Puzzlin'

Erick and Marlaine came over tonight, and we were puzzling till the wee hours:

Welcome to D.C.!

It's official..we are unofficial D.C. residents! Here are some snapshots of our experiences and our place...



Arlington National Cemetary entrance--the gray is the Women's memorial, and the little house on the hill is Arlington House, the Robert E. Lee Memorial (though I still don't understand how all it all works between the Custises and the Lees and the Washingtons)

I survived!

It was a close call for a while there, but somehow I made it through my first semester of graduate school at Gallaudet.

Now I am cozily ensconsed in our new apartment in D.C.--tomorrow we go to Eastern Market and the Dupont Circle Farmer's Market...delicious!

Here is Dan filling up the bookshelves:

Goya: En la Quinta del Sordo

Shameless plug for our play!

One hour of intense movement, masks, dancing, and odd body contortions, this will be an enjoyable night of theatre. You might not understand it all (I don't really understand it all myself and I've been immersed in it for 2 months) but it is certainly visually creepy and fun, and you will get to see me playing a role I never imagined I would play.

The performance is not in sign language, so don't be afraid to come if you dont know ASL, and don't get excited to see a signed performance if that is what you were looking forward to :)

The Gallaudet theatre website indicates that it is intended for mature audiences. That should entice some of you as well.

Hope to see you there!

Where?

Gallaudet University Gil Eastman Black Box (inside the Elstad theater building, first building on the right when you enter campus from Florida Ave)
800 Florida Ave NE
Washington DC 20002

When?

FIRST WEEKEND:

Thursday, Nov. 8 (Preview - FREE) - 8 pm

Friday, Nov. 9 (Opening Night) - 8 pm

Saturday, Nov. 10 (2 Performances) - 2 pm; 8 pm

Sunday, Nov. 11 - 2 pm

SECOND WEEKEND:

Thursday, Nov. 15 - 8 pm

Friday, Nov. 16 - 8 pm

Saturday, Nov. 17 (2 Performances) - 2 pm; 8 pm

Sunday, Nov. 18 - 2 pm

What's it gonna cost me?

Ticket Prices

Gallaudet students (with ID) - FREE

General admission, students (with ID) - $8*

General admission, adults - $10

the hiking story

Quick Update.

"It is good to see the spirits on campus soaring as the homing pigeons did just before the Town Hall meeting two weeks ago." -campus e-mail

Things are going well! learning a lot, very very busy...missing Dan :(

But overall I am very happy to be where I am doing what I am. I have been cast in the fall play here at Gallaudet, and it is SO MUCH FUN to put my acting shoes back on. They've been off for well nigh six years!! I've also started working in the scene shop one day a week and trying to keep up with all my classwork on top of that.

Meeting lots of neat people, my roommates are great...here are a few photos, some visuals of my life here at Gallaudet.




my lovely desk. back to dorm life :)







my roommate, Tiffany.








Tiffany, Justin, Jessica, Kristi, and Dana








Iosif preparing to make my mask for the play.








my mask mold.

I ... Love ... School!

I've been here at Gallaudet for a little over one week, and I can honestly say that so far it has been one of the most exciting, challenging, rewarding experiences of my life. I thrive on busy-ness, and these last few days have not let me down in that respect.

I have settled into my dorm room with my fabulous roommate and suitemates, and sadly kissed Dan goodbye on my birthday. He's going back to Portland for a while, and he seems very excited about his plans there, so I am happy we are both busy doing what we want to do, but I know it will be difficult not seeing him often.

My classes are amazing. If I could only understand them, I'm sure I would be brilliant within a few weeks. They are all signed, but the format of the class and the style of the lecturer really change my experience. My ASL Media class is easy to follow because the professor is super clear and the work is very hands-on. The Deaf Cultural studies class is a much greater challenge because the professor encourages open discussion. Let me tell you, it is a REAL CHALLENGE trying to keep up with the native signers in my class--they bounce ideas back and forth so fast, I feel like a dog watching someone "throwing" a ball, but really just putting it behind their back. You know that feeling? When you turn your head around in three different directions, looking for the ball, then realize it is right beside you? Yeah. that.

I am so happy to be living on campus. It is one of the greatest joys of academic life to have your bed, your classes, your work, your food, and your friends all within a mile of each other. "The Good Life."

Now I just have to figure out how I will manage to chew through piles and piles of books and articles in time to discuss them.

On a personal note (yes, I know my whole blog is personal), I stopped by the University of Maryland today and got to see my undergraduate mentor, David. He is just the neatest guy. I always like him when I was in school, but my fondness for him has grown stronger looking back and seeing him again.

Other exciting news--I'm getting involved with the theatre department here on campus! More on that will follow later.

my first experiences at gallaudet

I have arrived at Gallaudet University after a very fun and refreshing road trip across the country!! (see silly pictures below)

here are my first impressions of my new home:

Gallaudet itself is much smaller than UMD--and the feeling as I moved into the dorm was totally different. At Maryland, as soon as you show up, you get lost in the shuffle, pushed out of the way, and you have to wait in lots of long, long lines. Here, people were immediately smiling and offering to help carry in my bags from the car, and it seems the school truly is dedicated to accessible communication and developing a community feeling from the very first day.

People always say the Deaf community is small, and my first day at Gallaudet was solid proof of that. waiting in line to get my parking permit came the greatest surprise and happiest moment of my time so far here at school. through the door walked my high school friend Jen's mom and sister...and her sister is a freshman at school here this Fall. I hadn't seen Jen or any of her family for years, and it was such a surprise and delight to see them walk through that door! Whenever people ask for the long story of why I started learning ASL or taking an interest in Deaf Culture, it always winds up back at Jen's house, meeting her Deaf family for the first time. That experience was one I didn't give a second thought to at the time, but I think I learned something then that I have carried with me years later.

My second surprise (and further reinforcement of the "small world" thing ) came in the dining hall. A favorite teacher of mine from Washington State was eating lunch with a guy I had met in Portland..little did I know, they are father and son! Wow.

I am set up in my new spot in Carlin hall, where many of the grad students live. I have 3 suitemates (one of whom is an actual room-mate), lots of books stacked up on my desk, a brand new mailbox, and 1 dinky chair.

Tomorrow morning is orientation for my department and I couldnt be more excited!

I hope all is well with friends and family, please write soon!

Road Trip!

Goodbye Portland!

Here is a whirlwind of our last few days:

Dan played his last futsal game with his team (he's the orange guy kicking in the upper left)









This is a demonstration of the double lives the Portland Center Stage box office staff lead:

Jonny, looking so innocent filing forms in alphabetical order:









But ask him about that time he climbed Mount Defiance, and you'll hear a whole different story (not to be published on THIS blog. This is a family-friendly blog.)

Kim, ostensibly a hardworking, friendly box office supervisor:









But take a gander at her behind the glass..you see her true nature..a viking pirate!












This is Zach's cool cartoon art. I hope he doesn't get mad at me for publishing his work. I'm trying to make him famous:


















After my last day at PCS we gathered at a tavern down the street.

Here's Kim and Lindsey:









Liz and Christine:









Angela and Dan:









And Zach introducing Claire and Monkey! Monkey flew all the way from North Carolina and as fate would have it, he and Claire could only spend a few short hours together before she takes a trip back east. needless to say, they got on very well.

Bridges of this Town and Eagle Creek (#2)

A week or 2 ago, we went on the Portland Bridges Walk. It was different than we had expected, but very fun and informative.

The first part of the event was an indoor celebration of bridges, including a poetry reading, dramatic performance, and musical demonstration. Here, you can see Dan showing off his bridge music talent to the memorable hit "Bridges of this Town." (we bought the CD if you want to hear it)









We walked under the steel bridge and got a pretty neat view of the Broadway bridge (right before a huge train passed right in front of our eyes! Very exciting)












The highlight of the experience was going into the "pit" of the Morrison bridge and watching it lift! This is a pic of the 30 foot gear that moved before our very eyes:












Our next adventure was a 13 mile hike up Eagle Creek trail. This is my favorite trail in the Portland area, and it did not fail to disappoint this time.

Tunnel Falls and me:












Dan relaxing at our awesome picnic spot just above Crisscross falls









Dan's excellent photo of a butterfly:









The butterfly exploring Dan's fingertip:









And a dragonfly landing on my shoulder!









This watersnake was creepy! But very beautiful.

Total Immersion Sign Language Program (take 2)

Well I'm back from my second year at WSD's Total Immersion Sign Language Program. This year was just as fun as last year, but things were definitely different.

Last year, I remember using pen and paper when I couldn't understand people or make myself clear. This year, I relied a lot more on my language skills and gestures to explain and understand things.

Also, the icebreakers and games were a lot less fun for me this year--after one or two of them, I was ready to move on to something a little more "adult." While it is challenging as a new student to keep up with everyone else, I found this year to be equally challenging in a different way--having the patience to fingerspell my name OVER and OVER and not get frustrated when people would just smile and nod even though I could tell they didn't understand what I was signing.

I enjoyed most of my classes this year. The teachers have different styles, and we learned a different subject every hour. I didn't necessarily come away with a whole lot of new information, but it was really helpful to practice my skills and just get used to processing information immediately in ASL.

The best part (as was the same last year) was meeting people. I enjoyed hanging out with Bob, Deb, and Jan from Arizona so much that I'm trying to devise a way to divert my summer trip to include a stop in Phoenix (tough, because it is a pretty short trip, but there's GOTTA be a way!) And every night I stayed up past 2 chatting with Lisa, Nina, Jeremy, Sarah, and Melony. We laughed so loud that this one woman made us be quiet. Not to mention the struggles Melony and I went through with our skit group...wow. That was tough. But we made it :) And it actually turned out pretty well.

At the end of July, along our trip, I will stop for another immersion program in Santa Fe, New Mexico. I am looking forward to seeing how the program differs from the one in Washington. And of course, every day I get more pumped up for my journey home and starting graduate school at Gallaudet!!

here's Bob during Deaf Deaf World













Jeremy and Sarah playing backgammon










And Lisa juggling a cell phone and sidekick

June, Glorious June!!

WOW!
this is post #50!!
And my blog is about to celebrate its first Birthday!!
June has been quite an eventful month! I'll try to re-cap and pick only the best pictures from each event.

First thing in June: Dave came to visit! We had an awesome and jam-packed weekend while he was here, including a whirlwind tour of the city and a trip to the gorge/mt. hood. The first pic is me enjoying the water falling on my super short hair on a short hike in the gorge.

And here is what fun we had near Timberline lodge--Dan and Dave rolling down the snow-covered hill in tee-shirts and shorts:

Although out of chronological order (this was Saturday night), Dave took these next pictures of Dan and I "running" our 5k. Dan is a very athletic guy, and he barely broke a sweat/breathed heavily the whole run. I could barely keep up a trot by the end, was super sweaty, and could barely breathe. BUT I did finish! With no stopping. (and with lots of encouragement from Dan).

I don't know if you can tell from my expression, but running is just not my thing.

So the next great adventure was Dan's first triathlon. He has been doing a little bit of training (although not much) and I think it surprised him how well he did! I was amazed just watching these people (dan included) running from sport to sport with such apparant ease. The race was a 1/2 mile swim, a 12 mile bike ride, and a 5k run. Dan did the whole thing in an hour and 1/2. Pretty impressive!! Here, he is sharing his victory "completion" medal with Claire:

Which brings us to this weekend..Dan's dad is here for a second visit! He is our only 2-time visitor, and we have tried to make his second visit as exciting as the first. At the very least, the weather is better, because his first visit was during the daily rain and mudslides of November.

Saturday we went to the gorge and checked out the Vista House:

And took a short hike to Bridal Veil Falls:

Then we went to the Fish Hatchery and learned all about how they breed fish. Even the gritty details about how they harvest the sperm and eggs from the fish. That's one video I don't need to see again.

Here are the very very cute and beautiful Rainbow trout that we fed with little pellets from a machine. I mean they were CUTE!! They jumped around and swam QuiCKly to any pellets we threw in.

And the handy fish directional signs we followed throughout the hatchery.

I don't have a picture, but tonight we went to see STOMP! It was very very fun and there were a lot of things I didn't remember from the first time I saw it with my family about 10 years ago in Las Vegas.

So that is the wrap-up for June..if you want to contact me next week, you'll have to text me because....................no voice! It's time for ASL Immersion week #2!!! This is the first of two immersion installments for me this summer. I will be at WSD in Vancouver next week, then I'll do another one at the New Mexico School for the Deaf this July along our road trip back East.

Hope all is well! Happy early 4th!