August 9, 2008 (Saturday)
The Lord’s Hand in my Life: We didn’t get sick from eating mici at the branch barbeque.

I woke up this morning with Whitney’s feet in my face. Haha…we had a sleep over last night, and I guess she didn’t feel like she had enough room so she decided to turn the opposite way Annie and I were laying. Good times…

After a few of us woke up Whitney S. and Elyse decided to play a little joke on Mindy, and I decided to film it. A couple weeks ago the girls asked me for a fake tattoo that came with one of the books I was reading in The Twilight Series. It was a tattoo with the name Jacob (he is one of the main characters in the book). They wanted to tattoo it on Mindy’s forehead while she was sleeping, but they decided to do it on her upper back to be nice. So Elyse and Whitney S. carefully crept around and put it on her. She woke up immediately, but she didn’t really know what was going on. She was a bit disoriented and confused. To make a long story short we were successful in getting the tattoo on her, and I was successful in capturing it all. The footage is amazing. Mindy is so grouchy in the morning…haha…it made it even more fun to mess with her.

For the next couple of hours we did homework and then Kenz, Annie and I ran to the mall to get some last minute gifts. I got a gift for Andrei! I got him a little stuffed monkey (because I call him my little monkey since he is always climbing and running around everywhere). I also got him a little album and put some pics of me and the girls in it. Then I got a card, and I’m going to write a letter to him so he can read it later on in his life. I want him to know and understand how much I love him and how much the Lord loves him. I’m glad I’m leaving him with something from me. It gives me peace of mind and makes it easier to say goodbye for some reason.

At the mall Kenz had a little misunderstanding. I walked into a souvenir shop and noticed she was buying decorated eggs that cost 180 lei – which was pretty expensive, but I figured “heck if she wants them.” Then right after the transaction she came up to me and was like “I thought it was 18 lei for all of them, not 18 lei per egg. I’m not spending about 80 bucks on eggs!” After she told me that I immediately thought that stinks because she probably can’t get her money back. Romania doesn’t really do returns – I’ve learned that first hand. So she went back and talked to the lady and explained the misunderstanding. They said they didn’t know how to do a return (surprise, surprise) but that she could get something else for 180 lei. Kenz wasn’t happy about it, but she accepted their offer. She ended up getting 180 lei of random souvenirs…She just laughed about how much it sucked…Oh Romania…

After the mall we immediately got ready to leave for the Branch barbeque at the lake. Don’t ask me how or why, but we ended up fitting eight girls in one taxi. Whitney S. and I were in the front seat and there were six girls in the back. We were laughing the entire time. It was really awkward, and probably dangerous considering they are Romanian drivers, but it made for a humorous story?

Once we were dropped off at the cemetery, which was where we were meeting everyone to then walk down to the lake, we ended up sitting there for an hour. We were so confused about where everyone was. While we waited we got bored so the girls had me teach them a dance. I put Elyse front and center of the triangle formation and taught them some moves to a dance I made up a long time ago. They were adorable. I was laughing so hard…Oh I love those girls dearly!

After we waited continued to wait forever we called some of the Elders and discovered we were in the wrong place to meet them. We were kind of sad about it because for once we thought we were on time and even better early. We shouldn’t even try anymore. So the Elders and President Popavich had to come find us. Once they finally found us we were so far away from where the barbeque was taking place that it probably took another good half an hour to an hour to reach the barbeque at the lake…we were just laughing about how everything is so difficult – Romania.

The barbeque was fun, but for some reason I didn’t feel like running around. I did have fun talking to Mary and Alexandra #1 though. They are really cute girls. They asked me about whether or not I had a boyfriend and random things like that. Then I asked them about boys in Romania. I mentioned to them that most boys seem disrespectful towards women. They both whole heartedly agreed that it was almost impossible to find a good Romanian boy. They said they wanted to meet a nice American boy. I told them to come to America, and I’d set them up with one of my friends. They just laughed.

The rest of the barbeque was fun. I chatted with some of the sisters for a while and watched people get in water fights. I didn’t feel like being in the middle of that so I just observed everything that was going on around me. We ate mici (it’s some type of meat). It was okay …just not what I’m used to. After we ate Annie and I left pretty soon after because we were getting eaten alive by bugs. On the way home we were both craving a chocolate croissant and decided to split one…we figured heck we only have a few more days here. Then we walked inside our apartment and it started raining really hard a few minutes after…perfect timing. Normally it starts pouring every time I walk out the door. I finally beat the rain!

After we got home we waited for the other girls to arrive and then Mary, Kenz and I went over to meet with Elyse to plan our Europe trip. We were only supposed to be over there for a little bit, and we ended up being up until about 2:30 in the morning planning and booking tickets for various activities. It was kind of fun though because everyone else in the apartment was up baking banana bread for church the next day. Plus we were all slap happy because it was so late and we were all sooo exhausted and tired. We were all laughing at the dumbest things.

As we were planning we found out that the two days we are in Rome are the only two days out of the month that Vatican City is closed. Just our luck. We were all so sad when we found out. We aren’t going to be able to see the Sistine Chapel or St. Peters Cathedral which are both two major sites people go to in Rome. Oh well…I guess that’s life. I started telling the girls to be optimistic and that maybe if we go walk around the city there will randomly be a guy outside of the Sistine Chapel with keys who will feel bad for us and let us in. MacKenzie made fun of me for about an hour for saying that…then she kept teasing me all night about it. Oh Kenz I love you!

After looking at our budget and how much everything is going to cost we realized that we probably aren’t going to be able to afford to eat in any of the countries we’re visiting. Haha…after we budgeted for the hostels we’re staying in, transportation and money to do the activities in each city there was pretty much nothing left. This is going to be an interesting trip.

When we got home we felt really bad because we were supposed to eat cake Annie made and have a final apartment night sitting and chatting outside. We ended up getting home way later than we thought. Annie was asleep when we got home, and there was cake waiting on the counter for us. The cake was amazing. Thanks Annie!