Girls Night, Homecoming, & Markoff's Haunted Forest

Yay! I have some fun things to tell you about.  This weekend was filled with fun (and practically no homework)...therefore I have things to share with you!

Friday night I met up with another girl from my program (Jennifer), and 2 other girls and we had a girls night.  It was really fun getting to spend some time with Jen outside of class, and fun getting to know the other two girls.  We had wine and cheese at their house right near campus, and had a ton of fun. We also went on an adventure to Adams Morgan, a cute part of Washington, DC.  

GROUP PICTURE!

Samantha and Jennifer

Sarah and I

This weekend was also HOMECOMING WEEKEND for Gallaudet University.  It was quite exciting for me since I hadn't had a homecoming weekend since high school (silly UCSD with no football team).  Unfortunately Galludet lost, but we had a great time watching the game, wandering the booths, watching the cheerleaders, and trying to take pictures of our friend who is one of the football coaches.  

The crowd!

Gallaudet in Buff & Blue

Coach Nicar!

Melissa and I in our matching T-shirts, AGAIN!

The Final Score, ouch!

Another fun adventure for the weekend was to Markoff's Haunted Forest.  It is a halloween haunted forest in MD.  Every year they set up 2 "haunted trails" in the forest, as well as a bunch of other activities.  They had hot chocolate and apple cider, funnel cake, big bonfires, a zip-line, fortune telling, a rock-climbing wall, and all kinds of other things. 

Once you paid and got through the gate you wandered around until your number got called for the haunted forest.  I went with Tiffanie, Tony, and Jill and we had a blast walking through the haunted forest.  There were all kinds of strange creatures jumping out at you, weird noises, people in costumes, and it was extremely dark.  It was also FREEZING that night, only 48 degrees.  We had a great time.  I wish I had pictures but it was at night and very dark.

That's it for now--don't worry I didn't forget about your questions. I will answer all your questions in my next blog (once life is boring again and I don't have anything to write about)!

Answers to your questions!

Hello!  Greetings from Gallaudet in October!!!!  So far the weather is about the same, days with temperatures in the 70s and 80s, nothing too muggy or too cold.  I am 1/2 way through my semester, and my classes are going well. Last week was my big midterm week so I was buried in work, but now things are a bit better but I still have lots of projects to work on and things to do.  

In my last post I said I was curious what you all wanted to know about my life here in DC at Gallaudet, and if you send me questions I will try to answer them.  So, for this blog I am going to attempt to answer the questions I received.  PLEASE send me more questions, it is a great way for me to know what to tell you about & what you are interested in hearing. 

1) What are classes like?

Classes here at Gallaudet are very interesting. In some ways they are a lot like my classes at UCSD, but in other ways they are very different.  One of the big differences is size.  Gallaudet is so much smaller than UCSD.  I can walk from my dorm on one side of campus to my department building on the other side of campus in 5 minutes.  At UCSD it could take me over 15 minutes to walk to class.  Also, class size: here at Gallaudet my largest class is 20 students, and my smallest class is 8 students.  At UCSD my largest class was in the 300's, and my smallest class was 15.   Another major difference-the obvious one: Language!  All my classes are taught in ASL.  At UCSD I had a few classes in ASL, but here EVERY class in ASL.  My 3 graduate classes are about 50/50 hearing and Deaf people.  The bigger of my 2 prereq classes is at least 75% Deaf, and my other prereq class I am the only hearing person out of 8.  All my classes are signed, which is very fun. Sometimes it gets a bit tricky for me to both understand and attempt to respond all at the same time-but I feel that I am doing pretty well. 

2) How is signing all the time?

If there is any way to increase your skills in a second language it is to use it all the time.  For sure living here has been a crazy experience of signing...in the cafeteria, in class, walking to class, hanging with friends, I am practicing and learning all the time.  It is a very new experience for me, but I am enjoying it!

3) Do you talk, ever?

Yes, I do talk.  There are a lot more hearing people here than I expected, and I do talk with them sometimes.  We try to sign as much as possible, but when I am in my dorm I am not signing 100% of the time, I talk on occasion. I also talk to my parents on the phone. But when I am out and about on campus I am signing. 

4) Do you listen to music?

Before I moved here I listened to music all the time, the majority of my time walking around UCSD I was listening to my ipod.  My roommates and I in San Diego always had music playing in at least 1 room of the house.  Here at Gallaudet I rarely listen to music...what makes me laugh is when I hear a song in a commercial, or in a store, and it gets stuck in my head forever because I don't have anything to get it out with.  I do occasionally listen to music in my room on my laptop--but its a few songs, a couple times a week thing, not an every moment of the day thing like in undergrad. 

5) Do you ever miss talking?

Nope!!!  I love signing and I honestly wish I signed more.  I feel that if I had absolutely no opportunity to use my voice my ASL would improve even more quickly.  Yes, it does get tiring working on a second language all the time, and it does feel great to be able to chat in English with my roommate...but I am here to learn ASL---and am enjoying it greatly!

That's it! If you have more questions for me, just press "COMMENT" at the end of this post and leave some for me! :) Nicole

Sorry, I know It's been a while....

Ok, so I guess you all deserve an update!  I am getting really settled here, and have been doing a lot of the same things over and over---which isn't very exciting to read.  Today I went to class, and then did homework, and then went to class again....oh and once I am done with this blog I am going to do more homework. Yipee!  I won't bore you to death with those details, I will just give you some information on the interesting things!

This past weekend I went to the National Book Festival at the National Mall.  My favorite children's book Author & Illustrator duo was there, and it was really fun to get to see them in person, and get a book signed by them.  I also got to see another one of my favorite children's authors speak, unfortunately I couldn't get a book signed by him. Bummer!

Above is a picture of the national mall filled with people.  There were over 50 authors there, from children's books and mystery to biography and poetry.  It was a great experience. I walked around and listened to authors speak, and went in the tent that had a representative from each state, and got information on reading programs and some fun bookmarks.

So my favorite children's Author and Illustrator team is Doreen Cronin and Betsy Lewin.  They cooperate on a bunch of really great children's books.  My favorite, and the one that won the Caldecott award, is called Click Clack Moo, Cows That Type.  I went and watched them speak together which was quite enjoyable.  They read their newest book outloud, with help from the audience.  They also had the children in the audience help them come up with ideas for the beginning of a new book, and Betsy Lewin illustrated it as we went. 

(Doreen Cronin, author)

(Betsy Lewin, illustrator)

I also sat and watched a presentation by David Shannon.  He writes a bunch of great books for kids, and during his presentation he read his newest book Too Many Toys outloud, with voices and actions included.  He also gave a demonstration on how to draw David (the main character in many of his books).  

(David Shannon, author and illustrator)

Below is a video of David Shannon-he is so funny I couldn't pass up getting videos of him, he could easily be a comedian as well as an Author and an Illustrator. I have 2 more but couldn't get them to post-if I figure it out I will add them!

(An Excerpt from: Too Many Toys)

In other news...there isn't really news.

Hmm, I am realizing that I don't really do that much.  I have been working on many different projects and assignments for class, getting to know people a lot better around here, and having a good time.  I am also getting to know some different people in my department.  Marilyn, the coordinator for my program, is amazing and I have really been getting to know her--and I am helping her learn how to use her new Mac.  

So, here's the thing.  I don't want to continuously write the same things on here over and over...and I am really curious what you want to know about. SO! Think up something you are curious about, some questions for me, and add them as a "comment" on this post. You don't have to sign in or make an account or anything, just hit "comment" and leave me a question.  If you can't figure that out than just email me your questions--nichutchy4@gmail.com. Then, in my next post I can answer some of your questions and make this a bit more interesting.

So that is it for now!  

-Nicole