Famous Last Words For Week 7

Wow, what a crazy week it has been thus far with the weather, huh? Well, last week my boyfriend surprised me and told me that we were going to Vegas for the weekend that I should get to packing. So, this past weekend I was walking through elaborate hotels and watching amazing shows. When we went to go print out our boarding passes Sunday night, we were informed that our flight into Dallas was cancelled because of the ice/snow storm. This was at 11pm Sunday night. Well…. Reversing a little bit. We checked out of our hotel Sunday morning at 10am and had the hotel hold our luggage for us until our flight that night. SO…. After walking up and down the strip for 13 hours we then found out we weren’t going home that night. Due to excessive ice we were unable to get a flight home until Tuesday… Into Dallas… and then had to drive up to Oklahoma after that. I didn’t get home until pretty late last night so I have been playing catch-up on all of my school work at the library since 8am! Let me tell you I am exhausted. Luckily most of my friends are doing a lot of homework and studying today also so I’ve had some company here at the lovely Bizzell. Anyways, despite the ending of the trip I had so much fun! Las Vegas is a beautiful city. I’ve heard it referred to as “Sin City” but I never felt like it was too terrible. Then again, maybe that’s because I didn’t enter any establishment that would make me feel that way :). The first day we were there it was sunny and beautiful! We were able to go to the top of the Stratosphere and ride the roller coaster! The great thing about being stuck in Vegas is that we were able to walk all the way south to the “Welcome to Las Vegas Nevada” sign! I love traveling and taking pictures in front of icons. If you haven’t been before I would suggest going!!!

Personal photo taken last weekend (Feb 2015).

Week 7 Storytelling

Today I found out that I am pregnant! Can you believe that? There will finally be a prince of Ayodhya and it may be taken away from me. It has taken us quite a bit longer than usual to become pregnant. Rama and I knew we wanted to start a family when we got married, but after the abduction we thought it may be best to wait a few years. It has been about 10,000 years since the abduction, but the first 5,000 I was still undergoing some pretty heavy post-traumatic stress disorder. It was really hard for me to sleep at night even though there were guards on both sides of the bed. During the daytime, Rama found it difficult to leave my side because he was so scared of losing me again. The past 5,000 years or so, however, have been a bit different. I have regained a bit of my independence and am no longer afraid to be alone. I had forgotten how important it is to have alone time to grow as an individual! Rama began to grow impatient with me because we were not spending as much time together. When I finally became pregnant there were rumors being spread among the people. Despite the fact that I’ve never been alone with a man other than Rama, people brought up Ravana. This really got under Rama’s skin and now he is trying to abandon me. I told him I wanted to go to the Ganges river to pray, however, I know he’s just going to discard me. This is my way of leaving him.

Photo of Sita with dove found online. 

Author's Note: I chose to tell this story from Sita's point of view. I was very disappointed in the way that Rama wanted to abandon her in Buck's version of the Ramayana so I chose to twist it a bit. I decided to make it to where Sita knew what was going on and used going to the Ganges River as her excuse to get away from a husband that didn't trust her. 

Bibliography:

Buck, William (1976). Ramayana: King Rama's Way. 

Week 7 Reading Diary B: End of Buck's Ramayana

The final battle took place where Ravana eventually died. Rama finds Sita and discovers her innocence. Part A for this week ended with Rama’s coronation where Hanuman and many monkeys came to watch.  Part B starts off with the journey to Ayodhya where Rama shows Sita the place that him and Hanuman first met. I found this to be very sweet because it shows how much Rama values Hanuman as a friend as well. I love seeing friendships that have reciprocity. Rama finally returns to Ayodhya where Bharata puts his shoes on him that he had promised to save for him so long ago. Many years later, Sita wants to go visit that Ganges river because she is pregnant. Apparently there had been many bad things said about her and it got under Rama’s skin. The people were talking about how they think he was stupid for taking her back even after she had been with Ravana. Despite the fact that it was proven she was loyal to him, he decided to have her abandoned at the Ganges river. I am truly shocked that he did this because it seems so out of his character. I thought it was a bit of a downer on how Buck ended his version of Rama and Sita. The end of Buck’s story talked about Hanuman ripping open his flesh that bore Rama’s name. This finally explained to me why so many pictures of Hanuman have Rama and Sita embedded on his chest. One can only dream to have such a strong, loyal friend as Hanuman. 

Photo of Hanuman found online