Yi Dynasty

1400

My crew and I are on our way to see the Yi Dynasty. We are traveling by boat over to the island and we are not to far away. Once we get onto land, we are going to travel to Hanyang which is the capital. It is not to far from where the boat is going so we will have a pretty easy travel by foot. 

We are now off the boat and on our way to the capital. We are all hoping to see the cool buildings, art, culture that make this dynasty great. We aren't exactly sure what we should expect but either way we are excited. It should be a very interesting place.

The capital is a very impressive place. It is everything that we have ever heard about. The architecture, people and art are all so amazing. We had been looking around for a while and then we saw Yi Song- gye. Yi Song-gye originally founded this dynasty years ago and we heard he would be there and he was. That was very cool to see. We are now on our way back to the boat excited to go on to our next adventure. 

http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/653164/Choson-dynasty

http://www.artsmia.org/art-of-asia/history/korea-choson-dynasty.cfm

http://afe.easia.columbia.edu/main_pop/kpct/kp_choson.htm

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=getting+off+boat&hl=

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=map+of+korea&num=10

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=yi+dynasty+building&hl=en

http://www.google.com/imgres?q=map+of+korea&num=10

Tang Dynasty

648

My crew and I are sailing to China and entering the Tang Dynasty by boat. We are very excited about this trip to learn about the dynasty. We are quite bored and tired of the boat so we are excited to get close. We only will be on the water for a few more hours until we finally get to see this dynasty and all the things that make it so interesting.




Thankfully we are off the boat! Feeling seasick is not fun. We are now riding horses into the capital of Chang'an. This is really going to test our patience. We are going to have to travel a long way but it will be well worth it to see the great sites including literature, art, music, and dancing that the dynasty is famous for. My men and I are going to have to be mentally tough through this ride though.





We are finally in the capital of the Tang Dynasty. We are walking around and seeing all of the great parts of this culture that I thought we would. It's a very impressive civilization. While there, I bought this great statue of Buddha. At the same spot I bought the statue, my crew and I saw the Emperor of the Tang Dynasty. His name is Emperor Taizong. He is extremely well known and popular in the dynasty. It was a very cool experience and it will not be forgotten.






http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/tang/hd_tang.htm
http://china.mrdonn.org/tang.html
http://www.destination360.com/north-america/us/montana/horseback-riding
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=tang+dynasty&hl=en
http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/works-of-art/19.186
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=extremely+old+boat+sailing&hl

Timbuktu, Africa

                                                                                                                                                     1465

I just arrived by boat to the shores of Africa. Miners, guides, and I will all be taking this expedition. We went across the ocean and up the river. It has been a long journey towards Africa and I'm quite tired but their is no time for sleep. We now are going to have a three week expedition that we must embark on without delay.






Our three week travel to Timbuktu has begun and it is grueling. This desert is quite the obstacle course. I am extremely tired and thirsty. We have encountered one sandstorm and it was one the worst experiences of my life. I have never seen anything like it before and the men with me were very worried. Once we get to Timbuktu and get the gold and salt, we will have to make this same trip over again back to the boat as well. This is going to be a major test of mental strength.

We are now in Timbuktu and we are going to get salt for trade.  We are using many camels to transport the salt back to the ship. From Timbuktu the salt will sent out to other towns in Mali. It is especially difficult to do this because the salt is in huge slabs. On our way though we got very lucky. We saw Mansa Musa, the leader who converted to Muslim. It was a very special experience to see him. Everyone in the crowd stopped just to take a look at him before going on with their day.



Sources:
http://www.timbuktufoundation.org/history.html
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=gold+and+salt+trade
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=timbuktu+map&um
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=timbuktu&num
http://www.google.com/imgres?q=1400s+ship&um
http://www.digitalhistory.uh.edu/learning_history/1492/1492_timbuktu.cfm
http://www.humanitiestexas.org/news/events/golden-age-empire-mansa-musa-timbuktu-and-islamic-african-empire

Syria Conflict

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/18/syria-conflict-brahimi_n_1800828.html

A Syrian warplane bombed a small town that was partially controlled by anti- fighting people near
the Turkish border. The attack killed 8 people and injured at least 20. This was the latest attack during 
the countries civil war by President Bashar Assad's government. Warplanes are becoming a bigger 
part of strategy when western countries are looking into enforcing no fly zones controlled by the 
military.