If I had a choice, I would like to meet Da Vinci. My reasons are that he is much more of a Renaissance man than Michelangelo. While Michelangelo is extraordinarily talented, and there are few people that can reproduce his works, Da Vinci was a scientist of many fields, not the least of which were anatomy, astronomy, physics, architecture, and cartography. He also was an extremely skilled painter and created the Mona Lisa and The Last Supper. Da Vinci was also an ingenious inventor, and drew designs for a tank, car, parachute, helicopter, telescope, and many other things.

Da Vinci also had mountains of notebooks, all written in mirror script. He no doubt had many other hidden notebooks with even more ideas that could revolutionize some fields of study, even today. Da Vinci is considered the true genius of the Renaissance by many experts, and I agree with them.
 
My favorite subject from the Middle Ages is the feudalism system. In the feudalism system, there were many promises and debts that governed relations between everyone. The church was on the top of the feudalism hierarchy, after that came the king, then nobles, then vassals, then artisans, and then peasants and serfs, at the bottom. This in itself does not make feudalism particularly more interesting than other events in the Middle Ages, but the fact that a similar government was prominent in feudal Japan. 

Samurai took the place of knights, or vassals, and daimyos took the place of land owning lords. There was also a lower class of rice farmers that existed in the serfs place, although they weren't quite as bound to their land. This similarity between two separated cultures is what made feudalism the most interesting topic of the Middle Ages; to me, of course.
 
The Black Death was a horrible occurrence that afflicted much of Asia. It killed spread by means unknown to the people and killed quickly, for there was no cure. The Black Death eliminated what is estimated to be almost one-third of England's population, but this deadly plague also benefited the lower people of England. Imagine a settlement in which a wealthy lord has been lucky enough to survive the plague. He used to have hundreds of serfs bound to him, but the plague killed all but twenty. The lord realizes that he needs the serfs and can't live the life he is used to without them. To keep them from moving on, he pays them wages, something they have never had before. The serfs stay, but many leave to live in cities, as soon as they have earned enough money.

This time picture a different manor. The lord and his lady have been killed by the plague. After it passes, the serfs loot the manor, and leave their village for their first time, to take their skills to developing towns. The plague undermined the feudalism system, and while it didn't help many nobles, it freed many serfs and helped bring equality.
 
Our Pope, Urban II, had just announced that he was sending warriors to the Crusades. When my friends and I heard this, we knew what would happen. The nobles would get all of the glory, and we would be left in the dust as we always have been. But this time we were going to change it. We knew it would take the lords and their vassals weeks, maybe months, to stop fighting. We went around town, and formed our own army. We then marched off towards Palestine, the Holy Land. Some of our troops attacked German Jews while we were passing through Germany, but the most devoted of us kept going.

Then the Turks came. The people who had attacked our pilgrims in the holiest of cities would now try to not even let us into Palestine. We charged towards the oncoming troops, who met us on horseback. We all fought bravely, but as I looked around, Crusader after Crusader was dying and the Turks were not stopping. Injured, five of our number made our way slowly back to England. I served no further purpose on this Earth, but to tell the approaching army of knights where the Turks were strongest and weakest. Then, succumbing to my wounds, I took a breath, and moved on.
 
I arrived home and walked in the door. I had hardly been able to wait this long. It had been two years since I had lost all my family, and the final part of my father's will was to be read. At thirteen, I, Louis XVI, had taken the throne, after my elder brother and father were lost to sickness, my mother to grief. My father had left instructions for me to follow on this day, and so I would. I went to his room, opened his desk drawer, unsealed the envelope, and read the instructions. I read them again. And again. I could hardly believe my eyes. My father had requested that in light of the anniversary of his treaty with Austria, I was to marry Marie Antionette.

I was stunned. Austria was miles away on horse back or carriage which meant days or even weeks of travel. I didn't know what to do. I did want to leave home, it was all I had left of my family, but I couldn't desecrate the memory of my dear father by denying his wishes! Quickly, I wrote to the royal family of Austria, and sent my messenger off with as much haste as possible. A fortnight later, he returned with the reply. Marie Antoinette was to come to France, instead. She became liked by my people, but they tired of her, and bad choices on both our parts led to our capture and execution during the Reign of Terror.
 
Whilst traveling forth from a trading centre in the heart of mine homeland, Great Britain, I gazed upon the sky and let out a cry of horror as the sight of a foul black plume of smoke met my eyes. I broke into a run as I realized that mine fears hadst been recognized. I directed my gait towards the monastery that  laid outside mine homeland. I reached it with little ease, but eventually stoood outside its great wooden doors. In my panic, I abandoned all courtesy and began to hammer upon the doors with all of my strength. Only when some of my terror began to subside, did I realize that something was gravely wrong.

The door, usually thick and strong, was blackened and beginning to splinter under my efforts. The windows hadst no flicker of candlelight glowing from within. And the most heart-wrenchingly discernible was the lack of almost constant prayers, chants, and hymns coming from within. I raced down the treacherous slope to mine village and was met with carcasses and destruction. I sped around the village, calling out for someone, but none answered. 

A cry of anguish and despair echoed around the ruins, and I perked my ears. I ran with all of my strength to the centre of mine hometown, and saw, a group of about a half-score of people working their way out from a collapsed building. I rushed towards them and we began to maneuver the rubble around. With our efforts, we managed to clear the surrounding carnage, and began to wander the city, gathering the dead for burial. As we walking in our solemnity, the poor, disturbed creature that had uttered the first cry began to mutter, "The Northmen... It

 
 
Charlemagne was king of the Franks in the 700's. He devoted his time to conquering lands in Europe. His empire soon grew to almost match the size of the Roman Empire in it's height, and eventually included part of the Roman empire that existed in his time. Because of that, he was crowned Emperor of the Romans by Pope Leo III.

Charlemagne's empire was doomed to fall, due to weak rulers in the future, but while it existed, it consisted of all of modern France, along with parts of modern Germany, Austria, Spain, and Italy. Furthermore, Charlemagne's people, the Franks, were a Germanic tribe, but eventually became the people modernly known as the French. One of the important rivers for the French, was also important for the Franks. The River Seine provided them with a steady water supply, and more. As I said earlier, soon after Charlemagne's death, less strong rulers caused his empire to crumble both externally, from attack, and internally, from mismanagement.

Charlemagne also sponsored many schools when he was alive, especially in his capitol of Aachen. His schools were most likely run by monks, so Charlemagne indirectly also help
 
My new year's resolution is to create a Scratch imitation of the program Rosetta Stone. Three of my good friends speak one or more Indian languages, and so I'm going to attempt to understand them. I will find a Bengali translation of the words used in Rosetta Stone and screenshot the images. I will keep the program to myself so I will not be violating any copyrights. The Bengali phrases I get will be put into the program Voki, from which I will record the sound. I will program the Scratch system to recognize the sounds and will make sure to not cut any corners. To break the repetition, I shall now use the word shall.

Another resolution that I am trying to complete is to improve in my music playing. I will practice hard and make sure to add technique whenever possible.
 
The thing that I am looking most forward to over winter break is my aunt's Christmas Eve party. At the party, I get to see relatives that I almost never see, along with friends of the family. There are great appetizers, and it's lots of fun. Near the end of the party, my Uncle Ernie comes dressed up in a Santa suit. Some of the youngish kids notice he's "gone," so we tell them he has "claustrophobia." After the party, my immediate family and I drive to a neighborhood that lines their streets and sidewalks with luminaries. Luminaries are lit candles with a paper bag over them, and they look really neat after dark.

Something else I like about winter break is that I don't have to do much. I have little or no homework, and can sit around the house all day (sort of), or sleep in. I am also allowed to watch more TV, and play more video games without school work to do. This break, though, I have to work in Rosetta Stone for French, and study for the upcoming Science Bowl. I also like being able to use my Christmas presents for about 3 weeks, and I'm always allowed to play more video games if I pull the "But I just got it!" line. Also, during the Christmas season, my family plays Christmas music all day, which is also fun to listen to. Although it's not actually over winter break, Friday is my birthday, and my family and I are going to see the "How to Train Your Dragon" performance at the theater.
 
The most important contribution that the societies of China and Korea made to Japan was religion and philosophy. Korea introduced Buddhism to Japan, which modified the Japanese way of thinking and produced many great works of architecture in the form of Buddhist temples. Confucianism from China reorganized the family relationship into wife obey husband, children obey parents, and younger sibling obey older sibling. Confucianism also changed the leader to subject, friend to friend, and children to elders relationship. The Japanese produced their own form of Buddhism, Pure Land Buddhism, and also borrowed Zen Buddhism from the Chinese.

 These contributions added to the self-control, discipline, and overall culture of the Japanese. Without them, the course of Japanese history would be extremely varied