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!
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.
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
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