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?!

My New Name

It is customary in Deaf culture to be given a sign name. Because many names are long to constantly fingerspell in ASL, deaf people are given a sign related to their personality and signed in the handshape of their name. It is a name unique to the person, and when you introduce yourself you fingerspell your first name and then give your sign name. Although people will know your full name, they will use your sign name in every day conversation. If you are hearing, a deaf person who grew up in deaf culture should give you a sign name when they know you well enough or feel like they can give you one. Last week, I met a guy named Bradley and after introducing ourselves, I told him that I did not yet have a sign name. He asked me about myself and what I like to do, and after I told him he gave me this sign name.

In the video, I say "Hi, my name is Kaleena(fingerspelled) Kaleena(name sign)". My name sign, the letter K brushed against the side of the chest, means that I like theatre. The ASL sign for theatre is using both thumbs to brush both sides of the chest, and by changing the handshape to a K and using one hand, it becomes my name!

My family was very excited to learn that I had a name sign, because it can be seen as a symbol of being included in the deaf community.

Other than that, my week was filled with midterms. I did not exactly stay on top of everything I needed to do, which left me with some pretty late nights/early mornings. But in the end, I got everything done and had a pretty lazy weekend. We did go to the Eastern Market today which I think is the oldest flea market. It was impressive. They have jewelry, fresh produce, and even funnel cakes! And they do it every weekend.

My friend Angelica's boyfriend is here visiting for the next few days and although he is pretty hott, I am definitely looking forward to Briana coming to visit in November! It will be exciting to see her again and show her around DC; it has been so different without her living right down the hall, but she has been taking good care of Tucker (my dog) for me and I have been missing them both quite a bit.

Hopefully this next week will be pretty relaxing after a crazy one last week, but I will keep you all updated. Have a great week!

Kaleena

new sign of the week: bar

most used phrase of the week: not true!

mommy!

This week my mom came to visit!! She got here on Tuesday and got to see Gallaudet and meet my friends here. It was so fun to see her again and I was proud to show her around DC! She did a lot of sightseeing on her own and with my aunt Christi who came down from New Jersey during the week, but on friday I (did not) skip class and go to Alexandria to spend the weekend with her.

We had a great time visiting the city on Friday and Saturday, and staying in Alexandria at night; a nice break from dorm life. We got to go to the Holocaust Museum, eat crepes, have free Georgetown Cupcakes, meet up with family and see the Vietnam War Memorial.

On Sunday, my mom and I had the day to ourselves. We went to Mount Vernon, and even though the bus took quite awhile to get us, it was fun to visit. Although, we both agreed that Jefferson's house was cooler than Washington's. And in honor of his cool house, we went to his memorial! There is not a metro stop next to it, so we had to walk a lot to get there, but we got to see both his and FDR's memorials which I hadn't seen before. But by the time we were done, it was raining and we needed to meet my friends for dinner. So we took a taxi, which just happened to be driving by and we actually flagged it down...like we were naturals. I was impressed! And we got to dinner just in time :)

My mom left on monday and we got to tour Ford's Theatre before she left but it was pretty weird seeing her leave and not going back to Arizona with her. Here are some pictures from her trip!!

At Gallaudet (Chapel Hall)

My Mom and I at Mount Vernon

Next week I have midterms; that means I am just about halfway through my semester here at Gallaudet. At first my time here moved so slowly, never in a negative way but it felt like every week was a month. But I guess those weeks added up because now halfway through feels as if only a week has passed. My time at Gallaudet is proving to be a great experience; I have met many new friends, taken new classes (even Chemistry!), and started to understand deaf culture.

And I was very excited to tell my Dad something I just realized today: I do not translate what I want to say in to ASL, I simply sign it. Instead of thinking a sentence in English and then thinking how to sign it in ASL, I just sign my thoughts. Although I do still need to translate what other people sign into English in my mind, I am pretty excited about this small improvement. I don't know how long ago this happened, but it is not something I could do upon my arrival here at Gallaudet. These are the kind of experiences and improvements that I came here for and would have not had in such a short time back at home.

Thanks for reading!!!

Kaleena

new sign of the week: spicy

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