COOKIES!

On Wednesday evening, my RA's and I made cookies for the entire West side of our dorm! We made well over 100 cut out cookies - with frosting and everything! I invited the students on my side of the dorm and take a study break and come get a cookie - not as many people came as I was expecting, but all the cookies were eventually eaten!

 Baking

Frosting

Ready to eat!

early Christmas

I asked Vaida, a friend from Student Life, to make a felt necklace for me about a month ago - she wears one of her own (and makes other felt items) that I really like! She was kind enough to pick colors specifically for me and today sent me an email saying that she had something for me.... I went to pick it up and it is so awesome! I don't wear necklackes in general, but this one is special. I wore it tonight to a Student Life Christmas party because I was so excited about it (and everyone was teasing me about screaming about it in the office today too!)

the sauna

Today my RA's and I went to the sauna! We used the remainder of the retreat money we had been given for the semester, and took the ferry across to the Curonian Spit, and walked to the sea to the sauna. The sauna is a very popular thing to do in Lithuania, and there were lots of other people there - mostly older men and women. We sat in the sauna for a while to get really warm, and then ran out to the sea and jumped in! It was so cold but so refreshing! (And maybe a little bit crazy!)

Walking to the sea - the air was so fresh in the woods! And the sun was out for the couple hours we were there! Bonus!

Proof that we jumped in the sea!

Before going back into the sauna again....

me in a sauna hat

Afterwards... all bundled up again.

last day of Chapel

Today was our last day of Chapel for the semester. Some Study Abroad students from the States were a part of our worship team this semester, so I invited all of them to participate today, since it would be their last chance! It was a great time of worship together. I will miss them all dearly, but look forward to getting to know more students next semester also!

L-R: Shaban (sound extraordinaire from Kosovo), me, Anna (singer from States), Shelby (singer from States), Ina (singer from Albania), Amanda (guitar and singer from States), Alex (guitar and worship leader from Ukraine), Aliya (drummer from Russia)

Saltibarsciai

Saltibarsciai is a cold beet soup that is traditional in Lithuania. One of my RA's suggested that we make it for our staff meeting tonight, and she coordinated all the ingredient gathering and supervised us while we made it. The soup includes cucumber, beets, dill, green onion, hard boiled eggs, kefyras (thick sour milk). Then we roasted potatoes with garlic and salt, and added those to the soup along with sour cream as a garnish. It sounds weird, but it's actually quite good! The sweet beets and eggs and salty potatoes balance out the kefyras. I can't eat kefyras plain, but in this soup it's delicious! 

cucumbers, dill, green onions, beets and eggs waiting to add kefyras

waiting to eat

Ira, who coordinated the evening's meal

tree lighting

Last night I went to the Klaipeda Christmas tree lighting in the Old Town Square. There was a program with children singing, dancing, the mayor playing the trumpet (he's quite good) and of course Santa. At the end, they lit up a big tree in the center of the square. There were also fireworks right over our heads! It was a festive evening - cold, but fun.

Choir of small children

The mayor playing the trumpet WHILE holding his kid! Quite talented!

The tree

Can you find Santa in this picture? Also, the street behind him was full of people who had come to see the show/tree lighting

My evening companion (Susie)

Christmas program

On Friday night we put on the annual LCC Christmas program. The whole event was organized by one of our Student Life colleagues, Olena. She did a great job of coordinating the whole show! My part was directing the choir - my first time leading an adult choir by myself - I think my music education skills were definitely put to use in this part of my job! We sang 5 songs - O Come All Ye Faithful, O Come O Come Emmanuel, Angels We Have Heard on High, Silent Night, and Freedom is Coming (the traditional Christmas program closing song at LCC). We had about 35 people in the choir, and I thoroughly appreciated their willingness and enthusiasm, even with the limited amount of practicing we did. I was a bit nervous about how everything would come out yesterday at the program, but it ended up being very worthwhile - I enjoyed getting to interact with some students that I never would have known otherwise.

Adjusting the lights for the choir before the program started

Joseph and a real baby, who started crying in the middle of a song :)

Shepherds and angel with a huge stuffed sheep

the program included national carols from several different countries including Ukraine

and Moldova (these three girls are on one of my floors!)

the choir!

sweet potato

A few days ago, I was given a sweet potato from a friend who went to visit Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. I know that doesn't sound too exciting, but I have not eaten any sweet potatoes since I left the US - they are uncommon here - and I have missed them very much! So, I debated for a long time what to do with it.... Should I roast it in the oven? Put it into soup or curry? I finally decided to do cook a vegetable curry that my previous housemates and I used to make frequently. It has carrots, onion, garlic, pepper, sweet potato, spices, orange juice, almonds, raisins, chickpeas, zucchini and spinach. Tonight I reserved some time for myself to cook this meal and savor eating it. I thoroughly enjoyed the sweet flavors of the sweet potato, raisins and orange juice along with the spicy taste of curry and hot chili powder, and the crunch of the nuts. SO GOOD! I'm excited to have some leftovers too!

Sorry about the sideways picture! I bought frozen spinach since it's not fresh/in season in the store anymore, and it comes in portioned "nuggets" - quite exciting!

The final product - the cubes of orange are the sweet potato

decoration

Tonight all the RA's and RD's decorated the dorms for Christmas. We had Christmas cookies (I forgot to take a picture) and put up all the trees, paper chains and lights in both Enns and Neumann. Here are a few pictures from our evening. 

 Roma assembling trees

 Tanya decorating a tree

Kristine and Natallia putting up paper chains

Levi and I being silly!

Thanksgiving!

Tonight some friends and I went to celebrate Thanksgiving on the official day by going to a restaurant in town and having American-style burgers! These burgers had pickles, mayonnaise, onions, horseradish and a delicious barbeque sauce, as well as a weird chicken liver pate.... But still, they were good! We took a picture next to the Native American statue - almost like the first Thanksgiving! :) The best part of the evening, though, was when we got our receipt. Somehow, we had a 25 lita discount - because of "laiminga valanda" (happy hour)!!! So we got our burgers each for 11 litas, which is a little over $4! Happy (hour) Thanksgiving!

 the burgers

 can you find the "laiminga valanda" and the -25? woo hoo!!!!

by the Native American statue

L-R: Levi, me, statue, Jennifer & Bethany

Christmas already?

Last night at our regular meeting, my RA's and I made paper chains to decorate the dorms. We are officially starting to decorate everything until Saturday, but we wanted to get a head start.

RA Thanksgiving

Tonight Alex, Levi, Susie and I made a traditional American Thanksgiving meal for all of our RA's. There were 17 of us around the table! We had turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, crescent rolls, stuffed mushrooms, deviled eggs, green bean casserole, cranberry salad, lettuce salad, stuffing, corn, party mix, pumpkin pie and apple cider. SO MUCH FOOD! We shared just a bit about why we celebrate Thanksgiving, and explained all of our dishes. We also went around the table and each said things we were thankful for.

We ate, played games and talked in Alex's apartment, which I really enjoyed. Even though I'm far away from home, it felt like I was with family - a cozy house, good food and friends. After the meal, we went to another room to watch the movie "It's a Wonderful Life" to kick off the Christmas season. We still have several more Thanksgivings to go before it's officially Christmas season, but since LCC lets out on December 16 for winter break, we get to celebrate Christmas already!

 I've never cut a turkey before!!!

YUM!

waiting patiently to eat

Iuna, Tanya, Ira, Melisa, Kristine & Natallia

more waiting...

Levi, Alex and Ira

the feast begins!

Playing Dutch Blitz - the new favorite game of many RA's

Dessert Cook-off

Levi and I organized our first big event for Neumann hall the other night - a dessert cook-off! We gave each floor two eggs and 1/2 cup butter, and they all had to make a dessert using some or all of those ingredients, as well as others donated by people on the floor. The desserts were then tasted by official judges and students, who all voted and decided the winner. We also had several game tournaments going on - Charades, Dutch Blitz and Uno. 

 1st East with their dessert

Playing Uno

Dutch Blitz

Tasting all the desserts

We cut each dessert into little pieces so students could use a toothpick to taste each one.

We also labeled each dessert with a number so the vote was unbiased.

Turkey #4

The other thing we did a lot of in Turkey was souvenir shopping! There were lots of shops with baklava, Turkish delight and other food items, as well as shops with souvenirs - bowls, tiles, cloth, lamps, rugs and more. We went to the Grand Bazaar (a very big shopping mall) one day, as well as the Spice market another day. The Grand Bazaar was HUGE - we got a bit lost! Here we bought scarves and painted ceramic items. And the Spice market smelled so good - I wanted to buy a little of all the different kinds of spices, but I settled on a hot chili powder, a sweet chili powder, and apple tea. I've already made apple tea and a red lentil soup with the hot chili powder (from our cooking class)!

Entrance to the Grand Bazaar

 This to me sums up Turkey in one picture - brightly colored things and people everywhere!

Ceramic items for sale

Spices and tea at the Spice market

So many different kinds of Turkish delight!

Beautiful candle/light holders