2 Days? Oh boy....

I fly out at this time on Wednesday for Nepal - 48 hours til take-off!

I've been having difficulty answering the question "Oh wow - are you excited???". I understand the sentiment, but though I may be mistaken, it seems that you lose track of excitement when you're in the midst of packing, saying goodbyes, and scrambling to get all the last minute things done. So to answer the question for now: not really, but I'm sure that the excitement will hit soon! Right now I'm a jumble of emotions and extremely nervous about the adventure that waits on the other side of the security counter at the Great Falls airport. I still can't believe all of the things that an undertaking like this requires! Just as I think I'm getting a handle on everything, I realize that I still need to do things A, B, C, D.... Whew!

Part of my preparation included ordering a few books on Nepali culture, language, and other relevant issues. I was so excited to receive the book "Buddhas in Disguise" yesterday, which is an overview of the deaf community in Nepal with beautiful pictures and facts regarding deafness (medical causes, family, communication, education, religious beliefs). If you get a chance to look at it, I believe it is an extremely worthwhile book to read. One disclaimer - the book is from 1997, so some of the issues mentioned may be improving, or other changes may have incurred since the book was published.

I also want to take a moment before I get immersed in life in Nepal and say a HUGE thank you to those who have so generously helped me with pre-departure costs, costs for an interpreter in Nepal as well as those who have been so supportive of me and kept me in your prayers. Thanks to your gifts and support, my experience and research will be so much richer. I am truly blessed to have such wonderful people in my life.

Oh how I hate packing...

It seems like everything is packing-related these days: I'm packing up my apartment (how is it you have no idea how much stuff you own until you have to pack it?), packing for Nepal (serious pain-in-the-tail given the fact I have no idea what you can buy there), and had to clean out my lemon of a Subaru so I could sell it for a MAJOR loss in funds (grrrr!).

The good news is that I am finally a graduate of Idaho State with an interdisciplinary MS degree in Deaf Education and Literacy! Yay! Now I just have to finish the final edits on my paper - I had to recover for a bit before I looked at it again. Happy to be done, but I'll miss ISU - it's been a great school for me. Go Bengals! Note to the ISU football team - PLEASE win some games this year - I can't be there in person, but I'll be following the games online.

I'm really looking forward to my time in Nepal - It's going to be rough saying all the goodbyes though! Especially a few of them. Sigh...

There's a Light at the End of the Tunnel

I finally finished the first portion of the papers for my Master's defense next Wednesday - 157 page Master's Paper. Ideally that would be the end of it, but no...30 more pages to do by Monday for my Teacher Work Sample. I'm fast remembering why it was that I preferred philosophy to education! Oh well, I'm sure that once everything's done I'll love them both!

Once my defense is over I'm praying that I'll have at least a few days of normal summertime before I head around the world September 1st! There's still SO much to do before I leave, since I've been wholly absorbed in work on my thesis so far. Not to mention all the wonderful people I need to spend time with before I go!

Can't wait for the end of graduate school and the beginning of everything else!

Preparation/Organization/Mad Thesis-Writing

I'm scheduled to head to Nepal the first week of September, which gives me 2 months to get a rediculous amount of stuff accomplished. Lists will come first: Timelines for what I need to do for both travel preparation and my thesis, packing lists, etc. Next it will be time to actually start getting everything finished!

In deference to my talent for procrastination, I'll give a mini-background to tell you who I am and how I got to this point before I begin the preparation/orginzation/mad thesis writing :)

Why I'm going to Nepal: I recently received a grant to study deaf education and literacy in Nepal for 10 months, and I'm hoping to understand how the Nepali people approach deaf education, learn Nepali sign language, and otherwise return far more knowledgeable than I am now.

What's all this mad thesis writing about? I'm finishing up a MS degree in Deaf Education and Literacy at Idaho State University. My master's paper will be on teaching vocabulary to the deaf (in the United States).

What exactly is "almost-deaf"? Basically, I'm more deaf than I was a few weeks ago, not as deaf as I'll be a few weeks from now, and changing all the time! And that's the beauty of a progressive hearing loss....

That's all for now - on to more productive things!