Week 12: Reading Diary B

In honor of St. Patrick's day this week, I was excited to read on in the Celtic Fairy Tales unit. The story labeled Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree was probably one of my favorite for the second half of the reading this week. The name is what intrigued me from the start. I really wanted to know how the gold and silver would come to play in this story. After reading the first few sentences, I soon found out that the story wasn't actually about trees, but gold and silver referred to actual people. I couldn't really believe the story turned so nasty so quick. It really goes to show that jealousy makes people do awful things. Sometimes in the eyes of jealousy, not even your family is safe. The mother, Silver-tree, definitely did not like the someone referred to her daughter as the most beautiful queen in the world. The queen took jealousy to a whole other level after hearing this. Pretty much to the point where she wished to kill her daughter. This definitely made the story very interesting. The mother tried so hard to kill her daughter, but did not succeed. I think the item that completely surprised me in the story was the second wife coming into play. It was very genius though, and worked out perfectly. The second wife had so much love for her husband and the first wife. I was pleased to find out what a nice person she was, and that she fought to keep Gold-tree alive.

(Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree)

Week 12: Reading Diary A

Since I am doing this assignment early, and in honor of St. Patrick's Day, I choose to read the Celtic Fairy Tales unit for Week 12. I love reading fairy tales, and as soon as I read the description of this particular unit, I knew I wanted to read it. This unit did seem sort of short, but nevertheless, it was a good read. The first story I really enjoyed in this unit was Connla and the Fairy Maiden. I loved the idea of the maiden being free from death and old age. The way this story is portrayed, the maiden really seems magical and mystic. The maiden definitely did not have to work very hard to impress and make her mark on Connla, the king's son. With her charm, she was able to create a longing in him that no one had ever seen before. It was only normal that the King thought that this was an evil witches doing, and turned to his druid to be rid of her. Unfortunately for them, she was able to return near the end of the story. Only she could satisfy Connla's longing, and she finally got her chance to do it. I really wonder if they ever went off to that joyful land that the maiden promised Connla, or if it was just a trick. The mystery of the story definitely keeps you thinking, even after the story is done. There are a million possibilities for how the story could have gone after the ending.

(Connla and the Fairy Maiden)

Week 11: Reading Diary B

After reading the first half of the Aesop's Fables (English) unit, I was very excited to read on. After looking over the list of chapters when I first started, I was looking forward to reading the stories in the chapter labeled Dogs. I, of course have a dog, and the idea of reading tales about dogs sounded very interesting. The second story, the Hungry Dogs, was a good read. I think the moral of the story was very interesting as well. Thinking that something in the distance is treasure could definitely lead to doom. You definitely need to know what it is you're after, and not just assume that it is something good. There are plenty of tricks out there, and you definitely need to be careful in trying to avoid them.

The second story in this chapter I really enjoyed was the Faithful House Dog. I don't know why, but just by the title, this story made me think of my own dog, Cobi. I was very excited to read on. By looking at the title, I was definitely thinking that the story had to do with a lesson of faithfulness of some sort. I was intrigued to find out how that test would pan out. After reading the story, I could only hope that my dog would be as faithful as the one in the story. He didn't try and take the bribe from the intruder, which was a very good call. He protected his owner, and by that he is very loyal. This story definitely showed a lesson of loyalty, and although it was short, it got its point across.

(Cobi)

Week 11: Reading Diary A

This week, I decided to go with what I like best and read the Aesop's Fables (English) unit. I enjoyed the other Aesop's units that I read so figured this one really wouldn't disappoint. From first glance over the stories listed, I was very excited to get to read some more stories involving animals, but was also very intrigued to see stories about gods. The first story I really enjoyed was the chapter labeled Foxes. If you read any of my earlier posts, you would have ran across that I have a fox tattoo on my upper thigh. I think foxes are really cool animals, even though I do love most animals, and I was excited to read some stories about them. All of the stories in this chapter seemed to have different themes behind them.

My favorite was probably the one about the fox and the dragon. Ever since Game of Thrones, dragons have been a bit of an obsession, so who wouldn't like to get two of their favorite things into one story. This story was a bit hard to read, but I definitely liked the rhyming. It was a good thing that their was a summary of some sort before reading the story. It definitely made it a lot easier to understand. I like how the fox was portrayed as a character with wisdom, especially since foxes are usually portrayed as such. It was funny to find out that the dragon was foolish. There is really no surprise there when taking into account how dragons guard their riches. Overall, I really enjoyed this story.

(Fox)

Week 10: Reading Diary B

After reading what I had so far, I was extremely excited to finish up Eskimo Folk Tales. I sort of think that these stories have been my favorite thus far this semester. They are fairly easy to read, plus its very interesting to read stories that have to deal with Native America. From the second half of this reading, I was very interested in The Wife Who Lied. From the name of the story, it seems like this would be relatable in the real world. The first sentence was really what hooked me in. I mean how can you not get intrigued when you see that the individual in the story came from a tribe of man-eaters.

After reading on, this story seemed almost kind of graphic, but in a good way. Sometime for me, the more graphic and horror like, the better. I couldn't believe that almost everyone was killed in the village. Those three that hid were very lucky and I guess you would say smart for not getting caught by the killers. I was also kind of taken back that those three who lived worked so hard on arrows that their bones were showing. They were definitely dedicated to the cause of getting back at their enemies. Unfortunately, I do not think they did enough work for the hut was taken and the men were killed. In addition, those women who lived were taken and forced upon new husbands. I was very surprised that the lying wife died in the end, but it does make sense. This story definitely tells others that you should not lie.

(Inuit village near Frobisher Bay, from Hall's Arctic Researches and Life Among the Esquimaux, 1865)

Week 10: Reading Diary A

For this week, I decided it would be fun to read Eskimo Folk Tales. It sounded like a fun topic, especially since who wouldn't love eskimo's. The first story that I really enjoyed reading was The Woman Who Had a Bear as a Foster-Son. The name itself interested me to begin with. I always enjoy reading about animals, a I've said time and time before. I think it was really great that the old woman took the bear in as her own. I was actually kind of surprised that the townspeople around her took so kindly to the bear; especially when he got so big that he made their children cry. Luckily after becoming too big, he had the adults to play with. It was really neat that the bear could live in unison with the townspeople and his foster mother.

The part of the story that I was sort of sad about was that the bear having to leave his home. I understood that he killed the man because the man probably tried to harm him first, but I don't necessarily think that he should have left his home. I guess the foster mother was just trying to protect him the best she could. I mean it does make sense that someone would come and try to kill the bear for revenge. This was a really cool folk tale, and probably my favorite out of all that I read so far in the Eskimo Folk Tales. I am really excited to read the second part.

(Brown bear cub head)

Week 8: Commenting Review Week

So, in all honesty, I didn't look at any of my comments until this week. After writing a post, I don't really go back to look on what people think of it. I know that that is probably not a great attitude for the class, but that's how it's been. After reading some of the comment I received, I thought that they were all very nice and had good input. I don't believe I'm making good connections with other students in this class through blogs, because all in all, I haven't really had any back and forth conversations. It's really hard to create connections through an online course. I think the comment wall is probably and really good way to fix that, but if there's no effort put in, then it kind of doesn't work. I don't really know how you could improve on this. Maybe if each student was just assigned a buddy for the entire duration of the class, instead of changing every week, students would get a better chance to connect. This would also keep feedback consistent for the storybooks and blog posts.

(Baby Bells. Personal Photo)

Week 8: Writing Review Week

I really don't know what has been my greatest writing success so far in this class. I guess it might be that I'm writing at all. I think it's really helped that I'm actually interested in what I am writing. For instance, I am very much into my storybook for this class. It's something that I feel I can actually write about, and it just makes it that much easier. As I was looking back on my old storytelling posts, I noticed that I actually didn't retell very many stories this semester. It's kind of hard to figure out what my good strategies are when I really wasn't doing the assignment. I do think some weeks it was easier than others to retell a story in my own words. It was very easy to retell stories from units that I really enjoyed, but harder for units that I didn't necessarily understand the language.

(Abandoned Pet 26. Source: deviantart)

Week 8: Reading Review Week

So, I'd like to start off by saying that I am not a very big fan of reading in general. I did though, very much enjoy the reading experiences that I've had thus far in this class. Although it may take some major effort on my part sometimes, I definitely got something out of reading every unit that I chose. I think the thing I like most about our readings is that we, as the student, get a choice of what we want to read. I read many things over the past 7 weeks, and enjoyed almost every one of what I read. In particular I was very impressed by the Aesop Winter and Aesop Jacobs units. I thought it was extremely fun to read about animals in different contexts. I always love stories with animals, and its fun that they always have lessons to go with them.

In all honestly, while reading, I have no note-taking strategies. I really just try to read through all the stories and then sort of pick what I want to write about while I'm reading. It makes it easier that I can just read the stories, and then, by memory, go back and write a blog post on what I enjoyed the most. I would definitely say that after looking back on my reading diaries they help me recall a lot. I don't have a very good memory, especially since I already forgot what I read last week. Being able to go back and click on the Reading Diary label was so much help for this week. I wouldn't be able to pick out what I read without it.

(My Fox Tattoo. Personal Photo)

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