Sign Language Classes

I finally finished my classes. I did a two-weekend course about sign language. It is incredible how deaf people can communicate as fast as speaking/hearing people can. It is rather fascinating. I had this fascination for a while and during in New York I saw a ASL class. ASL means American Sign Language. It was in my list of 'courses wanting to do'. Well I did not, but that had noting to do with the class. I left New York before signing up for it. While being in Virginia I did not enroll any classes. To clarify, I need to have 6 credits to get my certificate. I did not enroll yet when a friend of me told me she was going to do an ASL courses for 6 credits. It was the ultimate change to get my credits and do the coursers I originally wanted to do.

During the first weekend we stayed in a lovely hotel and got the ASL class. The entire morning we got most of the basic signs taught. It was a long day and that was the first time in over a year that I was back in a school bank. It was funny because I had found myself having trouble to concentrate. Being in school and being focus is a real skill. Never been a focused student, but this was worst. However at the end I knew a lot of signs. The teacher showed us the signs multiple times and so I got a good change of getting most of them. It is so hard to learn. My hand-brain coordination is not that good. But I'm been able to start a conversation and count to 20. That is basically as much as I can in French and that is a language I had for over 3 years. 

The next morning we were suppose to get more classes. Not even ASL but some random classes. We woke up and non of the lights worked. Strange, we had ordered some breakfast and the guy who brought us or food told up that there was a black out. Great why don't they fix it, was my first though. Jokingly saying that we hoped that the classes got delayed so that we could lay in a little more. When we came downstairs the whole hotel was pitch black. Quite cool actually. We had to sit down and listen really carefully. Summary: CLASSES GOT CANCELED and we were still going to get our credits. I felt like that schoolgirl again that got the call that here first hour got canceled. I was wide away all of a suedes, could not be any happier.

Well we went home and a month later we had to back. This time I didn't want the second day to be canceled. I got pretty cool classes that day. Well Saturday morning weekend number two. Teacher forgot that she needed to give a class. She was two hours late. For some reason our classes got a lot of luck. During those two hours I was been able to actually meet my fellow ASL students. The first weekend I did not really meet new people because we were only in class, listening to the teacher. Now we had two hours to meet the girls in the room. Well there was Eileen. A German girl right in front of me. We had a good conversation. With not only Eileen but all the girls in the row in front of me. I feel like I just left everyone else out. Don't mean it like that, haha. It was so nice to meet new people and she lived really close, YEESS!! The teacher came and she basically repeated the first weekend class. she wanted to see how much we remembered. I did remembered quite a lot, but I was hiding in the back so did not really got many turns. My fascination for sign language grew a lot during these weekends. During lunch I set with Ines. A spanish girl who had lived in Brussels for a couple of months. Not that Flemish is the same as Dutch but she new quite a few words. It intrigued me and we had a good chat. Though Ines did not lived close at all. She lives in Dever, Colorado. That was kind of sad because I really liked her. Now I have a new address in a city I might visit ;) That afternoon we had a fencing class. don't want to make this blog too long, but it was awesome. Apart from the 5 million bug bites and the high humanity. It was insanely hot outside and the fencing teacher decided to give a class outside. Well I still enjoyed it a lot and I also found out that I am not the greatest fencer. Ines in the other hand was a natural. Even dared the teacher to fight with her, daredevil !

The next days I had life skill class. Did not know what to expect. She teacher was amazing and had to hold my tears in a couple of times. She touched me in the deepest of my mind and heart. She told us that being in the states, far away from home, shows guts. I have heard that multiple times. For some reason she brought is just right. This was only the beginning of all we were going to achieve. Don't be scared if you don't know what you want further in life. Try to do what you like and opportunities will come. In those hours in her class I changed a lot in my nearest future. I need to follow my heart and then my mind will follow. Sometimes I just think to much. I am going to do things I feel like doing. Sometimes they will bring some risk to be honest. Sometimes it wasn't the right thing to do, but hé I am like that anyway. I shouldn't be scared to fail. The only failure is never to try. Being were I am right now is quite the risk itself. Listen, not that I changed my whole life plan all of a sudden. It just cleared up a lot for me. I got more and more excited for all what is going to come. 

Last Summer Weekend

I'm not going to lie. Sometime life takes over and I just can't get myself to calm down. Exicetment and millions of other feelings going through my body. I like that most of the time. I can strangely enjoy it when life takes over. But I knew I needed to get it together and direct my life myself again. So I am going to try to get the three blogpost I want to write up on this blog. I commit now that I will do that this week. That is a huge commitment because my life is not going to be a little less crazy this week. First I am going to write about this weekend, because than at least I will have this one up, haha.

This might have been the last summer weekend. The weather was getting slightly colder the past two weeks. This weekend the heat came back. Just for this weekend. This week the temperature will drop again. So I was going to make the best of it. 

I did a lot this weekend. I did a lot for my standards. Saturday morning the Oldest had a Girls scout meeting at a horse farm. My host mom asked me if I liked to come along. I was so happy she asked me. That is weird because I do not really like horses, I don't hate them, but I also don't really like them. We had to drive for an hour and I finally got to see an other side of Virginia. It was gorgeous there. It was the more of the county side, not like in Texas cowboy movies though. Maybe not because we were still in Virginia and not in Texas, but I was close. It was greener, I guess. It was a glorious day, the sun was out and the weather was more than perfect to ride horses. So that was exactly what I DIDN'T do. No I don't ride horses. The animals are amazing to look at, so that is was I did. I looked and waved! The barn was so picturesque (fancy word alert). It was a red barn aside of a small river. Green hills on the background and horses on the fields around it. This farm was over 200 years old and George Washington had visited it. Great facts aren't they? It got me. This was so nearby and I had not even seen anything like this during all those months. The gorgeous nature slammed me in the face and that was more than deserved. I needed to wake up and see more than Washington DC. 

Later that day I got out right away.This trip was already planned for two weeks, but the timing was perfect. That afternoon Eileen picked me up. How I met Eileen? haha, That will future in one of my next blogs. Well oke, I met Eileen during my sign language classes two weeks ago. But I will write an other blog about those classes. Eileen is a person I just clicked with and I am so happy that she lives nearby. We drove to the National Harbor. We wanted to have some good pictures. So we sat down and we found out right away that the light was way to bright to get a nice one. It was such a glorious day and the sun was bright like never before, what is amazing. Maybe not for a the good picture. I will tell you something, a secret that is not that big of a secret. There is this time in the day that has the name 'golden hour'. It is right before the sun sets. That is the best time of the day to get some good photo's.The light is soft and if gives you a golden glow. So we first had some dinner and decided to come back later. Right when we came back the golden hour started. We shamelessly took quite a lot of pictures. We climbed on the rocks not knowing if that was illegal and smiled as if we had just found a million dollars. When the sun was set and my camera was sick and tired of the mermaid poses we finally stopped. We had some relaxing time at the harbor and enjoyed the evening as much as we could. It was great to talk with Eileen. Not only because she laughed at my stupid jokes that weren't funny most of the time, but also because there were so many things we have in common. We are still getting to know each other. Sometimes it's so nice to start with a blank page that you can fill with just the right stories. New friendships can sometimes be as good as the old ones. It was a lovely day and I kind of had the feeling of having a little vacation. 

Next morning. I went out with Veerle and guess what, she is Dutch, GREAT! Even though I am here to increase my English it is just great to speak my native language sometimes. The entire day I've been speaking Dutch. Not so great if you want to write a English blogpost that evening and your head is still half in Dutch mode. Never really been good with my grammar anyway so bare with me! Veerle had exactly the same feeling I had. We wanted to see more and do more than just walk around DC. I know Veerle for a couple of months now. Our friendship has grown overtime and I feel like we are getting along better and better. I know I am the only Dutch person she is meeting up with here. She feels the same about meeting Dutch people. We left that tiny country to get to know new people with different cultures. Well sometimes it is just nice to talk your own language. It is the most entertaining thing to talk Dutch in the States. NO ONE understands you and you get the craziest looks. It is funny how people try to figure out where you are from, but they simply can't. Most Americans can identify Spanish and German. But you can see their thoughts in the look of there eyes "That doesn't sound like German" Well no it isn't and it is not similar at all. After 5 years of German at school I can still barely understand it. 

Veerle and I decided that we wanted to go picnicking at the Great Falls. I went there on my 20th Birthday. That was months ago and it was when Winter just ended. The trees were still bare and the river was all grey, back then. Now it is the end of summer. The trees are green, some are even turing red and orange and the water was really blue, just like the sky. It was extremely hot. It was over 30C, please don't ask me what that is in Fahrenheit. We found a little spot in the shade and served ourselves a nice lunch. We sat there for quite a while. We mostly talked, about simply everything that were are not been able to explain in English. Things that only Dutch people understand. Haha, Oke not sure if that was a thing, but now it is!

How easily a weekend can be really good. Find some friends and go out. Explore! It is not that hard and it might take some time to get there. I am having such a great time now. I had such a great weekend and that was just because I was out and about. I went to a horse farmhouse with my host family, to the National Harbor to watch the sunset and I had a lovely picnic at the gorgeous Great Falls. The summer will come to an end and the Autumn will kick in. So I think I did the best I could to get the most out of it. I am really excited for Autumn. Fireplaces, warm drinks, orange leaves and Halloween. I am the worst to scare. I will cry as soon as you touch my shoulder when I don't expect it. So don't know how excited I actually am about halloween, but still. It was still summer this weekend, but I am pretty sure it is time to put the shorts away and get the wooly cardigans out. I am excited for it, quite a lot to be honest!