A deaf event that I went to this year was to Silent Dinner at Asheville Mall, and it has been an interesting experience. Since I did not want to drive, I went there with a girl from my hall named Lian. Unfortunately, the trek to the mall to a little while since it was so difficult to locate, so Lian played strange Japaneses music and talked all the way about how classes were traveling to. Upon arrival, Lian and I went into the food court, and for a moment just observed the scene around us. Suddenly, Lian noticed people who were signing to each other. Once they noticed us, we inquired where the deaf dinner was occurring, they informed us that this was the right place. After I went and ordered my food from the pizza place, I came back and sat…show more content… One was a deaf man who loved fishing. In fact, he planned to fish that weekend. A lady who was sitting next to him expressed that fishing was his favorite activity to enjoy in life, and he would talk about fishing for a long time. Laughing again, I promised not to ask any questions. Unfortunately, they finger spelled their names so fast when they showed us all of their sign names for each other, I missed them. Afterwards, both Lian and I responded by telling them our sign names. Because Lian just learned that I had a sign name, I explained to her that my aunt had given when I was little, a “V” shaken. Growing up with deaf great aunt and uncle, my relatives and I are very close in age, and caught onto sign language enough to communicate with them. So my aunt took the first letter and shook it to signify who she was talking to, and therefore my sign name was a “V” shaken back and forth.
That night we felt extremely welcoming by the deaf community in Asheville, although they did pick on us hearing girls a lot. This was one of the first times I felt immersed in a completely deaf community where no one knew who I was. Getting to learn how the members of the deaf community interacted with each other and cared for one another was very interesting. There seemed to be “leaders” and “followers” like in all other groups. I thoroughly enjoyed traveling to the mall to hang out with my friend, and learning about the deaf
