The Rally.

 Yesterday I went to the Stephen Colbert & Jon Stewart rally at the National Mall.  It was absolutely ridiculous. People were encouraged to dress as their biggest fear and it was Halloween weekend so naturally, people were ready and willing to dress up.  I think one of my favorite parts was just walking around and seeing every ones opinions and creativity come alive through their costumes and signs.  These were some of my favorites...

 How random is this crowd?

 Some people had different reasons for coming...

 I liked the ones that were a little more straight forward.

 True story.  We walked around, well..pushed around, into the crowd and were trying to find a decent spot.  Mind you, there were an estimated 215,000 people that showed up.  I was literally squished, legs almost not touching the ground, between all of these people.  At one point amongst the crowd, someone handed me a sign.  I couldn't have asked for anything better.

 Myth Busters showed up to the rally and had the whole crowd do specific things... such as this.  At one point all of us jumped at the same and it felt like an earthquake.  Pretty great.

 We all came together..but were separated by the crazy crowd.  At last, we were reunited and it felt so good.

 My favorite picture of the day. 

 This was just weird.

 If anyone has EVER experienced Georgetown cupcakes...you know how long the line is to get one.  Sometimes, you feel like 215,000 people are standing in that line.

Land Shark.

Overall...such a good day.  I got to see The Roots, Tony Bennett, Ozzy Osbourne, Father Guido Sarducci, Kat Stevens, R2D2 and of course, Colbert and Stewart.  Success.

David in DC

David was here for 5 days....and it totally went too fast.  Doesn't it always?  The good times will be back, he assured me, but it seems like it'll be forever till I'll see him again.  

.....I really enjoy it when I take pictures because the pictures explain the week so well...

..so here it goes...

 We rode the bus to East Market...the most diverse Flea market in the nation that occurs every Sunday down the road from Gallaudet

 Although you may not be able to tell, this was a full rack of necklaces..jewelry seemed to be a reoccurring product at this market..something I didn't mind looking at : )

 Who doesn't love a good head of dreads?  This was worth creeping about.

 Testing my camera for a shot of me and David

http://www.easternmarket.net/

   

A 36 foot long squid and mini see through creatures...a nice visit at the Smithsonian.

 Butterfly Garden

 David made a friend.......they took the whole butterfly garden journey together. How cute.

 I made a friend shortly after that....I considered just taking it home and making a hair clip out of it

(photo credit: kaleena...because she insisted. ha)

So what happened was....

Okay, for those who don't know ASL or who can't understand my ASL (ha), here's the English breakdown:  Yesterday I was coming back into my dorm and going up the stairs..I saw my friend 'Big Joe'.  I said "what's up" and just continued walkin.  Then in the corner of my eye I realized he was signing back to me.  He said "Why did you just say 'what's up' and then not wait for me to answer..?".  I thought that was a pretty good question, but never thought twice because for hearing people it doesn't really matter.  If a hearing person talked back to me after I said 'what's up', I would be able to hear them even if I wasn't looking. 

The more and more I'm here I'm learning about new Deaf experiences.  It's so interesting how different hearing people and Deaf people communicate.

Can't eat, can't sleep

For the past few weeks I haven't been able to fall asleep at night...so lame.

So here I am, blogging my brains out instead.

My whole system has felt out of wack since I arrived and I have yet to ever get on a consistent schedule; this is the life of a college student.  I have also found myself to be stuck:  stuck in my improvement of ASL, not feeling excited about meeting new people and not expressing my creativity.  What an unfortunate place.  I am ready to get back into the game and throw in a few punches... so what do I do?  I make lists.  Lists of improvement for this week and the future.

From now on:
-I will not skip class. I have skipped several classes, several times and...I should probably stop and get motivated.
-I will choose to sit with Deaf people at dinner.  I am SUCH a hearing person!  I confine to my own, comfortable group by daily sitting with the hearing friends that I see on a regular basis.  No wonder I'm not improving my ASL.
-I will start bringing my camera with me everywhere I go.  DC is such a sweet place to be.  Although sometimes it has been good to not feel like I need to document every moment, I also feel that I am missing an artsy part of me just waiting to burst.  I need to take pictures.
-I won't hide in my room, on my bed, everyday to do my homework.  I'm sorry bed, you're comfortable but I need to get out and make library friends...
-Last of all, I'm going to start being excited and positive.  I've totally enjoyed myself here so far but I feel that there are so many more faces, places and activities to be involved with.  It's time that I really appreciate my opportunity here.

That's my rambling for the night.  I hope to be posting Jessica & Stash's pictures soon, as I have neglected to complete them. For now, I uncover the old...

My sweet pea, the chuck-meister.


Goodnight.

She told me to journal..

I called my Deaf professor, Deb, today and we talked for a bit.  She told me that while I'm here I should journal all of my experiences and hand them into the office at Goshen.  See, Goshen still doesn't seem to understand that this is much more than a language experience and much more of a culture experience. 
I told her that I've sort of already been doing this through blogging, but it's pretty hard to summarize what I'm experiencing and seeing here.  I'm still trying to take it all in and sit on it, trying to understand whats really going on.

Recently, I've really noticed how restless I am and how not so restless the Deaf community is.  Every night I go to dinner and yea, I like to hang out for awhile and catch up with people..but Deaf people, WHOAH, they know how to catch up.  I almost spent two hours in the cafeteria tonight just talking and eating with people.  Their culture is constantly about informing each other about the day and just talking.  I've never felt this compelled to talk this much in everyday conversation.  It challenges me on a daily basis and makes me ask more questions and dig deeper into who people are.  It's super exciting.

Okay.  I'm going to stop there..for today...I still have so many more thoughts to process....