As the title states, I did indeed have the most curious and interesting experience today. While boarding the train home from my old University, I happened to sit across the aisle from a deaf girl and her two twin brothers (their Mother was seated in the seat immediately in front of me). I dont know their ages for sure, but I would guess the boys to be about 16 and the girl around 18 or 19. I think the four of them were involved in a school named the *College for the Deaf*, or something like that at least; I think the girl and her brothers were students, and their mother a teacher.

I was completely fascinated in watching the family communicate in sign. I tried as best I could to gather some figment of their conversation by assumptions and lip reading; both were endeavors that utterly failed. It soon came time to depart, and the train took off; a short while out of the station, an announcement was made that there was some kind of problem at the next station and thus we would have to go back and the service be cancelled. The other passengers were quite disgruntled at the interruption, but the deaf family were, naturally, unaware, and very confused as the train began reversing.

With my quick thinking I took initiative and used my open laptop to type out a message to the family about what was happening and showed it to them. As the girl read the message, I realized she was rather pretty. She had golden honey like highlights applied to the bottom half of her hair that cascaded down on to her shoulders. Her thankful smile, having been caught up to the latest goings-on, was even prettier. Once we had pulled back into our station of origin, seated passengers began standing and what not to depart the train as well as the already standing. However, another announcement was made stating that whilst a bus had been organised for any commuters who wished to take it, they driver would attempt to take a different route to bypass whatever the disturbance was.

Again, having not heard the message, the family continued to pack up and prepare to leave the train. My laptop started acting up so I began shaking it, when I got it working again I hastily typed out the updated communiquu00e9 and caught the attention of the girl, passing her the message. After she read the message, she looked at me and smiled. It was a privilege to view that pretty smile once again, and she signed something to me before informing her family and sitting back down. I knew no sign language, but I presumed it was *thank you*.

The train got going and the remainder of the ride was relatively uneventful. I sat watching the family have animated discussions in silence and, effectively, in private. When the train reached my station, I was surprised to see the family getting off the train with me. What a peculiar coincidence that they should happen to live in my town somewhere. Sadly no message of parting was exchanged between me and the girl, and I was left feeling incredibly frustrated at my lack of ability to talk to her. Some memory twinkled in the back of my mind; a DS poster (another forum I post at) served a deaf lady at his shop, only to be astounded by her perseverance and patience with the situation. I decided I would have to do something to avoid that necessity.

So now we get to the present time; 12:25am for anyone not also in my time zone. I have been studying for a number of hours, and I have the signs for entire English alphabet, as well as the signs for *hello*, *how are you?* and *thank you* memorized. It is incredibly time consuming, but it at least gives me a tiny amount of knowledge and ability to communicate with the girl, should I ever run into her again (or any other deaf person, should that occur). Actual sign language classes are much too expensive for me to afford at the present, so for now any further learning will be entirely internet based.

So yeah. Thought you guys might like to read about that. If odds are in my favor, I could very well end up meeting the pretty girl again and her thankful smile. If not... well, I will have gotten sign language out of it. Always handy to know.

As the title states, I did indeed have the most curious and interesting experience today. While boarding the train home from my old University, I happened to sit across the aisle from a deaf girl and her two twin brothers (their Mother was seated in the seat immediately in front of me). I dont know their ages for sure, but I would guess the boys to be about 16 and the girl around 18 or 19. I think the four of them were involved in a school named the *College for the Deaf*, or something like that at least; I think the girl and her brothers were students, and their mother a teacher.

I was completely fascinated in watching the family communicate in sign. I tried as best I could to gather some figment of their conversation by assumptions and lip reading; both were endeavors that utterly failed. It soon came time to depart, and the train took off; a short while out of the station, an announcement was made that there was some kind of problem at the next station and thus we would have to go back and the service be cancelled. The other passengers were quite disgruntled at the interruption, but the deaf family were, naturally, unaware, and very confused as the train began reversing.

With my quick thinking I took initiative and used my open laptop to type out a message to the family about what was happening and showed it to them. As the girl read the message, I realized she was rather pretty. She had golden honey like highlights applied to the bottom half of her hair that cascaded down on to her shoulders. Her thankful smile, having been caught up to the latest goings-on, was even prettier. Once we had pulled back into our station of origin, seated passengers began standing and what not to depart the train as well as the already standing. However, another announcement was made stating that whilst a bus had been organised for any commuters who wished to take it, they driver would attempt to take a different route to bypass whatever the disturbance was.

Again, having not heard the message, the family continued to pack up and prepare to leave the train. My laptop started acting up so I began shaking it, when I got it working again I hastily typed out the updated communiquu00e9 and caught the attention of the girl, passing her the message. After she read the message, she looked at me and smiled. It was a privilege to view that pretty smile once again, and she signed something to me before informing her family and sitting back down. I knew no sign language, but I presumed it was *thank you*.

The train got going and the remainder of the ride was relatively uneventful. I sat watching the family have animated discussions in silence and, effectively, in private. When the train reached my station, I was surprised to see the family getting off the train with me. What a peculiar coincidence that they should happen to live in my town somewhere. Sadly no message of parting was exchanged between me and the girl, and I was left feeling incredibly frustrated at my lack of ability to talk to her.

So now we get to the present time; 12:25am for anyone not also in my time zone. I have been studying for a number of hours, and I have the signs for entire English alphabet, as well as the signs for *hello*, *how are you?* and *thank you* memorized. It is incredibly time consuming, but it at least gives me a tiny amount of knowledge and ability to communicate with the girl, should I ever run into her again (or any other deaf person, should that occur). Actual sign language classes are much too expensive for me to afford at the present, so for now any further learning will be entirely internet based.

So yeah. Thought you guys might like to read about that. If odds are in my favor, I could very well end up meeting the pretty girl again and her thankful smile. If not... well, I will have gotten sign language out of it. Always handy to know.