Mason Dixon and Spotting New Orleans

   This weekend we had the Mason Dixon tournament here. Mason Dixon is a basketball tournament that 12 schools from 11 southern states come together and compete in. This year LSD got to host the girls teams. My responsibility was to help wherever needed. We got to help with concessions and in the hospitality room (make sure none of the students snuck in for food because our food was AMAZING) I already mentioned Mason Dixon and some foods, but here are some more different things I got to try. These are crab balls. It's a crab mixture that's breaded and fried. They were tasty, but pretty spicy so I couldn't really eat eat them.

This is gumbo. When I asked what was in gumbo they just told me, "you make a rue (pretty much just oil and flour) and pretty much whatever you want. I think this one had rice and chicken and green chilis in it. Aly (one of the girls I'm here with) made sure to tell me not to eat it.

Something really funny about this culture is they are constantly eating and they eat at early times too. A lot of people were looking for lunch around 10:30 and it was served at 10:45, and dinner was served at around 4:15.
   I became official and got my name badge! It also serves as my key to get into the gates because we are in a gated area.

 This picture looks so lovely...We had been volunteering all day and going into a social with extremely loud, old Soulja boy playing wears you out a little bit. We didn't get out until midnight and had started at 8:30 in the morning.

   Every night after the tournament, all the girls would come into the Student Center to eat, socialize, and dance. These girls love to dance. We ate spicy fettuccine, crawfish pies (which were also unfortunately spicy) and more of my king cake that I love.

   On Saturday it was a little slower with the tournament, so Aly, Cody, and I decided to take off early. We went to the Mall of Louisiana and then went over to the Stake Center for the adult session. Cody had Priesthood first, so Aly and I walked around the temple since it shares a parking lot with our stake center.

 The temple as decorative kale and holly around everywhere. It's kind of pretty.

   After, I went back to the school to help with the very last social. I was walking around and they have a picture of the original school behind an original classroom door on display.

This school was enormous! It got me thinking about how many kids they would have had to have had in order to build this school. That really blew my mind. It also made me sad, because even though the campus we have now is decent size, we only have maybe 150 students total. And because of the decrease in size, the blind school moved in within the last 10 years into buildings that weren't being used anymore. I really wish people were able to get more information about these schools for the Deaf. It's so frustrating to know that there are students out there who are in hearing schools and are not getting the proper education they need, or in their own language. But one day I will change the world a little bit by being a person who educates others about the option of going to a Deaf school.
   Today I helped with bus duty. Since we have many students that live more than 25 miles away, it's the school's responsibility to provide transportation for those students. I went along with the New Orleans route this afternoon and got to see some really fun things (these were all taken from a bus window, but soon I'll be visiting New Orleans and will take way better pictures)
I got to see the ocean right before we got into downtown New Orleans.

And New Orleans herself along with the super dome that the Saints play in

Another really neat thing I forgot I would most likely see here is an above ground cemetery. The pictures aren't very great, but this one was huge and right along the freeway

We also had to drive across the Mississippi and saw a few cruise ships pulled up on shore

We also went into some back woods areas with tons of swamp land, but we were going too fast to get good pictures of that. That will definitely come later. When we got back to the school, I went and hung out in the middle school dorm for a bit. More pictures to come!

Many Southern Firsts

I went into my classroom for the first time on Tuesday. I got to meet my teacher and all my students. I will be teaching 6th-8th grade English. I'm slightly intimidated because the oldest group of students I've ever taught is 2nd grade. It's been really exciting to learn about a new culture and a new kind of people. Everyone is extremely polite and always greets you with a good morning. I wrote an email to one of my professors about my experiences over the last 2 days, and apparently her and her husband (one of my other professors) said they laughed out loud during it and that it made their day. I'll share it with you and expound upon some of my other experiences with pictures :)

Jan,
  Thank you so much for everything you did for me while we were driving out here to Louisiana. You are the sweetest, and it was comforting to know there were people concerned and looking out for it. I am very grateful.
   My experience has been a big eye opener. I'm in a middle school English class. It's been a shocker since my undergrad is in ELED and the oldest group of kids I've ever taught is 2nd grade! Wow! I've been learning a lot about the culture here too. Everyone is extremely polite (but when they're not, they'll give you the biggest attitude on the planet! Holy cow!) they all say "good morning" and "nice to meet you" every time they talk to you. My students are sweet, but sometimes they'll be really resistant and call the teacher a "mean ass" (haha hopefully I'll be lucky enough to get that title one day) or they'll talk back to her. I've been learning a lot of signing differences and many new signs that aren't super appropriate. I was told by my teacher that they had drugs and candy in the faculty room if I wanted. It wasn't until our deaf aide saw my confusion that he signed our sign for soda. We have a lot of fights that have been happening lately too. They're on different levels but many I feel like are on or close to their appropriate levels (but I have zero experience in middle school, so I could be very wrong). My teacher is a sweetheart, but won't take guff from anyone. She's been really good to me and I think she'll be a better fit for me than my last teacher was. I'm looking forward to working with her.
   I'm having a lot of firsts here in the south. We had native Louisiana food my first day at the school (rice and beans are not like Mexican rice and beans. It's like refried bean soup on rice!) and I had to ask what the green goop on my plate was; and now I now what collared greens are! My teacher is talking about working with me to do survival type things while we're reading Hatchet- and she's talking about bringing alligator to eat! I'm looking forward to that and introducing the kids to tin foil dinners!
   We have a little River that runs through campus right by our duplex. It has many little white cranes flying in and eating little fish. I also saw a muskrat in there last night and the security guard at our fence was nice enough to yell at us to stay off the grass because we have snakes. Supposedly we have an orange tree we can go get oranges from too. I'm excited to see that. Mardi Gras is a big deal here and right now everything is in purple, yellow, and green. I went to check out LSU since it's right next door and I've decided Utah State needs to get in gear. LSU has a live tiger exhibit right outside the stadium. We need a Big Blue or something!
   I had kind of a heart breaking experience yesterday at lunch. Dr. Benham has told us how the low portions of food is a huge issue because we have so many very low social economic status students here who depend on the food at the school to survive. These kids are in middle school and get as much to eat as an elementary school child. They're hungry, and it's very obvious, but we can't do anything about it because of the obesity laws. It was getting towards the end of lunch and I was moving a little slow with eating because the kids were chatting with me when they started asking if they could have my apples. If they could have my roll. I couldn't say no to them. It broke my heart. This law is not helping these kids, and it's so frustrating for me to watch. While we were sitting, a 7th grader turned to me and said, "Miss Amber, so-and-so said that all deaf people are dumb. Is that true?" I couldn't believe I was being asked something like that. I asked him if he thought he was dumb and he told me he didn't know. I looked at him and said, I've only known you for a day and a half. And I already know that you are not dumb. You are hard working and you do your best. It is definitely not true that deaf people are not dumb. I have many deaf friends who are successful and told some stories. There was pure relief on their faces by the time it was done. I already really like these kids. They scare me, but I like them :)
   We're helping with the southern region girls basketball tournament the rest of the week. This makes me so happy because I was so disappointed I was missing the western division in Utah this year.
   Hope everything is great up in Utah. I miss the snow and the mountains a lot. Thank you again for everything! Miss you all and can't wait to hear all y'all's experiences!

This is the picture of my very first school lunch meal in Louisiana. It is red beans and rice, collared beans, buttered roll, salad with weird ranch dressing, and peaches

Yesterday when I walked out of class it was 70 degrees! It was definitely wonderful for it to be January and warmer than the 25 degrees it was in Utah!

Today was a day for firsts with food all day. The Southern region has a girls basketball tournament where 12 teams from 11 states meet every year. I was really disappointed when I left Utah right before the Western region came so I could volunteer there. It just so happens that Louisiana is hosting the southern region this year! So today, tomorrow, and Saturday I'll be helping with that. The coaches are being fed local food and they are letting us eat it too. This morning, I experienced King Cake

   King Cake is a round cake that is made out of cinnamon bread with either blueberry filling, or creme filling with cream cheese icing on top. Funny thing about this cake is it has a plastic baby inside. If you find the baby, you're the one that buys the next King Cake. None of the locals could tell me why it was a baby, so I looked it up. It represents the baby Jesus because the tradition way back ate it for Epiphany, the Catholic holiday 12 days after Christmas. They always have it around this time. I also learned that Mardi Gras is the big celebration before Lent and it lasts for weeks. Not just a few days. It's a really big deal here. 
   This afternoon, I got to try Jumbalaya. Oh my goodness, I loved it. I definitely want to learn how to make it before I leave.

Did I mention I was blonde now? Jumbalaya is rice with chicken and sausage. There are many different kinds, but this is more or less the original. It was so good.

Some of my students are on that basketball team. I got to watch them play for a bit in between different assignments that I had.
  Dinner we had fried chicken wings. Before I left Utah I also decided I wanted to become a yogi (someone who does yoga a ton) but I think this food is going to be the death of me.
   It's also been pouring rain all day long. It's cooled down too, which is encouraging. After yesterday I was worried it was going to get hotter way too fast. I was very happy that I got a rain jacket before I came here

This semester has proven to be quite the adventure. It is my final semester at Utah State in the Deaf Education Masters Program. As required, we must complete a 13 week residential student teaching experience. That means we are sent to a school outside of Utah where the Deaf students live on campus through the week and they go home on the weekends. On January 17, I made the biggest step of my life and left Logan to come to Baton Rouge, Louisiana for my residential school assignment. Many things were terrifying to me, like being assigned to teach middle school English. In my past experiences teaching, I haven't taught anything over the 2nd grade. I've never been to the South, I only knew the two people in my program that also came here. And the drive was almost 26 hours that I was going to complete in two days. I made it safe, and wanted to share my journeys and adventures while I am here.

I saw a lot of really neat things on my way here. It was the first time driving through the canyon to get to Price, I got to see Moab for the first time too. As we made it into Colorado I got to see Mordor (not really, but that's what Chimney Rock looked like to me. At least today)

This is really what our drive looked like through Colorado and New Mexico. Until we hit Albuquerque

This isn't even the full view that I had as I came into Albuquerque. It seemed like a really neat town. Many of the overpasses were lit up with blue, green, and purple lights. After 15 hours of driving, we finally arrived in Amarillo, TX and stayed the night. 

While we were in Texas, we stopped at a rest stop and saw some signs that I have never seen before.

As we were driving through Texas, I started to notice white patches in the dirt. It took me a few fields to realize that we were driving past cotton fields. I have never seen anything like it. Granted, it was just left over cotton from the harvest, so it wasn't a full grown field. We decided to pull off on the side of the road and pick some

Driving through Texas was really a drag. Dallas was quite the adventure because their signs on the freeway are not extremely clear where they want you to go. But we made it through and as we got to the eastern part of the state it started to become more green. When we arrived to Louisiana, we had a really pretty drive on the highway along swamps and trees.

After another 10.5 hours of driving, we made it into Baton Rouge. We crossed over the Mississippi River on what they call "The New Bridge". It was so pretty at night. 

The school is on the outskirts of the main part of the city. I'm really excited to go exploring. This is the sign that is on the road as you pull into the school and what the front of the school looks like. We are a gated area to ensure the students stay safe. 

We share the school with the blind. Campus is on 116 acres! WOW! It has many different buildings, a full track around a football field, a lot of open grass areas (that they don't use because there are snakes) orange trees (which I am excited to go see. We've gotten permission to go pick oranges) and a little river that runs through. They originally told us there were fish, many different birds that come, and river rats. When I heard river rats, I imagined some kind of radiated creepy rat thing that would crawl out of the sewer. But they're just muskrats. They look like beavers. They're kind of neat. I saw one the other day. We also live in a very nice duplex near the gate on the one side of the river, and all the school buildings are on the other side of the river.

I live on the left side. We have a really nice car port and an enormous backyard.

The river from my house and some of the school buildings in the background. This school is called a residential campus. That means any child that lives over 25 miles away from the school can live here during the week. They get released from school an hour early every Friday to be bused home for the weekends. I'll take more pictures of those things later.

These little mini cranes are always here on the river eating. They're really neat.

The inside of my house is really nice. When you walk in from the car port you come into our kitchen. We have a washer and dryer in the closet, a really big fridge, an oven, and a lot of cupboard space.

When you turn right, you look into a very nice dining room with a table and a dish cabinet.

Connected to it at the right is our living room

We have a hallway behind the couch on the right and to the right into the hallway we have a front door and a smaller room that they've turned into an office. 

When you go down the hall we have 2 rooms on the left of the hallway. They are both very decent sized with 2 beds in each room. This house is made to fit up to 6 people in it. This is the empty room. I didn't take a picture of the other one because my roommate is in it

On the right of the hall we have a bathroom and a linen closet.

At the end of the hall is my room. It's technically the master bedroom. It has a walk in closet and a bathroom inside. It's really nice. Excuse my messes, I haven't had time to fully unpack yet.

That is my apartment! When we got in and all settled, we were really hungry and didn't have food (the cafeteria isn't open on the weekends) so we went to a local fried chicken place called Cane's. It comes with fried chicken strips, texas toast, and fries. It was delicious.

That's it for my first day in Louisiana! More adventures to come!