When things seem to look up

Gee, I'm beginning to sound so negative. LOL! However my issue today has nothing to do with my internship! Which is great. I am glad I called Julie, things are really looking better for me on that end. However, I came back to Goshen to work at Walgreens. I know I am glutton for punishment. Somehow, on the way up here and and in the last couple of days I have misplaced my debit card! EEEK! I am not exactly sure what to do, I am frantically looking for it. I have spent the last two hours scouring my car and the rooms I was last in, but nothing so far. I am hoping to find it, but I know even if I can't find it, there will be ways for me to get money. I have a check book, so worst case possible, I write a check to myself and find a bank to cash it. Or ask a friend if they would mind taking a check and giving me cash for it. I wish gas stations would take checks, but oh well. It happens. Maybe, just when I give up, I will find it. I'm trying to be optimistic.

I'm getting pretty much

to the point of not wanting to be here anymore. I mean come on, how much is one person supposed to be subjected to. I know I am here for the experience and let me tell you, it is definitely been an experience. I am ready to put my stuff in my car and just drive home. I have come to the conclusion that I can't trust my mentor, that she says one thing and then changes it. I can't put up with that anymore. I really can't.

How many people have been offered a job, told that they would be paid for something and then have it taken away from them in less than 12 hours? Seriously... I mean, geez! Okay, so my mentor has absolutely no faith in me is what I have come to believe. She offers me a paid job interpreting for BIS, but then decides to have one of her staff members take the day off and take the job. She sends me to interpret an on the job training assignment. And sure I would've probably been less hurt if the person who took this away from me was certified, but she's not. Maybe I would have been less hurt if this was the first time my mentor has turned her words around. Maybe not.

I don't know what will happen. I try to tell myself that things will get better. I really do. Honest! I keep repeating to myself, tomorrow will be a better day. I hate the fact that I am having a horrible time here. There is so much greatness in this city that I can be enjoying. There really are some great opportunities here and I am praying that tomorrow will be better.

Tattle-tell!

Ok, I admit it, I tattled. I just got so darn frustrated. I am getting all kinds of mixed answers from my mentor. I really debated calling Julie today. I actually got ready to call her twice and then changed my mind. But I am glad I did it. I have only done 2.5 hours of interpreting-actual hands in the air. Yet I have done tons of observation, mentor feedback-which is wierd since the feedback is not based on my interpreting but on issues in the field and stuff like that, I even got a jump of my professional development. My mentor hurt my feelings yesterday when I was observing her interpret a meeting. Now granted, there were doctors and professionals there, and yes big giant words were used and acronyms that I was unfamiliar with. But when I asked her if she thought I could interpret for some of the meeting, she told me that she didn't believe that I could interpret it. It probably would be really difficult for me, but it really hurt my feelings. I also am pretty frustrated that she hasn't really watched me interpret either, so how is she to evaluate my skills? The only people who are able to evaluate me are both deaf and sure they can, but they don't hear my voicing at all. So, I told on her. I got tired of it. I want to make sure that I am successful on this internship and don't want to fail. I am praying things improve. Julie said they will and I am sure that they are supposed to.

snow day

So remember those days when you would pray so hard that the snow would just pile up during the night and there would be no school the next day? Yeah? You remember? Darn it! Then stop wishing for it! I couldn't even make it out of the driveway for internship today. Which I guess is a good thing, Carrie called said DO NOT come in, one interpreter had driven off the road and she wanted everyone to stay home and be safe. Only problem....Its not my home so I feel very wierd.

Day Numero Dos!

Boring! I only observed one assignment.... A boring ho-hom govermental type meeting where everyone is monotone...blah blah blah. Poor interpreter, the sound quality was terrible and I did help a bit to feed her what she missed. Next assignment was at CPS, but it was a no-call no-show. Makes me sad, I was gonna see CDI-ness in action! Then we started snowing.....supposedly we are going to get 4-7 inches tonight, and everyone out here drives crazy in the snow... Oh well, I might get tomorrow off if schools are closed, my mentor won't be able to come in and she said she's the only one according her agreement with Julie to mentor me.

Day One!

Day one is almost half completed. As we can all tell I made out to my host family without too much trouble. I did however get lost this morning. Kind of a funny thing too. I wrote the right address down for dcs, but when I programmed it into my gps, I must not have been paying attention and put kingsley drive instead of kingsway drive. Gee, only two letters were wrong, but it took me to the other side of keystone. Which is a major road that connects my host family to dcs. I panicked of course, called information because I freaked and when they confirmed the address and I saw that I had put it in wrong in the gps, I allowed myself some relief. So that's by far the most nerve-wrenching event of the day. I beat my mentor here, she was running behind so I was able to calm myself down before she showed up. Yay! I also have already had my first hands up assignment. Ok, so it wasn't like a real paid assignment that they would send me on, but it was an informal meeting between a deaf staff member for dcs and another department representative. I told my mentor that I wanted to work on staying in interpreter mode while interpreting one-on-one settings, and she quickly put me in a situation to experience. My host family is great and I really like them. They have really opened their home up to me and really made me feel welcome. So even though I was nervous and scared just yesterday, I am feeling much calmer and welcomed now.

Just a few more days.....

I don't know about everyone else, but its a just a few days until d-day and I am starting to get butterflies in my tummy. I know that this is going to be an awesome experience and I know that I will have a lot of fun. So why am I getting so nervous? It's because its a new experience. A new adventure. An unfamiliar place with unfamiliar people. I know that I am just getting nervous over nothing. Like when I first came out to Goshen College. I was scared, I didn't want to go and I cried, a lot. I didn't know anyone when I came out here and now I have friends, I know people and I will miss them when its over. The same will happen in just a week. I will be scared, I may wish to change my mind when I start driving, and I might cry. Shoot I may even cry now. In 10 weeks, I will have friends, I will know people and I may not want to leave. Its kind of funny the things you react to when you know that it will be alright. God is watching over me and everyone else leaving and I know that everything is going to be great. Even if the butterflies in my tummy don't want to go away.