days 36 & 37

preface: so i wasn't feeling super this morning and was nervous about going to the hospital so i decided to stay home and read the ensign that i finally got yesterday and sleep... but i woke up to the sounds of saws and drills coming from what sounded like our bathroom. i am pretty sure that the people next door are playing prison break and are trying to break into our apartment through the wall. therefore, i am now writing in my blog and keeping watch on the wall... waiting for a hole to appear

yesterday was melissa's birthday! the highlights include:
- hot gogosi for breakfast
- shortened language lessons
- a package from momma scott
- A+ day at the orphanage
- lunch with a man named lyfe - he works for lonely planet writing books on romania
- ice cream with lyfe
- shopping
- bumping into the grumpy elder and him being happy to see us
- walking around iasi looking for chinese food
- eating chinese food in romania - i still can't figure out if i liked it or not...
- annies yellowcake
- and of course prank phone calls - we are limited in the number of contacts here in iasi, but we still had fun

timeout - this is kinda scary being home alone with scratching and knocking noises.

here is a photo of us girls on saturday.. unfortunately we decided to take pictures after a few of us had just played ultimate frisbee for an hour and a half, so some are more up to par than others.

today is wednesday. work was good this morning. i am loving my kids more and more everyday and am already dreading having to say goodbye to them. after work we met the sisters at the bread stand, and then they came over. poor sister r. she is afraid of needles, but did really great as i poked her. it was fun. outreach is tonight and the elders promised they would help elisa and i call this jewish man for my research.

o have i mentioned that i am doing one of my culture proof papers on the holocaust in romania, iasi specifically? well here are some previews:

- before WWII, there were over 90 synagogues in iasi and now there are only 2
- also before the war, over half is the population of iasi was jewish
- in june 1941, one of the most violent pogroms in jewish history took place in iasi
- according to the jewish community here, about 15,000 jews were killed, just from iasi

anyways... it might be bad that i am more interested in this than my music research... but thats okay with me

we had to research a lot and call around asking, "vorbesti engleza" to a bunch of people before we finally got the number to the man in charge of the great synagogue in iasi. there is no way we are going to be able to talk to him without a translator... which brings me back to outreach, which reminds me i need to get going!

cu mult drag!!!!