Sign of the times

I had a friend from highschool stay over for the last few days of university. I'll call her Peanut. It was great seeing her - hadn't seen her in over a year. And in that year she's started to learn BSL. Which I think is fantastic! I always get really excited and pleased when a hearing person learns BSL.

The day that Peanut arrived, my college at university was having a small music festival. Nothing big or fancy, just a chance for student bands to be heard. It gives everyone an excuse to just relax and have a drink (then again, we're students - no excuse is needed!). It was a lot of fun - I love listening to live music. The only problem is that I can't hear anything except the music. A spoken conversation is out of the question - my lip-reading isn't quite good enough to hold a long conversation.

On the other hand, I can hold a reasonably decent BSL conversation. Nothing deep or meaningful, but a decent conversation none-the-less. Usually there's just no one else around that can have a conversation in BSL. In comes Peanut. It didn't matter that I couldn't hear a word she was saying and that I wasn't focusing on lip-reading, we were signing away to each other. I could enjoy the music and have a conversation - it was fantastic!

At one point, the band that was playing took a little break between songs. It was at this time that all the conversation in the hall fell silent. Peanut and I were still signing away to each other. So the entire hall was silent. Until... 'Summer of 69' came blasting out. For a split second I wondered where on earth the music was coming from, as did everyone else in the room. Then I realised. It was my phone. With reddening cheeks, I fumbled in my bag to silence it (I was cursing the fact that I wasn't wearing my bluetooth necklace!). By this time everyone else had realised the music was coming from me, and a huge round of applause filled the room, along with some questioning looks 'wasn't she just signing? Isn't she deaf? How can she talk on the phone?' After what seemed like an age, I finally found my phone and answered it with a weak 'hi', which was met with a burst of laughter from everyone in the room. I think my face resembled that of a tomato. Then the band started playing again (they kindly waited for me to answer my phone before they started - which just made me more embarrassed and aware that every single eye in the hall was watching my every move).

The phone call, in case you're wondering, was a friend asking for a lift. So off Peanut and I went to pick them up. We then returned to my college to listen to some more music. At this point we decided to sign along to the music. Some people sing to it, we signed to it. The best song to sign to was definitely a cover of 'Bad Romance'. We got a few odd looks, but mostly people seemed amused by us signing the chorus. It's something I usually do to myself in clubs (like I said, some people sing, I sign), so sharing it with a friend was brilliant.

One thing Peanut and I did notice was the differences between our sign language. She lives down South, whereas I live up North. Just as there are different accents for different parts of Britain, there are different signs for different parts of Britain. Most of the signs are the same, there are just a few noticeable differences. Numbers being one of them. The differences weren't too big though - we had no problem understanding each other.

It was also great being able to sign to each other in the club later on in the evening and on the bar crawl the next night. Most of my hearing friends are pretty awesome in that they go above and beyond to make me feel included and to make sure that I'm not excluded too much because of my lack of hearing. I couldn't ask for a better bunch of friends. But sometimes I do feel like I'm asking too much from them, that my being deaf is a nuisance to them. (They've never done anything to make me feel this way - I'm just conscious of the fact that I don't want to be a burden to anyone). So being able to sign with a friend was just brilliant. Although I didn't want to sign too much as I didn't want to exclude all my non-signing friends. It was difficult - finally, I could hold a conversation without asking 'what?' every 5 minutes or just smiling like an idiot if I didn't hear something, but in doing so I excluded everyone else. I hope I didn't upset my non-signing hearing friends - if I did, I'm very sorry!

Seeing Peanut again was great fun - we had a lot of catching up to do. The fact that she could sign to me was an added bonus. Definitely looking forward to her next visit.

Deaf Girl

Viva (fake) Vegas

It was the summer college ball at unviersity a few days ago. It's always a lot of fun - and this year was no exception. Dinner is served at around 7pm and breakfast is served at 5am, followed by the survivors' photo at 6am (the survivors' photo is for those that managed to make it to 6am without having a nap at any point in the evening). A very fun, but tiring event. It's taken me a good few days to completely recover. My poor body clock is still somewhat confused.

I had a fantastic time though - it was a lot of fun. First came the meal. I was sitting at the edge of the table, and one of my friends (thanks Mr. B!) kindly offered to trade places with me. That meant I was sitting in the middle which made reading lips a lot easier. There was a lot of noise at the meal as there were about 100+ students in the room. So I was relying very heavily on lip reading.

After the meal (which was quite nice) came the entertainment. We had our pictures taken and went to watch an Elvis Impersonater (not forgetting to claim our free glass of champagne, of course - have you ever heard of any student saying no to free alcohol?). I didn't think much of the impersonator... but that could be more to do with the fact that I couldn't really hear much, just a bunch of noise. I guess we'll never know whether that was because of my hearing, or it was just his failed attempt at singing... Perhaps it was a mixture of both. Suffice to say, I didn't feel a great loss when 'Elvis' (along with all the fat bulging over his far-too-tight trousers) finished his act.

Because the theme of the summer ball was 'Viva Las Vegas', there were a lot of options to gamble. (I would like to point out that the unversity doesn't endorse gambling and all the gambling done was with fake money). So of course I played my hand at the slots machine. Sadly, it was not my day. I was very relieved that it was fake money. Although it did remind me of my time in the real Las Vegas... (if you can't remember, read this entry). I was very pleased there wasn't a hottle room in sight.

There was also a Lady Gaga tribute act. I believe she was quite good, but I'm afraid I didn't watch much of it - mainly due to the fact that I couldn't hear much. There was also an unfortunate incident earlier on with the microphone that left my hearing aids making a horrible screeching noise in my ears. (If I wasn't deaf before - I sure am now!). So I didn't spend too much time out in the yard where the acts were performing, for fear of being attacked by the screeching again.

I was on the dancefloor at one point with CH1 (Crazy Housemate 1) and we were trying to talk to each other. As anyone that's been clubbing knows, talking on a dancefloor is difficult for a hearing person, but almost impossible for a HoH/deaf person. So she went to shout in my ear, but then remembered that that is useless. So she stood back and made sure I could read her lips instead.

It was a really good night. Mind you, at one point I did get to the stage where I was too tired to hear properly and too tired to read lips. That was interesting. I was enjoying myself and the atmosphere, but I couldn't make out a single word. I was just nodding and grinning like an idiot. I'm sure people thought I was drunk (when in all honesty, I'd only had two drinks the whole evening - including the free champagne).

When 6am (and the Survivors' photo) came along, I was thrilled. At this point I was dying for my bed. I'll probably end up staying up all night on Sunday evening as well, as it's the leaving party of one of my good friends at uni.

My body is going to hate me... but it's definitely worth it. You only live once and all that..!

Deaf Girl