Excitement!

So exciting news of the day....well yesterday actually but I didn't blog last night....CLAY is coming to see me tomorrow! :) He gets in at 11pm, so we won't really have any time tomorrow night except travel time. Saturday morning we'll spend together. Then 1-8 I have a Fingerspelling/Numbers Workshop but the teacher said he could sit in the class. :) He will go home Sunday evening. So I'm looking forward to some good time with him. 

Today I got to go through part of the NIC practice DVD in the actual NIC testing room with the lady who will proctor the test! It was awesome! She was amazing.....very relaxed, put me at ease, catered to me so I was completely comfortable and ready to test. It was so good to simulate the testing conditions. It helped me think through how I want to handle some logistical items and will help me be more at ease in two weeks. 

Yesterday I asked a mentor who has been with us since the beginning to tell me something she has seem improve in my work. She wanted to watch something recent first and then gave me good feedback throughout, pointing out things I was doing well such as my processing and deliberate choices relating to my interpreting. When I reminded her she told me I was disconnected early on, she said she didn't see that now...that I looked very much in control of the situation! :) 

Then today I had a mentor meeting with Trenton (right). He's a CDI who taught our first class and really helped open my eyes to the deaf perspective. We hadn't really talked since very early on. While he had specific comments about ways to improve my work and what to focus on, he also said he has seen a big improvement in my work, especially my confidence. I noticed that this conversation with him tonight was very easy and I never had trouble understanding him. When he taught our class, I really had to concentrate to understand his signs and sometimes didn't get everything he said. So that to me was proof of how much my receptive skills have improved. 

So it's been a pretty good two days.   :)