Summer plans for 2015

Over the summer I have 3 main things I want to do.

1. Get a job
2. Stay fit for soccer and cross country in the fall
3. Do a lot of things with my friends


GET A JOB
         I have currently applied to the Dubuque Country Club, but I haven't heard back from them yet. The draw back of working there is that it is a summer job so they would want me working almost everyday of the week which wouldn't leave me much time to do anything else. If I don't get the job there I'm not entirely sure where else I would apply. But I am keeping my eyes open for anyone who is hiring.

STAY FIT FOR SOCCER AND CROSS COUNTRY IN THE FALL
          I will hope to go for runs 4-5 times a week, I will probably try and run with some of my friends who also run cross country just because I enjoy running with other people more than running by myself. I will be getting together with a few guys to play soccer as much as possible. I am going to try and work out with my friend Willie probably 3 days a week as well.


DO A LOT OF THINGS WITH MY FRIENDS
         I definitely want to do more things with my friends this summer, and it doesn't always have to be something planned in advance, I'm gonna try just if I'm not doing anything for a few hours calling up one of my friends and seeing if they want to do something. I've already started to make some plans with some of my friends so that's a bonus.

Into the Sea of Darkness

             In the 15th century Portugal was becoming a big name in the maritime economy. They had a unique location that looked west and south across the Atlantic Ocean. This helped Portugal build a maritime economy based on trading, shipbuilding and sailing. The Portuguese monarchy supported ship owners which helped the growth of oversea trade.
              For a long time sailors in Europe had only knowledge of the ocean that was gained form personal experience such as tides, currents, wind, weather and the coastlines near their home. But in the 14th and 15th centuries technological developments were made that vastly changed the world of seafarers, shipbuilders and mapmakers forever.
              The people of Portugal had maritime knowledge, a good location and a lot of seafaring experience. But what really united the nation in a mission of exploration was a man named Prince Henry the Navigator. Prince Henry was born March 4th of 1394, he was the third living son of his family. When he was 19 he went on a crusade against a port city in Northern Africa. In 1415 the Portuguese attacked and defeated the port city Ceuta. Henry would then go on to explore Africa by way of the

Thoughts on Robin Hood

So today for history I read a paper about whether or not Robin Hood was a real character in history or if he is a fictional character created for stories.

I think that Robin Hood himself is less likely a real person than, the stories are real and are all given the same character to create the legacy of Robin Hood. Perhaps Robin Hood was a real person and maybe he just didn't do all of the stories that we know today. In the original book of Robin Hood stories, there is now mention of either Frier Tuck or Maid Marion. Also the setting and times differ from the original stories to the stories we now know.  Either way I'm not particularly sure it matters, we all love a good Robin Hood story, and finding out that he wasn't real wouldn't take away from the story at all.

England's Greatest Playwright

                 As you probably guessed, I'm referring to William Shakespeare. When he was young he worked with a theater group that moved around from town to town performing anywhere the town had room for them. Then as he got older Shakespeare and some of his friends decided to break off from the main group and start their own theater company.
                He kept getting older (as all of us do) and he started not only performing plays but also writing them. He wrote all kinds of plays, drama, comedy, tragedy, historical and many other styles. Some of his famous shows are The Taming of the Shrew, A Midsummer's Night Dream, Hamlet, Richard III, Henry V, Macbeth and those are only a few of his plays.
                Something you may not have realized is that many common phrases used are actually lines from Shakespeare's plays. "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark" "To be or not to be?" Those are both lines from Hamlet. "A horse, a horse! My kingdom for a horse!" is from Richard III. "You're going to eat me out of house and home!" This line is from the show Henry IV, Part 2. And if you have heard of jealousy being called a "Green-eyed monster", you are hearing a reference to Othello.

Swiss Neutrality

In the 1400s Switzerland was a strong military country and they entered into several wars to try and expand their country. They won quite a few territories during this time, but in 1515 the Swiss suffered a big defeat at the hands of the French. This caused them to think twice about their policy to expand. They decided to adopt a policy of permanent neutrality and they have stayed out of foreign wars ever since.  At the beginning of World War 1 Switzerland announced neutrality and because of that they were not invaded. I do not believe that they have ever been invaded since they announced permanent neutrality



P.S.
My dad wants to know about "the real Swiss army"

In Euro cup qualifying Switzerland was placed in Group E along with England, Slovenia, Estonia, Lithuania and San Mariano

Englands Greatest Queen

          King Henry VII had three children, 1 son and 2 daughters. The oldest was a girl named Mary, when she was born she was named the heir to the throne of Henry. But when her younger sister Elizabeth was born she that title was taken from Mary and given to Elizabeth. The same thing happened to Elizabeth when she was 4, her brother Edward was born.
           Edward ended up taking the throne when Henry died but he was a sickly child and died  when he was 16. Mary won the fight for the throne and had Elizabeth under close watch to make sure she didn't try and take the throne from her again. One day while Elizabeth was sitting under a tree reading the Bible in Greek. A rider came up to her and told her that her sister was dead and that she was now the queen.
             Now that she was Queen everybody tried to get her to marry some man so that the country was not in the hands of a women. She said that she was married to England and would not marry a man. Despite what the country thought, Elizabeth became the best ruler England had ever had. Her people called Good Queen Bess.

The Changing English Language

              Over the years the English language has been changing. Slight things like pronunciations or syllable but the most obvious one is silent letters. A man named William Caxton noticed that the English language had changed and that it would continue to change. People have been able to figure out how people who spoke "Middle English" sounded and how it sounded compared to "Modern English"
               The change from middle to modern English is called "The Great Vowel Shift. Some words elongated, or two part vowel sounds called diphthongs became shorter. For example, Said was pronounced "say-id" but it is now pronounced "sed". And rude was pronounced "rew-ed"
               Other words/pronunciations that changed were Beet became Bite. Hoose became House. Leek became Like. Ohk became Oak And Uhks became Ox. The English language is still changing today, a lot of words have been added and a lot of words are pronounced differently than even 50 years ago.