A History Lesson

As a former US history and Texas history (yes, we teach Texas history in our schools and in fact, we teach it in TWO DIFFERENT GRADES!) teacher, I think it goes without saying that I LOVE HISTORY! I especially love that by living in Europe, I get to see totally different, ummm, "presentations" of World History events. As American students, we tend to learn things from an American point of view, but I have learned over the last several years, that history is, in fact, a bit relative. The things and events we tend to focus on in relation to historical information is usually determined (and even a bit colored) by our background and our location, which makes history not such a B&W topic after all. Kind of cool, if you ask me!




My family knows very well that I would never plan a vacation with an itinerary that read something like: 
Day one- Beach
Day two-Shopping
Day three- Beach and shopping
Day four- Shopping and Beach


I go on vacation to EXPERIENCE and yes, to LEARN! So when we plan family vacations, they know that there needs to be some kind of excursion, museum, or monument in the near vicinity in order for me to deem the location worthy of a visit. Does that make me a nerd?? Or just extremely cool?? (or incredibly fun with which to travel?!)


Well in connection to my determination to LEARN STUFF while on vacation, I have to share one of the locations that we visited on our Euro-trek with mom and dad--
                                                         WATERLOO

Just 13 kilometers south of Brussels is the little village of Waterloo, the site of the defeat of Napoleon, but after spending a few hours there, I discovered it represents so much more. Even Mads, as a European man, had not realized that this battle was considered to be one of the most important in European history. All four of us learned so much that day! 


Of course we cannot all make the treks to these amazing locations around the world, but I encourage you to do a little reading about Waterloo.... about the major players in the battle..... and about how these forces worked together to defeat a man considered to be one of the most brilliant military minds of his time. I promise....learning is fun!