New Blog
Hi, sorry it's been so long since I've posted here. It's been a wild ride the past few months and I'm ready for a change. I wanted to point you to my new blog...
http://matuhart.livejournal.com
See you there!
My Family
At Jennifer and Jason's wedding... My mom's the palest one!As usual, without effort, my father is the darkest one.
Updates...
I'm sure some of you will be shocked to see me updating this blog. ;-)
It's been a while and there have been many changes to my life - both positive and negative.
Now I'm in New York City for two weeks of work - vacillating between working with Debra on a research paper for publication and working on A Sense of Wirth. Both are going well and I should accomplish a lot, although not as much as I hoped. Many people are out of town or busy, but at least I should get started on things that need to be accomplished by November.
Looks more and more likely that I'll be moving to NYC in January. Part of me is excited for the change and to be closer to my support system of friends and family, and to be in NEW YORK. But part of me is disappointed because I worked so hard on the paperwork just to STAY in Italy, and I DO like my job there!
But there might be a silver lining - I was approached about the possibility of setting up a university course (English ofc) for deaf Italians. I replied that if funding could be found to pay my salary and if I could get a support for a work visa, I would strongly consider it. It's a great opportunity - I would also focus on developing course materials (DVDs and a text book) to be used as well as have the opportunity to truly make an impact for deaf university students in Italy. So many deaf Italians drop out of university because of lack of support services (very few get interpreters because they have to pay for them out of pocket) and just in general community support.
The summer was really busy - I moved out of my apartment in Turin at the end of June. This is the first time I've actually lived in a place until the end of my lease/contract since... well... since I was housemanager at RIT, that was... 1999! Wow. I'm proud of myself. :-) I went to Switzerland and taught a 2 day course there. That was an interesting experience.
The students involved with this course were extremely frustrated at the state of education for the deaf in Switzerland (deaf students are placed in special education classrooms with other students with disabilities including wheelchair-bound, blind, learning disabled...), and after following my program for the first day, I threw out my planned lesson the second day and asked them what they wanted to know. They wanted to know how to TEACH reading (from the very beginning). I taught different strategies based on my own experience, interspersed with discussion and clarification. At the end, one of the students came up to me with a bag of Lindt chocolates (Swiss chocolates) because she said, I finally feel like I understand and I feel hope for working with deaf students. Thank you so much. :-)
After the Switzerland course, I traveled all afternoon/evening (series of... 4 trains) to get to Siena in Tuscany. I was invited to work as a research assistant for 3 weeks. It was very exciting, I saw a lot of really cool stuff that will help Debra and I in our research on teaching English as a foreign language for deaf students, so we are very excited and hopeful that we will be able to publish at least 2 papers this year.
However, I was sick the whole time in Siena. :-( Something in the air ... I got a cold, and it just got worse and worse into a pink eye infection in one eye then the other, then a horrible cough and feeling weak. Finally one of my roommates (hearing) came up to me and begged me to go to the doctor because she said I sounded like I had fluid in my lungs. The doctor said I had an upper respiratory infection, but nothing too serious. She prescribed a whole barrage of medicine - I had a whole shopping bag when I left the pharmacy... antibiotics for my lungs, medicine for my eyes, vitamin a for my weakness, cough suppressant, and a medicine that was to "bring my body fluids back into balance" (this was translated from the Italian into LIS two times by different people and I have no idea what it translates to in English...) The only cool thing about the whole experience was when she saw that I had an identity card (remember the whole nine month saga??), she said that I shouldn't have to pay for the antibiotics because that was covered under the national health plan. Sure enough, I didn't! :-)
I came back to the USA and slowly started getting better, resting a lot and getting sun when I could. Getting outside helps! I'm still recovering, one month later. Once in a while I get a sore throat and I try to drink some tea. I still cough, but better than before. :-/ I don't really have fond memories of those three weeks. Most of the time I was alone (everyone else was working or had other obligations), so it was kind of lonely and depressing. No one deserves to be sick alone. Sometimes I wonder if the decreased morale during that time influenced my recovery process.
When I went to my cousin's wedding, she greeted me with, "you came!" :-) I was proud to have not shed a tear during the wedding ceremony which a big step for me! I was sobbing through my brother's wedding - even Chris kept looking at me throughout the ceremony and Amy was elbowing me with a threatening"shut the f**k up!" But when Jen said that to me, I almost did cry! :-o
After that it was a whirlwind of helping my parents move, seeing Julie, Terry and Tova in Ohio (gosh! Tova's language is AMAZING :-)), seeing family in MD (Fae can read now! Devon is always saying, "it's Aunt Katie!"), going to NC with Amber and spending time with her in DC... and now NYC. Next weekend I fly to Denver to see Katie, Kev, Liam, and to meet little Xander. I'm looking forward to it all!
Time for me to end this post and do something I should have finished earlier today... hopefully you'll hear from me again soon...
Interesting article on BBC.com
Recognition at last for Japan's Ainu
Was reading the news this morning and came across this really interesting article about Japan finally formally (legally) recognizing the Ainu tribe as an indigenous group of Japan. I never knew that there were indigenous groups in Japan!
HA!
Was enjoying the SHH Party photos again, when I made an important realization - ALL of the men in the photos, and I mean ALL of them, had "fashionable stubble." Not one of them was clean shaven! I'm thinking of Turin... half and half... then Rome... most Roman men seem to be clean shaven... Maybe it's a Genoan thing. ;-)
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