gBlog - How we see it …

Farewell, New Orleans; you’re just a memory now. Oh sure, they’ll rebuild the city, but I don’t think it will ever have the same chutzpah, the same charisma, the same vibe.

I was lucky enough to go to New Orleans last year to attend the National Collegiate Honors Council conference. I spent four wonderful days in the Big Easy, and it’s an experience I’ll never forget. I’m saddened because I know that when I go back, many of the restaurants and businesses I went to will no longer be there. FEMA’s response to Hurricane Katrina has been a big issue on campus, and I’m writing an article about it for the next Buff and Blue.

On another note, I’ve also joined a new organization on campus, called “Best Buddies.” If you haven’t heard of it, Best Buddies is basically an organization where people volunteer to become friends with people who have intellectual disabilities. It’s really a fun organization, and you learn a lot about yourself as a person, and most importantly of all, you make someone’s day a little better. In addition, Gallaudet does offer community service hours for participation.

Speaking of Best Buddies, today was the first day that I was actually ashamed to be a Gallaudet student. My good friend, Brittney, who is the President of Best Buddies has been trying for over a week now to get a room from Campus Activities in order to do a presentation on the organization, and hopefully attract new members. Well, for various reasons, (all of which are Campus Activities’ fault), we were unable to get a room. Brittney was finally so frustrated with Campus Activities that she decided instead to stand in the middle of the Multipurpose Room of the cafeteria during lunch and tell everyone who would listen about the organization.

When Brittney began her presentation, several people began to make fun of her, and say how stupid the organization is, etc. This is the same group that yesterday during “speak out” was talking about the problems facing Gallaudet, and among those gems were “I hate waiting in line for coffee, Why can’t there be more variety? All the rules here are stupid!” and so on and so forth… I find it disgusting that for years we have been proclaiming to the world that we are not disabled, and we can do everything a normal person can except hear, but yet we cannot show a little compassion for those people who actually are disabled. I hope you’re proud of yourselves people, you managed to make one of the most compassionate, selfless, moral people I know break out in tears. Bravo, I say.

You know you’re back at school when you get hit with three major tests in the span of two days. You have not LIVED until it’s 2 am, and you’re trying to remember the compression to breaths ratio for CPR, while also studying the features of eukaryotes. One thing I don’t like about the fall semester is how long we go between breaks… Thanksgiving cannot come fast enough.

On a lighter note, DC is gorgeous this week, the squirrels on campus are out and about fattening up for winter. Oh, and I seriously think Gallaudet has a unique sub-group of squirrels on campus that are meat eaters. On more then one occasion, I have seen squirrels dragging a KFC chicken container behind them, taking it to God only knows where. Don’t feed the squirrels, kid. You might wind up feeding them a little more then you intended.

Here are some pictures:

This is Sara and my friend, Lizzy, getting a pedicure. These girls do this religiously, and I will never understand why.

This is me and my friend, Meg, at the Nationals game a few weeks ago (I mentioned it in my last blog).

These are the three most beautiful girls at Gallaudet — Sara, Brittney, and Meg. I dunno what I’d do without them. They’re awesome ladies and the best friends a guy could ask for.