pictures!

Let's see...this entry will have some pictures in it, because apparently some people think that blogs are boring without pictures! But first a couple things about my week...

on Friday a bunch of people (including me) went to a deaf poetry slam. There were a lot of people there - I think it was sold out! But it turned out to be more of an open mic night than a poetry slam. There were still some pretty cool performances and it was interesting to see so many people I recognized from Gallaudet show up to the same place.

Saturday we decided to go to the National Book Festival. It wasn't a fair, there weren't any funnel cakes. So that was a disappointing start, but we did get to watch an interpreter there (they had an interpreter or two for every speaker or event), get some free stuff including temporary cat-in-the-hat tattoos! We also had time to make a quick visit to the air and space museum. We rested on some grass and taught my roommate Jill how to do a cartwheel, which are where most of these pictures were taken.

Daniel checking his pictures!

Reema!

Daniel and Angelica giving Jill some moral support for her cartwheels

someone said something funny...it was probably me

So thank you Angelica for letting me use your camera to show everyone my photography skills :P

Ok so I said I would answer questions on this entry and I have a couple that people have asked me:

-Is it hard when you want to say something but can't sign it? Yes! I feel like when I am walking with some of my friends, a lot of times we walk in silence because I don't really know how to sign everything I am thinking. It's getting better though!

- is it quiet in class? I suppose so, I don't really notice it because I am paying attention to the signing but it is much quieter than a hearing classroom. The dorms are a different story.

-Are your deaf friends from hearing high schools, and how would that work? Some people are from deaf schools and some people are from hearing schools, if a deaf person goes to a hearing school they have access to services like interpreters or captions depending on the school.

If you have any other questions for me, let me know! My mom is coming to visit me on Tuesday, so I am sure that I will have plenty of awesome stories to post for next week!

I didn't take this picture (Angelica did), but this is me and my roommate Jill!! I thought I should put a picture of myself on here, since it is my blog after all.

Thank you for reading!!

Kaleena

new sign of the week: kidding

most used phrase of the week: what did you say?

Let's Try This Again...

On Sunday I stayed up very late, into Monday morning, to finish writing a blog entry about my past week. But as soon as I was finished and hit the "publish post" button, my entire entry was deleted. So I hope you are able to forgive my late post for last week!

My week (last week) started off with an email. About a month ago, I had come upon a contest put on by Phoenix PRIDE and OUTday. The contest was to write your coming out story in 1000 words or less. I had used the topic of my realization of my sexuality for my college application essay a year and a half ago, so I didn't even have to write a new paper. I edited this essay down to 1000 words and submitted it. And then a month later, I received an email congratulating me for being one of the top 7 winners! As a winner I would get to read my story at OUTday in october in front of 500 people, I would get to meet the celebrities taking part, and I would get to ride in the gay PRIDE parade in april. However, I will not be in Phoenix in October, and since I would not be able to take part in those events, I was disqualified from being a top 7 finalist. Although I will no longer be a finalist, it was nice to be recognized.

On Friday, I volunteered for the first time at the Child Development Center here at Gallaudet. It is essentially a daycare, providing instruction and play time to little kids...ages 1-5. And I worked with the youngest kids, the 1-3 year olds. Many of the teachers are deaf and those who aren't, sign to the kids almost all the time. It was very interesting to sign with such young children, asking them what color something is or if they liked what we were playing. All of them are hearing, but many of their parents are deaf, and most can use ASL very well. If they are sad they will sign MOMMY instead of say it, and they all know their simple name signs. I will be volunteering there every Friday and it will be interesting to interact more with them using ASL.

On Friday night, we made our first attempt to go clubbing. There was a huge group of us, both deaf students and hearing visiting students that got all dressed up to go to a popular club in DC. It was discounted and we were all very excited to go. However, slowly our plans had to change. In order to ride the Gallaudet bus at night, you need your Gallaudet I.D. which about 10 of us didn't bring. So the group that went in the bus got to the metro quickly, got to club and were waiting in line. The group of 10 however, had to walk to the metro. The station is quite close to the school, but once we were there, the metro was severely backed up. We waited for the trains and in stuck trains for about an hour before we got to the club (normally a ten minute ride). Once we were there, everyone was already inside and the line was down the street. Instead of waiting for hours, the (now 5) of us decided to go to another club that someone had recommended. However, once we got stuck back on the metro heading to the new club, we made an executive decision to give up on clubbing for the night. Instead, the 5 of us went to McDonalds and had some late-night snacks. I hope we have better luck next time!

Saturday was Gallaudet's first football game of the season. A few of my friends and I went to the start of the game, and although we only stayed for about 20 minutes into the game (my friends are not big sports fans), I did notice a few changes from any football game I have seen before. First, the cheerleaders signed the national anthem, and during the game they did choreographed cheers but did not say or sign anything. The Gallaudet coaches were speaking and signing to the players, which made me think of my Uncle Matt! And finally, the other (hearing) team's fans seemed to be completely terrified to speak while surrounded by so many deaf people. And it was crowded-many Gallaudet students were there, so many that when I tried to come back to watch the game later, there weren't any seats left!

This entry is proving to be pretty long, so I will try to condense the rest of the weekend. Also on Saturday, a few of my friends and I went to the mall. We had to take the metro to get there, and in DC there are some of the longest escalators in the world. Im not exaggerating, the longest working escalator in the world is somewhere in the DC metro. We had to go up one of these escalators to get to the mall, which would be fine except that it was broken. People were walking up this broken escalator you could barely see the top of. We started walking, and although we had to pass many people who had stopped to take a break, we finally made it up about 15 minutes later. There were many stores at the mall, but like true college students we only actually bought anything at Target.

On Sunday I got to eat lunch with my cousin, Christine! She goes to George Washington University, and since I normally only get to see her once every two years, it is great to be living so close for the semester!! We had plenty to talk about from our first few weeks of school, and I'm excited about some possible road trip plans in the future! :)

Only about 5 days until my mom comes to DC to visit me, and truly see what I have gotten myself into here at Gallaudet! We will be doing a lot of sightseeing, and I will finally get to go to the Holocaust Museum which I have heard is amazing!

I will update the blog again this weekend, even though this entry is so late from last week, so if you have any questions about Gallaudet or deaf people or me or...anything, let me know or post a comment and I will answer them in my next blog entry this weekend!!

Thank you all for reading this even though it is so late...don't worry, I will get back on track :)

Kaleena

new sign of the week: function

most used phrase of the week: what's that?

Zoo and dancing

Last weekend was pretty exciting, on Saturday my visiting student friends and I went to our first Deaf dance party. I was expecting a lot of signing, of which there was actually very little, but didn't know what else to expect. The party was held in an apartment-style dorm room and they surprisingly fit some huge speakers, a DJ and about 30 people in the room. People came and went and the flashing-light doorbell was sometimes distracting to me since i am not used to it. But the party itself was great, loud because many hard-of-hearing and deaf people can hear lower registered sounds, and can of course feel the bass. But everyone was having a great time, and almost everyone was a great dancer!

We also went with a bigger group of friends to the zoo this past weekend!! In DC almost everything is free, the zoo included and the National Zoo is also one of the only ones with pandas! I'm sure we didn't get to see half of what was there, but we did see birds, reptiles, elephants, cheetahs, and of course the pandas! They were very cute :) Then all of us went to Georgetown and some of us waited in line for Georgetown cupcakes. I have to say, the cupcakes were amazing and I know how to navigate the metro system pretty well now!

The week was not that eventful, I did change one of my classes. I am now taking child psychology instead of interpreting. Although both professors are hard to understand, I find child psychology much more interesting and I am excited to add onto the psych 101 class I took last year. I am also taking an ASL III class to learn the most I can about the language.

This weekend will be a little different from last, as most of my friends are going out of town already! But I will hopefully be able to get some homework done, and spend some time outside. It is only 78 degrees here today, I love this weather!

I feel as if I have been here for months already, although it has been only a few weeks. I miss everyone from home, but I am having a great experience and truly enjoying myself here. Have a great week everyone, I will update you all on mine next week!

Kaleena

new sign of the week: development

most used phrase of the week: what are you doing?

First Classes

This week was/is my first week of classes. Last Tuesday, I arrived at Gallaudet with my dad and started using my ASL. I had a few days of orientation, and met my roommate and the rest of the Visiting Students. My roommate Jill and I get along well and its nice to be able to talk(voice) in our room after being bombarded with new signs. I felt like 2 months should be over already, not two weeks. But I have not had the huge let down that I had been dreading. There is definitely a culture shock when coming to a new environment, especially one so dramatically different in its very nature. My hearing friends and I are slowly getting used to these changes, there are times when we walk in "silence" because we do not know how to put all of our thoughts into signs just yet.

I am taking 4 classes (which isn't a lot, I know. But I also have a lab!) All the classes are taught completely in ASL of which I am understand more and more. Some people are easier to understand than others, just like in English when some people use more slang than others do. Here are my first impressions of my classes--

Chemistry Lecture: This class has only 7 people in it!! That's a big change from my 450 person classes at ASU, but the important information is all on the PowerPoint and in the textbook, so I won't miss too much even if I can't understand the teacher.

Chemistry Lab: I had this class for the first time today, it is once a week, but for THREE HOURS! I actually really liked the teacher though, he is very nice and very easy to understand. There are 5 students in the lab, and since it is a more interactive class, it is a much better environment in which to practice my signing than lecture.

Theatre: This is a great class. The teacher is pretty difficult to understand, but he is a great storyteller, and uses his entire body to sign. The class is officially called "Introduction to Gestural Communication" and our first assignment is to express our name, hometown, favorite food, and favorite hobby without using ASL, English, or writing. It is such an interesting idea and I am so excited to learn more of what my professor is already so good at, and bring this new way of communicating to all the theatre I do.

Linguistics: This is officially called "Sign Language and Sign Systems" but it is a linguistics class and that's what everyone calls it. This teacher (and most of the other students in the class) are easy to understand, but my eyes hurt after paying attention to so much information. It definitely felt longer than the hour and 20 minutes it is, but we are exploring very interesting concepts such as "what is a language". Oh and there is a girl in my class with a service dog who looks just like a black version of Tucker (who is my chocolate lab) and it makes me miss him very much.

Interpreting: My interpreting professor graduated from ASU with a justice studies degree, so I already like him :) The class is very full, which means more than 20 people here. I am not quite sure what I think of the class yet, an interpreting class could be a very interesting opportunity, so we will see!

My mom comes to visit in about a month, and I am planning to see my cousin Christine (who goes to George Washington University) sometime soon! So far all of my experiences at Gallaudet have been positive and I am so excited to continue to expand my ASL knowledge.

I have done a bit of sightseeing with my dad, and will do a bit more with my mom, but if you know of anything I should definitely do while I am in Washington, DC let me know!! I would always love more suggestions :)

Kaleena

new sign of the week: lettuce

most used phrase of the week: see you later!