aud’acious

What are Americans doing to understand the Middle East?

I began at a public high school teaching American Sign Language and then one day my life changed when the assistant director of the National Middle East Language Resource Center (NMELRC) asked me to teach Arabic as well.  These posts are the analogues of our adventures and what I  have learned.

Our goals:

1 Help Americans better understand the Middle East starting with high school students.

2 Prepare quality Arabic language speakers for university programs.

Note: My life is not entirely dedicated to the Middle East so you will see posts on other subjects.  I still teach ASL.

Here is a picture gallery:  See below for further explanations.

At the Western Wall with my cousin.

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In Bethlehem with Palestinian youth.  I’m in the middle on the bottom next to the guy in the hat.

One the Mount of Olives with my aunt and two cousins.

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On the Mount of Temptation July 2008 (Palestine) with Relief International and Provo High students

My mom, grandma, and I.

I helped put together a pirate retreat for high school kids learning sign.  This is my pirate costume.

My ASL students at an iceskating party we had.

Teaching at Provo High.

My Arabic class.

My ASL students back from Silent Weekend.

Roommates.

Meeting Governor Huntsman after he signed the bill to fund Arabic in Utah.

The Arabic class with the director and assistant director of the NMELRC.

At the mosque in Salt Lake. (I’m on the far left)

These are my younger cousins.

Girl cousin bonding.

This is from when I was an EFY counselor.  (Especially for Youth)

We went to Hawaii for my cousin’s wedding.  These are all my cousins from Hawaii.

A Zion’s trip with friends.  I was about to fall in the river.

Roommates and Friends.

We won a posing competition with this picture.  I’m on the far left.

This was my bishop in Reading, England and my good friend Sonia on her first trip to the temple (London LDS temple).  I spent a lot of time at the kids’ house who are tackling each other.

I was a Mandarin interpreter in England for a month.  These are all my co-interpreters when we were staying in Wales.

I lived in England for a year for my master’s degree.  These are some of my hall mates that year.  We are standing in our kitchen which we all shared. (I’m second from the right with the BYU sweatshirt on.)

I served a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in Taiwan, Taipei.  This is a picture of me and my companion near the ocean toward the end of my mission. (I’m on the left.)