Our Final Destination: France
Our trip was coming to an end, althought I wasn't too beat up about it. I loved our tours of Greece, Rome, England and now France, but I definitely was a little homesick. I dreaded going back to Dnaville, but was so excited to see all my frie nds and family. I personally think France was saved for last, only vbecasue it's the best. My grandmother had once lived there when she was younger and always explained to me how beautiful it was there. I can now relate the amount of awe she had described when she talkesd about her first time in France. We had done our tours by foot, and by bus. All that was left was to tour France by boat! The classes quickly boarded the glass-covered tour boat that wpould take us all along the Seine river. It was a day long trip, which started off with Notre Dame. The Notre Dame Roman Catholic Church was right on the river and looked absolutely gorgeous. The interior design as we walked through the entrance was unbelievable.Every detail was so intricate and precise I could not imagine how long this would have taken for someone to complete. We walked through the Notre Dame, took our notes, and proceeded back to the tour boat for our next stop. We could see from miles away that we were beginning to approach the Eiffel Tower. It had no great significance although it was made for the World fair in 1889. The Eiffel Tower is the highest paid tourist attraction in the world. There are not many tall buildings in france like there would be in San Framncisco, but the Eiffel Tower was the tallest building in Paris. We all waited for the elevator and began our descent upward to the restaurant inside the tower. It had a beautiful view, but the food was awful. I decided not to eat mine and enjoyed the scenery. It didnt last too long as we had to proceed back to our hotel to go see the Salon Session Re-Enactment. This session included the three main philosophe thinkers of that time. Jean Jacques Rousseau, Baron de Montesquieu, and John Locke were accompanied all began to share their ideas and contributed their part to the Enlightenment, or Age of Reason. It was a bit confusing to follow the re-enactment, so afterwards we toured the Museum that contained all three of these philosophes. We read, talked about, and took notes on every single one of them to solidify our understanding of this time period. After a long week of sight-seeing, we were rewarded with a nice dessert in Paris. We got back to our hotel pretty late, but we could sleep in the next day because our flight wasn't until 2:30. We awoke the next morning and began to pack our things. The same process as the first day, some people were later than others. We made it through security just in time to make it to our flight, and we began our descend home.  

Contributions to Modern Democracy:

• Seperation of powers
• Natural Rights
• Reason
• Treatisies of Government- Linked to Declaration of Independence
• Social Contract- Constitution
• Humanism
• Scientific Revolution

England
Despite the colder weather, England was my favorite place so far. I was able to dress up a little more than in Greece and Rome. Something about wearing nice clothes in England that I absolutely love. There wasn't too much sunlight, but that didn't bring me down. We started off with the number one recommended tourist activity; the Double-Decker Bus Tour. I was thrilled to be doing our tour on wheels. Comfortable walking shoes would have totally ruined my outfit. We all grabbed breakfast at the hotel and then waited outside for the huge bus to approach our hotel. When it had arrived, we all piled in and sat back to enjoy the ride. We approached the beautiful Windsor castle(our farthest sight to see), as we all began to read in our travel guide the significance of England's government to Modern Democracy. The fort walls lining the castle gave it the 'Hogwarts' look. Our guide began to point out the parts of the castle of which the queen stays in. Our tour of the oldest, and largest, castle in the world was coming to an end, and we had to move on. The view of all the streets and buildings was overwhelming. Buckingham Palace was drawing closer and the excitement inside me was growing by the second. I watched the royal wedding and I enjoy all of the Middleton family drama and lifestyle greatly. Kate is now pregnant as well!!! What perfect timing to pay her a visit. We unloaded off the bus and everyone rushed to the guards. Obviously none of them even flinched at the sight of us. After a few minutes of playing around, we were instructed by Mrs. Hamilton not to go near them any longer as tempting as it is. I began to look for more interesting facts like the 78 different bathrooms the palace contains. There was sadly no queen or king in sight, so we headed of the the museum of England. We learned there the fascinating story of King James I and King Charles I. I decided to tour the museum from beginning to end, which came helpful to me when I was taking my notes. It played out like a story-book! This was the era containing the Petition of Right, the Restoration, the English Civil War, and the Restoration. During this time the Habeas Corpus was created as well. To introduce us to the most influential document in England, the English Bill of Rights, we were able to sit in on a Parliament Re-Enactment meeting. This was the re-enactment of King William and Queen Mary signing the English Bill of Rights. Many of the ideas sounded extremeley familiar to America's Bill of Rights, keeping in mind that this was a major influence.The signing of the Bill of Rights in England was a significant time period due to the ending of the Absolute Monarchy.

Contributions to Modern Democracy:

• Common Law
• Magna Carta
• Model Parliament
• Rule by Law
• Bill of Rights
• Habeas Corpus-rights of prisoners
• Glorius Revolution
• Abolishment of Divine Right
• Jury

Ancient Rome
Room arrangements were kept the same as they had been in Greece. Everyone settled in and got dressed for a nice dinner to start off our second leg of the trip; Rome. It was a warm night and the town was beautifully lit up. We had an amazing authentic romanian meal as Mrs. Hamilton began to go over our agenda for the next few days. Everyone went straight to bed when we got back to try and avoid the jet lag of a 9-hour time difference. Our first day in Rome had only two destinations; the Paletine Hill, and the Forum. These places held many significant buildings from the Roman Republic and the Roman Empire. As we walked up to the Paletine Hill, we were beginning to see the ruins of Domition's palace. This palace was massive in size and was home to many great rulers. As we approached the palace I couldn't help but laugh at how small we were compared to these huge stone walls. We established a meeting place and a meeting time so we could have free time to explore about the palace. Many people say you learn more when you learn on your own intentions. There were so many fascinating structures such as the extremely large stadium inside the palace walls. This stadium was for the wealthy people only because there was another for the public just outside the front steps of the palace. We began to walk around the skirts of the stadium until we saw it was time to head back. Our next stop was the Senate and Courthouse, or Curia and the Basilica Julia.This quickly became my favorite part of the trip. The were holding Mock trials that day, and our classes got to participate! We had three cases, only one of whom was found guilty. We were all put to the test to apply our knowledge of Ancient Roman justice court laws. Applying the Roman laws to real life situations exemplified the similarities between Ancient Rome and the world of Modern Democracy today.
Contributions to Modern Democracy:

• Three Branches of Gov't
• Written Laws-Justinian Code
• Republic
• Idea of a 'veto'
• Checks and Balances
• Court System
• Terms
• Natural Law
• Reason
• Rule by Law
• Senate

Ancient Greece
It was a cold, early morning and the classes were becoming restless. A select few were running late,which didn't sit well with Mrs. Hamilton. She is not a big fan of lateness. We finally had everyone loaded onto a bus and all the luggage tightly packed underneath. The bus ride to SFO wasn't too bad and went by surprisingly quickly. It took about an hour to get everyone through security and to find our gate. We still had about half an hour until we started boarding so everyone dispersed to find Starbucks/McDonalds for a quick breakfast. They announced our flight number to signal we were boarding and everyone began to find their seats next to their friends in the class. I slept the whole flight and magically woke up in Greece. We took the shuttles to our hotel and were given an hour to settle in. We were only in Greece for a couple days, so we made use of our time and grabbed lunch on our way to the first leg of the trip; the Acropolis. We were assigned a tour guide at 2:20 and met at the beginning of the long path leading up to the huge pile of stone buildings. As well as many others in the class, I began to tune out the tour guide and started to explore on my own. My expectations were completely off considering the Parthenon was about three times the size I had imagined it to be. I took so many pictures of the most important buildings such as the Erectheion where Poseidon and Athena fought for the title of Athens(evidently Athena was successful). After posing a million times in front of the Parthenon, the classes made their way back down the pathway, to the base of the acropolis, and down to the Areopagus. The Areopagus was not much of a site to see. It was the pile of rubble down at the base of the Acropolis' hill. It had once held many of the important buildings for democracy in Ancient Greece. All that you can see now is a large pile of rocks. Once at the Museum, we toured the building looking at all of the different Greek leaders. We learned the different contributions to democracy of each leader including Draco, Solon, Cleisthenes, and Pericles. Once, after filling in  our note taking guide on each leader, we were off to visit the Agora. The Agora was located under the Acropolis, even further below the Areopogus. The Agora was the highlight of all Ancient Greece culture. it was the center of all life for the Athenians. It seemed to look like a small town, with large buildings all found in a tight cluster. Our tour of the Agora was short and sweet, due to the lack of time we had for dinner. We had cancelled our reservations in town, and stopped for whatever was quick on the shuttle bus back to the hotel. We packed our things and prepared for another long flight ahead of us the following day. Next stop;Rome!

Contributions to Modern Democracy:

• Jury System
• Federalism
• Allowed citizens to propose laws
• Three Branches
• Written Laws
• Law Courts
• Assembly of representatives
• Paid public officials
• Court has final say
• Right to vote for male citizens 18+

Roots of Democracy Blog

Read along with me as I travel through Greece, Rome, England, and France!

Cayman Silliman