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?!

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?