Week 14: Famous Last Words

Quadrant streak of Legionella bacteria
(similar to the streaking I do in lab)

Well, this past week has been nothing but bittersweet for me. It was definitely a crazy week! As the semester draws to a complete close (with this upcoming week being dead week, aka the very last week of classes), it's been such a whirlwind. I had my very last regular test on Wednesday, and I've been finishing up all of my final experiments in my capstone lab, and this upcoming up week I will begin my final paper for capstone. I only have that one paper and one final, and I will officially be ready to graduate. I can't believe the time has actually come! It's honestly the most surreal feeling ever.

Another high I had this week was the Relay for Life event, which occurred over this past Friday. Together, the OU community raised over $180,000 for the American Cancer Society - absolutely unreal! It was such a fun experience, and I'm so glad I was able to spend my entire senior year working and planning such an amazing event for an even more amazing cause.

As far as this class goes, I am wrapping everything up this week and should be finished as soon I
as receive my comments back from Laura. It's been such a fun experience being in this class, and I've enjoyed every minute of it. There have definitely been some units that I have liked more than other, but all of them contain unique and individual stories of their own. I loved the idea of the UnTextbook; I think it has been really effective in the way the class was run. It's super easy to navigate and all of the notes in the episodes are super helpful too! Such an awesome class overall!

Indian Epic UnTexbook: Tales of the Sun

After skimming through the book options for the Indian Epics UnTextbook, the Tales of the Sun by Georgiana Kingscote and Natesa Sastri, were stories that just happened to pop out at me. After clicking on the link and leading to the Gutenberg website, I used the EPUB version of the story, and downloaded the book to my computer. Because I have a MacBook, my computer automatically opened up the book in the application iBooks. I've used iBooks for my own personal reason, so I'm not sure why I never thought to use it before for school! It was a great tool, and it was perfect for this particular assignment because it was super easy to navigate through, and iBooks automatically placed a link to the table of contents at the bottom of the screen, therefore it was super easy to jump between stories.

One of the stories I chose to read was "The Poisoned Food". The main reason I chose it was because Laura currently has it bold because she is considering as a story to include in the UnTextbook. I really enjoyed this read, and I thought it was lighthearted and very easy to follow. The language flowed very nicely, and I never found myself asking "wait, what is going on?". I think sometimes whenever the language gets too flowery or there are a lot of words that are still in the original language that the story was written in, it can sometimes be hard to follow. However, I think this story (and the other stories in this unit) were great!

Another story I looked at was "The Lost Camel", and I really enjoyed this story. The logic behind each of the young men's description of the camel was really interesting. I liked that each of the men were able to use the observations of the trail left by the camel to make different assumptions about the camel. It was fascinating to me that even though nobody had ever seen the camel, they could predict what he looked like. Overall, I think the story was really easy to read, and it was short and simple. I think this story would be a perfect addition to the UnTextbook!

Week 14 Storytelling: Straw Spun of Gold

"My daughter is the most beautiful and talented woman in all the land! She can spin straw directly into gold! Can you believe it? She deserves nothing but the most handsome prince as her husband," the poor miller exclaimed.

(Once Upon a Time [Miller's Daughter & Rumpelstiltskin])

The miller was sad, poor man who had lived his entire life living right next to the king's castle. He forever longed for his family to be royal, but he knew there was no way he could escape his poverty. For whatever reason this one day, the miller decided to press his luck and convince the king to
let him prove himself. If he wasn't going to be able to make it into royalty, at least maybe his daughter could live the life he always wanted.

"WHAT! Okay, well sir, I do believe you have yourself a deal. I love me some gold, of course, and if your daughter can really do what you're saying she can do, my son just might become the next available bachelor," the king cheerfully agreed.

When the miller got home, he delightfully explained to his daughter what her task would be, forgetting that this wasn't a talent she actually possessed. She had no idea what she was going to do. How would she be able to make this dream of her father's a reality?

Author's note: I decided to go with the story of Rumpelstiltskin as my story for this week because I love the story so much. I pretty much kept the story as the original, but just added a little more dialogue to the mix. I hope you enjoy my retell!

Bibliography: The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales translated by D. L. Ashliman (1998-2013).

Reading Diary A: Grimm (Ashliman)

I wasn't quite sure exactly what I wanted to read for this last week of material, but I finally decided to go with Grimm (Ashliman). This is one set of stories I have wanted to read since nearly week 1, so I figured, what better time than the last week to go ahead and jump on board!

(Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book [1889])

One of my favorite stories from this unit (and in life in general) is Little Red Cap. As always, every time I hear this story, I enjoyed the cute story. However, I thought the ending was really interesting. In every single children's book that this story appears in, there is no mention of the huntsman coming into the house to cut open the wolf. I'm sure this is left out because it is a tad bit on the morbid side for a children's story. It's really interesting that the huntsman is able fully save her. Another thing I thought was interesting is how her name has been changed throughout time, history, and culture. Most stories that you hear of the little girl in the story refer to her as "Little Red Riding Hood"; however, in this story, she is referred to "Little Red Cap". I really do wonder where/when the common name we hear today became the popular name.

Another story I have always enjoyed reading is Rumpelstiltskin; therefore, it's only fitting that it is one of my favorites of this unit. I am an avid watcher of the show called Once Upon a Time that airs on ABC on Sunday nights, and one of the main characters os the show is Rumpelstiltskin. Like the original story, he is a poor little man who is always looking for something that will benefit him. In this story, he is willing to help the miller's daughter spin the gold, but before he does he says to her "What will you give me if I spin the straw this time?". Each time he is willing to help her, he only wants to know "what's in it for him". Although I have heard the general story of Rumpelstiltskin, I guess I never realized exactly how it ended. I had no idea he rips himself up into pieces! Crazy!

UnTextbook Online Reading Options

1. Device. I used a Macbook Pro laptop to complete this assignment.

2. Browser. I used Safari as my default browser, and for some of the readings, I downloaded them and opened them up in Adobe Reader. Some of them I just viewed as a PDF in my browser.

3. Best Option. I personally like downloading the PDF files because I find them a tad bit easier to read, but I think it's most likely due to the fact that that is method I am most familiar with.

4. Worst Option. I thought all of the options were great ones!

5. Reading Online. I have the Kindle app downloaded to my computer, so I use that for books that I read for leisure. I also have to read scientific documents/articles online often for many of my classes. I tend to just download the PDF to my computer and use Adobe Reader as the main program.

6. Taking Notes Online. Do you have a good method for taking notes when you are reading online in a browser window? For example, I open a plain text file resize my browser window and text file so that they both appear on the screen, and I take notes while I read. What notetaking method do you use for material you are reading in your browser window?

7. PDF Notetaking. I usually just pull up a word document (usually in the "note-taking" version) and place them side by side on my laptop in two separate windows.

8. Hard Copies. I personally prefer reading hard copies, especially scientific articles, because I find it much easier to take notes on a physical piece of paper because I am able to mark up all over the paper with highlighter and different colored pens, and then I type up my notes later. I often prefer printing at home because of the convenience; however, I tend to have to print documents with tons of pages and I run through printer ink like nobody's business. Because of this, I often will print off bigger documents from the library.

Online Education Review

I have taken quite a number of online courses throughout my time here at OU, and I can personally say that I have really enjoyed them all. One of the many features that I love the most is the ability to work at your own pace. Although all of the assignments and the way each course was set up have varied based on the likings of the professor, that is one thing that remains true throughout them all. Online courses give you the freedom and the flexibility to work on whatever you need to whenever you need to, and there is often some cushion if you are unable to complete some assignments. I love that online courses work with my busy schedule (believe me, I am one of the busiest people you will ever meet, haha). I really love how Laura has set up this course because there are so many graces if you happen to slip up a week or you just find yourself absolutely swamped and you are unable to complete something.

Online Course

Overall, I loved this course. I had a blast getting to know people through the blogs, and I especially enjoyed so many of the stories that we read. While there many familiar names, there were so many other stories that I had never heard of, and that definitely made it fun and enjoyable! I would absolutely recommend this course to everyone! (Don't worry, I already have to some!) I wish I could take it over and over again!

General Education Review

Knowledge

OU's general education requirements are very unique, in my opinion. I won't lie, when I first started at OU, I used to think the gen. ed. classes were really stupid and rather pointless. However, as I've gone through each semester of my college experiences, I've grown a deeper appreciation for the classes. The high school that I graduated from allowed many opportunities for students to earn college credit through concurrent courses at a nearby college, as well as numerous AP courses. I was lucky enough to come into OU as a sophomore with 37 hours under my belt. Many of these courses, were of course, general education credits. As I began to decide what I wanted to do and what direction I wanted to head with my degree plan, I began slowly trying to craft a way to just knock out all of the general education courses at once. I quickly learned that was a stupid decision on my part, due to my heavy load of science courses. I had nothing to cushion the blow, so to speak. General education courses, in my opinion, help students in all areas, which I think is the original purpose in the creation of them. If general education courses were not required, I would not have been required to take any sort of history, English, or social science course because none of which are automatically built into the curriculum of my major.

College Writing Review

Keep on Writing

My overall college writing experience has been a tad bit different than most students, I would say. In high school, I took Comp 1 and Comp 2 concurrently, and therefore was not required to take any writing courses when I started at OU. It was a very weird transition for me because being from Texas, writing is something that you are consistently tested over from 4th grade until you graduate high school. I have had to participate in very little writing throughout all of my time here at OU due to the fact that I am a microbiology major. The only writing I usually am required to complete involves formulating scientific manuscripts, which have a much different approach than say something like a narrative or a persuasive paper that one might be required to write for an English course.

I personally think it is crazy that even science students aren't required to take a writing intensive course. To my personal knowledge, there are currently no writing courses that are specific to science majors. I think creating a course of that nature would be very beneficial and would definitely only help those students who plan to further their education in the science/healthcare fields. There are so many jobs post undergrad that would definitely benefit from a course like this.

Google Language Tech Tip

I decided to change the Google language to Elmer Fudd because I thought it would be hilarious, and it definitely was! The button for "I'm feeling lucky" definitely got a good laugh out of me!

Week 13: Famous Last Words

Well, this week has absolutely flown by! At first, I thought it was going to be a long week because Monday seemed to drag on, but now it's already almost Friday! As I mentioned in my last post, things are absolutely crazy right about now. It seems like all of my classes have reached the "crunch time" moment. There's so much to do in my capstone class in order to finish up and be able to graduate; it's honestly so stressful. But, our group has finally nailed down an experiment, so hopefully we will be able to finish up in a timely manner and complete the course!

As for this class, I regretfully became super busy throughout the month of April, so I have been trying to play catch up. This is obviously no fault but of my own. I am
hoping to be able to wrap up everything within these next two weeks, but as I said before, April is such a crazy month! My goal for this next week is to add my last Storybook story and complete all the way through to the review week.

Design done by an executive member

In addition to all the craziness going on in my capstone class, I also have an upcoming physiology exam on top of working close to 30-40 hours a week. It's definitely been a challenging semester, but I think I have learned much responsibility and motivation from staying so busy. In a very backwards way, staying busy and occupying all of my time with things to do is what keeps me motivated. I love being super busy.

Another awesome thing I've gotten to participate in, not only this semester, but all year, is Relay for Life executive council. I am currently serving on the fundraising team, and we have been working all year to raise money for the American Cancer Society. This past week, we had multiple PR events to raise awareness about the awesome event, and after working so hard all year, next Friday is the day of the actual event. I am so excited to see our hard work play out! That being said...I must get on my soapbox for a minute. If you read this at all and are available on April 24th, you should sign up and check out this awesome event on the South Oval! It's going to be an awesome time!

Extra Reading Diary: Italian Fairy Tales

This week, for the extra reading assignment, I chose to read the Italian Fairy Tales. This is actually a unit I have been wanting to read as per the mention of Laura at the very beginning of the semester. I got to study abroad last summer in Italy, and I became pretty fascinated with the Italian culture (much of which I knew very little about before heading there). I mentioned that in my introduction, and Laura suggested that I read these stories. It wasn't until I was just scrimmaging through that I remembered that those were an option, so I decided to dive in and check them out!

(Italian Beauty and the Beast cover)

One of my favorite stories from the fairy tales was Zelinda and the Monster. As mentioned in the comments before the unit, it was definitely a Beauty and the Beast type of story. At first, I couldn't quite see the resemblance (other than of course a girl and monster), but as the story progressed, many of the same elements and details that are in the classic Disney movie and story were in this story as well. The mere fact that the monster returns to a handsome prince at the end of the story was the most obvious connection. The other connection about the girl's father being sick was also brought to my attention. My favorite quote amongst this story was "but you see, Zelinda, if you should marry me wonderful things would happen. What they are I cannot tell you until you will be my wife," because it is a sense of foreshadowing for the monster returning to prince form. It is made apparent by the quote that the monster is unable to tell Zelinda due to the curse the witch placed on him. Overall, the story was really easy to read, and I really enjoyed it!

Week 13 Storytelling: And So Enters the Sea Witch

"I can't do this anymore. I can't watch him live his life up on the earth without me. I am the one who saved his life; I need to be with him. It's my destiny!"Ariel said, swimming up to one of her many sister's seashell vanities. 

"I mean, I don't blame you! I couldn't do it either, but there's nothing you can do about it, Ariel!" Adriana, the eldest of the sisters, replied.

"That's the thing, Adriana. I CAN! Two words for you: Sea. Witch." 

"Oh my, you KNOW Dad will never let you set foot near her. Don't even think about it. She will probably give you what you want, but it will come with the greatest of price. She doesn't do things for free, you know?" Adriana tried to rationalize with her younger, naive sister.

"I don't care what I have to do. If I get to live and marry the prince, then I will do whatever it takes to get there! Make me a promise, just don't tell Dad, okay?" And with that, Ariel swam off into the deep, dark depths of the ocean to find the only person that could help in these desperate times.

The ocean became darker and denser as Ariel swam closer to the witch's home. She could feel the water becoming colder and icier the further into the depths of the ocean she went. Finally, after what had seemed like hours, she arrived at the forefront of the Sea Witch's lair. Mounds of seaweed covered the front door; obviously the witch didn't care too much about any visitors to keep up with the grooming. As Ariel approached the front door, a group of electric eels swarmed around her.

"Exxxxxcuse me, ma'am. Who are you? Why have you crossed into the depths of my master's lair?" the oldest of the eels demanded.

"I'm here to see the Sea Witch. I, I, I....I know she can help. I need to become a human. Please, let me in. She's my only hope," Ariel stammered.

(Sea Witch by Nadezhda Illarion)

"HAHAHA. A human? You silly fool. I'll gladly let you in, but you have no idea what you're getting yourself into," another of the eels said. And with that, the doors to the lair slowly creaked open.

Ariel hesitantly stepped inside and wandered around until suddenly a voice from seemingly nowhere cackled, "I know exactly why you're here. You foolish little girl! You think that prince could ever fall in love with you?"

"Of course I do! It'll be love at first sight. And not to mention he loved my voice when I sang to him as I rescued him. Even though he does think it's that temple girl. But I can show him it's me! It's me he's actually in love with! But I can only do with your help. So, please Sea Witch, I'm begging you. Can you help me?" 

"Like I said before. You're a foolish girl! I would be glad to help you, but like everyone has told you before...it's going to come at a price. I will make you a human, but you must understand some rules, and remember to choose wisely. Once I make you a human, you will never be allowed to return to the sea as a mermaid or have any communication with your sisters or father. Secondly, if are unable to make the prince fall in love with you, and thus he marries another woman, the morning after their marriage, you will become but a speck of foam in the sea," the Sea Witch explained.

"I don't care what I have to do. I've already made my decision! Do it now!" Ariel said, nearly interrupting.

"Now, now...I'm not finished. You will also experience excruciating pain with every step that you take. That's the price you must pay in order to gain feet. And last, but certainly not least, that voice of yours? Yeah, it's gotta go. So, good luck making the prince fall in love with you. HAHAHA" the Sea Witch cackled. 

"Like I said before. I've already made my decision. Take my voice, just make me a human so I can be with my prince!" Ariel began to cry.

"Your wish is my command"

And with that, the eels began to swim around Ariel, creating a whirlpool. Light and magic flashed all around and her voice began to escape her body. Painted pink toes now appeared where her green tail once was. Ariel's entire body quivered, and then suddenly the water grew still. Ariel slowly began to gasp for air, as her gils no longer belonged on her body. Quickly and swiftly Ariel began to swim to the surface of the ocean, quietly leaving her old life behind, ready to begin the search for her prince.

Author's Note: For my story this week, I decided to pick part 4 of Andersen's The Little Mermaid. All parts of the story were good, so it made it a tad bit difficult to choose which one I wanted to rewrite. Many are familiar with the Disney version of the story, and while some of the parts of the story are similar, there many parts that are much more gruesome. I combined elements of the Disney story (like the name Ariel and the eels guarding the lair); however, many of the other details came from the Andersen version. I hope you enjoyed reading it!

Bibliography: Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H. P. Paull (1872).

Reading Diary B: Hans Christian Andersen

The second half of this unit revolves solely around the story of the Little Mermaid, but like you mentioned in your comments in the beginning, it's definitely not the popular Disney story. I had no idea that the original story was so dark and gruesome compared to the lighthearted animated movie that everyone loves. Although the theme of the Andersen unit was deeper and resulted in a not so happy ending, I still enjoyed reading and experiencing the original. All of the language and details that Andersen uses is phenomenal! His writing is absolutely beautiful.

(Little Mermaid statue in Copenhagen)

All parts of the Little Mermaid were really entertaining to read, and I really enjoyed it. Amongst each of the episodes, my favorites were part 4, part 5, and part 6. I felt like in part 4 is where the story really picked up, and also where I noticed the most difference between the Disney story and Andersen's original version. The Sea Witch's compromise was definitely more gruesome than Ursula's "Poor Unfortunate Souls" bit; I couldn't believe that not only did she take her voice, she literally cut her tongue off. Talk about rude. I also didn't realize that part of the agreement that the Sea Witch made with the little mermaid involved never being able to return to the sea, and no matter how she stepped, her gait would cause her excruciating pain. Even with these stipulations, Andersen's version really shows the lengths people with go to in order to be with the person they love. Another major point in the story that stood out was the obvious different ending. In the Disney version, Ariel and Prince Eric eventually fall in love (after the spell with Ursula), and they live 'happily ever after'. However, the little mermaid's twisted happy ending she receives much be perceived differently. At first glance, it seems like the ending is not in her favor. However, even though she kills herself (instead of killing her prince), she is able to live on with an immortal soul, unlike the fate of most mermaids.

Reading Diary A: Hans Christian Andersen

This week I had a hard time choosing what I wanted to read, mainly because all of the options were so great! I couldn't decide between the Grimms stories, Dante's Inferno, Andersen, or really any of the other fairy tale stories. I went ahead and chose the Andersen Fairy Tales because my Storybook is over many of the Grimms stories, so I figured I would find something new. Who knows, I'll probably end up choosing Dante's Inferno next week. It's just too interesting of a story not to check out!

(The Princess and the Pea)

Perhaps one of my favorite episodes from this week's unit is The Princess and the Pea. It seems to be such a classic fairy tale story that almost everyone knows. I found it really easy to read; it was very light-hearted and fun. My favorite quote of the story was near the end when it says "...and the pea was put in the museum, where it may still be seen, if no one has stolen it." It gives the story a little bit of humor, and I think it's hilarious to think of a pea being put on display for people to see. Another quote I thought added humor to the story was the very last quote, "there, that is a true story," because it is such a definitive quote, but the story is not necessarily true.

Week 12: Famous Last Words

Well, these last 3 weeks have been absolutely insane. I had the wonderful opportunity to have a little vacation to Cabo during Spring Break, but as soon as I came back, I had to hit the ground running. I've had nothing but papers, tests, and projects in all of my classes, and it's seeming like it's never going to end. Luckily, there's a light at the end of the tunnel! Exactly one month from today, I will be graduating! And let me tell you, it's a super bittersweet feeling. I definitely can't wait because I'm excited to see what exactly the future holds, but I also am terrified because...well the exact same reason!

Since I'm there so many times a week (because I am a server),
I decided to include a picture of Chuy's.

As far as this class goes, I admittedly have not been able to commit as much time I was able to in the beginning of the semester. I am hoping to use this weekend to get caught up, and hopefully get ahead to where I am able to finish the course. I have really enjoyed all of the readings throughout each week, and I've really gotten to see a new perspective and style of teaching than I've ever had at OU. I'm so glad I decided to take this course because it has allowed me to use a little more freestyle writing than what I am normally used to in my other classes. This week, I unfortunately missed the deadline for the storytelling, but as I mentioned above, the g
oal I have set for myself is to try and catch up on everything this weekend.

Adding a little bit of excitement to the mix, my mom and sister are coming to visit Norman next weekend, so I am really excited for that! I definitely need a much needed break from school and work. I haven't seen either of them since Christmas, so it'll be fun to get to catch up with them.

Extra Reading Diary: Welsh Fairy Tales

For the extra reading this week, I decided to check out the Welsh Fairy Tales because it was one unit I knew absolutely nothing about. I really enjoyed these stories, and I liked how easy to read they were.

One of the stories that stood out to me as a favorite in this unit was March's Ears. I thought it was a really funny concept of the man to have horse ears. I really liked how that the story had multiple humorous parts to it, particularly the mere fact that "march" literally means "horse" in Welsh. I also thought the statement "March would undergo ridicule, which is certainly a serious thing: but the barber would undergo decapitation, which is much more serious" was hilarious and added a bit of humor to a rather dark idea of the story. Obviously having your head chopped off is going to rank on a MUCH higher scale of horror than being ridiculed for having horse ears. The only part I wish the story would have changed would be the ending. I feel like the ending was a tad bit undeveloped, and it would have been cool to see a little more of how the March changed his opinion about the ears.

(Bala Lake)

Another story I enjoyed was Bala Lake. I thought it had a very peaceful voice, and it was really easy to read. The idea of the bird leading the harper to the lake was really cool, and I think it tells a great story of how the lake was founded. The only part I was a tad bit confused on was the purpose of the bird whispering "vengeance". I'm sure I am probably just missing a minor point, but it just doesn't make a whole lot of sense. However, despite that minor detail, I still really enjoyed reading the story.

Reading Diary A: Robin Hood Ballads

This week I was originally going to read the Alice through the Looking Glass, but as I was looking through the different options, Robin Hood Ballads stuck out at me because of the way the stories are told. I really enjoyed that the stories were more of poems and songs, which made them really fun to read.

Robin Hood and Little John meet for the first time

One of my favorite stories in this unit was Little John. Although I'm not super familiar with all of the minor details of the story of Robin Hood, there are many things about it I do remember from watching the movie and hearing the story when I was younger. The name "Little John" was one of the first familiar names that I recognized, so I was naturally drawn to that particular episode. There was a minor little statement in this ballad that made me laugh "Bold Robin Hood said to his jolly bowmen". This is a very similar name that Robin Hood's men are now known by, "the merrymen", which would explain where the merrymen idea came from. I also had no idea that Little John's name was originally John Little. I love that Robin Hood and his men used that play on words (as well as his enormous height) to give him the ironic name of Little John. I thought it was cool that although Little John was the one who won the fight, he still decided to join Robin Hood and his men.

Another ballad I really enjoyed reading was Robin Hood's Delight. I found it really interesting that in both of these stories (and many others), the initial interaction between the characters was to fight and be violent. However, the end result of the story was the men that Robin Hood fought because apart of his crew, or they at least engaged in friendly conversation. I thought it was really interesting that the fighting in the story was almost pointless. They fight and fight for a few hours and then when he tries to call a truce, they refuse. However, shortly after, he tries to be friendly with the men, and they end up drinking for days.

Reading Diary B: Alice in Wonderland

I really enjoyed the second half of Alice in Wonderland, just as much as the first. The dialogue and the voice of the author is really shown through the writing, and it makes it so much more fun to read!

(Alice, March Hare, Mad Hatter at the Tea Party)

My favorite part of this second half was A Mad Tea-Party (along with part 2 & part 3). I loved the entire tea party scene in both the animated movie as well as the Tim Burton live-action movie, so I knew I'd probably like the written form. I love the chaos of the whole scene and how truly crazy the Mad Hatter, the March Hare, and Dormouse are. They all interact with each other in such a hilarious way, and it makes the story that much more entertaining. The Mad Hatter's riddles are, to me, what make the entire situation humorous. My favorite quote of his was "You mean you can't take LESS; it's very easy to take MORE than nothing." It just such a backwards way of thinking, and it shows his personality very well. When you first read the statement, you think "huh, that doesn't really make sense". But after thinking about it for a few minutes, I finally thought about it enough. I realized in the literal sense, you can take more than nothing because if you're taking anything at all, that's more than nothing!

Reading Diary A: Alice in Wonderland

Okay, I'm not going to lie, this is definitely the unit I have been waiting to read since we started the class. So needless to say, my choice for this week was really easy! I love every movie version of Alice in Wonderland, so I was really excited to be able to read Carroll's original. It's funny because I usually am one to read the novels before I see the movie, but I suppose I was so young when I saw the animated one for the first time, that just wasn't possible!

(Alice entering the rabbit-hole)

The first few episodes Down the Rabbit-Hole (part 2 & part 3) were probably my favorite episodes to read, mainly because I think it sets up the story so nicely. There is so much description about Alice as she first enters Wonderland. I think it's rather interesting that Alice is so trusting of everything she encounters, from the white rabbit all the way to the drinks sitting on the table. I thought it was funny that Carroll mentions that in the beginning of his story by saying "(when she thought it over afterwards, it occurred to her that she ought to have wondered at this, but at the time it all seemed quite natural)", and it's even funnier that it is written in parenthesis. Although I have never read the original novel, I think the places where the story was trimmed (chapters 2 and 3) was a perfect transition. Alice has officially made it inside the Wonderland grounds and the last little tid bit on part 3 of the Rabbit-Hole portion sets up the Advice from a Caterpillar quite nicely.

Reading Diary A: Myths of the Cherokee

For this week, I decided to go with the Cherokee Stories, mainly because of the description on the main UnTextbook page. As I have mentioned in numerous other blog posts, I really enjoy reading stories about how other cultures think the world was created and the origins of things. The stories and ideas vary so vastly culture-to-culture, and reading about them is just so intriguing.

With that being said, one of the first stories in this unit that caught my attention was the story titled How the World Was Made, for obvious reasons. I thought it was such an interesting explanation, one that I've never really heard before. In the story, it mentions that the "cords" that are attached to the island were done by an unknown being because "nobody remembers who did [it]". I always think stories like that are so cool because it's so much harder to trace the origin; they just kind of seem to grow out of thin air. Another interesting aspect of the story was near the end when they mention that woman began reproducing so quickly that there were too many people in the world so that was why it was only allowed that a woman could reproduce once a year, which correlates with the 9 months (which sometimes seems almost like a year, haha) in which a woman is pregnant.

(Tobacco Field)

Another story I read was Tobacco and Strawberries, and I found it to be one of the more different stories I've ever read, mainly because I thought it would be a story of the origin of how each of them came to be, but it turned out to be much different. I felt that the first story about tobacco was more about how "no matter how small, you can still accomplish big things", rather than how the tobacco made it back to the midwest. The story about the strawberries didn't seem to be the origin as to just how the strawberries appeared. It just makes a statement about "red berries" appeared for the first time. Both turned out to be very interesting reads, though!