Yurrrrrrrrr! It’s Ani and Dalexa, the biggest steppas in THIS HOUSE! Don’t play! Today, we started our day bright and early at 6:00 AM—except for Dalexa, who was woken up by me (Ani) 45 minutes later, thanks to the leader’s wake-up call at 5:00 AM lol. Everyone was ready for Ilka’s breakfast at 7:00 AM. After that, we returned to the main room for our final reflection seminar, which was pretty emotional for some of us. We discussed what we wanted to ‘Start,’ ‘Continue,’ and ‘Stop’ after this trip when we went back home. Then we passed around individual Big Love papers with each person’s name in the middle, where we wrote about each other’s strengths and memorable qualities. We had only 30-40 seconds to write on each paper, which was challenging but super fun! After everyone wrote on each other’s papers, we turned them over and read the sweet messages others had left for us! :’)

Then we went to the PLAYAAA, just 20 minutes away from us (didn’t know it was that close)! We had so much fun swimming and playing in the reserved pool and beach area. We played volleyball, Marco Polo, and QUACK; some people enjoyed the waves, and collected seashells, and others tanned. Many of us got sunburned! Ouchie! Poor Annie kept getting hit in the face with the ball by Dylan and Josh. The core 4 (Ilana, Annie, Stella, and Jane) played mermaids in the ocean. Today was also sadly the last day Annie forced Dylan to carry her stuff (-Annie). We then had lunch at 12:30 PM, had more fun after that, and returned to the hotel singing OUR top songs (yes, these are some of our theme songs): “Umbrella” by Rihanna, “Riptide” by Vance Joy, and “Bye and Bye” by Caamp (honorable mention: “Stick Season” by Noah Kahan).

We returned to the hotel with about 2 hours of free time. Some people went out to buy their last essentials, while others stayed here and started packing. We were then delightfully surprised when we saw that Ilka had made us garlic bread and chicken pasta for dinner. (P.S. I, Dalexa, am actually Ilka’s favorite since she made me a separate tuna pasta, which was scrumdiddlyumptious). We then, so sadly, said goodbye to Zarai and Paco, as it was their last day with us. So many tears and so much BIG LOVE 🙁 <3

After dinner, it was our usual nightly meeting where we discussed our day, rose and thorns, the question of the day, and some pluses and wishes. We then had our girls, Sapa and Adriana, the Latina dancing queens, show us their salsa moves! We passed the torch to them, transferring the power we once had. After the nightly meeting, our newest LDD, Sapa, dropped a hundred bucks (not actually) to buy us some pizza! Right now, people are packing and getting ready to see some special sights tomorrow in Panama City. Just one and a half more days until we see our families!

Ani – DEDII MAMA GABI momenatred kargi dge iqo chemtvis. Mikvarxart <3

Dalexa – I’m almost there, do NOT playy! BIG steppa is coming thruuu love y’all!

Annie – Olivia, Alana, Lina, and Andre: I have so much to tell you!

Dylan – Hi mom. Hi dad. I miss you guys.

Josh – I miss you all! <3

Jack – I hope you’re doing good.

Jane – Mom and Harry, I can’t wait to see you in Cali! <3

Logan – Almost done. I love y’all!

John E.C. – I love you, mom!

Ilana – See you soon!

Brandon – Stay gold!

Lianny – Los amos todos!

Arden – Hi mom! Hi dad! Can’t wait to see you! P.S. Ask Benji if he wants to pick me up at the airport with you guys 🙂

Sapa – Hi family! Almost the end of this amazing but crazy journey! I love you guys. Chris, when you see this, I love you and miss you quite a lot – can’t wait to see you and tackle you lol!

Isabella – Hi my family! I literally love you all to bits! You’ve all stood by me despite everything that happened! I really appreciate the fact that no matter what, you are always there for me. I love you so much and can’t wait to be home!