All I have to say is: I got straight A’s this semester.

I just realized that I didn’t take a test on Thursday night like I was supposed to. It was an online test and it was supposed to start at 5pm on Thursday. I completely forgot because I was getting ready for this trip. Needless to say, I am a basket case; I want to rush home right now so I can retake it if she lets me. It was supposed to be open book/open note and I have none of that stuff with me. I just e-mailed her…I hope she lets me fix it. I really can’t get a zero on the test…that would probably make me fail the class. I can’t believe this.

Tonight I had a 30+ minute post-practice chat with the College Bowl coach. He wanted me to know that if I become a “regular” student, I WILL be on the team going to New Orleans in July for the competition. He immediately asked if A would come too, so apparently I would get my own room, though he did say only my trip would be paid for.

He said that after seeing me in the past two practices, he can tell I definitely belong on the team. It takes both knowledge and enthusiasm, and I guess I have both. He’s already communicated with the National Association for the Deaf to ask about a hypothetical situation wherein a hearing student becomes a regular status student, and they said it would be okay for me to be on the team as long as I was regular status at Gallaudet. All I need for that is the audiogram and the audiologist’s letter certifying that the hearing loss is permanent.

We chatted about other things too, it was a really nice conversation and he treated me as an equal rather than “just a student” which was cool.

Dr. Mom, my favorite teacher, sent me an email today. She said she had been thinking about the discussion in yesterday’s Sex & Gender class, and she worried that I felt excluded or marginalized by the discussion because we focused only on straight couples. She saw me before I had a chance to reply, so she asked me about it again! I said we were talking about the differences between men and women, so of course it was natural that we would talk about straight couples, and I was fine with it! I made sure she knew I thought she was an absolute sweetheart for sending me that note.

I’m writing this in a draft in Gmail because I can’t remember my WordPress password. The reason I can’t remember is I’m not on my normal computer operating system. raisinbottom emailed me today with questions about Ubuntu, and he mentioned Wubi, so I got all hyped up and spent the evening fighting with it. Again. My big problem, as usual, is the wireless stuff. When I mentioned to A what I was working on, she couldn’t believe it - I have installed and uninstalled Ubuntu at least four times now. I have a love/hate relationship with the damn thing. I was unable to get the wireless working, but I’m jacked straight into the network right now, so I can at least write this while in Ubuntu, save the draft, and go into Windows (where my passwords are all saved) and post it!

Anyway, today’s classes were pretty good. I enjoyed the project we did in Deaf Studies, and I was pleased to see another friend of mine is now in the class. A few other people joined too so it is now getting pretty crowded! More people came into my Linguistics class too, and it’s now huge, but we can’t get a bigger room so we are all jammed in tight in a semi-circle. It turns out one of the visiting students is emerge’s sister, I was tickled to find that out! I had some quibbles with some of the teacher’s opinions…I had asked about Gestuno, and then later I asked about Esperanto…and she tried to compare it back to Gestuno. In reality, Gestuno can be more accurately compared to Basic English, because Esperanto behaves very differently from either of those. She wouldn’t hear of it though - did I mention she’s excitable? Oh well.

Okay, now that I have had all my classes, here’s what I think of them so far.

• History - Teacher seems young but interested in the material. I think this is his first year without an interpreter, and his signing is pretty slow and he makes lots of mistakes, but he’s trying. There are only three of us in the class (the other two are already friends), so I’m not sure how class discussions will go…how can you debate anything with only three people? If two people agree, the other is just going to go “oh fine” and go along with them. Anyway, small class, teacher is interested, it’s all good. While we’re on vacation I think I will mostly just have a lot of reading to do.
• Deaf Studies - Disappointed that Fernandes is no longer the teacher…the Honors program coordinator knows what happened but isn’t saying. The new teacher is okay with my vacation and I think I will be able to keep up but I’ll definitely regret missing the class discussions. I already have all the required books in my personal collection, so at least I don’t have to buy any books for this class! Also I have two friends in the class and a couple of other people that I know a little bit, plus some people I don’t know. I was kind of relieved to find out that I could skip the “growing up deaf” assignment…we have to do 10 out of 12 writing assignments, and I am just going to skip that one and do the rest, which are easier for me!
• Linguistics - My teacher is so excitable. It’s mostly a good thing. I get the feeling the class might be tough, especially with being absent for two weeks. There is a test while I’m on vacation but fortunately it’s an online test anyway, but there might be quizzes that I will miss, which cannot be made up. I’ll have to ask and see if she will let me since I warned her about my trip a couple of months ago already. I have two friends in this class, yay! There are four visiting students though…all from Boston, all interpreting majors (I think), and all hearing. And all insular…I have seen them around talking to each other more than once. One of them actually admitted during class that she is hearing…I was thinking “oh honey, you have a lot to learn about Gallaudet.”
• Sex and Gender - This class is going to be so awesome. I will have to literally sit on my hands to give other people a chance to talk. See, being a queer person, I think about sex, gender, orientation, etc. a lot. And I already have a LOT of opinions, which I am eager to share…but I don’t want to dominate the in-class discussion! But seriously, it is going to be awesome; we have already started discussion and it is going to be great. I brought up David Reimer and the teachers mentioned that we’d be discussing him later, so I am ahead a bit! The class is being taught by a biology professor (my favorite teacher!) and a psychology professor so I just know this is going to be great. I am SO excited about this class!

By the time you read this, my Southern California 2008 set should be completely tagged, titled, etc.

Today was the first day of the spring semester. My schedule is as follows…I don’t think I’ve mentioned it yet, have I?

M/W - 10:00 to 11:50 - Introduction to Integrated Learning (Sex and Gender section)
Tu/Th - 9:30 to 10:50 - American History II (Honors)
Tu/Th - 1:00 to 2:20 - Introduction to Deaf Studies
Tu/Th - 3:00 to 4:20 - Introduction to the Structure of American Sign Language

This leaves Monday and Wednesday afternoons, and all of Fridays, for working. I hope to work 10-12 hours a week this semester.

Hooray, today was the last day of classes! I still have to redo my research paper (I’ve got 3.5 pages out of 8 so far) and do my history final, math final, and ASL final. The math final is due on the 13th, the ASL final is due on the 10th, and the history final is due on the 11th. The research paper is also due on the 11th.

Also, on Monday, I have to take the English final, which is reportedly pretty easy. That’s at 5pm though - it was supposed to be at 6:30pm but I begged to have it moved up because I live at least an hour away. I also have to see the lady about writing for gBlog (thanks to_be_in_snafu!) and also do the course evaluation for ASL, which my teacher can’t figure out how to post online, apparently.

Oh, and I’m officially a sophomore! All of my credits transferred, which is 26.5, and 26 means you have sophomore standing. So YAY! Of course most of them transferred as elective credit, including the one I really wanted to transfer (a Deaf Studies class), but hey, 26.5 transfer credits is more than 0 transfer credits!

I’m going to miss all of my friends over the winter break, though. I’m hoping to see kawaiibishounen but no guarantees…he isn’t that far though, so hopefully we can meet in the middle or I can go visit him or he can come visit me, or something!

Everybody is going home for the holiday. One of my friends asked me if I was staying in town, and I said “um…I live here, so…yes. And my family lives here.” I am going to have dinner with my family on Thursday. I am kind of envious of all my friends making travel plans and being excited to go home - I don’t have anywhere to go! Although we did get confirmation today that the Los Angeles trip in January is definitely happening, so that’s fun. I’m sad that I won’t get to sign with anybody from Tuesday night until Monday morning though, everybody is going to be hearing all weekend, and I love my deaf friends. Two of them are going together to the house of one of their families, and I am jealous…I want to spend a whole week with my friends, too! Sometimes I hate living off campus. I have the most awesome friends but I have to leave them every night, blah. Don’t get me wrong, I love my wife and my kitties and my kitchen and my restaurants and all the other benefits of living at home…but I wish I could see my friends for longer and more often. Le sigh.

A letter from the President of Gallaudet University, Bob Davila:

I received a message today from the Middle States Commission on Higher Education (MSCHE) letting me know that during their meeting today, the commissioners unanimously voted to remove Gallaudet from probation. As of today, Gallaudet is currently placed on warning which is the interim step institutions must go through prior to re-affirming full accreditation. While well deserved, this was a decision we didn’t expect until the spring of 2008. This decision reflects a community, including the Board of Trustees, faculty, teachers, staff, students, and alumni, that has come together and exceeded all expectations, internal and external. I will be sending you more details tomorrow, but wanted you to be the very first to know this wonderful news. I thank you for all of your hard work especially what each of you has contributed to a new and better Gallaudet.

Yay!