NYSD Internship

2007-01-25T17:14:00.000-08:00

last day

2005-05-06T20:53:00.000-07:00

Today was an extremely sad day. It was Jen's and my last day working at Tanya Towers. We made our usual Friday Morning trip to Dunkin Donuts (which we could tell was getting to be a bit too much since we could walk in and they would know our order right away). Susan was so sweet wishing us both good luck and saying that she would be sad to see us go. When Bev left she said she was sorry to see us leave. And when we had to say goodbye to Nelly and the girls I almost couldn't handle it. After we were finished with everything Suany took Jen and I to lunch at this great Chines place around the corner. It was hard to leave everyone after such a long time working with all of them. So goodbye to my golden girls. I have to write about what I learned in order to recieve credit for this internship so today I leave you with that.

What I Learned at Tanya Towers

In our lives we are only ever exposed to that which we choose to be. We can choose to live our lives in sheltered exclusion, examining our surroundings with a close-minded mentality. We can choose to ignore our innate sense of curiosity that comes with being human. Or we can choose to step out of the shadow of complacency into a world where curiosity is the only means of education. We can choose to open both our minds and our hearts to the endless capacity of unique experiences that the world has to offer each and every one of us.

During my time working at Tanya Towers I learned that more than anything else in this rigid, pessimistic society in which I have been raised that I have to trust myself. When I first started this internship I was anxious that I would find myself in situations that I would not know how to handle or that my skills in American Sign Language would somehow be inadequate for the position. But I learned that, as hard as it is for me to accept, I, like everybody else, am allowed to make mistakes. That is of course, on the condition that I learn from them. I cannot say how many times I signed the wrong word or had to fingerspell word because I didn’t know the sign for it or misunderstood someone else’s signs. But I asked questions when I did not understand I gracefully accepted corrections from others when I was wrong. As a result, I have not only become a better signer, but a better person as well.

One of the most important lessons that I have learned over the past four months is patience. I have never by any means of the word been a patient person. My time living in this fast paced jungle of chaos and activity for the last two years has only made that fact much more abundantly clear. But this internship has helped me realize that just how vital patience is, not only for me to have it with others, but with myself. I am, as most other people are, my harshest critic. But these past four months have taught me how to let go of my frustration and enjoy every situation.

Had I not chosen to take sign language to fill my shared curriculum requirements and had I not chosen to take this internship, then I never would have opened myself to an entirely different world filled with amazing people. I never would have met this group of wonderful and accepting people that opened their arms and took me into their lives without question. I have learned that no amount of security and safety and comfort can be traded for the fulfillment and joy of broadening your horizons and taking that step forwards from who you are to who you want to be.

uh oh, spaghettio

2005-04-28T10:06:00.000-07:00

I have no idea what happened today, but I woke up and it was 11:53. I don't know if my alarm just didn't go off or if it went off and I turned it off and went back to sleep and just don't remember it, but at any rate, I slept in and didn't make it to tanya towers.

damn drivers

2005-04-27T21:45:00.000-07:00

Today was a crazy day. It was turkey leg day which is always a frenzy in and of itself. On top of that, Blake did not show up today and Susie and Suany both had to go to the hospital with someone so I was all by myself. Luckily Chandra was there and she was able to help hand out the food. Speaking of the food, normally it arrives around 11:30, usually 11:45 at the absolute latest. Not today however. The company that delivers the food hired a new driver and apparently he got lost on his way to Tanya Towers. The food did not arrive until 12:35!!! It was absolute madness. Fortunately, the residents were patient with me and understanding that it was not my fault. Furthermore, when the driver finally did arrive, he said to me, "Well, at least they can't yell and scream" and then proceeded to chuckle. I, however, just glared and him and proceeded to unwrap the food without uttering a word to him in return. I just coldn't believe that he had the nerve to insult these people after he was an hour late. Ignorant people just amaze me sometimes.
While we were waiting for the food to arrive, Nelly suggested calling the place. Hilda freaked out and started yelling at her that we couldn't call because he was driving and obviously he can't answer the phone if he's out driving and how could she possibly suggest such an idea. After she went on and on, Blanche then began yelling at Hilda for yelling at Nelly. It was a mess.
When Guillermina came down, her aide, who's name I finally learned today was Sonya, asked me if I would explain to Guillermina that she was just running down to the store and that she would be right back. This woman frustrates me soooo incredibley much. How can she be in the position of taking care of a deaf blind woman and not know sign language? And on top of that, she just seems ignorant of the language it's culture and all that comes with it. Everytime she opens her mouth I just want to kick her in the face. It's horrible.

Today I felt overwhelmed, frustrated and angry.

no tanya towers

2005-04-25T19:18:00.000-07:00

I had today off because the food delivery service was closed for passover. Instead, I popped in on Deanna level 1 class to say hello and pick up her copy of Train Go Sorry. While there, I also talked about and idea that Jen, Ashley and myself have been discussing. We want to start and ASL club here at Marymount. The idea is still in it's rough, developmental stage, but basically it's focus would be community service. Ashley would like to start a babysitting program with which we could provide services to hearing parents with deaf children or deaf parents with hearing children or deaf parents with deaf children. Jen and I have grown the love the people at Tanya Towers so much that we're both having a bit of trouble letting go of them. We just can't imagine them not being a part of our lives anymore. So we want to spruce up their space for them a little bit. It's such a great space and there's so much that we could do with it if we only had the time and resources, which this club could provide. We have so many ideas like painting a mural on an outside wall or starting a garden or fixing up benches. We're hoping to get it approved before the end of the semester so that we can start things right away when we return in the fall.

operation mosaic commences

2005-04-08T20:58:00.000-07:00

Jen's friend Mackenzi joined us at good ol' Tanya Towers today. We had baked fish today and we all know what that means...busy, busy busy! We ran completely out of food today but luckily no one else came down so we didn't have to turn anyone away. I would feel so bad if we ever had to to that. Hilda wanted Jen to help her call her son in Germany after lunch was finished today, so the three of us went up to her apartment after we had finished cleaning up to see what we could do. It was so interesting though. I called her son at work and then I would give the phone to Hilda and she would speak to him in German and then she would give the phone back to me and he would reply to me in English and then I would sign to her what he was saying to me. It was just such a unique situation.
Jen finally got to meet Cliff today and she agrees with me that he is quite adorable. He started his project today so I stuck around to help out. He showed me everything that he has so far in terms of tiles and whatnot. He has all this amazing pottery that he got for free from a friend in Philly and it's beautiful. Some of it is broken but some of it is still whole. We went outside and started mapping out where we wanted the mosaic to be. So the residents came down around 2:30 and we started our planning meeting. They wanted Cliff to sign and speak at the same time. Whew! That was craziness. We were discussing different ideas of what they wanted to do for the mosaic and it was so funny because they all started naming the most random things to have in it; "a mouse, an elephant, fish, cats, birds." I guess these people just love their animals or something. So finally we came up 3 different themes for it and voted. Luckily the idea that Cliff and I were pulling for was picked so it looks we're going to be doing a "fun city." Kind of hard to explain, but trust me, it's going to be cool. So it looks like we're going to be working on it on Fridays. Should be interesting trying to work with everyone all at the same time. Hopefully next weel I'm going to try and take some pictures so everyone will finally be able to put faces to all these names I keep talking about.

Today I felt comfortable, excited and inspired.

by myself...kinda

2005-04-06T02:34:00.000-07:00

Well Blake worked with me today, as he normally does on Wednesdays. But I pretty much did everything anyway. He didn't get there until about 11:40 and by that time I already had everything set up. Then after lunch was finished he sat down and was talking to Bessie and William and wasn't much help cleaning up. But whatever, I don't reallt mind.
Today we had meatballs and linguini. I sampled a few of the meatballs and they weren't that bad.
Nelly was back today. Jen and I might be teaching her on Fridays how to use computers so she can be all caught up for the class that she's in.
Cliff stopped in, wasn't expecting that. He was talking to Lea so I went over and was talking with them. I asked him when he was starting his project. So we started signing and Lea told him that he could speak to me because I'm hearing. He laughed and said "I know, it's just good practice." Lea cracks me up sometimes with the things she feels the need to inform everyone of. But he's decided to do a mosaic on one of the walls out on the terrace. It should be pretty cool. I asked him if he needed any help and he said that he would love some. So I think Jen and I are going to be helping him with his project. Should be fun. And remember that crush I mentioned I thought I might have? Yeah. Enough said.

Today I felt annoyed, inqusitive and flirtatious.

rijk, sitting in a tree, but with who?

2005-04-04T14:18:00.000-07:00

Oh goodness. Today was everybody's in love with with Rijk day and apparently nobody told me. It was so funny. First Hilda and Lea came over and asked me his name and when I told them they both kind of giggled and Lea said he was beautiful. Then they stood in the doorway like two little school girls just staring at him. He would look at them and tehy wouldn't say anything. I felt like I had been transplanted back in the 5th grade. It was so funny. Then finally Hilda started talking to him and they chatted for about 5 or 10 minutes. Then Elanor came in and she just did not want to talk to me. It was all about Rijk. She just kept talking and talking and talking. He kept trying to do his work but she just was not having it. She just wanted to keep talking to him for as long as she could. Then another man that I've never met before came in and we started talking to me. He started telling me how he hates Elanor because she just talks and talks and talks to everyone and won't shut up and it annoys him. That entertained me.
Guillermina came down at 11:30 today and kept insisting that lunch was supposed to start at 11:00 today. I explained to her that lunch was starting at 12:00 like it always does and that the food wasn't even there yet but she just kept telling me lunch started at 11:00. Finally, she asked to sit and wait and I told her that we would serve her as soon as the food got there. Then her aide (the nice one, not the evil, always talking on her phone one) asked what was for lunch. Turns out that Guillermina doesn't even like stuffed cabbage, which is what we were serving. She laughed and aplogized and went back upstairs.
It was a little quiet today. Nelly and Blanche weren't there. Apparently though, Blache found another lunch place near Tanya Towers that serves lunch for $1.00. I think she's been going there instead.

Today I felt amused, calm and relaxed.

April Fool's

2005-04-01T18:29:00.000-08:00

Or so says Nelly, anyway. She is just too cute. Susie, Jen and I were in the kitchen chatting away when Nelly started saying something about "red." I think she was trying to say that the bushes outside were red. So Susies walked out to see what she was talking about, at which point Nelly kicked her feet up in the air, yelled "April Fool's" and continued to giggle furiously at her own joke for about five minutes.
Susie came up and worked with us for the whole day today which was really fun. She's just so adorable. She told us all about the wedding dresses that she found on her trip to Hong Kong and her plans for the ceremony. She mentioned that Cliff was starting his project next week and I must admit that I got a little excited when she mentioned his name. I'm hoping to be able to help him with his project.
Really today was a slow day. We served gefilte fish and nobody really likes that. But there was cake served with lunch today and Jen and I were determined to save ourselves a slice because we always want one and we always seem to run out. So today we hid two pieces and decided to tell people we ran out if they asked for more. Unfortuntaely, Susie spoiled our plans. She stole our cake! And gave it the birds outside no less. Talk about adding insult to injury. Geesh.

Today I felt amused, slightly bored and slighlty infatuated.

holy turkey day

2005-03-30T14:02:00.000-08:00

oh my goodness was today ever crazy! Let me tell you, these people LOVE their turkey legs. We ran completely out of food today. It was absoulte insanity. Normally Gwen, Guillermina and Joe all come down for turkey and they were all MIA and we still ran completely out of food. I don't know where they come from, but on every day that we serve turkey legs all these people seem to come out of the woodwork, from these little holes they've been hiding in.
When we got there, Blake and I realized that we only had three napkins left and there were none left in the supply room. I went downstairs and told Susie so she ran out to get some more. She didn't make it back until about 5 til 12. I thought she wasn't gonna make it and we were gonna be late starting to serve lunch. That would have been interesting. While we were setting up Lea grabbed me and she started asking me if I was married! Can you imagine, me married? She saw the ring I was wearing and though it was a wedding band. I was a little confused at first though because she kept pointing to my right hand.
Other than the mass of people and the missing napkins the day went smoothly.

Today I felt overwhelmed, accepted and relaxed.

i have returned

2005-03-28T12:18:00.000-08:00

Well after a one week hiatus, (a much needed break, I might add) I have joyfully returned to Tanya Towers. George's aide came down around 11:45 or so and told us that access a ride was picking him up in 20 minutes and asked if we could get his meal ready a little earlier than usual. Of course Rijk and I were going to say yes but the tricky part was doing this so that Lea wouldn't notice. The last time we served someone else first she freaked out and started yelling and it was just a lot of drama. But we wanted to get Geroge his meal. Luckily, Beth was watching tv in the back of the room and Lea was talking to her, conveniently with her back to us. Rijk and I scrambled and got George's meal ready and handed off to his aide without Lea ever being the wiser to our sneaky plot.
Other than that the meal went smoothly until the end. I was in the kitchen getting some things for Bev when I heard Rijk saying that Bertha was sick. He stayed with her while I ran downstairs to get Suany. But alas, she wasn't in the office. I went to the other HUD office and spoke with Jennifer who then tried paging Suany on her blackberrie for me. No luck, we couldn't reach Suany. Rijk helped Bertha up to her apartment and she said she didn't need any help, that she would be fine. We finished cleaning up but left a note for Suany to check on Bertha when she returned to the office.

Today I felt scared, frustrated and clever.

rijk, my dutchman

2005-03-07T20:10:00.000-08:00

Today we served chicken chow mein, fried rice and oriental vegetables. I tried the rice and it was pretty good but I decided to steer clear of the chicken; it didn't look too apetizing. It was just Rijk and me today. It was bit of another slow day. Maurice didn't come down for lunch and neither did Joseph, and those two are always there. It was kind of odd not having either one of them around.
A strange man who's name was, I think, Charley, came down. He just kind of stared at me and Rijk for little while and then he decided he wanted to eat. So we prepared it for him and gave him a tray. He went and sat down but then came back up about 5 minutes later with his tray still full. We just gave him his money back since he hadn't eaten any of his food. But then he just kinda of stared at us again. He was weird.
Cliff stopped by again. He was looking for Suany but she had stepped out for lunch and hadn't returned yet so he hung around for bit and heloed us clean up. He seems like a good guy. I hope that he returns to volunteering on a regular basis. He's also working on this project for one of his classes at Nyu in which he has to create a sacred space. He's thinking about using the community room to do this. The three of us were brainstorming. We want to fix the lighting, paint the walls, put in a garden area on the terrace and just overall brighten up the place. It's kind of dim. The walls match the ceiling, match the floor. It's so bland and uninviting. Dreary almost. Hopefully we'll be able to fix that.

another day with jenny weasley

2005-03-04T19:05:00.000-08:00

Well today was pretty uneventful. Friday is fish day so it's usually pretty slow, especially when it's gefilte fish, which it was today. But today seemed even slower than normal. I think we only ended up having 5 people. Susan and Bertha didn't even come down and they're always there. Blanche was MIA as well.

Happy Birthday Nelly!

2005-03-02T23:59:00.000-08:00

Today lunch was a bit less hectic and a bit less entertaining because Nelly wasn't there. This was the first day since I started that she hasn't been at lunch. I thought it was odd that she didn't come down but then I remembered that today was her 76th birthday! Blanche told me that her daughter came in to take her out and celebrate her birthday with her. Other than Nelly's absence, the day was normal. Blake and I didn't have any problems with lunch although today was the first day that I worked since they increased the price to $1.50 for lunch instead of $1. This makes it so much more difficult because then you have to deal with change. It was much simpler before.
After we were finshed Blake and I were leaving and started walking in the same direction. It turns out we were both heading for the M15 going up 1st avenue. So we walked, talked and bused together until he had to get off at 47th st. Oddly enough he was going to the Vanderbilt to swim laps which was funny since that is a Marymount residence and that's where Jen lives. The more we talked, the more of these little coincidences we found in each other's lives.
Blake usually talks to me and for the most part I can understand him. Today he asked me if i understood his sign and I told him yes. He told me that he wanted to try and not use his voice, so for the rest of the time that we were together he only signed. I liked this a lot. I'm hoping that from now on he'll sign with me more and more so I can keep learning.

Today I felt happy, confident and appreciated.

extra responsibility

2005-02-28T21:31:00.000-08:00

Today was a fairly normal day. Rijk and I served lunch together and we had a normal turnout for a Monday. The only thing out of the ordinary was that an onld volunteer, Cliff, stopped by to help out for the day. He's a junior at NYU and volunteered there throughout last summer and last semester. I think that he may try to work volunteering there into his schedule again for 1 or 2 days a week.
One interesting thing that I discovered today was about Hilda. She works at Gap just like me! Cliff mentioned something about it to me, so I asked Hilda and it turns out she works stock at one of the stores on 42 st. This just seemed so crazy to me for some reason. So we talked about all things Gap for a little while before I had to get back to working.
After the lunch program was finished, Susie had asked me to take Nelly to her dentist appointment at 2 at the NYU dental clinic. I was excited but also very nervous because I was basically going to be acting as Nelly's interpreter. I wasn't sure if I was ready to do this but with Nelly i felt reassured. I decided that she was the perfect first experience in the interpreting world. She speaks when she signs and most of the time I can understand her clearly. Also, she can read lips rather well so if I don't know a sign for something I can speak and she will still unerstand me and then can show me the sign for whatever word I need.
I called for a car service to come and pick us up using the number that Susie gave me. The man on the other end randomly started speaking Spanish to me and I didn't understand a word he was saying and then finally he said, "Sweetie, we don't have no cars right now." After a bit of panic and a short time of scrambling I was able to get a car from another service and we were on our way to her appointment. her dentist turned out to actually an NYU student which I guess is pretty common practice. To my surprise everything went well. I stumbled a little bit but Nelly was there to help me up. Whenever I didn't know a sign and had to fingerspell something she taught me the sign for it. But she told me that since I took her to her appointment that the lessons were free this time. Her next appointment is on the 14 so she asked me to go with her again. If I am able to I will.

Today I felt scared, anxious, relieved and surprised.

blaring sound

2005-02-25T22:43:00.000-08:00

Met Jenn on the corner of 53 and 3 as is our usual routine. I was the one who was a little late today though, because my friends from home are visiting and I had to give them some directions and brief suggestions of what to do while I went to work. Very little sleep definitely made me appreciate our Friday morning pit stop at good ol' Dunkin Donuts. That croissant sandwich has never tasted quite so good.
Fridays are usually slow because since it's now lent, they only serve fish. But apparently it's only the gefilte fish that people don't like because we had 12 people show up today for the baked fish. We never have 12 people on a Friday. Things got a little hectic because Jenn and I had only prepared 8 trays before hand because we never had more than that but the rush came and went we handled it well.
Whenever Jenn and I first got up to the community room to start setting things up Maurice was watching tv and it was SOOOOO loud. He was watching The Price is Right and the volume was cranked all the way up. I wasn't sure if he had it up that high so that he could feel the vibrations or something like that or if he just didn't realize that it was that loud but oy, my ears hurt after a while. It was blaring like that the entire way through lunch until Chandra took her place in front of the tv for her usual after lunch soaps and turned the volume off. Praise Chandra.

Today I felt rushed, unprepared, surprised and hearing(odd description I know, but that's how i felt)

my sign girls

2005-02-20T15:35:00.000-08:00

These are my friends Jenn and Jill. We went through ASL levels 1 and 2 together at Marymount and loved every minute of it. If you're a fellow Marymounter I highly suggest taking this course. Not only is it an excellent way to fulfill one of your lower level requirements (I forget which category but I think it's "D") but the professor is amazing and it is worth every minute. You learn to look at the world in a different way and you grow passoinate about problems that you never even knew existed. Anyway, Jenn and Jill are now taking further classes at the Sign Language Center. I wish i could have joined them but my schedule didn't exactly permit. Perhaps once the new term stars I'll be able to work it in. Jenn is doing the same internship at Tanya Towers that I am. We work together there on Friday's. So here are my girls.

Greetings

2005-02-01T22:35:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone. I will be using this blog to talk all about my spring internship. For the nest 3 months I will be working for the New York Society for the Deaf. I will be working at a HUD regulated subsidized residence in Alphabet City. While there I will be helping to serve their kosher lunch program three days a week to a group of older deaf citizens who live in the building. Other than that I will be doing whatever is needed of me whether it be helping people go grocery shopping or accompanying them to a doctor's appointment. I will also be doing a few event days here and there such as a game day. So I will be using this space to write all about my thoughts and expreriences there during the next couple of months.