AZTI DAY 2

These posts are edited emails that I would send home to Marc each night. I can’t even express how awesome this opportunity was and how extremely grateful I am that I got to attend. I am totally asking to go again for Christmas because it was amazing! WARNING*** These posts are REALLY long! Let's see... Day 2. Today I was really bad about whispering everything that I said! It is against the rules but I didn't seem to get caught (even when I spoke out loud twice today!) Anyway, I woke up at 4, 5, 6, and then 7, and 7:30. I don't think I was scared to not wake up but I seemed to not be able to get comfy and I missed being home and I just wasn't sleeping as well. I ate breakfast but was a little bit pickier today about what I ate. This morning it was fruit and yogurt. I went and worked with my acting group this morning and we just kept practicing for our skit. Our group is really interesting! Our group is filled with people from level 1 to level 5 and it is a really good learning experience to communicate with all of the different levels. A lot of the people here feel that the beginners shouldn't be here because they hold everyone else back and I totally disagree! I feel that they are braver than the rest of us because they are willing to come and struggle and work hard when the rest of us work but not like they have to. I am really impressed with how patient and hard working they are! Anyway, then we were off to class... oh before I forget they play a game here like nose goes and you don't want to be the last person but I feel like it is more just to make you look dumb. They always play it at meals and I hate it because you can't sign and you can't eat and I look like an idiot. The last person to touch there head gets mocked and then we all move on with life. Back to class.... I had this same class yesterday but it was amazing how much I learned at this higher level. We basically had to come up with something that used the handshapes for the word papaya (P-A-P-A-Y-A) to describe the fruit papaya. It was really interesting to see what people came up with. Then we went to another class and it was such good practice for me. We worked on classifiers and played bingo with it. It was all based on directionality, color, shape, size and I was surprised at how much I liked it and how comfortable I felt with it. I am sure I messed up at least one but I probably would have done that in English too! Then we had lunch and lunch was good but I feel like my eating options are super limited and so I can't eat as well as I want. Today they had a mexican salad which I would have loved but it had corn and beans in it. So I ate lettuce, cottage cheese, and something else.... I don't remember. After lunch was when we could choose whether we wanted to go to church or to the class on sex and drugs. I think that both classes would have been really good for me to learn more about those signs because as an interpreter you never know what you will face. However, I wanted to be able to worship in some way today and I didn't want the pressure of trying to comprehend signs rather than enjoying the service. Plus every religion has their own sign and I didn't know what religion and I didn't want to start mixing them up. I didn't want to attend the sex and drugs class because I know the teacher and he will hit any topic thrown at him and is already pretty crude. It was Sunday for crying out loud! I do worry that I missed an opportunity to learn but I don't worry that I missed out. I feel very comfortable with my decision to read my Ensign in my room and then take a nap. It was what I needed to feel rejuvenated again. Then it was back to class and I had to play the same gesture game again. This time I had to act out a pitcher and thankfully I thought of a baseball pitcher and not a pitcher of water... so it was EASY!! My teacher wasn't impressed with some of my guesses but I really didn't care because I was trying so hard to think outside of the box. Then it was back to acting class and at this point I was done for the day! I didn't want to do anything and I was ready for a break. It wasn't too painful and then it was off to dinner. Dinner was the first time that we got to pick where we sat. Usually you have to sit with people who have the same favorite candy bar or favorite fast food breakfast place, etc. Anyway, I had an hour break and I was going to email you but my roommate passed out and I was trying to be quiet and so I just watched tv without sound and with closed captions. It was so relaxing and was a nice break from the craziness. We then played a game called survivor and we basically were asked a bunch of questions and tried to survive the island. The first question was fingerspell your full name (PIECE OF CAKE!) the next question was mine and asked for 5 signs for the word DEAF. SERIOUSLY!!! I could think of one and there is a slight variation but it is the same sign so I only used 1 and was out on the first round. I came back in but only to be sent out on my next turn because some disaster happened to me. Anyway, the second round had people screaming like tarzan, eating whip cream without hands, hullahooping, walking like a pimp, etc. It was pretty funny and it went by really fast. We then had a mandatory luau but it was nice to just sit and chat. It was the quietest pool party that I have ever been to! I talked about my endometriosis with someone tonight and explained about not having children in sign language and it was easier than when I talk about it in English. I guess I will just have to sign about it from now on. I am back in my room now and getting ready for bed. Luckily my roommate is still up so I don't have to feel guilty about making some noise but I should be heading to bed soon. My roommate took a nap today and when she woke up she accidentally spoke and I didn't tell on her or anything because it was a complete mishap and as soon as she realized it... she covered her mouth and gasped. But tonight at the survivor game they said they knew someone had talked and I was so afraid that she would think I turned her in. However, I talked today during the survivor game. I said, "That's disgusting." as they ate whip cream without their hands. I also said hello to a lizard today.