dinners continued

Tonight I had some very lovely girls over for dinner - I've connected with them several times before, and so was really looking forward to getting to know them better. We've been trying for over a month to find a time that works for all 6 of us - and tonight was the night! I made lentil coconut curry, and we talked about stories from our childhood - quite hilarious!

(L-R) me, Vlada, Ania, Kelli, Roberta and Ingrida

the weekend

This past weekend was busy, but really fun! One of the things that happened was a worship night. One of my Chapel worship team members organized it, and I got to play bass! He also asked some people from our church to sing and play with us - I really enjoyed getting to know them better. We had drums, electric guitar, and more - it was rockin'!

Alex (student from LCC), Jovita, Krista, Marta, Lina (all from our church) and me

(drummer and another guitar player are not in the picture)

This is just a random picture with two LCC students at church on Sunday morning.

Helen (left) is from Belarus, and Gina (right) is from the US.

Finland Day #3

On our last day in Finland, we enjoyed a delicious restaurant recommended by a local (our weekend splurge). The restaurant did not have an English menu, so we thought that was probably a good indication of where we should go to taste real Finnish food. We each got something different to eat, and were each very pleased with our choices! My dish was in a skillet, and had a piece of bread on the bottom, then chicken cubes, pineapple, and a very tomato-y and creamy sauce, and melted cheese and spinach on top. It was definitely comfort food!

 My dish before digging in

We also shared a chocolate dessert with ice cream.

It was kind of a fancy restaurant, but it didn't stop me from licking in the plate,

because everything was so good!

That day we also went to a spy museum (which we couldn't take pictures of). It had some hands-on activities which we enjoyed, as well as the information about spies and tactics from the past. We also stopped at a small outdoor shopping market with various homemade Finnish crafts. We were sad to leave when the weekend was over, but really enjoyed our time away!

One more picture of Old Town Tampere.

Finland Day #2

Day #2 was our only full day in Tampere. We began the morning by asking our next door neighbor to help us find the city center. Once we got to the center and he gave told us a few places to go, we walked around for a while. Our first stops were H&M (a clothing store) and a little cafe for lunch.

wandering around the streets

a picture of a Finnish family at the cafe, disguised by us "taking a picture" of Kelli

Next we went to find an observation tower to get a view of the whole city. We stopped at a cool church on our way there, and also ended up walking around for a while because we still didn't quite have our bearings. We did eventually find the observation tower, with a beautiful view of the city and the lakes on either side of it. Another awesome part was that the cafe at the base of the tower had the best doughnuts EVER!!!! They were fresh, warm, had some kind of spice inside and coarse sugar on the outside. YUM!!!!

 showing off the church

trying to find the observation tower in the middle of a winter wonderland

we made it!

at the top - a view of one of the lakes in the background

eating the yummy doughnuts

After the observation tower, we went to see the Tampere art museum. We enjoyed the art from Bali - it was very detailed and colorful.

After the art museum we were tired, so we decided to go back to our apartment, cook dinner and relax for the evening. We made pasta and roasted broccoli, and had a good evening of laughter and a movie.

Finland Day #1

We had such a good time in Finland this weekend! It's hard to know where to begin or which pictures to post! We leisurely left on Friday afternoon, took the city bus to Akropolis (a mall) but then had to rush to catch our bus to Kaunas (city we were flying out of). 

 Saying our goodbyes

The flight was very empty, so we each got our own row!

That night we were very hungry when we arrived at our very cute apartment, so we made fried potatoes and oatmeal, which were the only things we could find to eat in the house besides the candy and cookies the host had left for us.

Cooks extraordinaire

There was so much snow all over the place, and it was really neat to see different architecture and a different place all together. I'll leave you with one picture from day #2 to whet your appetite!

Downtown Tampere

(Make sure you click on the picture to see it in a larger view)

Finland!

I'm heading to Finland tomorrow morning for a few days, so I won't be posting over the weekend. I'll be sure to come back with lots of pictures though! Hope you all have a great weekend as well!

Blind Date

In honor of Valentine's Day, there is an annual event hosted by Residence Life at LCC called Blind Date. It's like many of the dating shows you may have seen on TV, except (hopefully) not quite as stupid. Tonight was the night for this event, and I was on the "structure" planning team. We worked really hard to make the logistics and schedule of the actual event go smoothly, and although I'm quite exhausted right now, it turned out to be a really funny and enjoyable evening. Here's a bit more info in pictures.... (none of them are mine, since I was working the entire event and didn't have time to take pictures of my own).

Three boys were on one side of the curtain, and the girl on the other side was asking them some questions. Then she chose one of them to be her "date" for the evening.

And vice versa. (Those are sheets from my bed separating them!) :)

Then the four couples played several games, and the audience chose a winner for each game. In the game in this picture, the couple had to answer questions about each other - matching answers received a point. This couple (Jessica and Zaza) was last place. :(

They also played a game with dancing to different kinds of music, and another game where they had to make up words for a movie clip. (No pictures from these games - sorry!)

Third place - Katja and Elsi

Kelli and Vadim (her "date", not pictured) were second place.

And even though they didn't get this question right, Lindsay and Kiril won!

trips

So I haven't taken any pictures this past week - it's been a busy one with meetings and preparing for two big events we have this coming week. We also have a holiday on Thursday, and so two Study Abroad students (from America) and I are taking off to Tampere, Finland over the weekend! We're not actually going over the holiday, but we found cheap flights, so.... It's going to be cold there, but we're mostly looking forward to going somewhere new and getting out of Klaipeda for a bit.

The other trip I'm taking is one in August to return to LCC next year! I realized the other day that I haven't written anything on here about my big decision. I gave my answer on Monday, January 30, and have been feeling overall good about the it ever since. I'm looking forward to getting to know students better next year because I have some history with them, to knowing a little more about LCC than when I came last year, and to getting to make new friends!

freezing

Yesterday it was -14 degrees Farenheit outside, and we were all frigidly waiting at the bus stop for around 5 minutes. I think it's going to stay this cold for a while.... but at least we're all happy to be going to church!

haircut (not me this time)

Usually I'm the one to go crazy about cutting my hair (as anyone who has ever been around me long knows). But tonight, I went to visit one room on the 2nd floor, and one girl who lives there decided to spontaneously cut her hair and I was the hairdresser!!!! It was really fun - and all her roommates were really excited too! It was quite the fun random activity - just the kind of thing that builds memories, and something that makes the time here worthwhile! I think the cut turned out ok too....

 Before, with the roomies

The first cut!!!

Look at all that hair! Ewww it's all over my feet! :)

After

pizza #3

Pizza seems to be the theme food for this past week! Iuna, my RA from the 5th floor, organized a floor event last night, and each room made their own pizzas. Iuna and I made the dough by hand (her first time), and each room brought their own toppings for their pizza. There were so many different kinds! It was so much fun to have everyone there cooking together. While enjoying our pizza, we watched an old movie - The Gods Must Be Crazy.

Hedi from room 502

 Maryna and Anna from 501 and Iuna, my RA

 Olesya and Maddi from 506

Oksana, Iuna and Guliaz from 503

Olga and Alexis from 501

Iryna, Anna and Anna from 505

and me!

more pizza

Last night I had another room from my side of the dorm over for dinner. I made pizza again, like I did with my RA's on Monday. The girls who came were very nice - I enjoyed getting to know them and a little about where they grew up. Two girls are from Belarus, and we talked about their current economic and political situation. Three girls are from the Caucasus countries, and they shared with me about their culture, language and church. 

Hedi, Yuliya, Irsana, Nastya and Daria
(Can you find ones who are twins?)