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i la la la la love the ocean and have had a wonderful time here at the black sea. the internet is super sketchy so i will write more tomorrow night, when i get home. (which means sorry family, i won't be home in time to skype with you on sunday morning, but i love and miss you more!)

leaving, once more

after sorting out the pros and cons, and canceling our trip to bucharest, we have decided to take our last trip to the ocean! well the black sea. we leave tonight and get back late sunday night. i am bringing my computer seeing that i will have room in my backpack of a swimsuit and pajammas - sophomore summer relived! the plan is to get a lot of course work done while trying to get rid of this farmer's tan. i am not sure if internet will be available, but don't forget about me either way.

also, i am on my second round of scabies... woop woop

days 77 & 78

"welcome back to iasi, where no one cares about you" - mindy as we got off of the mini bus that slammed its doors shut early and tried to kidnap half of the girls.

it has been bittersweet coming home from our little vacation.

saturday afternoon was zone conference. no i am not a missionary, yes i was there. de ce? melissa and i were asked to be in charge of the branch's sports day, so we were told to be at the church at three. we got there right as the conference was ending and were invited in to eat watermelon and meet the new mission president and his family. they are 100 percent perfect for this mission and are going to do great work. the missionaries are all pumped and it is fun to see them that way.

the conference continued on sunday where president and sister lundberg spoke to the branch in romanian! and good romanian. and we, the byu girls, sang and it was my favorite meeting this summer. don't worry i also had a class full of primary kids. it was quite the adventure trying to keep these kids entertained for two hours. there were five kids, the youngest was four, the oldest 12, and the lundberg's son, joshua was there too.. so i had to try and teach in romanian and english which doesn't go over well with short attention spans. but i was grateful for the opportunity and also for annie for helping me.

monday sent us back to work. we have a new boy in our room at the orphanage and he makes me so sad. it is evident that he has been abused in the past because he flinches if you barely reach to touch him. he just sits and cries and i just held him and hugged him for about an hour, and it made me feel good when he made eye contact with me. i hope that he knows he is safe with us.

we had the sisters over for lunch today and we dyed sora betham's hair. it is always fun to be around them. at the hospital, elyse and i spent a lot of time with "our child" aka marion. haha he is getting so big! and we also spent an hour with ali.

fhe was one of my favorites, but i will talk about that later because i need to go to work right now... to be continued later

...

okay it is later. so elyse and mindy gave an object lesson and they used our really long spoon. they talked about two rooms. both rooms had a table in the center with a big bowl of food. surrounding the table were people with really long spoons. there was a dramatic difference found in the appearance of the people in the two rooms. the first room was full of hungry skinny people, and the second, was full of healthy satisfied people. why was it this way? well the difference was that in the second room, the people used their long spoons to fed each other because it was impossible to feed yourself. anyways, i wish you could have seen sora genoveva trying to feed herself with that long spoon. it was great.

then we played charades which was just as entertaining and after we wached narchiss and ionut arm wrestle.

then back home for quantum leap and beddie bed.

day 75 & 76

welcome to the village from heaven, andrieseni. so when marion passed, the girls went out to his funeral in the village that he is from, and the priest's family invited us back. we spent the weekend riding around on the back of a horse buggie, visiting all the neighbors. at each house we were showered with homemade treats, hand picked veggies, delicious saremale, immediate friendships - the bee man fed us fresh honeycomb, the vegetable lady gave us a bag of carrots, the librarian a bag of books. everytime we thought things couldn't get any better, the sweet villagers surprised once more. for example, we were all tucked into our bed of, no joke, twenty blankets on top of the grass outside of the church when mr bee man, brought us 5 liters of honey!

this village really was a little piece of heaven on earth. everyone was so kind and welcoming. it is a very traditional village so there were hardly any cars, and everyone had their job and they all lived happily together with only the drunkards causing a few problems every now and again. we felt overwhelmed with kindness at each house we visited and tried to thank them by singing to them. nearer my god to thee was their favorite and the one the priest kept requesting. here are some of the wonderful faces and places i wish to never forget:

day 73

it is always nice to go back to work after even a day of absence. yesterday was especially nice because cristi was back! and we found out that he had been picked up the day before, so that means he wasn't alone all day while we were at the monasteries worrying about him... tender mercies.

the dancu apartments were as crazy as ever with our for lack of a better word, psycho little girl. elisa and i have gotten pretty good at tag-teaming her.

anyways, today is actually friday and we are leaving to go visit the priest's family and camp in his yard. it should be fun. i will leave you with some lovely group photos that i got from whitney lerie alexander.

day 72

today was our day of fun with dave. he took us out to the medieval painted monasteries. it was about a two hour drive out to them in the back of a taxi. after handling those roads in africa last summer, this bumpy ride was a piece of cake. anyways, it was a lot of fun and the monasteries are beautiful. highlight of the day: one of the monks gave me a noogie and laughed as he walked away. here are some photos:

o, we also went to a romanian zoo things consisting of deer, reindeer, lots of birds, buffalo, and a brown bear?

i don't know why, but i think that last picture is really funny

day 71

today was never ending and exhausting and sooo worth it.

la multi ani alex! alex turned ten and he got to wear this really nice tux outfit and they did his hair in a faux hawk and it was great. he loved the balloons and stuffed animal horse we got him. his cake was extra big and extra soggy, and so bland.

after the orphanage, we had a short lunch break and headed out to the hospital early. i spent the whole time with this lovely doll face, cristi, our boy from the orphanage i talked about yesterday:

seriously, look at that bottom photo and tell me if you have ever seen a cuter boy in your life?!

i repeat, sooo worth it. it was sad to first get there and see how sad he was and how messy the nurses let him get. also, there was a teenage boy in the room who spoke english really well. his name was vlad :) and he was really nice, but he told me that no one feeds or plays with cristi when we are not there. sad huh? i hope he is okay right now, and isn't too scared.

elisa and i went straight from the hospital to visit ghiorcel in dancu. there is a girl there who has severe attachment disorder and she works us every time we go. she is super nanny's worst nightmare. as if we weren't tired already. ghiorcel is hard to work with. i can't tell if he distances himself because of life experiences, or if that is just the way he is. he is so young and can't communicate, so there is no way of knowing. anyways, i think he is liking the apartments. he has a lot more freedom there, even with a mean girl bullying him around.

we changed into skirts at the apartment and made our way over to the hotel that dave is staying at. i don't think i mentioned this, but one of our professors is in town so we went to dinner at a place called little texas. in romania? yeah. it was pretty good, and fun to sit and talk with dave and with all the girls. but we were there forever... well till eleven. dave is taking us out to the painted monasteries tomorrow. it will be sad to not see my kids, but we are going to try and make it back to iasi in time to go visit cristi.

well i am too scared to go to sleep and wake up to more buggie bites, but i am too tired to do anything else.

day 70

2 stories to prove that today was an amazing day

1. vlad was wearing a ridiculous pirate outfit today. and i loved it and he was so cute, and i am pretty sure he loves me because i was on the swing with florina and mackenzie helped him walk over to me. i thought he wanted the swing so i got up to give it to him, but no, he followed me to the bench! he really just wanted to be by me and shake his little legs as i smiled and talked to him. little things like that make all these itchy bumps worth it.

2. we went to the hospital in search of one of our youngest cp boys and i found him! and i was so happy and he was so excited and i changed him and held him and loved him and wanted to stay with him forever. poor thing he was so sad and so scared to be all alone in the hospital. i was surprised to see how differently he acted towards whitney and i, then he did with everyone else. because he can't talk, it is hard to know how much he really understands, but his smiles were evidence that he felt happy with us, and his crying broke my heart when we left.

can someone please figure out how to shrink children to the size of those little green army men, so i can carry all of my kids home in my pocket?

cu mult drag!

day 69

so last night i slept over at the other girls apartment. it was really fun, but i missed my roommates. i am so lucky to have so many great girls around me everyday. i really love them and have learned so much from each one.

the fun continued today as it was our dear annie's twentieth birthday. she once sketched a picture of all of us at a picnic, so the theme for our day was recreating that photo. here's what we got:

p.s. i really don't approve of the farmer's tan that i am acquiring from my boy's v-necked tees

day 68

song of the day: Rain by Priscilla Ahn

so it has been storming all day. you know what that means! puddle jumping! thats right. this morning i tried my hardest to sleep in, but without fail, my eyes opened at 6:45. refusing to get out of bed i listened to my ipod until the battery died and decided to get up around eight.

i tried to work on homework all morning, but with this unfocused mind, got only one and a half culture proofs done. but, i sorted through a lot of music and made playlists for fun things, and did other technologically nerdy things such as edit videos and catch up on my other friends blogs.

when the time came for sports to begin, we were hesitant about whether or not it was going to still happen.

romanians have this plague here known as the currant. it lives in the air and is basically the cause of any illness. it comes out especially in the wind and when it is raining. that is why they do not allow the windows to be open at the orphanage or hospital. also, according to the dr that looked at my eye a few weeks ago, the currant was the cause for the pinkness.

anyways, it ended up being three of us byu girls and two elders. we tried to play boys vs girls ultimate, but it wasn't working out for numerous reasons. [note to self: don't borrow roomates sweatpants that are too big, and wear them puddle jumping so they get wet and heavier and then expect to be able to run in them without having to hold them up]. we played 500, and they decided that whoever won got to choose what we did next. that is why we ended up at the jewish synagogue. i needed the elders to translate a few things for me and it worked out great. [another note to self: if you leave snails on your arms long enough, they will give you little bruises - it's true i have three]

o how much i love playing in the rain.

FYI

if you are interested in seeing more pictures that i took over our trip, please navigate yourself to the blogs of the other interns at right. thanks, have a wonderful day!

day 67

song of the day: Free by Donavon Frankenreiter

la multi ani america!

the picnic was a success! we ate yummy american food, played with water balloons, and sang the national anthem in the middle of gypsyland. even the canadian had fun. pictures will be added later, after i get them from the other girlies.

day 66

elisa and i have labeled this week the week of tender mercies

everything wonderful that could possibly happen, has. from marius walking and the court case going so well, to the birthday party we attended this morning.

yes, this morning was little andrea's first birthday at the orphanage and because of that, teo brought out her camera and took pictures of us with our kids!! yes, at the end of the semester, i will be bringing home a cd with a photo of me and vlad together! i am so happy. we are so so lucky to have a Tata Ceresc that loves us so much.

there are lots more where that came from, but i am exhausted.

love love love

p.s. tomorrow is the fourth of july. sad, sad, sad. america will definitely be missed.
p.p.s. i really really really dislike bugs, namely, scabies, mosquitoes and fleas.
p.p.p.s i love marion, and i promise he likes me too, even though he looks scared to death in every photo i have with him

day 65

whitney's wednesday consisted of a fajitas slash taco concoction in.... homemade tortillas! yes, i will never do that again, especially in an eighty two degreed kitchen.

vlad and i got in trouble today for swinging on the indoor swing. the noise disturbs peoples concentration? haha so we have a worker that is out of control and we have had some interesting conversations with her recently. i love our workers.

it was another fun day with marion at the hospital.

o biggest news of all! yesterday, marius walked!!! he was so happy and so proud to show us! and even better news, we found out today that his brother got custody of him so now all that is left is to get his visa and he is off to califoorrrnia!

alright. i am in grandma mode and am going to bed early. but again i will leave you with a afew more pictures i was given today.

lost... us? never (p.s can you see my red hair?)

two whitneys with the same middle name inside someone's eye balls

this is how we cruise krakow

yes, a statue of a dead elk....

okay i am tired. and need to read some ancient south american literature

noapte buna!

va iubesc!

days 63 & 64

day 63, monday:

today was best worst day ever. how is that possible?

good: waking up and talking to my family! it was really good to see them, but my older brother wasn't there and i miss him.

not so good: hearing about things going on at home that i wish i could be apart of.

good: going back to work!! i was so excited, i wanted to run to the orphanage.

not so good: getting there and finding out that it was doamna david's last day! i am not sure if i have ever mentioned anything about her, but she is amazing. she has been working at the orphanage for over thirty years and all the kids love her. she is such an example to me, i have never heard her get impatient with, or even raise her voice with the kids - not once. she loves them so much. she is the grandma of the boy from the orphanage that got adopted, mihai? [i can never remember what i write on here or in my journal, sorry] every morning she greets us so warmly and just being in her presence, motivates me to be a better person. we knew she was retiring, but we didn't know so soon!! elisa and i looked at each other and said, "we gotta go". we borrowed money from our friend teo and sprinted through the streets of iasi looking for the perfect gift. we found a lovely necklace and a box of chocolates. she seemed very touched by the necklace and of course immediately open the chocolates and made us take, not one, but two. she will really be missed, but i have made it a goal to think, what would sweet old doamna david do? saying goodbye to her was really hard, knowing i will never see her again in this life, but i am so happy that she gets to spend more time with her husband and children and of course micah!

good: seeing my kids! as soon as i walked into the room and did one quick round of kisses to all of them and was so happy. illiuta was not satisfied with just a kiss and did his grudge impression until i came over to hold him and he just laughed and laughed. o how i missed them. o and vlad got a haircut! and they are spiking his hair... he looks so handsome and grown up.

not so good: i found out that ghirocel was leaving too!! what? my favorite worker and him? he and gitza are being sent to one of the apartments that was under renovation out in dancu.

good: between the orphanage and the hospital i went to open the book i have been reading and found the most thoughtful note from one of my roommates. i am so lucky to have met these girls. everyone of them has taught me so much, and i am definitely a better person for being around them.

not so good: my colostomy marion was sleeping the whole time at the hospital so we didn't wake him up to play with us (which now i really wish i did because he was gone the next day).

good: the marion from the orphanage was awake and so happy to see us and we played outside and had so so much fun with him. he's getting so big. one of these days, we are going to just take him right home with us... i wish, i wish.

another good: we went over to sora maria's house for fhe tonight, and she taught us how to make gogosi! don't worry. they were amazing, even better then the stand by the villa. i will be making them when i got home for whoever requests them.

another good: her husband is so crazy and so cute. he looks just like the man from back to the future. he made me miss bill a lot a lot.

not so good: we lost our key and were locked out of our apartment for a good while and had to sit in our stinky stairwell and thought we might have to sleep over at scala's which meant i wouldn't be able to talk to josh in the morning.

good: our sweet neighbor had a key! we knocked on her door once and no one answered, so we sat down outside her door to wait for her to come back. about a half hour later, as i was sitting against her door, i heard her talking from inside. she really was there!!! haha she is used to us coming over asking for sugar, delivering fresh banana cake... but she laughed when we told her we were locked out. she was like, " don't you have three keys?" we looked down and replied yes.

that is about it. it was a good day, full of bad things, but all of those bad things were really good things in disguise. making it the best worst day ever because it really wasn't that bad.

for intermission i will post a few photos i stole from ladies last night

day 64, tuesday:

so today was super busy and long and terrific.

it started early with a skype session with mr. asay and for a minute or two his wonderful family. his nieces and nephews are so cute. then off to work, where.... we went swimming!!!! it was the best surprise ever! then home for lunch, then off to the hospital and then another great thing! i went to the dancu apartment to see ghirocel! elisa and i are going to start going there every tuesday and thursday which will be great, but i am sad i won't get to spend every afternoon with elyse. i love her.

then home for dinner, and homework and bed

[i have to go to work in ten minutes so i am sorry this day was so short]

alright. miss you all and love you more!

cu mult drag!