Summer in Seattle-Week 1

Well Lucy and I have been in Seattle for a little over a week. We are starting to settle in here, get into our routines. Our apartment is great-much better than we had imagined. It's a cute little one bedroom basement set-up, furnished. The couple who rents it lives upstairs-they are very nice and have been extremely accommodating so far. The house in in the University District (aka U-District), near the University of Washington. It's in the historic district, so it's in a safe neighborhood but near several conveniences and "The Ave" (the road that runs through the university, full of restaurants, shops, coffee houses, etc). There are several vintage/consignment shops that Lucy and I have checked out, as well as a few used music and bookstores that are on our ever-growing list of things to see while we are here. My dad flew out to Seattle with us last Saturday-I am so thankful he was here to help us get everything settled. He was such a help, and I am fairly positive Lucy and I would have flown home after about 2 days had he not been here to help out! He left on Thursday-we were sad to have him leave, but I know my mom was glad to not be home alone anymore!

our backyard,the house, and a little of our apartment

I started my internship last Wednesday at Listen and Talk. It's a pre-school for children with hearing impairments, and it uses the auditory-verbal (AVT) approach to listening and speaking. I completed the specialization track in AVT while at USC, which is why my intership had to be focused on this type of therapy. I am loving it so far. The children are precious, and my supervisor is great. All the staff has been very welcoming to the southern girl! I am really looking forward to working there this summer. It's a very laid-back atmosphere, but I'm already learning alot. For my speech girls (especially the AVT girls), I have found it interesting how many of the children here have bilateral implants. It seems that more of my kids do than do not, and based on where their speech and language is, I would say that second implant can make a huge difference! So far, I have mainly been observing (I am still meeting all of the children), but I think tomorrow I may take over a few of the sessions, so we'll see how that goes! If you are interested, here is their website: www.listentalk.org

This past weekend, Lucy and I were quite busy. Friday night, we went to dinner in Capitol Hill, a neighborhood close to downtown. It is a really cool neighborhood, full of a mix of people-lots of college kids (Seattle University is located here), young professionals, hipsters, some families, and so on. Getting to Capitol Hill was quite an adventure-that's a story to be told over the phone/in person. When we got there, we ate at a great pizza place, and had the best dessert ever-Nutella Calzone. It was sinful. Saturday we went to the U-District Street Fair. It was kind of like a cross between a much larger Charleston Market and the state fair. Tons of vendors were set up with art, photography, jewelry, candles etc, combined with 'food courts' on the side streets, complete with elephant ears, corn dogs, strawberry shortcake, and so forth. It was fun, but unseasonably warm (a record-breaking 90 degrees), so we ended up hanging out in the shade and shopping in the consignment shops. Then on Sunday, we headed downtown to Pike's Place Market for another festival-the Seattle Cheese Festival. Oh yeah. Literally hundreds of vendors were set up along Pike Street selling their many kinds of cheese. For $1 you could sample any or all of the cheeses. Needless to say, it was delicious. And, since the weather was gorgeous, it was fun to check out downtown, see the market, all that good stuff. That about covers it so far. Lucy is job searching, going to interviews and turning in applications. I am adjusting to my early wake-up hours and learning the buses. I will try to update again soon!

downtown