Still going strong!

Hey everybody!

Big news!!!! I have successfully passed my written and oral competency examinations and will be able to graduate once I pass all of my classes and internships! This is a HUGE accomplishment!!!!! I am so happy to be done with such major hurdles of my graduate degree!!!! Thank you for all who support me and keep me sane as I continue on in my journey of graduating with my masters!

As I noted in my last post, I am interning at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School ( http://clerccenter.gallaudet.edu/Kendall.html ) which is located on Gallaudet's campus. I am mainly working with 2nd-8th graders with language difficulties (with a few speech goals for some kids too). I am pulling children out for one-on-one therapy and also integrating in the classroom by working with teachers. I have even taught a few classes! This may seem a bit daunting, but also add that I'm teaching in American Sign Language (ASL)! What a frightening thing for someone who just began learning ASL last year! Ahhhh! Luckily, most of the kids seem to like me and haven't given me too hard a time for being new and not an expert signer. It's a wild environment where I am using ASL the entire day. My eyes hurt after finishing internship there. I intern there every Monday through Thursday and even many Fridays. I am there from 8-4 on Mondays and Wednesdays and 8-2 on Tuesdays and Thursday. I have to leave early on Tuesdays and Thursdays because I also have a client in Gallaudet's Hearing and Speech Clinic. Yikes! Too much to do!

My classes are held at night (Monday through Thursday). I really like three of them...just not one of them. They are more related to deafness and working with deaf and hard of hearing people, so they are much more suited to my interests.

In other Gallaudet news, our Board of Trustees elected a new President yesterday. I went to the big announcement (in case of any protests, I wanted to be in the middle of it all!). T. Alan Hurwitz was elected our 10th Gallaudet President! Everyone seems excited and satisfied, so there will be no protests this time around. (For more information on him: http://news.gallaudet.edu/x34183.xml )

More Gallaudet news! Today on the TV game show, The Price is Right, a Gallaudet alum was selected to be on the show!! I did not get to watch the show live because of internship today, but someone has videotaped the important clips and put them on youtube. You can click here ( http://www.youtube.com/user/stevethevlogger#p/a/u/0/jmPMAQTN7go ) or watch the videos below. She does a great job! I apologize for the lack of TV sound and the noise of the man filming it, but welcome to the deaf world and how they watch television!

The first part where Kristine Hall gets selected and bids on the first prize:


The second part where Kristine Hall spins the big wheel:


The last part where Kristine Hall spins a second time:


Pretty cool to watch since it is one of my family's favorite television shows!

I have been very busy with internship and classes and have not had much time to get out and enjoy myself lately. Grad school is a busy busy adventure but hopefully it will end this coming May (2010). Just need to pass all my classes and internships. SOOOO GLAD that Competency Exams are over!!!

A few weeks ago I dragged one of my good friends from NC, Stephanie, to a Major League Baseball game here in DC. It was the Washington Nationals vs the Atlanta Braves. My family is a huge Braves family, so it was exciting to see them play. I also felt like I needed to support my home team. I had a lot of fun and really enjoyed the whole game. It went into extra innings!

A view of the Nationals stadium from our seats

Stephanie and I got rained on slightly, but refused to leave the baseball game!

I did find time this past weekend to carve pumpkins and eat delicious fall-themed foods with several friends. Here are a few pictures of the night:

A shot of the table...full of pumpkins and pumpkin innards! (We toasted the pumpkin seeds and ate them later! Yum!)

My friend and classmate, Jackie, with her carved pumpkin!

Me with my pumpkin! I look like an overexcited 5 year old!

All of our pumpkins lit up! Mine is the vampire in the middle! Oooo spooky!

I'm counting down the days until Thanksgiving. I get that Wednesday off from internship and class so I will be taking the Amtrak train home Wednesday and heading back to school on Sunday. I am very excited to see my family because I haven't seen them (except on Skype) since August!! I miss them terribly! If you haven't checked out my mom's blog (please do!! http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mwperryman ) you may not know that her CA125 (ovarian cancer maker) is down to 39 with 35 and below being the normal range!!! We are so happy because in July her CA125 was reported at 127! What a big leap!

I have several things to look forward to in the coming weeks to keep my mind off how long it seems until Thanksgiving. I'm hoping to visit a college friend who is a speech path grad student at the University of Virginia (UVA) this coming weekend (but will be thinking about my old friend from home who is getting married in Southern Pines! I wish I could go, but grad school won't allow me to drive any more than 2 hours anywhere!) One of the girls in my program is getting married on Halloween, plus Halloween is a fun holiday in itself! I also have a few friends lined up to come visit me in November (namely, my old boss from my job on campus at UNC-CH and his wife!). The girls in my program and I are all planning a big Thanksgiving dinner for the week or two before Thanksgiving like we did last year also. We all bring food or drinks and just enjoy each other and enjoy a minute to relax and eat delicious home-cooked food!

I will certainly post pictures of my visit to UVA, my friend's wedding, Halloween, friend visits, and the Speech-Language Pathology (SLP) Thanksgiving dinner on my next blog. Sorry there is so much time between each blog but I am sooo busy!

Hope everyone is having a safe and healthy fall. I love this time of year when the leaves change!

Beginning of the 2nd Year

Hello everyone!

I arrived back in Washington, DC on August 25 to begin my 2nd year of graduate school. This year I am living in the dorms but with 3 good friends of mine. We all met last year and have remained great friends. I have the best suitemates ever! They are Nicole (my roommate from last year), Heidi (a Deaf Education major from New Mexico), and Krystin (an interpreting major from New York). I think I can speak for them when I say that our suite is the best! We have gone shopping and bought decorations and other necessities for our suite. The picture below is us with all our purchases from a long day of shopping!

My suitemates & I! (Me, Krystin, Heidi, & Nicole)

School started last week on Aug 31 and I have already been so busy! I have only night classes (most beginning at 5:30 or 6pm and lasting about 3 hours each). I have a different one each night, so that I only have each class once a week. I will have internship during the day and classes each night. The classes that I am taking this semester are Aural Rehabilitation 2, Organic and Swallowing Disorders, Informational Counseling and Interviewing, and Cochlear Implants. So far I really enjoy the classes and find them fascinating! I hope I stay as excited as I have been this past week!

Me & Allie hanging out

I begin my internship at Kendall Demonstration Elementary School tomorrow morning and I'm very nervous and excited. It will be a new experience to work in a school for Deaf and Hard-of-hearing children where I must sign most of the day!! I hope to improve my American Sign Language (ASL) skills this semester.

This past week has been fun meeting the new kids ("First Years") and getting back in touch with all my friends. We played kickball this past Friday with the First Year Speech-Language Pathology students. It was First Year vs Second Year...we got stomped! The First Years are really good at kickball apparently!

These are the First Year SLP students after winning the kickball game!

I am also proud to inform you that I have passed all of my Written Candidacy "COMP" exams!!!!! I studied so hard over the summer and knocked them all out! This is a huge accomplishment for me because you must pass these in order to continue in the program! I found out right before the kickball game but apparently it didnt help me win the game! Hahaha

I also had the joy of hosting 2 of my friends here this weekend. Maggie (one of my best friends from UNC) and her boyfriend, Blake, visited me in DC this weekend!!!! I had a total blast and enjoyed every second of seeing them. We toured around many museums and the zoo and they got to meet a few of my Gallaudet friends. I really had a fantastic weekend and was so happy they came to see me! Here are a few pictures of our weekend together:

Me, Maggie, & Blake in front of the Washington Monument

Maggie & Blake showing some love

Maggie holding a red panda stuffed animal at the zoo!

Erin, Me & Maggie petting a cow at the Zoo!

This semester will be a difficult one because of the amount of work and classes that I have all together. Many of my days, I fear, will be 13 hour days. I do already feel more calm than last year just because I have friends here, I know Gallaudet and how the system works, and I can communicate much better than last year at this time.

It was really interesting to compare my first day on campus last year with my first day back on campus this year. Last year I showed up and had no idea where anything was; this year I know exactly where everything is and can get there easily. Last year I could not communicate with anyone and even got asked if I was at the right school; this year I carried on conversations with strangers and checked into my dorm room with ease (even having a conversation about UNC vs Duke with the Residential Advisor-RA- in the office). Last year I was really really scared and worried about what I was embarking on; this year I'm still nervous, but I feel much more at ease. Last year I knew absolutely no one on campus; this year I called my friends on the way to school and got so many hugs when I arrived that I felt very loved!!! There are many more instances of the differences that a year can make, but those are the most significant to me.

If anyone has any questions for me, please send them to me by posting a comment on my blog here or by sending an email to melissa.perryman@gallaudet.edu . I still have few unanswered from last year so I will try to answer them as quickly as I can when I find time! Let me know if you want to receive an email from me when I update my blog and I will add you!

Please also visit my mom's website at http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/mwperryman for more information, pictures, and updates on my family's life.

I am very excited to begin this 2nd year!