Monday, October 2, 2006

Well, Monday morning it was back to the apartment! I woke up in a pretty good mood and told Shannon it was going to be a good day. Well, unfortunately something bad happened pretty darn quick. We both didn’t have tram tickets, and Shannon had no money, so I was going to buy us both tickets on the tram. Well, I told the driver “2 tickets.” Instead he gave me a 2 way ticket and said “2 way.” Well, I figured it wouldn’t be that big of a deal because they never check the tickets anyway, so I just grabbed it and went over to tell Shannon. Well, I got distracted with talking to her and totally forgot to stamp it. Of course, that day, of all days, someone checks! First day I’ve ever seen someone check and first time I didn’t have a good ticket. Well, he had us get off with him at the stop we get off for the hospital and he had another older couple get off too. The other couple was really mad, especially the lady, so before he dealt with us he argued with that lady for quite some time. I actually felt bad for him because he seemed like a nice enough guy and she was just one of those people that thinks that anyone who slightly inconveniences her is ridiculously out of line. I knew how he felt. When it was our turn we tried to look as innocent and clueless as possible and messed up on the language a bunch to try to convince him that we just didn’t know how it all works. We wouldv’e just explained what actually happened, but we didn’t know the right words to explain it, so we couldn’t. You could tell he felt bad for us and believed us, but he had to give us a ticket anyway, and we didn’t argue. It was 20 lei each. He also took the time to try and explain “how it all works” to us, which was very nice. He also told the driver of the next tram to let us get on with our faulty ticket. It was also nice, because when we finally got to Dancu, the tram driver was nice and told us that that was our stop and tried to tell us where to go after that too J. Anyway, it was a pretty good day at the apartment. I spent a lot of time with Iuliana for a change. She wasn’t in the best of moods and would get upset sometimes, but we also had some good times together as well. I brought out Shannon’s ipod for the first time and sat there for a little while with her listening to it. We didn’t work on Brigance at all, so we just spent the whole time playing with the kids. I know I played with Mihai a little bit, but I really can’t remember it. Part of the time I tried to make Costica happy because he was whining, but I got really frustrated because he just would not be comforted and I ran out of things to do with him and the same thing had happened on Friday too. Finally Shannon came over and tried to make him happy and then just decided to take him to the back, where he was much more happy. I know I tried to play with Petrica a little in the beginning of the morning, but he just kept throwing up all over the place. I can’t remember what happened with him like the whole rest of the day though although I like to think I did play with him some more later. I do know Shannon did though because at the beginning she was trying really hard to make him happy but had no clue how to deal with him and was just like, “what do I do with this kid?” It was the same thing I usually say with Mihai. But I was really proud of her because by the end she had him all calm and laying down while she sang to him. At the end of the day we actually convinced Maria to let us help her with the feeding. It was hard, but I think I kind of got the hang of it. I hope she was impressed. I tried feeding Mihai first and got through most of the bowl before she took him and finished herself. He’s just a hard kid to feed because he doesn’t like eating, so he’ll wave his arms all over the place, try to tip the bowl over, look behind him and close his mouth! Then I fed Iuliana and it went really well. It didn’t take me too long to get the hang of it and I was able to get her to eat the whole bowl without too much of a problem. We went straight to the hospital right afterward. I started off with Iulia, but Shannon was in there too and it wasn’t too productive having us both there. In fact, I was really tired and actually fell asleep for a while on the bed. The doctors came in and like put her to sleep, so we decided we better just leave. I ended up going with Melissa to see if there were kids on the 6th floor and there were actually a ton! There was Radu and then four other kids who I’d never seen before. One of them, Marta, was in the same room Maria used to be in, was wearing Maria’s old clothes and basically just looked like a smaller version of Maria! I’m really glad, because I missed Maria. Then, in the next room is Radu. The next two rooms down has one really chubby infant who has a mom, but whose mom isn’t usually there and also another little girl named Madaleina. Madaleina really worries me. She has a shaved head with a lot of scars on it and we have no clue how old she is. She’s really long and is big enough to be like two, but she has the muscle mass and development of a newborn. Like, she’s all floppy and can’t even hold her head up on her own. I don’t know what her story is or why she’s like that. Also, she doesn’t really cry, but never really seems that happy either. I spent the rest of the day with those two, but there was also another baby down at the end of the hallway. After the hospital, I rushed around and tried my best to get allll my stuff done before FHE, but barely dented it. FHE wasn’t real great and I’d wanted to leave early, but wasn’t able to. I had the thought also, which was kind of nerve racking, but Elder Hackett said it was good and I was really grateful for him being so nice. After FHE I just tried to get more done and got some stuff done, but though I worked as hard as I could, still had plenty more at the end of the night.