The Eventful Weekend

This past weekend was the busiest of them all!  I started off Friday evening by heading to Safety Harbor library to go to Deaf poetry night.  This is a time that Deaf kids come to practice their poems, ABC stories and "I have a dream" statements.  Although I'm not one actually creating stories, I get to be there to observe and what I have seen so far is absolutely amazing.  If you would like to come to this event they are performing this Saturday along side of a famous Deaf poet and comedian Peter Cook.  It will be at Crosspoint church, 7:00-8:30.  Tickets are $5.

After Deaf poetry was over, a new friend that I have acquired and I went to a place called "The Venue".  There was a sushi bar, a few different bars, live music and a second floor all under one roof.  It was pretty sweet. Alyssa and I talked for awhile over a shared a sushi roll and delicious edamame.  When we were done eating we decided to check out the dance scene and didn't see much activity going on.  As the night picked up, I found that Alyssa hated dancing!! Which was such a shock because she is a very talkative person (and also a disappointment because I LOVE dancing).  So I sat with her and we watched other people make fools of themselves instead : )  Before we left that night two guys approached us and asked if we would dance.  I forced her to do it just to be spontaneous and she finally did.  As the two guys realized Alyssa was Deaf they were instantly intrigued.  They gave the usual, "oh my gosh..you know sign language?".."so is she Deaf?" and one guy even said, "I have a friend that is in a wheelchair... she has scoliosis"... I still haven't figured out the connection on that one.  Maybe he was nervous.   

The next day I went to the Farmer's Market in downtown St. Pete with Rebecca & Roy.  It was so great!  I bought a hat, a coconut ring and a few avacados.  There was so much cool art and everyone had so many creative ideas up their sleeve.  One woman who had "paper art" that focused on the uses and decoration of using paper (origami's, journals...), another vendor was an artist who used wood to carve out jewelry pieces... It was so cool to see what people had.

Before we left we watched the band at the market play.  People were gettin crazy!  This minute will be worth your time... (hint: old woman to the left, baton twirler to the right, miss legs takin over the dance floor..)

We left the market and Rebecca brought me to the Dali Museum.  Wow.  I was just blown away.  Have you seen the art with the melting clocks?... that's him

 (outside of the museum : ))

The next day I spent at Deaf church (Calvary Baptist) and then went to lunch with Alyssa's family.  They are all Deaf and all so much fun! They're very understanding when I don't understand what they're talking about or just giving me insight on what's up here in the area. I am lucky to have found them and I look forward to spending more time with them through these next few months.  

Orlando Activities

  

   This past weekend I went to Orlando with my family.  We visited the Nickelodean hotel for Mckenzies birthday and her friend Haven came along.  The first night we bought a pass to go to the 4-D movies that were playing inside the (within walking distance) Nickelodean mall.  We watched Happy Feet, the Deep Sea and Dora.  It included bubbles, squirts of water, wind and vibrating seats (and of course 3-D glasses!).

    Saturday my cousin Morgan, her friend and I had tickets to go to Universal Studios.  We got them for free from Fairen because she had worked there for awhile and they were going to expire soon.  Lucky lucky me.  Right place, right time... right? Before I went I was sitting by the pool, basking in the awesome Florida sun and I looked up to see this.  I'm not really sure where the message was going but it was cool to see the writing in the sky.

    At Universal there were two parts and we decided to go to Adventure Island.  There were a lot of cool sections of the park, one in particular was Harry Potter....it looked just like the movie!  It was awesome.  I'm not a huge HP fan but I enjoyed how they brought the story to life.  We went on a simulating ride that took us through the castle and was like nothing I had experienced before.  It's amazing what people come up with!

 As we walked through the park I kept seeing these families with "thing 1" "thing 2" "thing 3"..and so on.  It was soo cute!  I wanted to get this little onesie for Lyd and Kyle's new baby but it was friggin expensive. 

    The day was so fun!  I'm glad I got to go some place I had never been before...and the whole weekend was such a great opportunity to be with family I haven't had much time in the past to be with. I'm a lucky gal!

...And then I almost burnt the house down

My Grandparents don't like to cook a whole lot but told me I could cook whatever I wanted (ha, and they'll eat it..that's the agreement anyway).Tonight I decided I wanted to make French Onion soup... it turned out to be whole different adventure.  It took me 45 minutes longer than expected to cook just the onions, I cut my finger, didn't have a few ingredients and almost set the house on fire.  But, it all tasted really good : )

 My "toasty" bread.  ...let's just say I didn't really understand how the broiler works.

Check out this super good recipe:
http://allrecipes.com/recipe/french-onion-soup-gratinee/detail.aspx

And I also put together this super simple salad:

http://allrecipes.com/recipe/orange-romaine-salad/detail.aspx

Addresses and things

Just had a conversation with my nursing friend, Kelly Jean Frey....as I was giving her my address she said "you live in seminole?  like seminal vesicle?"

For those who wish to have my address it is:

9227 143rd Street
Seminole, FL 33776

I love mail, so I'll deffffinitely write you back if you send it my way ; )


P.S.-Went to the beach for the FIRST TIME today and it was grand

Internship Intro

So here is the first of many posts throughout my internship experience.... I feel like I don't have this pat-down on how to explain what I'm doing, so here is me trying to perfect and explain to the masses (or whoever actually reads my blog) what I'm doing here in Seminole, Florida.

My goal through the next few months will be to improve my interpreting skills and learn more about the profession I will soon be involved in.  This means I will be observing certified interpreters, hangin out with the Deaf community and developing myself through actual interpreting experiences.  My mentor, Kerstin, will be guiding me through the process and giving me helpful feedback to show me what needs to improve and what should stay.  I am working for a company called KSS Sign Language Interpreting and they are a local interpreting agency established by three woman.  I've already heard great things from clients about how reliable and professional they are.  They also are a company well supported by the Deaf community because two of the three owners are Deaf.  Some told me "there aren't many Deaf business owners out there so we have to support them!".. and that was cool to hear.
(check out their site if you wanna...)
http://www.kss-aslinterpreting.com/

My first week of interning was interesting, challenging and exciting at most. I can't share details, simply because of confidentiality limitations, but I can tell you that I've interpreted for meetings, doctors offices and even at a therapy session.  Some parts felt natural and easy and others I wanted to poop my pants because I didn't understand what to say or sign.  Kerstin steps in as needed but she also allows me to work through and try to make some quick decisions.  It's weird when you're in the hot-seat and you are giving actual information for an actual person that needs to hear/see it.  Before it was like "interpret interpret interpret, oh crap I don't know what to do...oh ok, interpret interpret..." but now it's like "interpret interpret (crap..I HAVE to keep going) interpret..." ha, if that makes any sense.

Anyways, I hope that there are many exciting interpreting adventures up ahead and I'm currently also looking into a place to volunteer at.  There are two different options: a Deaf school in Clearwater and also a Deaf Center that looked a lot like the Boys and Girls club which appealed to me.  Here in Seminole I am staying with my grandparents and they are taking care of my expenses.  I'm not allowed to have a paid job while I am here so that made the budget tight.  I feel blessed that I have such generous grandparents that would open up their home and pockets to provide for me during this time.  This part of the experience is so different, because it makes me feel like a kid!  I haven't lived at "home" for 3 years now and haven't been without a job since I was 15.  It's a strange feeling to be dependent on someone else but it's an interesting lesson I need to work through : )

I will continue to update this thing..possibly with random tid bits of exciting places or long-butt blogs like this about my internship.  Hopefully it'll stay interesting for my readers : ) enjoy!

The Rules of Florida

1.  Drive like a maniac, because it's a retiree state and now that you have nothing to do you can do whatever you want.
2.  Go to Publix because they will do anything for you: make sure you are greeted with a sincere 'hello', grind 12 bags of whole bean coffee, let you slide when you still owe 26 cents...
3.  If you're a Florida resident you must complain and say "every day I see sun...it's so boring"
4.  Clean off the counter, or Grandma will get mad.
5.  Wear black to EVERY interpreting assignment.  No matter how convinced you are that you can make other colors work... Deaf people will always give you a thumbs up for black.
6.  Don't go too fast in the Astro, the Astro can handle 45 mph, maybe.. just take your time in the Astro.
7.  Yes Grandpa.  Peanuts and beer DO go together well.

I miss this guy.

 Props to Lydia http://www.diaimagesblog.com/p/portfolio.html

(my family can't admit they're obsessed with my kitty)