Dark, gloomy and hailing!

Indiana weather is both ruthless and relentless. Its already early March, but the snow just will not let up! I don't remember it snowing quite this much last winter. Or perhaps I didn't notice it as much since I didn't have to drive, scrape snow/ice off my car at 7:30 in the morning, or pay the heating bill! (I think our heat cost an astronomical $120 last month, but then I don't like to be cold in my own house so the thermostat is almost always at 75F).

But anyway, despite it being gray and gloomy, I'm finally getting down to setting up my public blog! Yes, I've been meaning to do it for quite some time now, but never got down to it. Now is a good time I guess, since my 8-week Infant Communications class has ended and I now have considerably more free time on my hands. I'm not sure I really like having that much leisure time though. Strangely enough, I think I always feel better when I'm busy and productive.

BUT.. I'm also glad that now I can actually be home earlier than 5:30pm every day. And also I think I can start volunteering again, since I've missed out the last couple of weeks. But now I have free afternoons on Mondays and Wednesdays, which is good. :) I tentatively started volunteering at the Lafayette Urban Ministry's (LUM) afterschool program for underprivileged kids. I've only been about three times so far, but I think maybe I should invest more time and effort into it. I'm not too sure really, because while I do truly and bluely in my heart believe it to be a worthy cause, many times I'm left overwhelmed by what I can't do and doubts about what I can do is actually helping at all.

More about my life. Now that Infant class is over (I actually do miss it somewhat. It was fun), I am only left with two classes: Autism and Adult Language. My clinical placement this semester at the Purdue Preschool Language Program (PLP), which is a preschool for language-impaired kids 3 mornings a week. So far I'm really LOVING IT. I really like working with preschoolers (old enough to actually have some functional language, but not rebellious and smart-mouthed like the older kids), and mostly because its just a lot of singing, stories, crafts, toys and fun fun fun! We have 15 kids and 11 adults (1 trained SLP, 1 Early Childhood Specialist, 7 graduate students including myself, and 2 undergrad aides), so we have quite a few hands around to help.

Today I read the book "The Three Billy Goats Gruff" to them. I distinctly remember having the same book when I was a kid! Its a classic. ;) Although I don't really remember who read it to me... maybe I read it to myself? Or maybe I just thumbed through the book to look at the pictures. HAHA. But anyhow I didn't get much practice reading books aloud to kids when I was in Singapore, so thats one skill that I've had to learn since coming to the USA!

Anyhow. I think thats long enough for a first post. I will update more stuff soon, hopefully. :)