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!!!!!!!!!!)