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

Turkey #3

Two other places we visited were the Blue Mosque and Hagia Sophia. The Blue Mosque is famous for the blue tiles inside, and Hagia Sophia was originally an Orthodox church, then a mosque, and finally a museum. I really enjoyed touring Hagia Sophia - we bought an audio guide and went through most of the different parts of the museum to learn about the history and many interesting facts. We took lots of pictures too!

 In the Blue Mosque - behind us is where the men pray, (front of the church) 

and where we are standing is for women

 The blue tiles in the center and supporting domes

Outside of Hagia Sophia - the original church building is to the right side of the picture, and the two towers on the left were added when it became a mosque

One of the many Christian mosaics uncovered when Hagia Sophia became a museum 

I love this picture - it shows the size of the museum,

and the huge Christian and Islamic symbols close to each other

Turkey #2

The second day in Turkey, we went to see Topkapi Palace, where the Turkish sultans lived for 400 years. We walked through the various courtyards and rooms of the palace as well as the harem. On Tuesday, our third day, we took a Turkish cooking class at a hotel! This was one of my favorite things we did! The food in Turkey has much more spice than the food in Lithuania - not terribly different, just very flavorful! The others in our cooking group as well as our instructor were very friendly - we had a lot of fun cooking, talking and eating together for about 4 hours!

Inside Topkapi Palace

In the harem at Topkapi Palace - we rented an audio guide to learn more

Some of the beautiful tiles inside the palace - they were everywhere!

Cutting green beans in cooking class

me, Bethany and Susie posing for a quick picture - check out the cool aprons! 

Sadly, though, we didn't get to keep them.

The whole group

We made Goshen, Indiana connections with both of the other couples in the class! 

(oh, to be a Mennonite!)

Turkey #1

I will dedicate several posts to our fall break trip in Turkey - we have soooooo many pictures! Overall our travels went smoothly, and included funny stories, good food, beautiful sights and much more. The first day we left Klaipeda at 3am from the bus station, and got to Turkey at about 12 hours later. We immediately checked into our hotel and went out exploring. Here's a few pictures from our first evening.

Waiting at the bus station (I'm imitating a turkey)

Bethany and I with our first meal - various salads, chicken, couscous and rice

Susie holding a spicy lamb/beef kabob - this was our favorite!

Many stores had baklava and Turkish delight displayed in the windows

We went to see the whirling dervishes our first evening as well

(Whirling is a method used by the Sufis to get closer to their god)