finals week

During finals week, Residence Life hosts a coffee house for the students to give them a study break and some caffeine. I planned one for my dorm by myself, and hosted in this past Sunday night. I made lots of coffee, and the toppings we had were whipped cream, caramel sauce, cinnamon sugar, cocoa powder and milk. I also made (48) homemade lemon poppyseed muffins! The students seemed really happy to have the coffee - there were around 65 students that night, and I ran out of everything!

here is the photo I posted in the Facebook event page as one way of advertising the coffee house... i think the homemade muffins brought a lot of people!

The deal I made with my residents was if they liked a post in the Facebook event page by Monday morning, we would have ANOTHER coffee house. They followed through, so I spent my Tuesday afternoon baking more muffins - this time I made 56 buttermilk spice muffins. You would think that 

here is the photo I posted again on the Facebook event page for the second night.

I am pretty tired after both coffee houses and all that muffin baking, and glad that it is almost the end of the week. Tonight, however, I have had several knocks on my door - since it is check out time, this is not a surprise. One of them, though, was some very sweet girls who delivered a plate of yummy looking banana-filled, chocolate-topped pancakes! They said it was a thank you for doing all that baking for them, and I was so surprised I didn't know what to say! How sweet!

I promptly ate some of the pancakes after taking this picture, and they were delicious!

I will be heading to the States for two weeks to celebrate Christmas with my family, so this will be my last post for a couple weeks. Enjoy the holidays with your friends and family as well, and see you in the new year!

Christmas program

Last night (Friday) was the annual LCC Christmas program (and Christmas fair). Student Life plans this program, and does all the work to make it come together. My boss, Alisha, was in charge of most of the parts, and each of the RDs led a musical group. Josh led the band, Alicia directed the bell choir, and I did the (vocal) choir. The musical groups and actors have been practicing since the beginning of November, and we were excited to perform. I worked really hard at arranging some pieces for the choir, and even wrote an accompaniment for the bell choir on one of our songs. I am also sore from helping move all the set-up equipment (stage, couches, lights, choir risers, etc), but I really enjoyed the program and performing with the choir in particular.

The premise of the program was a family who told different versions of the Christmas story. The dad told an updated version with all the traditional characters.

See a part of the dad's story here.

Part of the dad's story included musical numbers from the choir and band.
See one of the band's songs here.
See one of the choir's songs here. (I arranged this one myself!)

The mom told a story of her friend Gladys, who was our new Chaplain (a guy) dressed up as a woman. My camera battery ran out, so I don't have any videos of this, but it was hilarious!

Christmas cookies

A couple days ago, I needed to make some Christmas cookies to donate for the Admissions Christmas fair and as a prop for the Christmas program. The Christmas fair is held right before the Christmas program, and there are lots of booths with homemade items to buy, as well as hot cider and cookies made by the staff/faculty. So, I made sugar cookie dough and invited some of my residents over to help me decorate cookies. It was good to have them there, because we all inspired each other to be very creative in decorating!

helpers - my RA, Nasta, Ania and Lera

more helpers - Sasha and Shafa

some very detailed cookies!!!

Here are all the cookies we made for the fair and program. Note the Lithuanian flag colors on the star in the top left corner - one of my favorites.

There were LOTS more cookies, so we ate some and the girls took the rest back to their floor to give to other students.

Two students (Evaldas and Andrej) enjoying the cookies that the girls brought to them. Apparently they really liked them!

The decoration is something the whole floor made together, and of course it's quite ironic for this picture in particular...

RA fun

Each week I try to make a meal for my RAs for the end of our team meeting. I enjoy trying out new recipes, and I'm pretty sure they like eating food! This past week, I made spaghetti and meatballs for the first time, and they were super delicious...

2/3 of the meatballs before they went into the tomato sauce

enjoying the finished product

We also decided to go bowling together as a team. We found an afternoon when it would be cheaper at the bowling alley, and enjoyed getting off campus and creating some healthy competition. 

Dima trying to roll a strike...

Nasta and Vika awaiting their turn...

Halloween Dance

This past Friday, Residence Life organized a Halloween Dance for the students. We decorated the venue with ghost wind socks, ping pong eyeballs stuck onto Christmas lights, paper bats, and creepy lighting. The event was similar to a carnival, with some games like corn hole, pin the tail on a skeleton donkey, ghost bowling and more. We also had snacks, dancing, and some other games on stage with volunteers from the audience. The amount of students that came was disappointing to us, but we had lots of fun with those who did come.

game where students raced to melt ice cubes with a prize inside using only their body heat

classic "donuts on a string" game

feeling creepy food - this cold spaghetti was supposed to be brains

with photo booth props - i made the vampire fangs and jack-o-lantern smiles for this event

and the creepy costumes... the girl in the center of this picture won the costume contest.

yikes!

two RAs in their costumes

these ones were the most scary to me!

all in all, we had FUN!

Sielos Festival

This weekend was busy! One of the activities I did was go to a Christian music festival called Sielos. The LCC Chapel band played as well as another band I'm in with Josh and Alisha Garber, two fellow faculty from LCC. There were 7 of us in total, and we drove about 90 minutes to get to Taurage, where the festival was. We did sound checks, then ate lunch and played some Uno, and then went to perform in two different venues. We stuck around afterwards to hear another band from Klaipeda play, and then drove back home. The middle of Lithuania is pretty dark and feels like the middle of no where so late at night! We had a good time of worshipping, hanging out and laughing together - a long but fun day. These photos are all from Angelina, who is a student member of the Chapel band.

the festival logo... we could not figure out why the first "s" is partially cut off.

while playing Uno and hanging out before performing, we gained some fans!

more hanging out time... with weird gummy worms

L-R: blurry fan, Alisha, Nati and Lera

the only picture of headless me playing the bass during Josh, Alisha's and my performance

Josh and Alisha singing and playing.

Josh can play the drums, guitar and sing at the same time, which was pretty amazing to the sound guys - they thought he was some kind of acrobat!

Tallinn #2

Here are a few more pictures from places I went during my time in Tallinn. I started to get "fancy" with my camera settings. :)

On the way to the Seaplane Harbour museum, I took this shot.

At the Seaplane Harbour museum, I saw a lot of bouys, boats, bombs, tanks, guns, a submarine and ship stuff. This museum is inside seaplane hangers built in the early 20th century. This is a sight from one of the guns I looked at.

Inside the sumbarine Lembit - it was crowded and had lots of knobs and buttons and dials. The bunks for the crew were just spread out where ever there was a free spot, as you can see from this picture.

A shot of the water/harbour/clouds from Seaplane Harbour.

Another place I visited was the grounds/arena where Estonians first gathered in the late 1980s to sing national songs as a form of resistance during Soviet occupation. As a part of this resistance in August 1989, approximately two million people joined hands to form a human chain from Tallinn, Estonia to Vilnius, Lithuania (370 miles!) to demonstrate their desire for independence. 

inside the arena looking up at the clouds

Tallinn #1

This past week I took a trip to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia for 5 days during LCC's fall break. I went by myself because my other plans fell through less than one week before, and so I actually had to take pictures myself! :) Here's the first round...

This is the awesome little attic room where I stayed. It was small but cozy, and I enjoyed lots of sleep and reading at night after long days of walking and seeing the sights.

Here is a picture of Old Town from one of the great viewing points. You can see St. Nicholas' church on the left - it is not used for worship anymore, but for concerts and as an art gallery. 

One of the most famous artworks in St. Nicholas' church is Danse Macabre. Here you can see the priest, Death playing the bagpipes, Death carrying a coffin, the emperor  and another Death holding his hand. The painting represents how death unites/is common to everyone, and that we should remember how our earthly life is fragile and fleeting.

This is a dragon on top of the Town Hall, along with the blue, black and white flag of Estonia. The dragon is supposed to keep the politicians from corruption.

This is one of the delicious meals I had: corn frittata with ratatouille...

and lime and white chocolate cake! (Like cheesecake with white chocolate poured on top.)

And another meal: handmade pasta with salmon, tomato and snap peas, with a creamy pesto sauce.

Art Week

This past week Residence Life organized "Art Week" to celebrate artists and various forms of art on LCC's campus. We had 4 different events during the week.
Monday: "Collaborative Music, Crafts and Coffee" Musicians met to exchange ideas, LCC students led art workshops, and coffee was served
Tuesday: "Cooking Class" Students could make mini fruit pies - crust, filling and topping with a creative twist (I led this one on my own!)
Wednesday: "Funky Jam" Musicians from Klaipeda and LCC combined to play jazz music together - always a highlight - and milkshakes were served
Thursday: "Art Show" An art gallery was set up with student and faculty/staff children's art, along with live music and "fancy water"
It was fun to see people come out to these events, and to see the art that was created. The Art Show was probably one of my favorites - it was refreshing to see all the art that students and children made come together.

 in the middle of making pies at the Cooking Class

attendees enjoying the music at Funky Jam

interactive visual artwork that took place at Funky Jam - students could use paints to paint something that they heard in the music/experienced that evening

we even had some youth from the community that came to dance while the musicians played!

Artists and their art during the Art Show

Bohdana Kozubenko - photography

Ana Ivanov - paper art

 Kate Linnik (on the left) - acrylic painting

Kate and Charlotte Bawulski - mixed media art in the Kids' Corner