Now I can finally talk about my past week of orientation. It’s been going pretty well - I can’t believe how much has happened! In the space of five days, I went from a normal member of honors to a grouch to a demoted “bridge to honors” student and back to being a full honors student. Whew!

I have also been mistaken for deaf almost constantly, and while it’s not a compliment anymore when somebody realizes I’m hearing, it’s still nice to realize that I don’t stick out like a sore thumb.

However I’ve also had an embarrassing moment that would only happen to a HUG student like me. I was in a makeup session of the ASL/Math assessment tests, and I was trying hard to concentrate. But an orientation session was also in there, and the leader was running late so the students were chatting and laughing…loudly. I got one of the test proctors to come over and asked if there was any way the other half of the room could be quieted down. I felt ridiculous asking such a thing in a deaf university, but I was trying to take a test, and I really couldn’t concentrate! They did quiet down and I was able to finish the test in peace…though I still completely bombed, hah! I didn’t even get what was going on, what the questions were, or
anything. Yikes!

I already have several of the books needed for my Deaf Studies and English classes, but there’s still a bunch more for my English class I have to buy.

I had a good experience relating to being a HUG student today. Yesterday I chatted with another HUG about whether it was culturally appropriate to participate in certain activities - I think somebody had been surprised that a hearing student could play sports for Gallaudet. Today we were sitting through class elections, and I turned to another HUG and said, “now this is the kind of thing I don’t think ’students like us’ can participate in.” Another girl behind her who knows us both said “no way! You guys can do anything, it doesn’t matter if you’re hearing.” Which is just way cool to hear, and I told her “thanks, that really makes me feel good!” I still am a little suspicious of whether it would REALLY be okay…it just feels like it would be taboo for a hearing person to be class president at a deaf college. But it’s great that at least somebody thinks it’s okay!

I am still kind of shell shocked when I browse Facebook and see all these people graduated high school in ‘07. I can’t believe I graduated high school ten years ago. I’ve been looking forward to my 10-year reunion for a while, but seeing all those ’07s just makes me feel kind of old instead!

I am officially scared about starting school. The trigger was hearing NPR’s summer segment, “You Must Read This.” I was amazed to realize that I used to listen to that piece when I was driving to work every day - part of the rat race, wearing button-down shirts, and working in a cube farm. Now I’m a student again, wearing t-shirts with funny things on them, and walking around campus. I can’t believe my life has changed so radically! Normally I would expect it to change on the order of the year-long Climate Connections series, not the months-long You Must Read This series.

Today was New Student Orientation. The drama surrounding Honors was carried a little further, but I did get caught up on most things - I got my ID, my parking sticker, and so forth. There was a bit of confusion regarding whether or not I’d taken a placement test, but it got straightened out when the right person was finally contacted.

Tomorrow, stuff starts at 9am. There’s a GLBT ice cream social in the evening so I’m planning on staying at least that late. I still have to visit the business office so I can promise to pay for stuff, but I think other than that I am mostly set. Hopefully I’ll get to speak with my academic advisor tomorrow too.

I left the honors retreat after a few hours this morning. No offense to anybody who was there, but it was honestly not appropriate for me. I was further offended by the head of the department, who was rather patronizing to me on the phone when she realized I had left. (I’d informed the coordinator, but not the head.) To be honest I don’t think she realizes that she’s dealing with a mature adult. She pays lip service to it, but she still treats me like somebody who’s just been released from Mommy and Daddy’s care and needs to be monitored at all times. But you know what? I’m a big girl. I’m not going to be treated like I’m fresh out of high school.

We agreed to meet tomorrow on campus before the rest of the activities begin at 3:00pm. I plan to let her know exactly how I feel, and that I expect to be treated like an independent person, not a teenager. If she doesn’t want to treat me differently from the 18-year-olds in the program, I’d rather be dropped from the program. It’s up to her - if she doesn’t like my request to be treated like an adult, she can drop me. Or she can treat me like an adult, that’s the choice. But I will not be patronized.

I’m not explaining the specifics because I don’t want to seem like I’m whining…but she definitely came across as patronizing. Yup.

I’m still waiting impatiently for my schedule to show up on the Gallaudet student services application, but meanwhile I finally heard back from the transfer specialist! If I am understanding the spreadsheet correctly, I currently have 8.5 credits from previous college experience. If I were to get credit for all of my previous experience, I would have 26.5 credits, making me a sophomore. They’re not finished evaluating it though - they are still trying to figure out what some of my courses would be equivalent to, so I may get some additional credits. Reportedly they’ll have everything fixed by the time orientation starts on the 22nd.

Today I took the English and math placement tests at Gallaudet. They said it would take about three hours, but it only took me about one hour. They clearly suggest the longer time because they think native ASL speakers will struggle more with the reading and writing portions, but as a native English speaker I breezed through them. The writing portion consisted of writing a 300-600 word persuasive letter, and I know I did a superb job on that. I am pretty sure I got everything right in the reading section.

This morning I did three hours in the VRS center at Gallaudet, about two of which were actual hot seat real calls. I did a much better job than I was expecting! I went over to do my math/English tests after that, but the testing lab had lost its networking connection and so I had to reschedule for Tuesday at 10am. This means my vacation is getting extended even more…I feel bad about being away from my agency for so long but it’s the way things are working out.

Last night I started putting up the pictures from the trip; I’m still captioning and tagging them. It’s slow going! Tonight I started posting my journal entries but that’s a lot of typing so I’m taking a break for a bit.

I don’t think I’ve mentioned on here that I upgraded to a Sidekick 3. When we boarded the plane in Denver on Wednesday, I turned off my Sidekick 2 and put it in my pocket. When we arrived in Baltimore and I got out my phone…the crystal had cracked. Of all the times I’ve put my phone in my pocket, this was the first time there was any damage from it. So Thursday morning I went to the mall and upgraded to a SK3. I’m extremely annoyed that I’m expected to pay to re-download all of my applications, especially since the guy at the kiosk in the mall said I wouldn’t have to. But I have already created a Gallaudet Sidekick 3 theme - I was surprised I didn’t find any immediately so I just made my own. I haven’t found any Hello Kitty themes either, I will have to make some of those.

Here is what my schedule could look like at Gallaudet. If I could totally pick and choose my classes and schedule, this is what I’d take, assuming my English placement results were as high as I expect them to be. I will be taking the placement exams on May 25th, but I don’t know if I have an advisor assigned yet.
MWF

9:00 - 9:50 - HIS 101 - World Civilization I (3 credits)
10:00 - 10:50 - PHY 107 - General Physics I (3 credits, might require math pre-req?)
11:00 - 11:50 - SOC 101 - Intro to Sociology (3 credits)
2:00 - 6:00 - VRS - working hard for the money

TuTh

9:30 - 10:50 - DST 101 - Intro to Deaf Studies (3 credits)
2:30 - 3:50 - ENG 120 - Accelerated College English I (3 credits)
4:00 - 8:00 - VRS - so hard for it honey

I suppose it would be possible to work in two shifts on Tuesdays and Thursdays - eat lunch at 11:00, work from 12:00 to 2:00, class from 2:30 to 3:50, and then work again from 4:00 - 6:00. That would make for a shorter day, but it might be harder to get in the VRS groove with such a short shift. (The minimum shift is two hours.)

Whoops, looks like I had the days mixed up…so I kind of fudged that I posted yesterday! I’ve been getting pretty slack - I still think I’ve missed less than 30 days of posting in the past three years, but many of those have been recently.

Today I started training at Gallaudet for their VRS department. It feels really weird to be in training for a different job while I’m still far from done with my old one, but when I interviewed I pointed out that I wouldn’t be starting for a while, and the interviewer said “well I’m the one that teaches the training, and I don’t want to have to teach just one person later in the year, so you have to come now.” Of course I’ll have forgotten everything by the time I actually start working, but at least I’ll be able to jump right in. Unfortunately I heard gossip that none of my previous credits will transfer, so I’m hoping to hear back from the transfer specialist soon…I really don’t want to start as a brand-new freshman! I also still haven’t gotten my registration packet yet; deaf students got theirs 4-6 weeks ago, and the packets for hearing students were supposedly mailed out last Wednesday, but still nothing has come in the mail. I live in the DC area, there’s no excuse for it taking so long! I am going to stop by the guy’s office on my lunch break tomorrow and ask if he has any extra copies of the packet, or if I have to wait for it to come in the mail.

My job during the school year is taken care of! This morning I interviewed with Gallaudet’s VRS interpreting department and they accepted me. The interview was not easy, but I managed okay. A lot of people don’t realize that anytime an interpreter interviews for a job, there is always a skills test involved. (Or at least at all the interviews I’ve been through.) And then there’s the dreaded period while the interviewers go off and discuss how you did!

Fortunately, when they came back they had good news for me. I have to take even more time off from my current job to attend the VRS training, which they will not be thrilled about, but there’s not much they can do. Even if they fired me I’d already have another job lined up to start immediately! (Not that I want to burn bridges.) And the training is paid, so that’s good at least. I’ll be working as a freelancer, so I can fit it around my school schedule as conveniently as possible; they do take out taxes for you.

So I’m all set with a part-time job for the school year. Yay for me!

I have wonderful news! I just talked to the admissions guy on the phone (I borrowed my client’s video phone to call) and he said they can postpone my interview one week. So I’ll be going for an interview on February 27th. And furthermore, they are going to accept my RID certification in lieu of doing the SCPI interview, which saves me $150! Now I can stop looking for flights from Vegas to DC and back, which was the solution I had come up with - to fly out for the interview and then quickly turn around and fly back to Vegas. Now I don’t have to worry about it, I can enjoy the trip, everything is fine!