Monday, November 27, 2006

This morning I got up and used the computer, got ready and went to Dancu. We were a little late, because apparently when I told Shannon it was 8, she heard 7. Dancu was pretty good. The kids were all better except for Petrica. Petrica was suuuch a sweety. I wish I could remember what he looks like in all his different views because it kills me to know I’m going to forget them all. I shouldn’t be complaining – a hundred years ago, almost no one had pictures of anyone and they definitely didn’t have pictures of people’s every move! Thank goodness I wasn’t born then! Anyway, I spent time with pretty much all the kids. At one point, Shannon was in the other room and I had Iuliana on my lap and couldn’t go anywhere. Well, Mihai was in the chair by the TV and he decided to pull the table cloth off the table next to him. He’d pull it slowly and when one of the animals that sit on it got close to him he’d throw it on the floor. He slowly pulled all of them off and then just threw the tablecloth on the floor and got a big “I’m cool” grin on his face. I thought it was funny and showed Shannon when she got back. At the end of the day, we took Petrica into Costica’s room and swung them in the blanket. It always makes me soooo happy, because they like it soooo much! Corrina was working and she gave us the recipe for her gogosi things that she made that one day! We were sooo happy! I can’t wait to make them! I’ve decided that when I have a family, we’re totally going to eat certain Romanian foods. I had a really interesting day at the orphanage. To begin with, I went to the 6th floor, just to see Shannon off basically, but when I was walking down the hall this orderly came to me and had me put my back pack down and follow her. She led me down the hall and had me pick up this really big baby from one of the cribs and then follow her again. The baby was adooorable and I’ve decided I wish I would have big kids, though they’ll probably be little. Anyway, he was asleep at first, but one time I looked down and he was just staring straight up at me and smiled. I was smitten. Anyway, so I follow this orderly out of the hall and down the stairs. As I’m going down the stairs I see Bri, Abbi and Melissa coming up. They asked me where I was going and I was like, “nu stiu! (don’t know!).” You have to understand how funny this was. See, we generally aren’t aloud of the specific rooms, let alone to a different floor with the kids and here I am holding this random baby, following this orderly and I have no idea where I’m going. Anyway, so we ended up going to the 3rd floor and she walked into a room and closed the door and told me to stay put. So I just stood there outside the door, rocking the baby, with all these people looking at me. Finally she called me in, they gave a quick check up to the baby and then we took the elevator up to the 6th floor again. It was the first time for riding in the elevator, by the way, because we aren’t aloud to. The orderly was way nice too. She was like a grandma and would lead me by the elbow and hold my hand while we walked down the hall and stuff. It was cute. She explained finally, that she had gotten surgery on her stomach and couldn’t hold the babies. Well anyway, so after that all the babies on the floor were taken, so I went with Marina and check on a bunch of floors before finally finding a kid on the 5th. He was like 15! I was just like, “um, mom or no mom, I’m pretty sure this kid has no need of me.” We had some supremely awkward moments, Marina and I, in between walking in the room and figuring out what to do, while everyone just stared at us. Finally we got out her ipod and let him listen to it for a while. Then we thought we’d try and explain phase 10 to him. Some things got lost in translation (like, the meaning of a “run”) but it still worked well enough. Apparently he didn’t like them though, because finally he was just like, “uh…gata (I’m done).” After we left him, we went to Raluca’s room on the 4th floor. What a zoo! Raluca comes from Bambi at the orphanage, so that’s why Marina was there, because she works with her in Bambi. In her room there was a craaaazy (for sure institutionalized) little girl named Daniela, an adorable little girl named Adalina, and 2 or 3 more. There were also a couple older girls. I played and talked to pretty much everyone and the two of us would just try our best to keep it all under control and keep Daniela from our backpacks. She was veeeery naughty. Oh, and for the record, not all of these kids are orphans, but even if they have moms, we sometimes try and entertain the other kids too. One good thing was that I had quite a long conversation with one of the girls in Romanian (woot!) before Daniela got so back that we decided we’d better just leave. When we left there was only like 10 more minutes left, so we just went down and waited. I walked home with Shannon, but also Jessica, who came because she was going to go with me to look at glasses. Well, so we went to this place behind Hala first, but they told me that we’d have to go to this place in Moldova mall because my prescription was too hard and they didn’t have the lenses or something. So we went over there and the lady spoke English and we spent all this time looking at all the glasses and finally deciding on a pair, only to find out that they’d have to order the lenses too and it would take 3 weeks! I leave in just a little less than 3 weeks! Aye, so frustrating. I’m just going to cross my fingers and hope that this virus is gone by the time I go to Italy, because I’ll want to be able to see! Well, when we got home, I used the computer. I felt sick (had a fever, among other things) and had a lot to do, so I just stayed home from FHE. When everyone got home, I decided to go move everything back to the right place in the living room (because Megan had vacuumed under the couches). So, I go in there and try to fix it, but I had to ask Megan a few questions about where she wanted things and such. Somehow we got in an argument (I could detail why, but that would be tedious) and she started yelling at me and it was really frustrating, because I was trying really hard not to get in an argument, but it was just happening anyway. Well, so finally we calmed down and went our separate ways. I was pretty upset, but I calmed down and got on the computer. I checked my mail and still hadn’t heard back from the Campus Lane place where I really wanted to stay, so finally I decided to call them and I’m so glad I did! It worked out perfectly! I was so worried that it would be gone or that something would be wrong with it or something, but no! The spot is still available and it’s perfect! It’s this adorable little San Fransisco style townhouse, with three floors. I’m on the 2nd floor in a MASTER private bedroom, with my own bathroom. The kitchen is on the ground floor and then there’s another room in the basement. I know there’s one more room (for a total of three) and that it’s probably on the ground floor, but I don’t really know. There are 4 roommates, because there are 2 private and one shared room. There are 4 parking stalls, one for each person and it’s even close to campus at 582 N 500 E! Oh, and I can sign the contract online! All that for only $300 a month! The only problem is that I only have one picture and that’s of the outside, so I got the phone numbers of some girls who live there and I’m going to try to have a friend go take pictures and email them to me. Yeah, so after I found that out I was SOOOO excited! I was like giddy and just laughing for no reason and hugging Shannon’s knee. After that, I wasn’t even mad at Megan anymore, which was good because she wrote me a really nice note and put it on the pillow. It basically said that she was sorry and that I’d just been in the wrong place at the wrong time and she doesn’t hate me and respects me but just has a hard time showing it. Yeah, I don’t think either of us is completely at fault because we just have opposing personalities. She’s really short and firm and comes off as rude and offensive to a lot of people, which bothers me. I’m really cautious and don’t like to cause problems and so she feels like she doesn’t usually know what I want and wants me to be more firm. Anyway, Shannon was in a trunky mood and wanted to gab, so I ended up talking to her til like 12 because it just seemed right and it was fun and enjoyable and she needed it. I went to bed incredibly happy.