Johanna's graduation

Seems like I'm doing this blog backwards these days. I didn't have time to write about Johanna's graduation at the time as we had a team here working on the day centre courtyard and we were really busy. it was hard enough for both of us to take the day out for the graduation never mind actually finding time to update my blog!

On the day Kenneth and I and Helen, along with Johanna and Philip and of course Yasmina, all piled into the minibus and set off for Timisoara. Granny unfortunately couldn't make it because she was having a lot of back pain and still recovering from her fall in Turkey (she has since had an MRI and has two badly herniated discs).

The ceremony was actually not too bad even though there were several speeches! The students all recited the hippocratic oath together and sang a Latin song -not all that different from Romanian really ... if I'd worked harder on my Latin at school I'd have learned Romanian much easier!

After the ceremony there were the usual endless photos, we took a few of course. Pictured here is Johanna with her group - each year is split into sections and each section has several groups. Johanna began her studies in the English section of the university along with many other foreign students including Indian, Saudi Arabian, American, Greek and many other nationalities. In final year Johanna transferred into a Romanian section as by then she was fluent enough to study in her second language. it has been a hard year, especially taking exams in Romanian but we are all very proud of her for succeeding.