Week 1 Overview

After reading the overview of the class and the textbook, I find the book The Mahabharata by Narayan fascinating. I want to know about the different types of epic in India and are ready to learn. I like how there is a story to everything and the Indian epics sounds like it consists of a lot of events and characters. I want to compare the two different Ramayana book and find similarities and dissimilarities.

This is my first time taking anything that is related to India. To be honest, I have never had a connection with anything Indian other than the Indian bangles and the Hannah tattoos. This is my first epics class and I am pretty excited for it. Because I am not a huge reader, I haven't read any  epics before. I have never been to India before but I've heard that India is an exciting place to visit.
I do not have any southeast Asian in my family, but I am from the East Asia. Because this class is my first epics class, I am excited to learn about anything. Because this class is far from my own major, it will be interesting taking a class which will provide me culture backgrounds and epics. 

 Indra on his vehicle (vahana),
the celestial elephant Airavata.

Indra Deva

I chose this image because I heard elephant has a big symbolic meaning in India. Because majority of Indians are Hindus, they worship some animals and I know that the elephants are considered sacred. 

Week 1 Storybook Favorites

One story I read was How Shesha Holds the World. I just picked a story that was listed in the website and found that I enjoyed this story. I liked how the introduction described the audience of the story. I like this story because it involves kids listening to the story and children's imagination is always fascinating to see. I loved the content of the story which living virtuously is better than having a corrupted life. I think its awesome how the author switched around the story a little bit so that the content will be easier to understand. 

The next storybook I read was Sweet dreams are made of these: Karma. I chose this storybook because I thought it was adorable how the mother switched the story a little to make it kid friendly. The introduction did a good job of explaining the main idea of the story. I loved the moral of the story because good thing do happen to good people. The author reminded me to look back at my life and think how I should react to certain situations. The author kept the original content, but made it easier for the kid to understand. I thought it was pretty silly how Hanuman thought the Sun was a mango. This story was a cute story.

The last storybook I read was Kamaveda lovetherapy:Rama and Sita. The setting of the story was very unique. The author kept the characters and the details the same, but switch the storytelling into a therapy session. I am very interested in love stories, so this story was interesting to me. The introduction did a good job of giving an overview of the story. The layout of the story was unique and I really enjoyed reading the story. Most of the stories are told as a traditional narrative format, but this story switched the story to a therapy session which made it more interesting. Out of the three favorites, this one was my favorite!

I liked all of the three stories! They were all interesting with different story lines.

Here is a picture of Rama and Sita

Week 1 Storytelling: HERCULES AND THE WAGONER

HERCULES AND THE WAGONER

A Farmer was driving his wagon along a miry country road after a heavy rain. The horses could hardly drag the load through the deep mud, and at last came to a standstill when one of the wheels sank to the hub in a rut.

The farmer climbed down from his seat and stood beside the wagon looking at it but without making the least effort to get it out of the rut. All he did was to curse his bad luck and call loudly on Hercules to come to his aid. Then, it is said, Hercules really did appear, saying:

"Put your shoulder to the wheel, man, and urge on your horses. Do you think you can move the wagon by simply looking at it and whining about it? Hercules will not help unless you make some effort to help yourself."

And when the farmer put his shoulder to the wheel and urged on the horses, the wagon moved very readily, and soon the Farmer was riding along in great content and with a good lesson learned.

( Hercules and the wagoner)

Once upon a time, there was a truck driver name Travis and he had to drive his truck across the states to deliver corns. Travis was driving his truck along a miry country road after a heavy snow. There has been a heavy snow for the past months in the land of Everland so it was hard for people to drive around. The driver could hardly speed in the road through all the snow and the ice, and at last came to a standstill when one tires of the wheel slipped and the truck ran into the side of the road . Travis panicked and did not know what to do. 

Thankfully, he didn't get injured. The truck driver climbed down from his seat and stood beside the truck looking at it, but without making the least effort to get it out of the rut.Travis felt hopeless about his life and there was no one to help him other than his God. All he did was to curse his bad luck and call loudly on God to come to his aid. Because Travis's Truck slipped quiet often, he felt like he just had bad luck. After couple hours, God really did appear, saying:

"What are you doing? Are you just going to sit here in the cold and not do anything about the situaiton? Were you just waiting for me? There is one thing I have to tell you and you should probably take it seriously. I will not help unless you make the effort to help yourself!"

When Travis heard this, he looked back and opened his eyes to the situation in a different perspective. He decided that he should always have hope and just believe. 

And when Travis called the towing company, the towing company got his car out from the rut. It was a miracle! He grew a loving heart for his job and was determined to not take things for granted. Because of God's eye-opening speech, Travis the truck driver was driving along in great content and with a good lesson learned. Travis was able to deliver the products  and returned back home safely. This incident thought Travis that he needs to help himself and the heavens only help those who try hard themselves. 

Self help is the best help.

Heaven helps those who help themselves.

Author's Note: This story is based on the fable "Hercules and the wagoner," which I quoted at the beginning of this post. This fable comes from The Æsop for Children, which is the famous collection of stories. I chose this study to write because it teaches us a life lesson that a person cannot only rely on the higher being. In the fable "Hercules and the wagoner", the story teaches us some life lesson. In the story, there was a farmer who was driving the wagon, and one of the wheels fell into the mud. Hercules appears and he helps out the farmer. God also teaches him that nothing will be done to someone who does not help themselves.I have made some changes such as changing the name off the character to make it easier for the readers. I have also added some more details such as corn and switched the wagon driver to truck driver so that the fable can be related to current times. The story teaches the reader that through hard times, you have to do something about the situation and not sit around. Even though God might come and help, there will be a no difference if the person going through the situation does not make any change. 

Bibliography
"Hercules and the wagoner" by Aesop, from Aesop for children (2006). Web Source: The Æsop for Children

Introduction, Week 1

Hello! My name is Jae O and I am a Psychology/Pre-nursing  major at OU. I plan to go to the nursing school after graduation and become a nurse in the future. Currently, I am enrolled in many classes because I need to graduate in the Spring! I am so glad that I will be graduating college in four years. I am in Human Physiology, Psychology capstone, women's gender studies, world music, and industrial organization psychology. Some of theses classes are requirements and some of them are just for elective. The class that is going to be most challenging will be Human physiology. Hopefully, I will be able to finish strong.

 I am also a Barista and barista trainer at Starbucks.

I enjoy working at Starbucks and the best part is that workers get free coffee! I love working for a company who is innovative. Starbucks takes up a big part of life because I work about 25-30 hours per week. 

For hobbies, I do a lot of things. I love listening and jamming out on my favorite music. I play the bass guitar and piano, so I love playing instruments too. I also love going on food adventures. I enjoy trying new food and going to local restaurants. There are so many kinds of food out there that I've never even tried before and my goal is to find a place to eat in Oklahoma. So far, my favorite place is waffle champion in OKC. They serve liege waffles, which is a authentic Belgium waffles. They serve waffles with bacon,egg, or any fruits. Another unique place is a cafe called all about cha. This cafe serves many different kind of tea and also offer breakfast, lunch, and dinner. There are two different locations in metro and I love studying at all about cha. Below is a selfie of me at all about cha.

I don't really read books other than the bible. I enjoy watching movies and my favorite type of genre is romance and romantic comedy. I don't really have a favorite movie because I have so many!

Well... this is pretty much it for me! :)

My favorite place.. Dubai

                                          Burj Khalifa, Dubai, Source: flicker

Dubai is a City in United Arab Emirates and it is well-known for the city's architecture. I've actually never been there, but the pictures says it all. In the picture, the tower is called Burj Khalifa and it is currently the tallest tower in the world.