ASL Immersion and Calgary Adventures

Last week was a busy one! It was a week filled with classes, workshops, and fun! I attended ASL Immersion at Alberta School for the Deaf.  It was such an amazing and beneficial opportunity.  There were students of various ASL levels, and the classes were geared toward building language skills.  Each morning began with the signing of O Canada, as well as Word of the Day.  The instructors would go to the front and were shown a word.  They took turns showing us how they sign that particular word.  It amazes me that one word can be expressed in so many ways.  The classes were taught by Deaf instructors, which is extremely beneficial. What better way to learn a language, than by its native usere?  The class that I signed up for was for pre-interpreting students.  I found it to be a review of my last semester in the Interpreter Training Program, but still extremely beneficial.  We discussed classifiers (a hand shape used to represent an object), and practiced our storytelling!  It was a much needed review, and I enjoyed socializing in ASL.
If you want any information on events you can go to: http://www.aadnews.ca/

My version of "The Peacock and the Crane".

How did I get to this point, you ask? (If you're not asking, I suppose you could skip over this long paragraph.) Well, I first fell in love with American Sign Language in 10th grade.  In elementary school, students are required to take 3 years of French.  I never continued with French, and when I needed second language credit in high school, I decided to try learning a different language.  My friend had taken ASL 15 and enjoyed it, so I registered!  After completing 3 years of ASL in high school, I wasn't satisfied with my language skills and wanted to learn more.  I found a Deaf Studies program at Lakeland College, which included the next level of ASL, as well as Deaf Culture classes.  I graduated with my certificate in Deaf Studies in May 2008.  By this point I had decided that I wanted to become an English/ASL interpreter.  The college was in the process of setting up an interpreting program, and because it was so new, I was unsure of its quality.  After researching a number of ITP programs, I finally decided on Salt Lake Community College.  I have family in Utah, the program is quite established, and there is a large Deaf Community in the Salt Lake area.  My decision has proved to be a good one; I have met amazing people (in and out of the interpreting field), and had wonderful opportunites opened up to me. 

My week finished off with a day trip to Calgary with my lawlcat sister!  We ventured down to go to the Calgary Zoo (the zoo here in Edmonton is pathetic).  We saw lots of animals, as you often do at the zoo.

 

After making our way through the zoo, we realized that we were....STARVING.  So what better place to go than Peter's Drive-In!!!  We enjoyed the most delicious chocolate cherry and chocolate banana shakes. If you're even in Calgary, you should probably, no, definitely visit Peters!

The afternoon was still relatively young, so we went to Cross Iron Mills. I wanted Aubrey to expereince the awesome that is Bass Pro Shop (aka Outdoor World)!  She was amazing, obviously.  We walked through the mall, leaving with more than we entered with, and were on our way!  I came away with a cute vintage looking Fossil bag and a pair of brown pumps, courtesy of H&M.  Aubrey found more treasures than I did, which doesn't surprise me! She's a shopping extraodinaire!
I love spending time with my sisters; they are so much fun!