The Kidnapping

We did it. We actually did it. The Golden Gorilla Ninja match is truly on.

Jessica, with the Golden Gorilla, practicing knots, as usual

Here are the rules, so you can understand what I'm talking about if I refer to the golden gorilla. It's a really awesome tradition here!

"HOW IT WORKS:

Someone initially steals the Golden Gorilla statue from Catherine's office. (Using mad Ninja skills).

The Golden Gorilla continues to be ninja-ed away from those who would claim it as their own.

The person in possession of the Golden Gorilla upon arrival at Closing Dinner (ninja-ing is not permitted in the restaurant) wins a prize that will announce to the world his/her awesomeness.

RULES:

1. The Gorilla must be prominently displayed on a flat surface at all times. You may not hide or conceal the Golden Gorilla.

2. You are permitted to carry the Golden Gorilla from place to place. During transit, the Gorilla may not be ninja-ed (see Rule 3). During transit, it must remain in plain sight. Transit includes walking, driving, sailing, riding a train, flying, etc. Upon arrival at your destination, the Gorilla must be prominently displayed on a flat surface.

3. The Golden Gorilla may not leave Mystic, CT for more than a 24-hour period.

4. If you are seen ninja-ing the Gorilla by the current owner, you have to put it back. (Like Red Light, Green Light- if you're caught moving you go back to the start). New ownership begins once the Gorilla is set down on a flat surface, prominently displayed.

5. To halt someone in the midsts of ninja-ing, you must say "Golden Gorilla" before it is set down. Disputes in timing will be settled by witnesses. If no witnesses are available, the dispute may be settled by some competition determined by Catherine.

5. No personal contact is allowed in stealing the Gorilla. You may not take it out of someone's hands. You may not rifle through someone's belongings looking for the Gorilla.

6. You must truthfully answer "yes" and "no" questions regarding the whereabouts of the gorilla. Lying is hiding the whereabouts of the gorilla. (Example: I must answer truthfully the question "Catherine, do you have the gorilla," I must also truthfully answer "Catherine, do you know who has the gorilla." I am not required to answer the question, "Catherine, who has the gorilla?" I cannot lie but I can refuse to answer until the question is posed as a "yes" or "no" question).

7. Penalties for infractions of rules or rule clarifications may be obtained from Catherine.

ADDITIONALLY:

Be careful with the Golden Gorilla. It is breakable."



It is currently in my house. Its whereabouts, I won't say. Everyone knows we have it though. We truly have mad ninja skills. (Although, we nearly lost it to Jim during a lecture...we were all distracted, and he was talking about marine life, and suddenly, YOINK! He plucked the golden gorilla right up! We got it back while he had his back turned. Whew)

IT. IS. ON!

*Edit: I've just discovered someone stole it from our living room last night...Johnston House!! *shakes fist*

Could it be love with a capital "L"?

Carr house is amazing, period. I've discovered this house is the only one that's been renovated so far, and everything is spanking new. We had the first get-together of the semester last night and invited ALL the other students in the program, who kept remarking on how great our house is. :-P It was so fun getting to know each other better and in a more relaxed environment because we've only really been seeing each other through classes. Although, I did host a game night at someone else's house the other day, which went well too.

It's pretty funny though, how we have no blinds on the first floor. While we're eating dinner, we can look out and see the next house over, and see exactly what our fellow students are doing in their kitchen. Last night, I made a silly face at them through the window when they finally noticed we could see them, and they just looked at me in complete bafflement, but I thought it was funny, hehe. Hopefully we'll get blinds soon...we've put in a request for them. It's kind of weird not having them...everyone can see INTO our house when the lights are on, and it's harder to see out! Weird.

Also, I notice some ship lingo is starting to slip into my vocabulary. I just realized as I was writing before about Carr, I was about to refer to it as "she," just as if the house were a ship. Ha. Oh, and making knots is CRAZY. Jessica, (my housemate, for those of who don't remember), and I practiced over and over. Eventually, we ended up making knots around our garlic and oregano shakers. And then we lassoed each other. Now we know why knots are useful.

Good times.

Math is fun?

We were certainly nerding it up last night. Using sea charts, rulers, military time, speed (in knots), and compasses, we had to figure out where in the ocean our imaginary ship was located. It involved so much logic, which I actually do like...I even had the option to leave from class early to begin cooking dinner, since we were running behind schedule, but I stayed instead, eager to continue solving problems. Rich, the literature professor, had to tell us it was time to stop and basically kicked us out. I'm grateful he put a cap on it because I think if he hadn't, we would have all continued working through dinner and would have gone onto the next event without food in our bellies.

After dinner, around 8pm...oh my goodness...our history professor, Glenn, BECAME Josiah Gardiner, a 19th Century seaman. He was amazing, speaking just like someone from that time period with an 8th grade education, "Oh yeah, I done that...I seen that...uhhh, umm...what else..." He told us that we were all adults and we would have a hard time suspending belief, but we had to try! (Wasn't too hard for me...that's all theatre is!) I had no trouble and instantly fell for Josiah's drama and troubles at sea, from encountering "ghosts," which turned out to be porpoises, to digging in Australia. He even showed us his missing tooth, lifting up his upper lip and baring his canines at us. (I must admit, I was taken a bit aback at this point.) He told us afterward about what goes into creating a character from history for role-play. He takes his own experiences and selects different experiences from many stories and accounts of people long dead. He does not make anything up, but rather, he meshes details of different lives to bring the 19th century sea to life.

I think this would be an amazing job. I think I'd like to possibly do it someday...I'd have the opportunity to challenge myself mentally through research and gaining more knowledge about the past. I'd also have the task of helping with the important process of maintaining our history and educating people, while getting to act, which is a passion of mine.

Today, we had our first Marine Policy class. I must admit, I was a bit hesitant to take a law class, since it's outside of my comfort zone, but my gosh, the professor is so engaging and FUNNY. She went on a rant about getting shirts a town over and complained about New jersey, and how no one in RI drives...they won't even drive to CT. hehe We WILL be reading 5 or 6 actual cases for each class, which intimidates me, but hopefully, with her as a professor, it won't be too bad. She also told us each house is responsible for bringing a different snack each week, and it has to relate to the theme of the week. She said one year, a group made a big chocolate, cake in the shape of a big fish, eating smaller swedish fish in order to demonstrate invasive species. Pretty clever, but hoo, we have big shoes to fill!

Anyway, I best be off. We are going to learn knotting soon and are in the throes of preparing for our off-shore trip. We also are being quizzed on different parts of the rigging...so many parts to remember!

-Main Mast
-Main Sail
-Main Staysail
-Fisherman Staysail
-Fore Mast
-Course
-Topsail
-Topsail Yard
-JT
-Jib
-Fore Staysail
-Bowsprit
-Main Boom
-Stay
-Hank

Wow...I actually remembered them all! Go me! :)

Wintery Skies

For most of my life, I've believed that snow is an abomination of nature, a seasonal disturbance which exists for the sole purpose of making our lives miserable with freezing temperatures and chapped, bleeding hands.

However, today...I...actually...like it. This area is a sight to behold. We were taking a tour through the grounds and the shipyard around 10:30am, when suddenly, white flakes started coming down, faster and faster. I looked over at the river and it took my breath away. The semi-frozen water had a silvery tinge to it, and a grey mist mixed with snow rose above it.

I also love how I have a window next to my desk. As I read or write on the computer, I can look outside and see our backyard and several trees, (along with a parking lot, but we won't discuss that). Since my room faces the east, the sun rises and warms up my room during the morning all through the afternoon. Today, there is no sun, but I still like the grey-ness of it all. Usually I find this type of weather and lighting oppressive, but today, I find a bit of freedom in it. When you are living next to a river or a sea, I think all you really can feel is the sense of liberation as you look across the wide, yawning expanse of water.

This is incredibly random, but I just figured out my address...so here it is! You can now send me letters! I love mail, and will happily send you a postcard or letter in return.

"My name"

4 Bruggeman Pl

Mystic, CT 06355

Hope everyone is doing well. Stay warm!

Day Uno

The fact that I woke at at 7:50 this morning, rather than 8:15 is indicative of how I feel towards being here. (But of course, I do have a cup of coffee sitting besides me...I may be an eager beaver, but I'm a tired beaver.)

As far as first days usually go, yesterday was pretty damn wonderful. Being here is fantastic. I live in the Carr house in a single with 4 other girls. Our house is really small, but has everything college students could need, except for a waffle maker...another house has TWO waffle makers! what what?? hehe. We have two bathrooms, 3 bedrooms, a pretty roomy kitchen, a living room, and a dining room. Oh and a creepy basement which I can barely walk in without having to duck. All the makings of an awesome house.

I'm already getting close to two people in my house...Beth and Jessica. We talked for hours last night instead of unpacking, and Beth actually goes to Smith, so we had an immediate connection there. Her dad took us both out to lunch and for some ice cream. Now, I was rather full at that point, but heyy...I wouldn't be me if I passed up a free ice cream cone!

The people in this program are so wonderful and interesting. I'm not always the most extroverted person, but I had fun introducing myself and getting to know some people, including the staff. I've found other five-college people, which is good...we can carpool back to the five-college area for visits! And my interpreter, Jon, actually went to UMass-Amherst. My interpreters are great...they're both outdoorsy guys and sign well, (especially Jonathan). Ben is just here this week, (along with Jon), and will be going on the offshore trip with us in Florida. He knows the boat well, so he'll be a fantastic asset to the experience. Jon will interpret/transliterate for the rest of the time and will travel with us to other places.

When I arrived on campus for the first time, Aislinn, who is a staff member, gave me a biiig hug. It was so sweet! I felt welcome right away. Professors have talked to me already and everyone is so sensitive of my needs. The English professor tried signing his name to me and failed miserably, hehe. He also told me how excited he is to have me here. So, I already feel much more welcome here as a deaf person than I sometimes feel at Smith.

I only have one complaint...I was put into the Oceanography class and not the Ecology class. I really prefer to focus on the small elements of nature and how all living beings tie in together. I asked the head about it and he just said, "It's good for you." Haha, this is quite unusual. I'm so used to picking my own classes and deciding what to take...I'm not used to being told what to take! I'll just have to grin and bear it, I suppose!

The whole staff gave us introductory lectures yesterday, and Jim, (the head of the program and Ecology professor) has such a way of speaking, (which is another reason I wanted to take his class...I'm so drawn to his wisdom), and he brought up a really interesting idea: Why do we look at the past so much and compare it to the future? There is something called base-line generational...um...wow, my brain is blanking out, but it describes the malady of how family members one or two generations before you say, "When I was a child, life was like this..." or "In my day, we didn't do that." So our baseline for improvement changes every one or two human generations. Why can't we restore the Mystic River and nature to how they were 100, 200 years ago? We are always comparing the now and the past as WE know it. So a river which was polluted 30 years ago is more polluted now. Do we only want to make it a little less polluted to meet the idyllic state of childhood for our parents and grandparents or do we want to truly clean the water and purify it, making it like it was much further in the past? This is part of why we study the history of certain places, including Mystic seaport.

I am so excited about all this! I'm not a fan of huge research projects and essays, but somehow, the professors make everything sound so interesting and fun. I bet they would make great salespeople..."People, you will do some first-rate hands-on research! You get to do things grad students do!" As a result, I got all revved up and already did some homework last night, which was required, but I didn't think I'd get to it with all the unpacking I still had to do. I honestly think our professors could sell us anything, even moldy bread.

Our English professor also gave us all huuge canvas journals to record our time here at Mystic. We are supposed to write in it three times a week. I love writing and have love affairs with journals, so this is no problem for me, but I think I'll write in this blog more, since I'll end up being repetitive and it seems like a waste of time to write twice about the same topic. I'll probably focus on poems and creative free-form expression in the journal.

Anyway, I probably should go. My coffee is nearly finished and I must jet off to my Oceanography class. We've also been given a 3 and a half hour time slot to go grocery shopping this afternoon, (huzzah! We have no food right now!), and then Literature of the Sea! (Which I'm most excited about taking at this point...WE'RE GOING TO READ TONS OF POEMS BY WHITMAN!!! KSJDJKHDFJK!!!!!!!!!!)

A Forgetter's Prayer

This is my last entry before Williams-Mystic, I promise. I just thought it would be good to start off my trip with a little prayer I made up before leaving for Smith last semester. Enjoy! The next time you hear from me, I'll be in CT!

A forgetter's Prayer:

My suitcase, who art on the floor, hallowed be thy spaces, Thy zipper come undone, Thy will open, here at home as at Mystic. Give us this day my passport. Forgive me for forgetting my rain boots. As I will never forgive myself for forgetting my cooking supplies. Let me not forget all my underwear. Deliver me from home, for thine is the holder of all my things, and the wool gloves, and the cell phone. Amen.

Packing Woes

I...haven't even started packing yet. I don't know if this is a good thing or not. I'm officially leaving in 3 days. I'll be going to NY first for a cousin's bar mitzvah on Sat. It doesn't make sense to go back home though, and Mystic starts Tues. So what I'm planning to do is visit Smith after NY and then drive from Smith to CT on Tues. I think this will be quite convenient indeed. I'll be able to see my ASL peeps and have dinner with them! :) This is contingent on how much it snows though. I won't be able to drive to MA from NY if there's a ton of snow, so let us pray.

As for my procrastination with packing...perhaps I've become so comfortable with the whole moving around thing, that it's becoming second nature for me and I'm able to just fly off at a moment's notice. Either that, or I'm crazy.

GOOD NEWS, BY THE WAY! I just found out that my program found an interpreter who will be in residence at Mystic! This means I'll have access to an interpreter 24/7! AHHH! And not only is he a CODA, (Child of Deaf Adults), which means ASL is his first language and he must therefore be quite skilled indeed, but...HE KNOWS CUED SPEECH!!! OMFG!!! I'm definitely gonna take advantage of this. I haven't had a cued speech transliterator since high school. And for those of you who know me well, you know I prefer this method in the classroom so I can get all the vocabulary I want. Ahhhhh. Marine ecology will be great! I won't have to struggle with all the fingerspelling and pronounciations of words I have never heard before.

:) :) :)

All Aboard!

I am somewhat nervous about this new endeavor. And excited. I suppose a better word to describe my feelings at the moment is "apprehensive."

SO, I am feeling apprehensive about Williams-Mystic. It will certainly be an interesting experience! I'm not leaving for another 10 days, but the time will pass by quickly, and before I know it, I'll be on a tall ship in Florida getting seasick after one too many drinks in Key West.

Just kidding! Sort of...

Anyway, I hope you'll join me on my journey. I won't be offended if you decide to stop reading this blog at any point...or if you never read this at all. This is mostly a record for me to remember my time in such a unique place. Also, I'm sure my folks/family/friends will be curious from time to time about my life there.

Happy sails! (harr harr, get it??)