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?