Mmk. It doesn't stand for anything. Sound it out.

      Mmk... Well, this week I didn't have language lessons since my tutor is living it up on vacation to some tropical islands off the coast of Spain.  Yeah must be nice huh?  I could use some sunshine and beach about now, and I don't think my body is used to it being the middle of June and still not having seen the sun.  Anyways, I've been reading Karen Kingsbury's Redemption or Racumparare in Romanian, which is my favorite author and favorite book series.  It's just frustrating because I literally read that book in a day in English, but I'm only on chapter 5 after like a week!  It's pretty slow going since I'm looking up and writing down the new vocab, and this is going to be a test of patience for me!

I'm up to chapter 6 & have tons of new vocab!

      I went to the baby hospital 3 times this week, and got to bring Kristie and Rebekah with me.  I don't know what more to say about it than I already have in previous posts, but I just love loving on those babies and my list of one's I'm stealing keeps growing.  

Vlad with his Carolina tshirt to match his huge eyes

Vlad & Sammi swinging in the park

      I also got some luxury treatment this week.  My 1st ever professional haircut (although mom you do great & Stefi said you cut it super straight)  at Manifest Salon by Stefi and Adi. They 1st wash/massage your hair and scalp for a good 15 min I would say, while you're sitting in a massaging chair.  I could definitely get used to that.  And then he blow-dried it, straightened it straighter than it's every been before, and then clipped it up in sections from the bottom to the top of my head.  They kept talking about a "machina" as they were discussing what they wanted to do with my hair, and I was so confused because that means "car" in Romanian.  But then, they brought out the buzzers and it all made sense.  I told Stefi to just shave it all off, but they couldn't bring themselves to throw away hair with a color like mine that they didn't believe was completely natural.  Then, the literally watched a DVD of how to do this technique, because they hadn't done it before.  Real comforting, but I was up for the adventure.  Starting at the bottom up, they would pull my hair up and alternated pulling it to the left and right sides.  After making sure it was completely straight, they would take the buzzers and shave off the ends, then go back and make it choppy.  Adi added the finishing touches, and voila!  I absolutely love it!  It's still long enough for all of it to go in a ponytail, which is def a requirement for camp, but it's thinner and lighter and layerier and choppier and just perfect.  

Everyone's lookin so serious

Jess getting her hair massage

Stefi is the best :]

Sorry buddy... can't reach!  

The masina masterpiece!

      Also, Hannah, Jess and I got pedicures at Perfect Nails in the mall this week.  All of us needed it desperately and it was a fun girls outing/belated birthday present for them both!  

Mine are the hott pink, Hannah's are the French, and Jess' are the  neon orange

Jam session after Bible study

      And here's some not-so-funny anecdotes from this week... so me and Jenny went to the huge open air fruit and veggie market at Obor yesterday, and while we were buying some yummy strawberries and the dude was flirting with Jenny, somebody stole my phone out of my purse!  I was dumb and had it in the front zipper pocket where I stuck it quickly after using it, and someone probably easily unzipped it and snatched it in all the bustle of the market.  It was a super old cheap slide phone of the Graef's, so it's not too much of a disaster, but I need a new one now.  I found a sim card I can use, and now I'm searching for another old used phone somewhere in this apartment.  And on the same day, my washing machine broke.  It washed my clothes, but it wouldn't spin or drain, and thus was still locked and wouldn't let me open it.  After pushing all the buttons and kicking it, I had to just let my clothes sit there and mold until someone could come fix it.  But Mihai came to my rescue again today, and him and Andreea came over to take a look at it after church.  Mihai took it all apart and figured out how to manually drain the water to be able to open it.  When he took the plug to the drain all the way out, he found a guitar pick that was probably the source of the problem.  Wonder where that came from... thanks Dave!


     One more thing, living alone can be rather boring.  It's totally awesome in some ways, but it can also be lonely.  I'm usually always busy with something in the afternoons, but the evenings I'm home and trying to think up something to do.  I love the slow mornings, when  I can take my time spending time with Jesus in my new reading nook on my balcony, and the chill evenings when I've spent the day with crying babies, but it still can be boring.