American History > World History

The sun sets at approximately 5:30 pm now.  I guess that means I should wake up earlier next Saturday.  But, even in those short daylight hours I did a lot. I am exhausted.

I drove to Mt. Pleasant and ended up at a park by the water.  Since I was there and I accidentally paid for 10 hours of parking (the machine needed exact change and I didn't read that until after I lost my 5 dollar bill)  I decided to walk across the Arthur Ravenel Bridge.  The view was fantastic and I felt really good afterwards except for the fact that my legs were like Jell-O.  It was such a perfect day for it.  The sun was shining and I was warm in just a long sleeve shirt and sweater in November!

Then I drove to Fort Moultrie, which was free this weekend because of Veterans Day.  I was pretty excited about that.  It was really cool to walk through it and learn about it's rich history.  It served our country for 171 years starting in the Revolutionary War.  They had a cool demonstration with people dressed as soldiers from every major American war.  Some of them fired their weapons. It was pretty awesome.

The truth is I was just thrilled because I was experiencing American history instead of reading about world history.  I am stuck with world history all week long and it was such a relief to learn about things I actually find interesting.  I know people say that there is a lot more to world history and it covers a much longer period of time and that American history is really short compared to it, but I would rather learn about something that happened right here in my own backyard.  I'm not saying world history isn't important, because it is, but if I had the choice between Latin American independence movements and the Civil War, I would choose the Civil War every time....

...Which is kind of unfortunate considering I need to think of a good way to teach Latin American independence for Monday.

Oh well.  I'll figure it out.

After I walked around the fort I went to the beach.  I sat on my blanket and read my book while the sun was setting.  I could hear the waves crashing and feel my face burning from being out in the sun all day.  It was perfect and relaxing.  I am not used to having access to the ocean in November.  But it is something I could get used to. :)