Just Curious!

We did this activity the other day in my international communications class.

I just wanted to see everyone's opinions.

After you read the (short) story leave a comment ranking the characters in order of whose behavior you MOST approve to whose you LEAST approve.

The Parable

Rosemary is a young woman about 21 years old. For a long time she has been engaged to a young man named Hernando and she is coming from a great distance to meet him for their scheduled wedding. The problem she faces is that between her and her betrothed there lies a river. No ordinary rive mind you, but a deep, wide river infested with hungry crocodiles.

Rosemary ponders how she can cross the river. She thinks of a man who has a boat, whose name is Sven. She approaches Sven and asks him to take her across the river. He replies, "Yes, I'll take you across the river if you'll spend the night with me."

Shocked at his offer, she turns to another acquaintance, Lee Pai, and tells him her story. Lee Pai responds by saying, "Poor Rosemary, I understand your problem, but I don't see how I can help. It's really your problem, not mine."

Rosemary, in desperation, decides to return to Sven, and spends the night with him. In the morning Sven takes her across the river. She completes her journey and arrives in time.

Her reunion with Hernando is warm, but on the evening before they are to be married, Rosemary feels compelled to tell Hernando how she succeeded in getting across the river. Hernando responds by saying, "I can't believe you would do such a thing. I wouldn't marry you if you were the last woman on earth." And he banishes her as a soiled woman.

Finally at her wit's end, Rosemary turns to our last character, Seiichi, He listens to her story and says, "What a terrible thing to happen. Rosemary, I don't love you, but I will marry you." And that's all we know of the story.

What do you think?

Remember to rank them in order of the character you MOST approve, to that you LEAST approve.

Shout Out to Sis Stocking!

During my last semester at BYUI, I took a class from Sis. Stocking....so much fun! I mean what other college professor takes you to get frozen yogurt for your final?! She's definitely the first (okay, probably only) professor I'll visit next time I'm in Rexburg (which might be sooner that we all think)!

One day she wanted to show us a picture of her family, so she pulled up her blog and found one. Later that week I was supposed to be writing a paper, but of course I was procrastinating. I had read all of the recent posts on the blogs I follow so I decided to try and find...success!! The last week of school I finally admitted to her that I had been reading her blog all semester!

She recently gave me a shout out on her blog! So I thought I'd do the same.

Hi Sister Stocking! I do love it here in Hawaii! It's nice and warm (I had to throw that in there since it started snowing for you guys this week!). The classes are definitely different...a lot less rigorous!

No, I don't think it's weird that one of my old teachers is following my blog! Well, not any weirder than one of your old students following yours! I do miss you! You were definitely my favorite teacher at BYUI (and not just because all of the food that you brought us...although that was a plus!). Our class was the best! I doubt you'll have another class as good as ours! ;)

My original plan was to graduate from Hawaii, but I don't know anymore. I have a few different programs I'm looking into and yes one of them is back at BYUI. But we'll just have to see where life takes me! It's definitely been a blast down here though! It's been like a little study abroad...only cheaper! :)

I haven't met a Lindsay. But! On the first say of classes I ran into Zach, from our English class! He's married now! He married his girlfriend who had transferred here from Idaho earlier. She was actually in my French class back in Idaho, and I have a few classes with her here...it's a small (Mormon) world!

Anyways. It was good to hear from you! Have a good semester!

Love,

Danielle W.

Living Without a Plan

For those of you who know me, you know that I have to have a life plan.

Granted, my life plan typically only lasts a few months before I have to come up with a new one. But I have to know where my life is headed, and exactly how it is going to get there.

I stumbled across a blog post someone had written: "Sometimes, you don't need a plan." It really made me realize that it's okay if my life plan doesn't work out. Sometimes it's even okay if there is no plan.

So, here is to living without a plan!

Kahuka Football

On Friday night two of my roommates and I went to the local Kahuka High School football game.

It was actually a lot of fun! But oh dear am I white or what?!?

Everton, Me, and my roommate Raquel

Me and my roommate Vanessa

It was their homecoming game which was pretty cool! It brought back some fun memories! It actually kinda made me miss high school. Man! I never thought I'd say that!!

Not gonna lie though. My favorite part was probably this ref who wore his backpack on the field the entire game!

Rain

It's raining today and I love it!

It's cloudy, cold (ok it's 75 but I get to wear a sweatshirt, so we'll call it cold), and wet!

It reminds me of home.

Plus, I just love the smell of rain! Not a better smell in the world.

Some Simple Thing

As I've been stressing out the past few days over school, and what to do with my life I've just kept thinking, Isn't there some simple thing I can do to help all this?Can I just stand up, twirl in a circle three times, and hop on one foot to have my problems go away? All my life I've been taught to read my scriptures, go to church, say my prayers, and on and on and on. But those things seem so simple. Could they really be the answer I've been looking for?

Since coming back to school I've rededicated myself to truly studying the scriptures and faithfully praying to my Heavenly Father about everything that is going on in my life, instead of simply reading my scriptures and saying my repetitive prayers. I've been amazed at the difference it has made. I've always believed in the scriptures and the power of prayer, but for some reason I continue to fall into lapses where I don't do them as often and as faithfully as I should.

As I was avoiding my homework today ;) I was thinking about this. And again thinking how nice it would be if there was some simple thing we could do to help us out in our lives. Like stand up, twirl in a circle three times and hop on one food! But then I began to wonder if I would faithfully do that, or would I again assume that something so simple wouldn't make a big impact in my life. I thought of the story in the Old Testament and I began to understand why some of the children of Israel wouldn't look at the brass serpent while they were suffering in the wilderness. Could something that simple truly heal them? It could and it did. And it will heal us.

Hawaii, Here I Am

I love Hawaii.

It’s warm – borderline too warm, but by far way better than cold!

It’s pretty. It’s funny though. It’s one of the prettiest places I’ve ever been, and one of the ugliest. I’m not quite sure how that works. But it does.

The people are friendly. My ward seems really cool; we’re having FHE tonight so I’m excited to meet some new people.

My house is your typical college house, or your typical Hawaii house. Either way you want to look at it. I like it! Except it gets really hot in the afternoons, my clothes literally stick to me. Apparently I’m going to have to start going to the beach every afternoon…poor me! ;)

Classes are different than I thought they would be. I’m taking all intro to International Cultural Studies and intro to Anthropology classes. They’re all really easy. I’m not really feeling a challenge, which is a bit frustrating. I don’t know if it’s because they are all lower level classes, or if that’s just how the university is. I’ve heard the classes are pretty laid back and easy down here, so I’m not sure which one it is.

Let’s recap my past majors for a moment, shall we? I started out as a music therapy major. It wasn’t long before I decided that since music is my outlet, I don’t want it to be my full-time (and sure to be stressful) job. So then it was off to computer science. Have you ever seen the TV show 24? (If not, google it!) I want/wanted Chloe’s job. I took my first CS class and quickly decided that real life is most definitely not 24. So it was onto early childhood special education. Perfect plan. But then…I decided that I was done with Idaho, so it was just early childhood development and education. I applied to BYU-Hawaii as a special education major. But then I found out they have an international cultural studies program (pretty much a longer name for anthropology) so it was onto that. Now here I am trying to decide what to do. I was thinking that my anthro classes were going to be more philosophical than they are. I’m trying to decide if I want to stick with anthro, or go back to early childhood special education (I would want to do early intervention with that degree), or go get my paralegal certificate (I love paperwork).

I hate not having a life plan. It stresses me out.

My whole family came with me to drop me off. That was really fun. Probably the best family vacation we've ever been on.

Well, the girls had fun...

It feels good to write again.

More to come on the family vaca...