Snow!

With only two days left I woke up to the most amazing beautiful snow this morning. Everything was covered in white and it has been snowing since last night; I have never lived somewhere that snowed so I am very excited!

I also dyed my hair last night, which I have never done before! I decided I should take advantage of having a friend here who is a cosmetologist and try it before I leave. Its just a couple shades darker but I really like it! 

Everything is starting to wind down here, finals are over, schedules are less busy and people are already starting to leave. I am very lucky to be in DC for a week without anything I need to do, we have been to the Christmas tree near the capitol and the one by the white house. We have been on adventures around the city and trying to take advantage of our final days here. I leave on Saturday and my friends start leaving tomorrow. It is crazy to think that our time here is almost over, it almost doesn't seem real. Just as it did not sink in when I was leaving AZ to come here, it does not seem like I only have two days left here in DC. I have really enjoyed my time here and would not trade this amazing experience for anything. I have a lot of exciting opportunities to come home to, but I will definitely miss both the hearing and deaf friends I have made and the community (and beautiful campus) here at Gallaudet. 

So now I am just trying to enjoy my last days at Gally and in DC. I really like the city, especially the public transit. There is so much to do and see that after four months here I have yet to run out of things to get excited about. 

Here are a few pictures of my last couple days here:

waiting for the shuttle bus I think

Jill, Reema, me, and Sarah in front of the national christmas tree by the White House

Daniel and I in the snow! (not today)

Jill, me and Reema "workin it" on the way to Eastern Market

Reema, me and Daniel 

I will write another blog entry next week updating you all on my flight home and my adjustment to speaking life. I will also try to post some pictures of the snow from today, there were about 2 or 3 inches! So do not worry, this is not the end of my rambling blog entries. 

Thanks for reading!!

Kaleena

new sign of the week: impressed/impressive

most used phrase of the week: what are we doing tonight?

Two weeks...

Yes, I am a bit late in posting this entry, things have been pretty busy after Thanksgiving break. I only have two weeks left here at Gallaudet, and only one week left of classes so things should definitely start winding down. It is crazy to think that I have already been here for so long, and I will be back to constantly warm Arizona shortly. Speaking of temperatures, it is in the 40s every day here, which is definitely cold for me but I really hope it snows before the 18th! I love the snow and would love to live somewhere (even shortly) where it snows! And my friend Reema just told me that it might snow tonight, a 30% chance :)


It is hard for me to think back to before I was here at Gallaudet. I have matured so much through this experience and am so grateful to have had this opportunity. There was a time when I was, of course, afraid to travel to a new city, be immersed in a new language, and not know anyone around me. Proving to myself that I am able to survive and thrive in this situation has allowed me to learn a lot about myself and what I am able to do. Being at Gally has shown me just how important ASL is to me and how much I want to incorporate it into whatever I do in the future. 


Something that I realized when I was at home for Thanksgiving, is that I really take for granted the environment here. It is a unique opportunity to be able to constantly communicate in the language you are trying to learn; you pick things up more quickly, and are constantly forced to practice with every conversation that you have. In fact, I learn so much so quickly here that I didn't even realize how important that was until I went back to Arizona for Thanksgiving break. Although my family and friends fully support my interest in ASL, they do not know the language and I feel like once I return, I will not be able to have conversations in ASL that are constantly challenging and expanding my knowledge of the language. Although anything will be vastly different than the all day every day practice I have here at Gallaudet, I hope that once I get back to ASU, I will be able to find people in the deaf community who I can just have conversations with to help maintain and further my skills. 


Since I will be back so shortly, I am trying every day to take advantage of the opportunities here, and will keep you all updated on my last weeks at Gallaudet!


Before publishing this post I realized that I don't have any pictures or videos from this past week to upload to keep your interest! So...I will post this picture of Lost. I just recently started watching this show with my friend Angelica (who has seen it before), and we're pretty obsessed. If you like mysteries I suggest you check it out, there is always a lot of crazy stuff happening!

Thank you for reading :)
Kaleena


new sign of the week: a new sign for 'jealous'
most used phrase of the week: are we going to the Rathskellar (a late night bar-type restaurant on campus)

Thanksgiving

Hello!

So I waited until today to write a new blog post because I surprised Briana for Thanksgiving!

About a week after I arrived at Gallaudet for the semester, my dad bought me plane tickets to fly home for Thanksgiving. I originally thought I wouldn't be able to come home because of the cost, so I was very excited to have the opportunity to visit my family before the end of the semester. Since getting my tickets three months ago, however, I have kept my trip a secret from my girlfriend, Briana. My family and friends helped me keep this secret even while she visited me in DC. As it got closer to the break, I had to come up with a story of fake plans and an excuse for why I spent four hours not talking to her while I was on a plane. Although I was very stressed about how all this would go, I successfully kept it a secret and when she thought my mom was going to spend the day with her, I showed up at ASU on wednesday to pick her up. We got to spend the day together and go to the dog park, where she took these cool pictures!!

It was great to see how happy she was, all day she could not believe that I was there! But it was so hard for me to keep it all a secret, especially when it got closer to the trip I had to be careful with everything I said. It was all worth it though, and we had a great day together yesterday. There is nothing like seeing all the people you care about after such a long time!

Since I have been able to relax since surprising Briana, I have had a very nice Thanksgiving! :P My grandparents came to eat with us before they leave for China in December and it was good to spend time with them before they left. After eating we went on our traditional Thanksgiving hike on the mountain by our house, and then we just saw the movie Megamind! It was funny, I think my whole family liked it.

It is very weird to be here, using cars instead of the metro, and having everything pretty much the same as when I left. And no signing. I definitely miss practicing my ASL every day and want to take advantage of my three weeks left at Gallaudet and with my new friends when I get back on Sunday. 

Happy Thanksgiving everyone, and happy birthday to Bradley on Saturday!

:)

Kaleena

new sign of the week: i learned a different sign for the word 'impossible'

most used phrase of the week: Happy Thanksgiving!

A Tough Week

Hello people reading my blog!

I have felt somewhat stuck with my ASL this past week. I have been improving at such a fast rate up until now, and this week I saw just how much I still do not understand. There have been a couple times during classes this week (or the end of last week) when I could not get across my thoughts. I know all the signs of what I wanted to say, but for some reason I was not able to place them into a coherent sentence. Another thing I have become increasingly frustrated with, is my fingerspelling. Fingerspelling is an integral part of American Sign Language, using ASL handshapes to spell words borrowed from the English Language. Deaf people are, of course, very skilled at both reading and producing fingerspelling and it is often hard to understand them. For hearing people it is often difficult to produce smooth fingerspelling, and lately i feel like this has been more of a problem for me than usual. I don't quite know what the reason is for my frustration with my signing, I would like to think that it is because i have improved so much since my arrival here that I am now able to pick apart specific things about my skills, but I am not sure that is the case. All I can do is keep practicing, using my ASL as much as possible and soak up all of the good signing habits and deaf culture I can. And I will make sure to do that during my limited time left here in DC.

Nothing extremely exciting has happened this past week, my friends and I did get to go to a free chocolate sampling in Dupont Circle. We felt pretty fancy (or at least I did) and free is always good for college students!

I did get a new sign name this week. Although I do still like my original sign name, this one was given to me by one of my friends and has a much more personal meaning. I made a video in ASL to describe what it is and how it was given!

English Translation:

Hello everyone, thank you for watching my vlog! Hopefully you remember my last video when I introduced my sign name. My old sign name was (name sign). This week, my friend Damien(name sign), Damien (fingerspelled), gave me a new sign name. Damien is always teasing me, and I always tell him "oh stop it". This motion means "stop it" or "finish". Damien noticed that I always use that motion when he is teasing me and decided to give me the new sign name, (handshape K in the exaggerated finish motion with one hand). So my new sign name is (name sign)! Thank you!

I hope you all enjoyed my video and blog this week!

Kaleena

new sign of the week: cover

most used phrase of the week: when is it due?

Briana!

This past week my girlfriend, Briana came to visit me in DC! I had a lot of fun introducing her to my friends and showing her what I have been doing here. We did a lot of sightseeing and eating and just hanging out.

On thursday afternoon Briana got here and we all went out to dinner and a club for my friend Angelica's 21st birthday that night.

On friday we went to the smithsonian american history museum and walked around the national mall, which I always enjoy. We also ate at my new favorite restaurant in DC, Vapianos. I have been there probably four times so far, it is always my first suggestion because it has really good pasta. :) That night we also went to one of our dorm room dance parties so I could show Briana what we do on the weekends.

me and my favorite statue lady

briana at the navy memorial

On saturday we went to the Newseum, an entire museum of news! I have been before with my dad, but it is impossible to see everything at one time. They also have a lot of amazing photography stuff which Briana really liked!

my amazing photography skills

On sunday we went to Georgetown for cupcakes! We also ate crepes, shopped, and walked by the water there. I always love going to Georgetown, its very cute and fun to just walk around. We also met up with Briana's friend Derek that night for dinner and got to catch up with him.

Briana's picture skills of our yummy cupcakes

by the Potomac river

Briana and I by the Potomac river!

Monday we just hung out and relaxed on campus, I gave Bri a tour of campus and she taught me how to use her fancy black and white camera. I even have a black and white roll of film of my own that I need to develop. I hope I am a good photographer!

But that was pretty much my week...it was great to see Briana again and to have her come out here and support me in DC. My time here is ending so quickly...it is hard to think that it was so long ago when I felt like my time here was going by so slowly, and now I only have about 6 weeks left. I hope I am able to make the most of it :)

kaleena

new sign of the week: shrimp

most used phrase of the week: are you going to play sims?

Restoring Sanity and/or Fear

This past weekend was the Rally to Restore Sanity and/or Fear on the national mall as well as all of the halloween festivities. I had been awaiting the day for quite awhile, I'm surprised everyone put up with my excitement! Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert of Comedy Central were hosting the rally(s) and they are both very funny and clever. There were about 100,000 people expected and it was packed when we got there about an hour before it started. One of the first things we were very excited to see were the signs...these fans are very clever and since the rally was not about any one specific issue, there were so many different topics to draw from. Here are some of my favorites, which Angelica took:

I just thought this was a cool picture Daniel took at the rally

Once we found our way into the rally we were surrounded by people, and it was very hard to see. We tried to make our way closer to the stage as a group, but it is hard to get a line of five people anywhere in a crowd of what we later learned was 215,000 people. Or as Stephen tweeted, 6 billion. Eventually we decided to separate with the goal of reaching the ASL interpreters at the event. By luck, I made it to the interpreter section of the rally but without my friends. Because there were so many people at there, our phones didnt get good service if any at all. Although we weren't all reunited until after the rally ended, I had a great time. There were so many special guests there and both Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert were great. Most of the rally was very lighthearted and comedic, but Jon Stewart did wrap it up with a great speech about bipartisanship and the importance of working together. The whole experience was very exciting and it was inspiring to be around so many people who were excited about the same things that I was.

Saturday night we went to the homecoming bash here for halloween. We all got dressed up and my friends Daniel and Angelica put together a lady gaga costume for me in about an hour...it was impressive.

Angelica's picture of me as Lady Gaga

The bash was pretty cool, although it is hard to dance in heels :) The music wasn't loud but it was very base heavy, we could feel everything. On sunday, which was real halloween, we got dressed up again and went to Georgetown where people go to walk around and show off their costumes. It was insanely crowded, we felt like we were at the rally again! But we did go to visit the stairs where the exorcist was filmed and took some pictures.

our group on the exorcist stairs!

Other than that I have just been getting ready for Briana to get here tomorrow...I'm not quite sure exactly what we will go see or do but I'm sure I will have plenty of stories for my next post no matter what we do :)

Kaleena

new sign of the week: towel

most used phrase of the week: how are you?

Friends

When I was first thinking about coming to Gallaudet, I was afraid of being in a new place alone, having trouble connecting with deaf people and not knowing how many visiting students there would be. But since arriving in August, I have been pleasantly surprised by how well I have connected with people here.

I have always had trouble making close friends; not to say that I dont have friends, I know so many great people and am so thankful for the friends I have made. But it is often hard for me to make new friends in new situations. Since coming here I have not had any of the negative "hearing" experiences some people promised me. I have met so many nice people and this school is so small that chances are if you meet someone, you will get to have many more conversations with them around campus; It seems natural here to have a conversation in the hallways with people from my classes. It seems ironic that it is much harder to meet friends at a school with 60,000 people than one with 2,000 but it has proven to be true. Going out with friends from school on the weekends, movie nights, and dance parties are things I never enjoyed at ASU. Being here so far has shown me how important it is to be meeting new people and make the effort to hang out with friends and I need to do more of that at ASU.

Both my parents got to meet my friends, my dad dropped me off so I didn't know anyone as well when he was here, but when my mom came to visit she made the comment that I seemed to just fit in here. I think that it is funny that I connect better with people at a school where I communicate in ASL a lot of the time. Although I don't think it as much the place as the people here. I have gotten the opportunity to meet some pretty cool people here and make some good friends both hearing and deaf. I have a great roommate who stays up late to talk about how crazy life is, and friends who always want to hang out with me. Nothing that exciting happened this week, so I thought I would post an entry about some of my thoughts about experiences here. Oh and my friend Daniel also introduced us to the show Pretty Little Liars yesterday, and we are all pretty much hooked. This week is also homecoming week, halloween and Stephen Colbert's rally so I'm sure I will have plenty of new exciting adventures to write about next week!

Reema, Angelica, my best friend the Cat in the Hat, me, Daniel, and Jill

at the Book Festival

Thanks for reading :)

Kaleena

new sign of the week: cheat

most used phrase of the week: what's up?!