fall break plans!

Tonight I went to Susie's for dinner with a couple other friends, and we bought plane tickets to Turkey for fall break! It will be me, Susie and Bethany, who is the Spiritual Formations Coordinator and a good friend of both of ours here on campus. We're very excited for our trip, which will include many things - possibly even a cooking class for several hours!

 Clicking the "pay" button to buy my ticket

 The traveling ladies - Susie, Bethany and me

team meeting

We had another team meeting last night, and I cooked dinner! It was great to begin to set a routine for the semester, get to know my RA's better, and do some work as well. We're planning for a big event next Wednesday called Community Day!

 Iuna and I with the quesadillas

 We were so eager to eat that we forgot to take a picture beforehand with our plates full of food! It was very delicious! :)

door decs

A part of each RA's job is to make door decorations (door decs) for each room on their floor. We have limited resources for them to use, but they're very creative people! I went around and took pictures of my four floors and then a couple other favorites I have. Which one do you like?

 Melisa's floor - West 2nd (Real candy on the edges!) :)

 Ira's floor - West 3rd

 Ana's floor - West 4th

 Iuna's floor - West 5th (She used some netting that was going to get thrown away!)

 Kristine's floor in the new Enns hall - 4th (These are some of the characters from "Despicable Me")

 Tanya's floor in Enns - 2nd (It's a tree!)

Sunday with Susie

Sundays with Susie were a tradition for me back in the States. Susie and I would hang out after church - typically back in Indiana, we'd head to Mishawaka for Chipotle and cherry limeades from Sonic. Then we'd go hang out at Borders in the mall - we'd each find books and sit at the tables and read together. It was always enjoyable to spend time with her, and we'd have great talks and laughs together. One Sunday we even had a flat tire! (That's another story in itself!)

In Lithuania it's a bit different though.... I walked to Susie's house, and we looked at bus routes (b/c we don't know the bus system very well), and recipes for lunch. We surprisingly got to where we wanted to go without too many problems, and then shopped for a while at Jysk (a Bed, Bath and Beyond type store), and Rimi (a grocery store), and took the bus back home. Finally we cooked a delicious lunch of fajitas with lots of peppers and onions and tomatoes!

It was so healthy for me to be off campus for a while and to not think about work for a few hours. I thoroughly enjoyed my time away! THANK YOU SUSIE!!!!

 Cleaning up the kitchen before lunch

 Fajita fixin's with snitching Susie fingers

 Ready to eat!

 

freshman orientation skit

By now most of the freshman have arrived, and today is a big orientation day for them. The Residence Life team is responsible for putting on a skit for them about the "residential community" at LCC. Each year, the RA's and RD's put on the same skit, which is a story about a guy who is coming to LCC for the first time. The first half of the skit is his journey and first experience with LCC, but in a bad way. He gets up late, the taxi driver charges him too much money, the receptionist is clueless, his roommate is occupied with his girlfriend, etc. At the end of the day he goes to sleep, and then wakes up again and eventually realizes that bad experience was a bad dream. This time his mom packs him sweets in a nice suitcase, people welcome him to campus, ask his name, and the RA's and RD's are helpful and friendly.

Most of the skit is just ad-libbed, but it's quite hilarious! I took some pictures and a video today, so enjoy! We perform this afternoon.

 Students playing cards, drinking and smoking

 RA's also drunk, and not helping him find his room

 Roommate and girlfriend - a bit awkward! :)

 In real life his mom packs peanut butter and sweets - yum!

And his roommate and girlfriend are studying and greet him when he arrives

I'm having problems uploading the video, but I'll keep trying! :)

the best part of my day

Yesterday was a very tough day for me. I worked 14 hours - which is maybe not that unusual for me b/c I like to be busy, but this work is different! Constant questioning and decision making, being "on duty"/reachable any time, meetings, etc. Nothing is bad, it's just easy to get totally absorbed and never take a break! I also had the dorm keys in my apartment overnight, and got two different wake-up knocks at 4:30 and 5:30am from new students checking in.

Needless to say, I started the day very tired. Today was a bit less busy, but being tired made it easy for me to be on the edge and a bit grumpy. And to be honest, by this evening I had no energy left, and with a team meeting quickly approaching, I didn't know what else to do but pray! And the evening turned out so much better than I expected! Thank you Lord!

My RA's made my day!

Iuna, Ira, Ana, Melisa and me

team time

As I've mentioned before, I'm in charge of four RA's in the Neumann dorm on the west side. I met them all over the past few days and they're all very sweet and so kind to me - I'm still learning a lot about procedures, rules, etc here so they have answered many of my questions, and also have asked me good questions too! I'm looking forward to getting to know each one of them better as the year goes on! (Their names are Melisa, Ira, Ana and Iuna.)

Today we had our first team meeting. I decided that since it was such a nice day outside that we should have a picnic in the park! I made lemon scones, and we took blankets and sat outside in the sun - it was awesome! Three of my RA's are seniors, so we talked a lot about the future. Sadly, though, I forgot to take pictures. :(

But later in the afternoon, I organized a photo scavenger hunt for all the RA's and RD's, and so I'll share some pictures from that. I'm starting to feel like a real RD now!

 Hanging upside down

 Spelling a word - ours was "yes" (one of my RA's, Ira, is on the left)

 Human pyramid

 With a yellow car (two of my RA's are in this picture: Melisa on the left and Ana in the middle)

 the "I can't believe we all fit in here" picture!

 Doing exactly what the sign says (my other RA, Iuna, is on the left)

 Entire group in mid-air - or close to it...

dinner

Last night we had dinner at a very cool restaurant in Palanga called HBH. There is an awesome outdoor playground (for all ages) that we played on before eating dinner. It was very exciting to get to go somewhere with the RA's and enjoy each other's company. For dinner I ordered traditional Lithuanian cepelinai, which is a grated potato dumpling filled with meat (and of course with sour cream on top). It was not my favorite, but at least I can say I've tried it! :)

 Outside on the playground - it was quite cold and rainy yesterday. :(

 One side of the table - 6 awesome female RA's! Tanya, Iuna, Melisa, Ana, Natalia and Ira

 The other side: Susie, Roma, Levi, me, Geniya and Alex

RA's!!!

Today was our first day with the RA's! By now, six out of thirteen are here, and the rest should arrive sometime this weekend. (Often there are flight delays or only one bus coming from a certain remote location, so not everyone gets here at the exact time or day.) 

We worked all day getting ready, and tonight we had a tour of the new dorm, an introduction game, dinner and sorting through storage. I'm really excited about everyone that's here - it makes all the waiting and work worth it! It might take me a bit to get adjust to college students in Europe rather than the American high schoolers that I'm used to, but I think I'm going to like it! :)

Of course I forgot to take a picture of our dinner this evening, but here's a few others....

Alex, Levi and I on the roof of Enns - when we found out it was unlocked, we just had to go up and look! (The RA's weren't with us at this point - it's a secret!)
 

 Susie was here too! 

 One of the RA's showing off a very very crowded and disorganized storage room

We had to dig through several rooms to find everyone's stuff. I wanted to take pictures to document the craziness, because there's a new storage space in Enns Hall (new dorm) that is going to make things so much easier the next time around!

new decor

The past few days I've been in a lot of new staff orientation and Student Life meetings - the pace is starting to pick up! And tomorrow our RA's come! The following week will be full of RA training and by next weekend all the students will be here! There's a lot for me to learn and process, which is very overwhelming, but I'm looking forward to meeting my RA's and spending the next week with them.

Today I finished making decorations for my walls, which were totally bare until now. The pictures aren't the best, but in case you want to know what I came up with, here it is!

beach

Monday was a national Lithuanian holiday, so we organized an outing to the beach in Palanga. It was our first time driving in Lithuania, which was quite an adventure. :) We got to wade in the water, play Dutch Blitz and eat some very good food! The weather was sunny and perfect!

 Levi, Susie and Bethany on the pier

There were lots of things to do on the beach - including a big boat for the little kids. Can you find the naked kid in this picture? :)

 The traditional Lithuanian dish I tried this time was "crepes with cheese and mushroom sauce". The crepes were filled with cheese and then covered in a mushroom white sauce. Very good!

 For dessert we tried waffles on a stick covered in chocolate and sprinkles, whipped cream and/or peanuts. It reminded me of something that would be served at the fair in the States. Very filling!

staff retreat

Yesterday the Student Life staff went on retreat for the day! We drove about 30 minutes outside of Klaipeda to a very rustic but beautiful location. Everything was very green and lush, and even though it rained for the majority of the day, we got a chance to explore the area - there were apple trees, flowers, a garden, a river, and much more! 

 

Our meeting was in a barn with wooden tables and benches and a stone floor. 
  

For lunch we had the traditional shashleek - marinated meat grilled over an open fire, along with fresh tomatoes and cucumbers and other items that people brought to share. Our host even brought some of his homemade apple cider/wine for us to try!

 Later we went walking, and found a river and a picnic table in the middle of the woods with a reserved sign on it - not for us, but for people who might be kayaking down the river that want to stop for a picnic!

 Susie and Olena

 Susie and me

Towards the end of the day, we got to use the sauna, which is a popular activity in Lithuania. It was small, but 10 of us squeezed in and then we all jumped in the pond afterwards to cool off!

Crazy group shot. A very fun bunch of colleagues - I'm really looking forward to the year!

the rest of the apartment

It's been requested that I show you the rest of my apartment. So, without further ado...

Entry way with coat closet on the left, and a big hallway for shoes, the drying rack, and probably other stuff as the year goes on.

To get to the rest of the apartment is just to the left beyond the coat closet. The bathroom is to the left again, and my bedroom straight ahead, the living room next, and then the kitchen on the right.

Here's my bedroom - I have a BIG bed - which is about all that fits in the room! :) The sheets are more matching by now - I got to clean out a linen closet on the 6th floor of the dorm in live in (Neumann) and chose color coordinated sheets that were more my style.

And finally, the living room. The couches are fairly comfy, but I need to do something with the walls. Any suggestions for decoration?