Tomorrow's Thursday already, which means a lot has happened since the weekend.  Warwick Castle was beautiful.  Stratford was gorgeous as well and I remembered it perfectly from when I was there four years ago.  Kylie and I took the long walk around the river and spent some time in Holy Trinity Church.  Something about old historic churches just puts me in such a serene mood and I really enjoy them.  I'm looking forward to visiting many more.  Sorry I am short on the details, but I've been pretty tired this week.  Yes, it sounds lame, but traveling all over via car and train and being with a different teacher everyday and seeing tons of kids gets kind of exhausting.  I am also just starting to become more involved with the lessons and LOVE Wednesdays because I get to work with Lesley, the educational audiologist.  I love observing and taking notes on how she tells students certain things.  A lot of kids are resisting wearing their hearing aids and the way that Lesley deals with them is amazing.  I hope to be able to be that firm and supportive when I get into the field, even just as a teacher of the deaf.

I've met so many different children and still can't get over the amount of children that have cochlear implants.  It is simply AMAZING to see the progress that these children have made.  I have seen proof that when a child is implanted under the age of 2 that their speech is at an age-appropriate level or very close to it.  The more I am exposed to cochlear implants and how well they work, the more I feel that I was sort of forced/pushed/brainwashed into believing (when I was a freshman and sophomore) that being manual and an important part of the deaf community was the only way to be.  I find that to be absolutely not true anymore.  Don't get me wrong, if you are manual and go to a deaf school and are happy, that is FINE.  All I'm saying is that there is another side to the issue that I feel I wasn't fairly exposed to (Don't worry DK, not you!).  Now that I have studied more and have been taught and experienced oral education, the more I feel that it is an equally important aspect to being deaf.  Young kids need the chance to be able to have age-appropriate speech, vocabulary, and language (expressive and receptive) in order to function as well as hearing kids. Its all just been very eye-opening.

***NOTE: If you are in the field, in NO WAY am I putting down manualism or sign language AT ALL. I'm just expressing my feelings on what I've been recently exposed to.  Some children are better suited in deaf schools and benefit more from sign language.

All else in Worcester has been lovely. I just think its awesome waking up in the morning knowing that you are in a different country and not knowing what you will face that day.  Claire's birthday and party are on Friday and she is having a get together at the house with a lot of the teachers from St. Barnabas.  On Saturday, Sarah is taking Kylie and me to Bath! I am so pumped! It is absolutely gorgeous there and I can't wait to see it again.

So half-term (2 weeks off from school) starts on Friday April 3rd.  I've decided to go to Ireland with Kylie until Wednesday the 8th.  My sister flies out to Birmingham on Thursday the 9th.  I will let her rest for the day and then we are heading to London for a few days.  After hitting all of the good touristy spots (and pubs!), we will head over to Paris for the rest of the week.  I need to start making travel arrangements soon!  I am so excited to see Paris.  I think it is going to be beautiful.

Tomorrow I am going to a school for higher education and observing/possibly helping out in a basic skills literacy class that consists mainly of profoundly deaf students who do not wear hearing aids.  I will see some serious BSL.  It should be interesting. Another learning experience!

Well, time for dinner. Bye!