I Baht it in Bangkok… and needed the Bangcops

As I mentioned in my previous post, my friend and I had some clothing made at a local tailor called City Shop on my recent vacation in Thailand. We overpaid for the clothing due to a scam, but still the price wasn’t too bad considering US pricing.

Our first visit to the shop was tons of fun. We could basically have anything we could think of designed for us. As I said, my friend chose a suit and I had a silk dress made. We leafed through design books and chose the style we wanted our clothing. The tailors took our measurements and instructed us to come back the next day for a fitting.

We left feeling rather extravagant; I mean, we were having a fitting the next day!  We arrived at our fitting and saw our clothes that were very much ‘in progress.’ But still, we were able to try them on and get an idea for how they would look.

We were scheduled for one more fitting a few days later after we returned from Koh Samui, an island off the southern coast of Thailand. Our second fitting was promising, and my dress was complete and looked great.  My friend’s suit only needed one final adjustment.  We were very close to having fabulous new outfits!

We were headed north for a few days, so the tailors were going to drop the completed clothing off at our hotel the day before we left Thailand. That day we took a train from Chaing Mai, a city in northern Thailand, and didn’t arrive in Bangkok until around 9 pm.   After our long and exhausting journey on the train, we were ready to receive our clothing, and go to bed.  My flight left the next morning at 6am and my friend’s flight left at 9am. So, you can imagine our dismay when we arrived at our hostel and there had NOT been a delivery from the clothing shop. We were so frustrated!

We had half expected this to be the case, as we knew this shop was in the business of taking advantage of tourists.   We quickly called the shop and were surprised when someone answered, by this time it was 10 pm on a Sunday evening.  These shops tend to stay open late to cater to the night life tourism crowd.  The man who answered the phone spoke English and my friend tried to explain that we needed our clothing delevered, pronto.  However, the man refused to help us and actually hung up on my friend.

What were we supposed to do now????  The man who was working the front desk in the hostel overheard our phone call and situation and offered to call the shop for us, since he spoke Thai he figured he would have better luck.  Unfortunately no one answered his call.  He told us that companies like this were notorious for ripping people off and informed us we needed to go to the tourist police.

Great.  We were SO tired, my friend was not feeling well, and we had to get up crazy early the next morning. Now we had to deal with this. Sheesh! The front desk guy drew out a little map for us and told us how to get to the tourist police station. He explained it was 1.5 kilometers down the road. Of course, we’re from the US and have no idea how far that is, but one and a half is a small number, so we figured it was walking distance. Of course, we now know that 1.5 km is nearly a mile, which is still walkable, but we were exhausted and sick and it was literally a million degrees. Had we known, we would’ve taken a cab.   Oh well.

After a half hour of walking, we finally arrived at the police station.  We explained our situation and the nice officers told us that City Shop was not in their jurisdiction, and we would need to go to another police station.  Fantastic.  It’s now 11pm, and my taxi comes to pick me up at 3:30 am.  Yay.

So, we make our way to the other police station, this time taking a taxi. Again, we were met by very nice officers who genuinely wanted to help us. We explained our situation and an officer was sent over to the shop to try and retrieve our clothes.

He of course, came back empty handed. At this point our plan was to just dispute the charge with our credit card companies. We had been told by other travelers that to do this, we would need a police report. This concept was difficult to explain to the officers, due to the language barrier. Finally, the officers understood us and began writing up the report when the tailors called the police station. They told the officers they would bring our clothing to the hostel in an hour.

We were skeptical, but decided our only choice was to trust that this time they would deliver the goods. Because they called the station, we would not be receiving the police reports, so if they failed to deliver we would either be stuck, or have to make the trek back to the police station.

Fortunately around 1:30am, the tailors arrived at our hostel with our completed garments. Sheesh! I managed to squeeze in about an hour of sleep before my cab ride to the airport to take me home to the land of fair business practices.

Word to the wise: when shopping in Bangkok, pay with a credit card for major purchases…

Now Is Not the Time

To all of you who may have broken hearts and feel like you are all alone or can’t get through something you are struggling with, please remember that you are not alone and no matter how awful things may have been or still are for you, God is still good. God is good–ALL the time. And, ALL the time–God is good. God is allowing you to go through this to MAKE you, not break you and disfigure you. He doesn’t want to see if you will fail, but that you will pass with flying colors.

-Paraphrased from Kay Arthur with a few comments from me 🙂

I just thought that I would try to give you an encouraging word today. I know that we live in a hurting world full of pain and rejection, hurt and sadness, grief and dispair. But I want you to know that there is hope. Even when it seems that God is nowhere nearby, He is there, right beside you. He cares about every detail of your life. There is nothing too small or too big for God to care about in your life.

Bad things happen every day. Many of you may know that a Gallaudet student and friend, Lisa McLean, died in a terrible fire in her apartment last Sunday. My friend’s mom just had a miscarriage. My sister’s friend’s parents are getting a divorce. I have a friend who has Cystic Fibrosis and may not live more than ten to fifteen more years. My grandmother died. My brother ran away from home. My friend’s grandfather passed away recently. Awful things happen in our lives. I know all of these people (family, friends, aquaintances, strangers, myself) and every other person on this earth for that matter is hurting from something. We want to give in to depression, defeat, and dispair. That’s normal.

Don’t give up though. Don’t throw in the towel. Now is not the time. People are depending on you. God has faith in you. He believes that you WILL PASS with flying colors. There is hope, and God will see you through this time of pain in your life. It will not be easy. My goodness, trusting God is not easy, and He is always faithful and always there. He will never leave us or forsake us, and yet, it is STILL hard to trust Him with our cares. Why? I do not know. All I know is that it is imperative that we keep on keeping on. Now is not the time to give up.

I want to leave you with some lyrics to a song that I found most comforting in one of the worst times of my life. When my brother ran away and other things started coming undone and my life seemed as though it was falling apart, I heard this song on the radio. Ironic, when the song began to play, I felt like God wanted me to sing this song to Him. Two things–one: I was crying too hard to sing in the first place, and two: I did not feel much like praising God for being so good to me when He had just allowed me to lose my brother, grandfather, aunt, and several friends all within one week. But you know what I realized when I started choking out the words to this song between my sobs and in their off-beat and off-key manner? I realized that God was in control, God knew everything that was going on in my life, God cared about my pain, and God was and is still good despite all the bad that had happened.

So, here it is “Praise You in This Storm” by Casting Crowns:

Verse 1: I was sure by now, that You would have reached down, and wiped our tears away–stepped in and saved the day. But once again, I say amen, and it’s still raining. As the thunder rolls, I barely hear You whisper through the rain, “I’m with you.” And as Your mercy falls, I raise my hands and praise the God who gives and takes away.

Chorus: I’ll praise You in this storm. And I will lift my hands, for You are who You are, no matter where I am. Every tear I’ve cried, You hold in Your hand. You never left my side and though my heart is torn, I will praise You in this storm.

Verse 2: I remember when, I stumbled in the wind. You heard my cry and You raised me up again. My strength is almost gone. How can I carry on if I can’t find You?

Chorus: I’ll praise You in this storm. And I will lift my hands, for You are who You are, no matter where I am. Every tear I’ve cried, You hold in Your hand. You never left my side and though my heart is torn, I will praise You in this storm.

Bridge: I lift my eyes unto the hills. Where does my help come from? My help comes from the Lord. The Maker of heaven and earth.

NAD is Coming Up

Let’s not mention how long it’s been since I’ve posted here, and go straight to the subject!

I am really looking forward to the NAD conference, it’s less than 2 weeks away now! And it might not even feel like forever, because I don’t have to work the whole time. It feels like I have been doing nothing but work for a very long time…VRS is seriously sucking my brain. But next week we are going to get together and do “bonding” stuff for College Bowl. I’m hoping to drag everyone to Six Flags America, but it would be on our own dimes, so we’ll see. The College Activities desk has tickets for $27 so it might not be too bad.

But the NAD conference will hopefully be lots of fun! We are getting there mid-day on Monday the 7th, which means I’ll miss a workshop I was hoping to see, and I’m leaving mid-day on Friday the 11th, which means I’ll miss another workshop I was hoping to see. Oh well, maybe I’ll just spend the whole time in the vendors room buying stuff I absolutely do not need! I’ve heard mixed reviews of the VPAD from people who bought the beta edition at Deaf Expos, I’m hoping Viable will have them there so I can get a first hand peek.

We are flying down on Southwest and I am flying back on AirTran. I’ve never flown either before that I can recall. Cross your fingers that I get a decent seat on Southwest and that AirTran doesn’t resort to its old ValuJet ways from 10-15 years ago…

I Baht it in Bangkok

As I previously posted, I just got back from a two week long excursion in Thailand with a good friend.  Our first day in Bangkok, we were very excited, and had mapped out a few things to do for the day.  First on the list was to find some breakfast, then we wanted to go to this snake farm and then head over to this park that was near the hostel.  We had our maps, our good walking shoes, and were on our way.

We found a cute coffee shop to eat breakfast in, it was just across this major street from where we had been walking.  Now, traffic in Bangkok is crazy, I mean crazy.  First, as in many other countries, they drive on the opposite side of the road, which means you have to train yourself you look the OTHER direction to see if a car or a moped is going to come and smush you.  Also, there aren’t a lot of traffic rules in Bangkok and people just drive whenever they want, so waiting for the light to change is not really an effective option.  Our solution?  Wait for a local to cross, and then follow them 🙂  So, this man was going to cross the street, when he looked and saw we were obviously foreigners and offered assistance.  He seemed so nice, telling us that many visitors get hit by cars and that we should just wait for him and he would guide us.  We thought, ‘ahh, the kindness of strangers…”  He then went on to explain he used to work in New York and loved the US and asked us what our plans were for the day.  He showed us a few places we might want to check out on the map, we thanked him, and then went to eat our breakfast.

It just so happened, the very same time we were leaving the coffee shop, our kind stranger emerged again.  He asked us where we were headed, and we told him the snake show.  He said he would get a tuk tuk for us and arrange the price with the driver, so we wouldn’t pay too much.  When the tuk tuk, which is a kind of motorcyle taxi arrived, the nice man informed us that the snake show didn’t open until 1pm.  We said that was fine that we would just go to the park first, and then the snake show.  He then informed us that the park was closed for cleaning until the afternoon, which is when we should’ve become suspicious.  Oh well, we thought.  The ‘nice’ man arranged for the tuk tuk driver to take us to a few places in the meantime that he thought “we would really enjoy.”

This, my friends is THE SCAM.  Tuk tuk drivers will tell you that whatever place you want to go to is closed, and that they will take you around shopping ‘in the meantime’ for a ridiculously low fare.  We of course, fell for this scam hook line and sinker.  See the other part is, they take you to ridiculously over priced shops where, unbeknownst to us, they receive meal vouchers if you buy something.

Our first stop on the ripoff express was a beautiful jewelry shop.  They actually made the jewelry right there and you could watch the jewelers while they worked.  Then, came the shop.  We had no idea Thailand was known for its gemstones, but this place was crazy sparkly!  They had so many beautiful things, we couldn’t stop looking at everything.  Of course, we know we can’t afford fancy jewelry, but there was one section of lower end items, that were made of silver and other stones that were actually quite affordable.  I bought a cute pink sapphire ring, and my friend bought a nice blue topaz ring.  Her ring was like thirty bucks, and mine was just a little more than that.  We were both so excited at our purchases!  We thought, thirty bucks! dude, thats so cheap! Of course, we later found out that we could’ve gotten the same ring for like a quarter of the price.  Oh well…

The next stop on the sucker-mobile was a clothing store.  Now, this was not just a store that you buy clothes.  This shop will custom make clothing for you, whatever you want, suits, dresses, blouses, anything.  We had read and knew that it was pretty inexpensive to have nice clothing made for you in Thailand and were thinking of doing it anyway, when our Tuk Tuk driver brought us to a nice place called City Shop.   We both had some clothing made.  My friend had a suit made, and I a beautiful silk dress.  Thailand is known for its silk, so I thought this was a good chance to do something extravagent for myself.

We left the shop knowing we had spent more than we wanted to, but that we still got a pretty decent deal, compared to US prices.  Our feelings of excitement over our new items were quickly smashed when we got back to the hostel and learned that we’d just been had.  We were not the only ones however, it seemed everyone we talked to fell for the same thing their first day.  Oh well.  I still love my ring and dress, and wouldn’t trade them for anything.

Word to the wise though, public parks don’t usually close 🙂

There is a second part to this story that I will tell in my next entry, so as they say on tv, ‘to be continued…’

For Aslan!

I watched the new Chronicles of Narnia movie recently, “Prince Caspian,” and I loved it! Granted, I have not read the book and many of my friends who have read it thought the added romance between Caspian and Susan ruined the film. Oh well. I think it added some wonderful and much needed humor to the story. In fact, I think I liked “Prince Caspian” better than its predecessor, “The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.” 

I loved some of the themes in “Prince Caspian;” I suppose mainly because I feel that I can relate to them. For example, when Lucy sees Aslan, tells her siblings that she saw him, and then does not follow him because she does not want to go alone, I am reminded of the many times I do the same thing. I know that God has called me to do something, no matter how significant or insignificant it may seem, and then I do not do it because no one else is doing it or will do it with me. I do not understand why I refuse to follow God for these reasons because I see myself as an independent person who does not need to have others with me all the time.

Another example: throughout the majority of the movie, the four-some and Caspian did not know who to fight for or why they should fight. Before going into battle, it is important to know why you are fighting and who you are fighting for–otherwise, your army gets wiped out, much like the scene where the castle gate closes, trapping many of the Narnian fighters inside and leaving them to get killed. Peter, Edmund, Susan, Lucy, and Caspian tried every entity they could think of, besides Aslan, to fight for and, in turn, they lost every time. Caspian went so far as to almost bring the White Witch back, he was so desperate to find someone whose power they could fight under. However, at the end of the movie, they give up, having reached the end of their rope and having no other choice, and they turn and put their trust in Aslan, who saved them the last time they were in trouble and defeated their foes with his unmatched power.

Again, this reminds me of the many times some major crisis confronts me or some difficult problem arises, and I try to work it out myself. However, since I am human and I have no power in and of myself to overcome these difficulties, I continue to ignore the one answer that never fails to solve any problem I encounter, and I search for other means to fix it. After losing every battle and realizing that I have no other options, I finally turn to Jesus Christ who has been the only answer to overcoming my life’s obstacles. Would you believe that He never fails? In the same way that Aslan defeated General Miraz’s army and won the victory for the Narnians, God has defeated and won the battles I have tried repeatedly to fight and win on my own.

Aslan never gave up on the Narnians or the Pevensie siblings, he simply waited until they were completely ready to trust and believe in him and then he took action. I think that sometimes God does the same thing. The Bible says that He never leaves us or forsakes us, so God is always with us, but I think He sometimes waits to work in our lives when we have hit rock bottom and we have nowhere else to turn but to Him.

So, I pray that the next time I am faced with a daunting problem that I cannot overcome, I will turn to Jesus first and let Him take care of it. Only then, when I give my burdens to Him, will I know my battle cry. Peter’s battle cry was “For Aslan!” For me, my battle cry will be “Jesus!” and I know He will be my help in time of trouble. I will “call to the Lord, who is worthy of praise, and I [will be] saved” (Psalm 18:3, NIV) for “no one whose hope is in you [Lord] will ever be put to shame” (Psalm 25:3).

Oh the places we will go!

Yowza! I haven’t made a post in a really long time. My bad 🙂 This summer has been really busy and really awesome.

This month I have manged to get three new stamps in my passport. First, my sister and I went down to Mexico for a few days to relax on the beach. We had a really good time, despite how touristy it has become down there. We soaked in a little too much sun and both came home looking like lobsters. All is well though, because we had a blast!

Then, my best friend who just graduated from the University of Houston was going on a big trip. She is traveling for six weeks and will spend two weeks each in Taiwan, Thailand, and Italy. She invited me to join her for the Thailand portion of her trip, and I gladly accepted!

On the way over to Thailand, I had a day layover in Narita, Japan, which is just two hours outside of Tokyo. I got to visit what my sister says is the largest temple in Japan. It was really beautiful and I took a lot of photos, so I’m sure I’ll post some of those soon.

I just got back last night from my trip and we had a blast! I am planning to write at least another entry detailing what we did, but in short I got to ride an elephant, shake a monkey’s hand, pet some tigers, lay on a beach, and go white water rafting all in the span of two weeks. It was a great trip and I’m so glad I got the opportunity to go.

My body is all out of whack with the time change and the insanely long flight. For example, its six am, and I’m wide awake. Quite unlike me. I’m sure I will crash later, and that it won’t take long for me to adjust.

It’s good to be home!

Holy Batman!

It’s Friday night. I’m all ready to just crash and it’s only…9:32pm my time. Good god, what’s wrong with me?

Work started this Wednesday and I never really realized how much work and effort Counselors have to go through in order to create a lesson plan and whatnot, and… yeah. After a nail-biting three days, I have created the first week of activities for the kids to do.

I find it absolutely amazing that the first week theme is Superheroes! Instantly, I’m taken back to the days when the Amazing X-Men were on television after school was done and Saturday morning cartoons like Batman and Superman. My favorite superhero was always Wolverine, even before Hugh Jackman took on the role for the movie. [Now, of course, I absolutely adore Wolverine even more!!] All the superhero movies coming out in theater the past few years and this summer makes me reminisce about my childhood and the daily joy we as children experienced.

Sometimes, I think that people need to take a step back from the hectic lifestyle and just enjoy themselves and do something completely fun. I would absolutely love to be able to make a superhero costume (without being laughed at!) when it isn’t around Halloween and do fun things like playing hopscotch or drawing with chalk. Maybe it’s the fact that I STILL have a little bit of ADD and being creative has been the only thing that really made me focused.

Yesterday, I found some old books that I made when I was a kid in summer school/school. Sometimes you marvel at the things you used to do when you were kids. I used to make magazines and be in the mail club with my friend, who I saw everyday and lived a mere minute walk from. I still have some of the postcards she gave me.

So, I leave you with this little moral (hidden in the rambling and thought-provoking things) let go a little. If you don’t do it already, do something entertainingly stupid like stopping in the middle of the day to do cartwheels or have a little snowball fight during winter. Heck, even make a fort out of chairs and sheets to relax in. Now, I’m off to finish my paper for summer school, which is a story for another time!

The “Hearing Experience,” Part II

I have been thinking some more about my “Hearing Experience” at Gallaudet, and I thought I would share another story with you.  We have a small movie theater in the SAC (Student Academic Center), and every Friday and Saturday night, the Student Body Government provides a movie to watch.  I remember that it used to feel strange, watching every movie with closed captions, but not any more. Actually, I prefer to have them on since I seem to miss so much that is said without them.  At any rate, I loved going to the weekly movies (if they were showing a good one anyway) and invited a hearing friend to watch movies with me occasionally. 

 

The first time my friend and I went, everything went fine.  We saw “Freedom Writers” and, even though we were both unused to closed captions at the time, we still greatly enjoyed the movie.  The second time that my friend agreed to watch a movie with me (it was “Enchanted”), the speakers did not work at all.  The movie could play along with its closed captions, but there was absolutely no sound.  After trying to fix it for 45 minutes or so, the students gave up and we sat for a few minutes watching the musical without music.  My friend looked uncomfortable, and I asked him if he wanted to watch the “silent movie” or do something else, and he said he was fine watching the movie.  A few minutes later though, he finally gave in and said that he could not focus on the movie and read the captions at the same time, and it was driving him crazy. 

 

I understood since I had once felt the same way, and we left and watched “The Office” re-runs instead.  Funny, the next weekend I went to watch “Enchanted” with another friend and the theater still had no sound.  Every time a song played, I either tried to remember how the tune went (I had seen the movie in theaters a few months beforehand) or made up my own tune for the lyrics.  Thankfully, there was sound for “August Rush” though.  I cannot imagine watching it without hearing the orchestra music.  However, of course, my Deaf friend who went with me could not hear the music although she could feel it. 

 

 

It is a strange sensation trying to put myself in her shoes and see what she and the other Deaf people were getting from the movie simply by watching the closed captions, feeling the vibrations, and watching the scenes.  Because of this, I catch myself evaluating the quality of closed captions in movies.  Did they include the background noise?  Did they say what song was playing and show the lyrics to the song while it played?  Did they include every spoken word or were some things left out?  I am surprised that so many closed-captioned movies leave some things out that hearing people take for granted but that are so important to the movie.  You know what?  It makes me want to become an advocate for closed captioning.  Who knows?  Maybe one day I will.

The “Hearing” Experience

This is my rendition of Harlan Lane’s “The Deaf Experience.”

It feels overwhelming trying to attempt to explain my experience living nine months out of the year in the Deaf-World. But so many people ask me, you see, about what it is like going to a school for the Deaf, being in an environment where people sign all the time for everything, if it is quiet since everyone is Deaf, and similar questions. It almost feels like a second nature–a second home–so I do not even know where to begin describing my experience.

Well, I will start with this. I remember before I went to Gallaudet, I went out to lunch with my Deaf friend, Jex, who went to TSD. Knowing that he had already experienced a Deaf school, I asked him question after question during our lunch. I wanted to know what the classes were like, how the teachers taught, and how the students took notes in class. I remember feeling overwhelmed with the idea that I would have to simultaneously look UP and watch my teacher signing their lecture, look OVER at my classmates signing, look DOWN to write my notes, and look FORWARD to the board or overhead. From my personal experiences, I knew it was impossible to look fully in four directions at the same time; but I thought that perhaps, unlike hearing people, Deaf people could do the impossible. Jex calmed these fears and I found out after my first day at Gallaudet that he was right.

Most professors do not ask you to write notes and watch them at the same time. I say “most” because my English teacher (hearing) once asked us to take notes for a captioned movie in class. Thankfully, he had the volume on low still and I could take notes without watching the screen. In the end though, I did not need these notes because I chose other essays to write for class. Instead of requiring students to do this, most professors give handouts, post their notes on the Internet, or allow their students time to copy the notes from the blackboard or whatever before moving on to the next part of the lecture.

For obvious reasons, most of the classrooms are visually conducive. The desks/chairs form a semi-circle (making it easier to see other classmates signing). I think every classroom has either a smartboard or overhead and blackboards/whiteboards. Only one of my teachers never utilized their smartboard/overhead, all of the other professors used power point presentations for almost every class, making class more interesting and fun.

I have found that my previous college academic experience with TJC and my experience with Gallaudet have been different to say the least. At TJC, I recall one English class where I wrote one, and I mean ONE, long paper. That was it. We did other things in the class such as reading literature and studying poetry and theatre, but we only wrote one research paper. Now please understand that this research paper had to be perfect…well, not PERFECT, but as close as possible to perfection. On the other hand, at Gallaudet last semester in my Introduction to Literature class, I wrote nearly 50 papers. Fifty! I can tell you right now that in the three years I was at TJC, I never wrote anywhere NEAR 50 papers! But, in the course of ONE SEMESTER at Gallaudet, I wrote 50 papers for ONE CLASS. That does not include all the other papers I wrote for my other courses. However, most of these papers were not my best work, and I still got “A’s” in my classes. I will say this, before going to Gallaudet, I needed approximately 5-7 days to write a paper, and now I have learned to write one in 45 minutes.

Not all of my college experiences have centered around academia, but I have also experienced the Deaf-World through dorm life and other campus activities. The cafeteria is probably one of the most important places on campus for socializing–at least it is for me! This is where everyone sees everyone, and the temptation to stay and chat for hours on end can become too much even for the strong-willed. The first semester I was at Gally, I did not spend much time in the cafeteria. In fact, I practically starved myself all semester (not really, I am exaggerating a little). I only ate 1-2 meals a day in the cafeteria and never stayed long. However, I think during the spring semester, I spent more time in the cafeteria than in class.

Everything (almost) centers around the visual or tactile senses. My first experiences with the we-are-closing-the-library/cafeteria/building “warning” signals freaked me out. I was sitting in the cafeteria, minding my own business, enjoying good conversation with friends, when the Blue Light Special at Kmart went off. This blue, emergency-looking light blinked blaringly at us for 15 minutes. It scared me at first. I did not know if it meant that there was a fire, an emergency, or what. Everyone stayed put, so I stayed glued to my seat, staring at the blinking light until it finally clicked. It was 8:00pm and the cafeteria was closing.

A similar experience happened in the library. It was late and I was looking through the endless shelves of Deaf Stacks (Deaf culture, ASL, Deaf education, Interpreting, etc. books). Suddenly, some of the lights started blinking. It freaked me out (yet again) but then I realized that someone was going around, flashing the lights in every section of the library, telling us it was closing time.

I also remember the first time I was sitting in my dorm room and the lights started flickering. Well, they were not “flickering” and the electricity was not going out either as I thought it was. No, someone was “knocking” on my door to give my roommate and I some information about living in the dorms or something. Oh for the love of Deaf culture! I eventually got used to the flashing-light “doorbell.” Nope, no more jumping three feet in the air for me!

THE CAR WASH

I’m taking spanish class over the summer and one of our requirements are to participate in a fundraising event to help raise money to buy things for the less fortunate kids in Colombia. I participated in the car wash along with many others. This was a good experience to get to know my classmates as well as enjoy the nice weather which i rarely get the chance to do. We had a good time and raised a lot of money.