July 26, 2008 (Saturday)
The Lord’s Hand in my Life: A friendship that I never thought would happen.

I know it’s a Saturday, but I woke up super early to try and get a head start on homework. I woke up at 5:30 and Annie woke up at 6:00 and made us pancakes for breakfast, and then I did the dishes. I didn’t even know you could make pancakes without pancake mix. Annie laughed at me when I told her that.

This morning was productive…I got a couple of cultural proof assignments done and wrote in my journal…I’m starting to love getting up in the morning – which is weird because I normally detest mornings. Something about Romania makes me want to get up early…? Weird.

After we did homework for a couple hours I went to the internet café. To my surprise as I was writing an email my ex-boyfriend g-chatted with me. It was good to chat for a few minutes and say hello.

For the rest of the morning I did homework. Then we all went to the hospital to have a little party for Marius before Elisa left. He is going to be leaving for the states sometime within the next week or two with his brother. Everyone is so excited for him.

We also gave Teo (worker from the orphanage) a gift from us girls – we got her a digital camera. She has done a ton for us while we have been here. She just kept saying “I can’t believe it. Wow.” Having a digital camera is a pretty big deal around here. Oh the things we take for granted.

At the hospital we took a group picture. To make fun of me the girls took a picture of the way I apparently pose in my pics. They say that in all my pictures I turn to the side and put my hands on my hips…I don’t think that’s a regular pose – but whatever.

At the hospital we had fun and played with Marion. He is soooo stinkin cute. He kept pointing down the hall and saying “acolo.” Then whoever was holding him would run down the hall back and forth and he loved it. That little boy loves attention, and he hates being in his crib. Who could blame him?

After the hospital I did homework and internet stuff for a bit. Then we all planned to go out to dinner for Elisa’s last evening. We went to a nice restaurant – we pretty much had it to ourselves. The food was okay, but not amazing. Kenz and Mary came late because they went to pick up their drawing. They had a bumb on the street sketch one of their favorite pictures with the kids. When they walked in and showed us them we all laughed. The sketch didn’t really look like the picture – Mary’s face was two times bigger than its regular size and Kenz’s photo had smudges on it, but they still liked them…they were both laughing pretty hard too.

After dinner we took some final group photos together. They were pretty random. Then I showed Elyse a dance move that I thought she would like and she did it the entire way home. I can’t wait to show her some more.

After we got home the Elders and Sisters dropped by to give Elisa a little goodbye gift. Trying to fit everyone in that little apartment was humorous – not to mention extremely hot. The apartment is so small that if you get too many bodies in there it quickly turns into a little oven. Wow.

While we were all chatting Kenz, Elyse and I started hitting the volleyball really fast and hard in a small space, and Mindy started freaking out. Hilarious. You had to be there for it to be funny, but every time we came close to breaking someone’s computer Mindy would say a reprimanding and drawn out “oh… okay.” We kept doing it just to hear her say that…

Before we left for the night and said goodbye Elisa had to conduct a final personal interview with each of us. She is responsible for evaluating us for part of our grade. I had a really nice chat with her.

For our final moments as an entire group we watched the season finale of The Office. The girls can’t get enough of the episode where Jim confesses his love for Pam. We’re such girls.