June 27th:
lotsa a typos and grammr errors. just wanted to write abt my first day and share with u. typing from phone so excuse shorthand, etc
slept awful last night. I was freezing cold for one and I had a lot on my mind. I couldn’t stop thinking abt having to be in a class where I already knew the vocabulary…actually the idea of having to pay so much money for it. altho I know wld be a great experience no matter what I just..ugh I dunno was really weighing on me. I was disappointed in myself. definitley realize I’m weak in some areas and need to work on it. hope to do that here. wld be WONDERFUL if I returned home and ppl could tell I’ve improved. finally I got up at 6:30 am and showered. felt great to be in a hot shower after being so cold!! my roommate andrea and I got ready and headed to breakfast. wow so much food in the cafeteria. unfortunately I was feeling a lil nervous abt class so all I had was a half of nectarine. what a waste of a meal ticket! oh well…I made up for it later. smile. ate then headed to class a lil after 8am. there were abt 14 in the class. some were really good signers, some were like me and a couple were so so. the teacher started to sign and boy! I realized that maybe I should be in this class afterall. she signed so fast! after her intro 2 girls interrupted her and told her they thought they needed to move to asl 3. was a pretty crazy day. ppl were transferring classes left and right. after our first break 2 girls joined our class from another class. gosh I’ll be writing all night at this rate! I’ll fast forward. teacher started lesson unit 16. a lesson I’ve already had before! @ lunch I was just so confused abt what I wanted to do and what I should do. @ a table across from me was a girl in the summer program (those of us in the program stand out bc we have to wear nametags around our necks). anyway I asked the girl which ASL class she was in. she is in 5. I asked what it was like. only 4 ppl enrolled!! man after hearing how much she liked it and how small it was I really wanted to get in!! I decided I wld talk to my professor and ask abt switching. totally nervous bc my signing skills, expressions compared to some of these students is not that great. but I had to inquire abt it bc today is only day u can switch. I found her outside walking to class and asked if I cld get her opinion. long story shorter….she asked the asl 5 teacher if I cld sit in on her class. she said fine. WOW! fantastic teacher! I am so happy now. I actually feel more comfortable in this new class. the teacher is VERY sweet and gives back feedback after each thing/story we sign. its great!
ok…so class ended. came back to dorm and worked on homework. have to tell an embarrassing story tomorrow. finished that then realized the tour of the campus was abt to start so headed to visitors center for tour. finished tour then went to cafeteria to eat and study. met up with some new friends I’ve made. then left to play ASLingo. fun game. need to buy that before I leave. finshed the games then called up bryan and the kids. wow that was incredibly difficult! hearing ava’s sweet voice. her asking me when I was coming home. makes me cry now. 🙁 got to talk to jaron. he’s a sweetie pie. he wanted to know why I was crying. really had a hard time keeping my composure while talking to him. I’m looking forward to friday when I can see them again! bryans a great daddy taking care of them…with the help of my awesome parents! who have them all day!! would just totally be impossible to be here without my family and their support.
ok I’m up way later than I wanted to be up. 11.10 I wanted to be asleep by 10. oh well! try again tomorrow
June 28th:
I slept SO much better last night! We turned off the fan in our room and so it was much warmer. Plus I was so tired from the long day before. Woke up at 6:30 and showered. What’s up with that? I dont have any kids to wake me up and I’m getting up before 7am?!?!! crazy!
It works out well. I’m the first one in the shower before the other girls wait up. Think there are only 3 of us in the suite. the girl in the room next to mine is a deaf japanese girl. She’s very shy and keeps to herself most of the time. There is another room in our suite but I dont think anyone is in there. Most of the students are on the 6-8th floors. We’re on the 2nd floor.
After I showered and got dressed i went to the security office and tried to get a parking pass for my car. Turns out I have no idea what my license plate number is and had to go to my car and get the vehicle registration card. Guess what was stuck under my windshield wiper? Yup..a ticket!! $20! Well, I took my info back to the security place and the lady hooked me up with a parking pass and she turned my $20 ticket into a warning. That was nice of her. Finished that stuff then went to cafeteria for breakfast. This morning I had scrambled eggs and 2 slices of bacon, grapes and orange juice. Much better than yesterday. smile.
Class started at 8:30. We had to tell an embarrassing story in front of class. I volunteered to go first! Something I would have NEVER done in jr or high school! I used to take 0’s instead of getting up in front of class. Guess I’ve come out of my shy shell. To be truthful I just want to get up there before the girl who is REAL good got up to tell her story. haha. I was nervous but I think I did okay. I told the story about Ava’s underwear being stuck to Bryan’s swimming shorts. Got a few laughs so that’s cool. We did a lot of role shifting activities in class. lots of practice. It was great. The teacher is wonderful! She gives us feedback on how we did and what we need to do differently. she is very encouraging. absolutely love her and the way she teaches. I’m learning so much. Our lunch break was at 11:30. i had a tuna and lettuce in a spinach wrap, side salad, pickle spear and slic of banana bread. Everything was really tasty. 12:30 headed back to class. More role shifting. It was fun. We were pushing classmates to the ground, pinching arms, slapping faces and had to describe what we were doing. Class finished at 2:30 and I headed to the library to work on a project for my online class (tcc). finished that when back to my room and worked on homework for my class. revising my embarrassing story. Trying to make it flow better. Always trying to perfect things. Have to videotape it for Thursday so want to practice it as much as I can. I decided to go have dinner around 5:45ish. Had spaghetti and meatballs, tried some asparagus (dont ask me why! yuck!!), and garlic bread. So i’m eating well here. probably too well! Chatted..actually signed with several other ladies at the dinner table. They (the staff/teachers) have asked us not to use our voices in class, out of class, or on campus. So we’re respectful of that and dont chat much. sometimes it’s difficult. So much easier if we could just spit out what we’re thinking. Finished dinner then went back to the room to finish studying. When I walked into my quiet room it hit me that i was lonely. i decided to call bryan and see what he was up to. we got disconnected a couple of times so i went outside and called him. we chatted for quite a few. was nice to be able to talk. nice to catch up on things and just spend time with him. He got a call from clay so we hung up. on my way walking to the student academic center i saw Sally, a woman i met the first day here, sitting on the steps looking lonely. we talked about how we missed our families. it was a nice time of chatting (yes we chatted!.. she’s an ASL 1 student. so she’s new at this). Another girl. Marjorie, from the program came up to us. so the 3 of us hung out for a little while. was nice. now i’m at the computer lab. i did some more work for my online class and then decided to write this journal. now..i will go back to my room and finish my homework for class tomorrow. Tonight i WILL go to bed early!!