Not to curb your or anyone's enthusiasm in discussing this anew/again, but much of this question has been answered in the responses to this thread, as well as having useful links in this section of the FAQ.

to clarify my question: Like i had thought the renaissance was the period immediately following the middle ages but i think the renaissance is the last 2 centuries of the middle ages? Are the terms for these eras specific to european history and what centuries would be included in them?

Wow, serious question, very tricky, booth terms are the same space time lap, or temporal Wave, the difference is in the discipline uses. I will used Renaissance in art, History, geography and sociólogy, and medieval times and Middle ages in economy, antopology and archeology.