Summer Travels Begin: England --> New England!

Well, I'm back in the UK and sitting at one of my favorite quintessential Oxford cafes after one of the most whirlwind two-week trips I've taken. It was a fantastic stint through New England and then Iceland, with many stops along the way to visit friends I haven't seen for a while, and I'll break it down into two parts for blogging purposes. First, New England.

Back in December, I first got invited to travel to Boston to give a presentation as a keynote speaker for the American Society for Deaf Children (ASDC)'s annual conference. The ASDC conference this year took place at the end of June at the Learning Center for the Deaf, a primary and secondary school just outside of Boston. Many parents of deaf children attended, as well as many educators and deaf adults, all with the purpose of engaging in meaningful conversation about raising a deaf child and deaf education more generally, with a balanced, two-languages perspective. The conference organizers wanted me to present about my own experiences as a successful deaf adult in a hearing world, and I chose to center my presentation around my own parents' choices and advocacy for my needs and access when I was a young child. A very meaningful subject to me personally!

It took a few weeks to draft the presentation here in Oxford, and then I had several amazing friends who are learning ASL serve as a practice audience for a run-through. It was the first presentation I'd ever given in purely ASL, with no voice, and it felt like a great opportunity after spending virtually my entire education/career in mainstreamed settings. I got to Boston on Thursday, June 26, and gave my keynote presentation that Saturday, to lots of very positive feedback from the parents and other conference attendees. The rest of the conference day involved going to some neat workshops and networking with other people from the deaf community, as well as visiting Boston for dinner that evening and trying my first-ever lobster roll!

After the ASDC conference, I headed off on a fast-paced trip through New England over the course of the next week, visiting various friends and working on various projects. Here's a quick summary:

New York City: From Boston I headed to New York for just a day, to work on a film project about lipreading that I've been collaborating on from a distance with some filmmakers from Radiolab for a few months. The shoot went well, I got to stay with a friend and walk around Central Park while I was in the city, and I'm looking forward to seeing how the film turns out after the next few months. Watch this space for more on how that progresses.

Providence: After NYC, I stopped by Providence for two days to visit an old friend and her family, which involved walking around the small but charming city, seeing the amazing Athenaeum and RISD and Brown, and taking a trip out to the whaling museum in New Bedford, Massachusetts (the town that spurred Herman Melville to write Moby Dick!). This was my first real glimpse of New England with all its quaint houses and charming seaside scenery, and I'd love to go back.

Harvard: Next, I hopped on a train up to Boston from Providence, then visited a friend from Stanford who is now doing her PhD at Harvard. I'd never visited Harvard before (this west-coast gal didn't even consider east coast schools for undergrad), and enjoyed wandering around Harvard Yard and some graveyards, trying a few restaurants friends had recommended, walking along the Charles in disgusting humidity (definitely did miss England's cool climate at that point), and visiting the Longfellow House where Henry Wadsworth Longfellow lived and wrote. It all felt very... Ivy League, and not for the first time I chuckled at how Harvard/New England aspires after Oxford and Mother Britain, if in its own American way. (Yes, the American culture shock upon returning from the UK is real, in several other respects.)

Chelmsford/Boston: For the Fourth of July, I met up with two very old friends from middle and high school in New Mexico, one of whom is attending vet school in Massachusetts and the other who flew up from DC for the weekend. Good conversations abounded, sort of a must since Hurricane Arthur blew through Boston on the Fourth and foiled our festive plans and fireworks! We still made it an American holiday with a visit to the Sam Adams brewery, before sitting inside and watching the World Cup for the afternoon (yes, one of those things is more American than the other...).

The following day, my two friends departed for different plans/destinations, and I had a few hours to kill in Boston before flying out for a five-day layover in Iceland, so took the time to walk most of the Freedom Trail by myself. It was a lovely way to explore history, to celebrate Independence Day a day late, and to enjoy my last day in the USA for a while. I won't be back to the States until December, when I go home for Christmas, but spending ten days stateside was a wonderful treat with which to begin my summer! I'm feeling fortunate that I had so many amazing friends to visit and sights to see, and will need to make it back out to New England sometime -- maybe some fall to see the foliage?

Next step on the journey, Iceland. Amazing photos await!