (the class day before our presentation--which I believe is too early). We chose today. And, now we have normal class taking (and finishing) our notes tomorrow. Then, I believe we have the test on Ancient Greece (which I am also not looking forward to). In our meeting, we decided who would do what. Olivia and Leigh are both making food to bring on the day of the presentation--Olivia is baking some kind of dessert, I believe, and Leigh is cooking a traditional, Greece plate. Caitlin and Miel (who is a new addition to our group) are doing makeup. And I am sewing, which has actually become weaving (which I, luckily, also know how to do... kind of). Again, I am really NOT looking forward to this.

March 16, 2019 Class

So, Mr. Schick assigned us a two hundred point project in which we have to explore an aspect of Ancient Greece that personally interests us. Simultaneously, I am excited that the project is two hundred points and nervous. If I get 90%, my grade drops by one percent. I want to get to a 93.5 percent or above, which will get me a GPA weighted scale of 4.450 instead of the 4.350 that I currently have with a 93.38 percent.
I am in a group with Caitlin, Leigh, and, apparently, also Olivia. Our project is going to be based around the women in Ancient Greece (feministic much for me). It also deals with food and makeup used equally by both men and women (that thankfully lessens the feministic bomb). For the project, I have learned how to rehydrate seaweed and make olive oil. On Monday, I will bring ashes for makeup, along with seaweed to rehydrate, and a basin to mix elements in. Honestly, it is quite fun so far, being in a project with Caitlin and Leigh, although I do not know if Olivia will be as nice as them. We were also going to bring a few other things, such as red iron oxide, but most of them were unsafe to use; red iron oxide could spontaneously combust, for example.

Classwork #3

Today during class, we watched a 55-minute video on Greek civilization leading to We only watched through 50 minutes of the video, though. I thought Caitlin would be supervising over the class and we would do nothing, so I brought my homework and hoped to finally study my German 2 material. That's when I got my not so great surprise. (I was lucky to not have brought grapes; although I'll admit I did try to look for them). Anyway, we got a worksheet that had questions we were to answer. Since I have nothing else to comment, I'll post my answers whenever I get back from practice.

1. What was the situation in Athens in 508 BC and why? 
2. What class did Cleisthenes come from and what kind of power did this group exercise over Athenians?
3. How did Aristotle describe life for most Athenians in the sixth century BC? As a world riven by injustice.

Greece Notes #6

Hippias (r. 527-510 BC).

• Before his brother's death (murdered), he had fit in the older meaning of a tyrant.
• After, Hippias had turned into a tyrant best described by the modern definition of the word.
• He was eventually ostracized from Athens (thing that, at the time, was worse than death).
• Seeking revenge, he began to work with the Persian king Darius I, helping the Persians invade Marathon (to the eastern coast of Athens).
• With Hippias gone, Isagoras and Cleisthenes (both aristocrats) were engaged in a power struggle.
• Isagoras had support from some fellow aristocrats and from Sparta.
• Cleisthenes, on the other hand, had the support of the majority of Athenians.

Greece Notes #5

During the seventh and sixth centuries, aristocrats ran the government in most of Greece

• Back then, as right now, rich people wielded much influence in society, and held much government power, than middle to poor classes.
• Aristocrats: members of the ruling class.
• Aristocrats attended symposiums--meetings where elite men enjoyed wine and poetry, performances by dancers and acrobats, and the company of hetaeras (courtesans) while discussing politics.
• Politics was an exclusive club.
• There were no women (except for the "entertainment"),
• Also no middle class,
• Nor slaves.
• Sometimes, certain aristocrats were excluded due to wrong connections or falling out of favor.
• If on the outside, sometimes aristocrats would form alliances with hoplites--well-armed soldiers--and set up alternative forms of government called tyranny.
• Tyrant: someone who rules outside the framework of the polis.
• The modern meaning of a tyrant is an abusive or oppressive ruler.
• The Greek meaning is someone who simply seized power (usually with hoplite help).

Greece Notes #4

Book notes:

• Polis: fundamental political unit in Ancient Greece made up of a city and its surrounding countryside--which included numerous villages.
• Acropolis: a fortified hill top.
• Citizens gathered to discuss the city's government at the agora, the marketplace, or an acropolis.
• Monarchy: (in government) where a single person (normally a king) rules.
• Aristocracy: a government ruled by a small group of noble, landowning families.
• Families often earned political power after serving in the king's military cavalry.
• Oligarchy: a government ruled by a few people.
• New class of wealthy merchants and artisans emerged. 
• When dissatisfied with aristocratic rule, they sometimes took power or shared with nobility.
• Tyrant: ruler who seized control of the government by appealing to the common people for support.
• Unlike today, tyrants were not considered harsh or cruel; rather, they were looked upon as leaders who worked for the interests of the common people. 

• Democracy: rule by the people (first adapted by Athenians).
• Citizens participated directly in political decision making.
• When nobleman Draco took power, he developed a legal code based on the idea that all Athenians were equal under the law in 621 BC.
• His code was so cruel that the term draconian--meaning extensive cruelty or severity--was created.
• Solon started ruling at 594 BC.
• He outlawed debt slavery and organized citizens into four classes according to wealth.
• Only the three highest could hold office, although all four classes could partake in the Athenian assembly.
• Cleisthenes (r. 500 BC) divided the citizens into 10 classes based on which area they lived in.
• Greater power in the assembly (all citizens allowed to submit laws for debate and passage).
• "Council of Five Hundred": proposed laws and counseled assembly. 
• The members were chosen by lot or at random.
• As a result, the Athenians participated in a limited democracy.
• Only free, adult, male, property owners born in Athens.
• At the time, women, slaves, and foreigners were excluded from citizenship.

Athenian education 

• Differed from sons and daughters.
• Sons of wealthy families received a formal education.
• Schooling began at seven years of age and prepared boys to become good citizens.
• They studied reading, grammar, mathematics, poetry, History, and music.
• Boys also received training in logic and public speaking as they were expected to debate issues in the assembly. 
• Greeks believed it was important to train the body, so they also partook in athletic activities every day.
• When they got older, boys went to military school to help prepare them for another important thing in Athenian society--defending Athens.
• Daughters stayed at home with their mothers and other female members at the household. 
• They did not go to school.
• Learned about child-rearing, weaving cloth, preparing meals, managing the household, between other skills to prepare them for marriage and motherhood.
• Some women took their education farther and learned how to read and write.
• Among those, some even became accomplished writers.
• Most women had very little to do with Athenian life outside boundaries of family and home.

In-class notes:

Warring City-States

• Polis: fundamental political unit made up of the city and the surrounding countryside.
• Words such as politics (affairs of cities), policy, political, metropolitan, and many others are derived from polis.
• Monarchy: rule by a single person (a king, in Greece).
• Aristocracy: rule by a small group of noble, very rich, landowning families.
• Oligarchy: wealthy groups, dissatisfied with aristocratic rule, who seized power (often with military help).
• Tyrant: powerful individual who seized control by appealing to common people for support.

Greece Notes #3

Greece in relation to other common places:

• North Carolina is 53, 818 sq. mi.
• Greece is 50, 949 sq. mi.
• Although small in size, Greece made a HUGE impact in the world.
• Pennsylvania is 46, 056 sq. mi.
• Life in Greece
• Fertile valleys cover 1/4 of the Greek peninsula.
• Of it, only 20% is arable (farmable) land.
• The Greek diet consisted of grapes, grains, olives, and fish.
• The lack of resources in Greece is likely what led Greeks to start colonizing.
• The temperature ranged from the mid 40's during the Winter and low 80's during the Summer.
• Led to people being out all the time (creating the Olympics and later, the birth of democracy).
• Mycenaeans began influencing the world around them in 2,000 BC.
• Mycenae was located on a rocky ridge on Peloponnesus protected by a 20 foot thick wall.
• Kings dominated Greece from 1,600 BC to 1,100 BC.
• They controlled the trade in the region.
• Around 1,400 BC, Mycenaeans invaded Crete and absorbed Minoan culture.
• e.g. writing system, language, art, politics, literature, and religion.
• Trojan War.
• The Greeks have fought in many wars over time.
• The Trojan War was fought at around 1,200 BC.
• Until the nineteenth century, most historians had thought that, as many other parts of Greek history, the Trojan War was a myth.
• That is because gods and goddesses were involved in the war.
• Goddesses Athena, Aphrodite, and Hera were given the "apple of discord" and even though they were all good friends, they argued plenty.
• Paris judged Aphrodite as the fairest.
• Aphrodite then made Helen (who was married) fall in love with Paris, who took her back to Troy.
• Around 1,200 BC, mysterious "sea people" began to invade Mycenae and burnt palace after palace.
• Then, the Dorians moved into the war-torn region, dominating from 1,150 to 750 BC.
• They were far less advanced,
• The trade-based economy had collapsed, and
• Writing disappeared during the 400-year period.
• So, oral tradition started to emerge.
• Greek oral tradition is composed of stories passed on by word of mouth.
• Homer, a blind storyteller, lived at the end of the "Greek Dark Ages" (1,100 - 800 BC).
• He composed, but didn't write down, stories (epics) of the Trojan War (c. 750 - 700 BC).
• The Iliad - probably one of the last conquests of the Mycenaeans (inspired by the Trojan War).
• The Odyssey - Odysseus attempts to return to his home after the Trojan War, being thwarted by the god of the sea, Poseidon, while angry.
• The Odyssey was 12,110 lines of dactylic hexameter.
• Emphasizes the first syllable of at least six words on each line.
• Homeric question:
• Was Homer ever real, or is he also a product of the Greeks' imagination?
• He might have been a mythical creature himself.
• He was a blind, wandering minstrel; a heroic figure.
• The Iliad and the Odyssey may either be a culmination of many generations of storytelling.
• Or... Homer could have actually existed.

Greece Notes #2

Book notes:
The Aegean, the Ionian, and the Black seas are important routes for Greeks'.
Greece lacked natural resources (timber, precious metals, usable farmland.
Mountain chains ran from the Northwest to the Southeast along Balkan Peninsula.

• 3/4 mountainous, 1/4 arable land.
• Sea, land, and climate were important environmental influences on Greek civilization.
• Normal temperatures were 48 Fahrenheit during the Winter and 80 Fahrenheit during the Summer.
• Supporting an outdoor life attending public events, discussing public issues, exchanging news, and taking an active part in civic life.
• Mycenaean (leading the city Mycenae) kings controlled Greece from 1,660 - 1,100 BC in addition to Tiryns and Athens.
• Mycenaeans discovered seaborne trade after invading Minoans.
• Mycenaeans adapted their writing system to the Greek language and decorated vases with Minoan designs.
• Trojan war.
• 10-year war between Troy (industrial trading city in Anatolia) and Mycenae.
• Why? Trojan prince kidnapped Helen (the beautiful wife of the Greek king).
• True? Excavations during the 1,870's at Northwestern Turkey by German archaeologist Heinrich Schliemann suggest so.
• Around 1,200 BC, sea raiders attacked and burned Mycenaean cities.
• Dorians then moved into the war-torn countryside.
• Not very advanced.
• After their arrival, Mycenaean economy collapsed and their trade came to a standstill.
• There was a loss of writing during the 400 years that they controlled Mycenae (between 1,150 and 750 BC).
• Rise in spoken word and Homer (a blind man, and great storyteller).
• Composed epic stories between 750 and 700 BC.
• Trojan wars formed backup for the epic poem the Iliad.
• Heroes in the Iliad were warriors Achilles from Greece and Hector of Troy.
• Greeks created myths--traditional stories about their gods.
• They were made to explain mysteries about nature and power of human passions.
• e.g. the changing of the seasons.
• Gods quarreled and competed against each other constantly; they also live forever.
• Zeus is the ruler of all gods who lives on Mount Olympus with his wife Hera.
• Hera is often jealous of Zeus' relationships with other women.
• Athena--goddess of wisdom--is Zeus and Hera's daughter.
• The Greeks thought that she was the guardian of cities and dubbed Athens in her honor.

Greece-Notes #1

Well, feel pretty good. We had the test on Egypt today for which I studied for hours between yesterday and today. We were told we could use our blog, but I didn't need it. I completed the entire test without the help of my blog. I had asked Mr. Schick if we could get an opportunity to earn extra points. I guess it was better for other students that didn't study, but it didn't really help me. The only question I had trouble with was the number fourteen, I believe. I wasn't able to answer that one with my blog and had to look back on the test for things that looked like they could be a good answer. Anyway, we have to write down notes on Greece (pp. 118 - 126) so I'll get to that.

New Directions in Government and Society (2,000 BC-700 AD)

Classical Greece (2,000-300 BC).
Important Occurrences in Greece and the World

• 2,000 BC
• Greece: Minoan civilization prospers in Crete.
• 1,780 BC
• World: Hammurabi's Code,
• 1,500 BC
• Greece: Mycenaean culture thrived on Greek mainland.
• 1,472 BC
• World: Hatshepsut is the first woman pharaoh.
• 1,200 BC
• Greece: Trojan war.
• 1,027 BC
• World: Zhou Dynasty begins at China.
• 850 BC
• World: Assyrians expand their empire.
• 750 BC
• Greece: Greek city-states flourish.
• 500 BC
• World: Zapotec of Mexico build Monte Alba'n.
• 479 BC
• Greece: Greece triumphs in Persian Wars.
• 334 BC
• Greece: Alexander starts building an empire.
• 321 BC
• World: Chandragupta founds Mauryan Empire in India.

Cultures of the mountains and the sea

• Greece is a mountainous peninsula out into the Mediterranean Sea.
• Also about 2,000 islands in Aegean and Ionian seas.

Egypt-Review

A. Reviewing Key Terms

1. cataract: point in a river where boulders turn it into churning rapids.
2. delta: broad, marshy, triangular area in Lower Egypt formed by deposits of silt.
3. nome: territorial divisions each ruled by a nomarch--an administration official.
4. dynasty: series of rulers that descended from the same family.
5. pharaoh: god-king in theocracy ruling; based on religious authority.
6. ka: eternal life force even after death.
7. pyramid: immense structures where kings' tombs were buried.
8. maat: concepts of truth, balance, order harmony, law, morality, and justice--sometimes presented as a goddess.
9. hieroglyphics: comes from the Greek words hieros ("sacred") and glyph ("writing") that mean "sacred carving".
10. papyrus: papyrus reeds are plants that, when processed, make paper-like sheets that are easier to write on than slabs.

B. Identifying Key Facts

1. I was the British archaeologist who discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in 1922. My name is ______ ______.
2. The ____ _____ provided Egypt with a reliable system of transportation and with an annual deposit of fertile soil.
3. In about 3,100 BC, a strong-willed king of Upper Egypt named ______ united all of Egypt.
4. Asian nomads known as the ______ ("rulers of foreign lands") ruled much of Egypt from 1630 to 1523 BC.
5. I was the linguist who deciphered the hieroglyphics on the Rosetta Stone. My name is ____ ________ ___________.

C. Checking for Understanding

• Three ways in which the Nile river influenced Egyptian life:
1. Yearly flooding that brings rich soil (i.e. silt) and allowed settlements to grow.
2. Provided reliable system of transportation.
3. Trade between Lower and Upper Egypt established.
• Purpose of the pyramids.
• stone tombs to accommodate royalty.

B. Identifying Key Facts Answers

1. Howard Carter
2. Nile river
3. Narmer
4. Hyksos
5. Jean François Champollion