Happy Halloween!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!!!

(oh how i miss the classics...)

is it weird?

just woke up from conking out on the kitchen table for the last, oh, 4 or 5 hours? ugh. anyway, is it weird that i keep asking my mom and sister to come to ASL Club? not that i want them to learn it or anything. i just want them to see why it is i come home every wednesday night on Cloud 9. ((sigh))

anyway, taking my (mom's) laptop to some tech guy to see if it's saveable. i don't think i can handle loosing a second computer again. not after i've finally started making it mine. it's just now coming up on a year since my Mac died. :C

oh wow...

I am, of course, very bad at keeping up with this thing (as I'm sure you can tell). So, I've decided that I'm going to use this blog to talk about my progress (or failure) in learning ASL (American Sign Language) and my last few semesters to my Photography degree. Mostly the ASL though, I think. :)

Yesterday was my 5th attendance at the school/area ASL Club. It's not that many people, but then again, it's on the second floor of Starbucks (which I love love LOVE, btw!), so only so many people are going to fit in a giant circle. Anyway, yesterday I took my friend Cindy with me. She was in the ASL Club at our alma mater, but it had only been started in her senior year, so she was verrrrry rusty. I didn't think about it until we were in the car on our way (in rush hour traffic, too) to point out that the club we were going to was more like socialization and practice than it was learning. So of course, like I did at my first meeting, she got really nervous and was seriously intimidated when we arrived.

I did point out to her that I was intimidated every time I went too. I mean, who wouldn't be? I'm in ASL I, which means I'm low on the totem pole in proficiency (I still do SEE syntax, ugh!) and here I am signing with Deaf and Hard of Hearing folks? Am I out of my mind? YES!!! But in a good way, of course. Best way to learn a language? Immersion. Which will be interesting if I decide to continue on in ASL, but that's another post for another day. Anyway, Cindy had fun. She wasn't totally lost after I taught her some basic signs to add on to her remembered Fingerspelling. And after asking a the Hearing students to say what they signed to her (or me, as I would do the same), she relaxed enough to tentatively try signing with one of the other Hearing signers.

Although I do have to say, despite that it's going to sound like bragging, I didn't realize how good at ASL I was until I brought Cindy along with me yesterday. Why say that, you ask? Because there were a couple points where someone signed something to me and I would reply quickly in order to get back to teaching Cindy (save for me telling the Prez that I'd met a friend of his during a class trip to Gally). The realization came when Brandon, who was far enough across the room from me to be hanging out with Santa, quickly waved for my attention and started explaining about some new Club meeting times that would allow our friend Dory to come. Since Brandon's Hard of Hearing, he's already taken more in-depth ASL classes and ends up signing faster the longer your conversation goes on. So I apologized to Cindy and went over to finish up our conversation where I could see everything he was signing and when I came back, the completely flummoxed look on Cindy's face took me by surprise (didn't stop me from laughing though).

The realization came during the following conversation after I sat back down: (no, it's not word for word, I'm only human)

Me: What's wrong?

Cindy: I have NO idea what you guys were talking about!

Me: Oh, sorry! Do you want me to tell you? It was just about meeting times. Except for the insults at the end, that was just us being us.

Cindy: You guys did that so fast, though!

Me: (laughing) Oh! Brandon's taken ASL before.

Cindy: No, you were going really fast, too!

And blah blah, etc. So yeah, that's when it kinda clicked into place that I was getting better at signing. :) Sad little bit of prideful accomplishment, but w/e, I loved it. XD

And I still find it funny that I can greet and ask questions of my ex-Japanese classmates in Japanese, even though I haven't spoken it in months. O_O And boy was it a shock when my ASL professor (who's HoH) whipped out some Japanese on me in class one day and I answered right back. Now all I need is someone to come into class spouting Latin and I'll be set. X)

Oh wait....Torchwood did that for me....nevermind! Until next time!

p.s. - strike Ballet from my schedule. I sprained my ankle a few weeks back and won't be strong enough to resume until next semester at the least. ((crosses fingers))