RA Christmas

I had Christmas with my RAs this evening. For their Christmas presents I bought them all bowls, and wrote words the bowl that their residents used to describe them. Things like "honest, direct, friendly, inspiring leader, goes above and beyond, etc". We will eat out of these bowls for the rest of the year, and they will get to keep them in May. We also had a gift exchange between the 5 of us - we all had fun picking out personal gifts for each other! I got some earmuffs to keep me from waking up because of a loud dog across the street! :) We also ate tomato soup and grilled cheese, and played Charades (their favorite game). A great ending to a very special semester. Seeing my RAs have laugh, bond, and do stuff together has been the highlight of the year so far!

 normal

silly (actually, this is more normal!) :)

Coffee Bar

Tonight my RAs and I hosted a coffee bar in preparation for finals week. We served mochas (with homemade chocolate sauce), coffee with caramel syrup, regular coffee, and green or black tea. There were also lots of Christmas lights and decorations, and awesome 50's rock 'n' roll music! It was a fun and relaxing evening!

getting ready to brew the coffee

students enjoying the coffee! what a face!

having fun

no comment...

cookie night

On Thursday night, I hosted a cookie making party at my apartment for all the residents in Enns. My RAs and I had made over 150 cookies earlier in the week, and so there was plenty for everyone! I also remembered to take pictures, so I have some to share with you!

two of my RAs with their cookies

on the left is "headless gingerbread man", and on the right is "really fat gingerbread man"

Aliya with another fat gingerbread man and a beautifully decorated Christmas tree

Evaldas with his new brunette girlfriend :)

(the green frosting is her "body mask" for healthy skin)

the caption we decided for this picture should be "looking at her with longing"

Iveta with a unibrow, sunglass-wearing, bearded star

Aurelija with a beloved gingerbread man

Christmas program

Last Friday evening was the annual Christmas program at LCC. Student Life is the main department that plans the program, and we have been working on it for months already! Bethany and I were in charge of the costumes, I was the rehearsal accompanist for the choir, and I also helped out with promotional materials. (One of my fingers even went numb for several weeks because of cutting so much paper! And see my last post for a picture of Alisha and I dressed as angels for promotional reasons!) Because of all the preparation, it turned out to be a fun evening - there was a fair before hand where people could sell crafts to raise money for the homeless shelter, and then we had the program. Student Life was also in charge of clean up afterwards, which went MUCH faster than last year, because we had student leaders to help. 

 Colorful gloves for sale at the fair

The angel Gabriel telling Joseph that it's ok to take Mary as his wife.

Toms, one of the Neumann East RAs, was the Angel Gabriel.

 the decked out wisemen

Bethany and I made the crown that's on the middle wiseman

 Almost all the actors - Bethany and I had so much fun doing their costumes!

Kirill, one of my RAs, is the shepherd holding the big white staff.

a cute kid who was very distracted by the shiny bells!

The choir (I'm just to the right of the choir, but not in the picture)

This past week I also helped out at a school for disabled kids in Klaipeda. We went twice - once to get to know the kids, and once to make crafts with them. It was nice to get off campus and experience a traditional school setting.

 

the last week...

The last week has been busy with many different activities! Here's a sample from things that I have pictures from...

The Community Life team hosts a Christmas party for all of our Student Leaders. This is the invitation that we made for each of them. :)

I did a "synchronized swimming" routine with some fellow faculty/staff members for the annual LCC Talent Show. We had lots of fun practicing and executing our routine!

My RAs and I went to Susie's house for dinner. We had curry and Christmas cookies - yum! We also watched some videos from when I was in college and took a group photo. (Ausrius was sick, so that's why he's not here).

silly!

Ha. :) Bethany (on the left) and her Spiritual Life team organized "Coffee House Gospel" last week, and I helped her set up for a while. We were acting silly here, but we were also quite tired!

Today Alisha and I dressed up like angels and handed out invitations for the Christmas fair and program on Friday. This is a picture from a student's dorm window!

Christmas time is here...

Last night the RAs got together and decorated the residence halls for Christmas! We put up trees, fake presents, green and red paper chains, and a small amount of lights and garland. Alisha and I also made hot cocoa and chocolate crinkle cookies for them!

Thanks to Sarune for the photo!

 

RA Thanksgiving #2

Here are some photos of last night's meal from one of our very talented RAs!

the turkey

Melisa and Ira

Josh tasting the whipped cream (priceless expression!)

Ausrius and Toms discussing "Twilight" of all things!

Ira, Natallia and Kirill - happy after a delicious meal

and a random one....we are beginning to get ready for the Christmas program!
Bethany and I are in charge of costumes,
so today we went and tried some stuff on!

RA Thanksgiving

Tonight Josh, Alisha, Susie and I hosted a Thanksgiving FEAST for all the RAs at my apartment. There were 16 of us in total, and we had so much food: turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole, stuffing, gravy, rolls, applesauce, deviled eggs, squash pie with real whipped cream, cider and party mix! We went around the table and shared what we were thankful for, and then dug in! It was a feast only for the dedicated! (One of my RAs said he hadn't eaten for almost a whole day before coming!) We had a lot of laughter at the table as usual, and then went to another location on campus to watch "It's a Wonderful Life". A great evening together!

the calm before the storm

sharing the meal

the aftermath of dishes in my kitchen

(i'm sure Susie, Josh and Alisha also had their own pile of dishes!)

what i've been doing...

Sorry I haven't posted in a while! It's been a BUSY two weeks! I haven't taken many pictures, but can give you some a few snapshots to describe what I've been up to.

Mug 'n' Muffin is a bi-annual event that we do for the women on campus. Faculty/staff women make lots of muffins, the committee makes special drinks, and we have several speakers on a topic. This event was titled "The Road Ahead... Next Steps" and we talked about the future, decision making, and more. The speakers gave really practical and personal advice, and the muffins, coffee, cider and homemade caramel sauce and whipped cream were delicious!

I had some homemade caramel sauce left from Mug 'n' Muffin, so I made a caramel apple pie for my RAs which was amazing!

That night I also made them quesadillas with homemade tortillas! I found jalapenos at the store (a first!), so they were SPICY!

Susie and I finally got to hang out together on Friday night in the midst of our busy-ness. We made egg rolls and fried rice for dinner and watched a movie together.

Today Susie, Josh, Alisha and I are preparing a Thanksgiving FEAST for all the RAs - there will be 16 of us total, and we are making over 10 different dishes! I am making applesauce, mashed potatoes, dinner rolls and apple cider.

I will try to remember to take pictures!

Barcelona #3

A few other places....

Our first night in the city we went up Montjuic hill, and saw the outside of the Art Museum, a beautiful sunset, and some great views of the city...

And also a fountain/lights show! The wind was strong at times, and we got a bit wet!

This is the Barcelona Cathedral, which was in the Gothic area of Barcelona.

inside - so many things to look at!

Another day we took a bus tour, and went up Montserrat Mountain. This is the main courtyard, with the monestary on the far right.

 Then we took another funicular up to the very top of the mountain.

We went on a short hike, but the signs were confusing!

We were a bit scared by some parts of the trail, but we made it safely...

 This was the building at the end of our hike - I think it was a small church - inside was just one big room.

At the top of the mountain

I have this picture of Lionel Messi (a Barca football player) because two of my students asked me to get his autograph for them. The closest I could get to seeing him was to buy a post card, and take pictures with it everywhere! :)

In Montserrat

At the beach