have I mentioned the love?

I love my sign language class. I LOVE it. I cannot stress this enough. The professor is deaf, which I wasn't expecting, although I don't know why I wasn't expecting it because it makes total sense.

I walked into an almost full classroom, after successfully navigating myself from Building 14, through the parking garage, up the stairs and through Building 13, and finally arriving at room 308 in Building 9. Why is Building 13 connected to Building 9? Where are buildings 10, 11, and 12? I don't know, and hope I never have to find out.

The professor walked in 5 minutes late. She looked to be about 45 or 50, which salt and pepper hair, a long skirt, and sensible shoes. She fumbled with her papers for a moment, then found her roster and began to write names on the board. We were all looking around the room, at the 30 other students, wondering why she was taking the time to write all of our names down.

Then she turned around and started signing to us. Ok. She wrote, "I am Deaf Teacher" on the board. OH!

She then took turns pointing to each of us, telling us to finger spell our names. Some people could do it quickly and easily and could even sign other things. Some people had no idea what to do. For those people she signed each letter and had them copy her.

I was one of the first to go. I knew most of the alphabet because we learned it when I was in 1st grade. I can't remember most of my high school Spanish, but I could remember that. J-E-N-N-I- I couldn't remember F, so she showed me. F-E-R-B-A-X-L-A. Easy, right?

Well, it's fairly easy to spell things when you know the alphabet. It's harder to figure out what someone else is spelling.

For the rest of the class, we practiced asking each other our names, and then responding with "my name is Blahdy McBlahpants. Then she taught us a few more words, like love, hate, same, different, colors, shapes, chair, sit, and most importantly, practice.

We also learned the very important difference between "nice to meet you" and "nice to DATE you."

I'm going to get my book tomorrow, so I can actually practice and be able to see if I'm doing it right. I can't wait to go back to the class. I love how quiet it is in the room, because we're so focused on what the professor is signing. It's strange to be in a lecture, and yet it's completely silent.

I love it.