Stress!

Ugh! Why does leaving the country have to be so darn complicated?! haha. I just thought I'd post and say Hi to everyone, especially Holly since she probably has no idea what we've been up to besides packing! I hope your summers have been as good as mine. I know they've probably been as stressful ;). But it's the price you pay right? My summer has been chuck full with working at the church sites here in Palmyra. Just getting through The Hill Cumorah Pageant was a huge victory! Seriously, Palmyra is a really sleepy, quite, tiny little town and the church sites are even quieter. But for those four weeks of Pageant you have somewhere aroung 10,000 people a day descending on very limited facilities... let's just say it makes life interesting. But thank goodness most of the tourists are gone now and the sites are starting to recover. I am currently covered in head-to-foot Poison Ivy from weeding the path to the Moroni Monument. It's nowhere near as bad as it was last year though so I'm not complaining toooo much. (Last year I didn't know what Poison Ivy looked like so you can imagine how much I managed to expose myself to).

I've been working with Danny every day to learn Romanian. It's frustrating because I know nothing and he knows everything, but I'll have a bunch of tid-bits to share when we get over there. Although I'm sure Holly is becoming pretty fluent now too! He's been a lot of help though and I'm really greatful. Plus he's nice to look at, gorgeous smile and all ;).

Let's see what else, oh I tried speaking french today in order to reserve a hostel in Paris. Let me tell you THAT was an experience. The funny thing is I haven't spoken french in four years and I was never very good at it anyways, but add to the equation that the next two languages i've been learning role all their r's when french doesn't and you get one very convoluted language! At one point I was trying to say 'yes' to this guy and I went through Romanian AND Spanish before I finally got to the french "oui"! Needless to say I stole my sister's french notebook and will be studying that pretty religiously for the next two weeks.

And last but DEFINATELY not least, I got my passport last week. For all you world travelers in the group, this is my first one and you better believe I was jumping up and down and laughing out loud because I had a passport. I've only want one since I was 12 and I've only want to travel since I was... 12. Let's just say I was pretty stoked. Seriously though, I'm definately with Sheri on this one. I can't believe I'm going to Europe! Me? NOooo! Seriously, I think I'll have to be in Paris walking past the freaking Notre Dame before I believe it. I am Sooooooooooooo excited though. I have a friend serving in Bucaresti right now and he sends out weekly mass emails about how the work is going and it's so totally COOL to be invested in what he is doing because I already care about the Romanian people and I haven't even met them! I just can't WAIT to get out there and be apart of it all. Anyway, I guess the general theme is that I'm psyched as I'm sure you all are too and I can't WAIT to see you all again and I can't WAIT to meet you Holly. You have been such an awesome help with all the legistics and I'm sure you'll be an awesome field facilitator. Thank you so much!

Anyway, I need to go to bed, but everyone have a wonderful evening/day/whatever!

Shannon