Serve Day

Serve Week culminated yesterday (Saturday) when all of the freshman, student leaders, Student Life staff and First Year Seminar instructors spent several hours doing service projects in the Klaipeda community. Tasks ranged from raking leaves at churches and orphanages, laying AstroTurf at a school for disabled children (to make it easier for them to play outside), and cleaning windows, mopping and picking up trash on LCC's campus. The Spiritual Life team also served by making an appreciation meal to serve to all the participants afterwards. I was able to help out the RAs this year, and we raked leaves and picked up apples at a nearby orphanage, and played games with the orphans for a little while as well. This year I felt like the organization by Student Life was much more effective, and we gave students a picture of why they were serving rather than it just being an obligation. Overall, it was a really positive afternoon!

getting ready for hard work

students working on campus

Spiritual Life team (and Alisha) working to prepare soup

one of my RAs raking leaves at the orphanage

Serve Week

This week is Serve Week at LCC, and I have a couple pictures from a few activities we've done (one that is about service and one that is not). 

One activity from tonight was a scavenger hunt. I sent my RAs to find all the clues I had hidden for them, and they ended up meeting me at the last location, where we ate dinner and played a game. I saw this picture on FB afterwards, and thought it was funny. This is in the middle of the hunt with one of the clues.

Later tonight we served our residence hall by cutting up carrots and apples for each room and hand delivering them. Students were pretty surprised to see us, but happy to have free food!

(L-R: Nastia, Viktoriya, Kirill and Dima)

Ugly Duckling

Every year we have a Residence Life event called Ugly Duckling. Basically there are three teams that each build a boat to race across the LCC pond. The teams are from the two on campus residence halls: Neumann East, Neumann West and Enns. The event includes some fun games, a relay race and then the boat race. The pictures I have are from the LCC FB page.

one of the games beforehand was tossing a water balloon between teams with a bed sheet

there were pirates in the pond who tried to knock participants off their boats - i was glad i didn't have to come in contact with them!

part of the Enns team - my guys!

the beginning of the boat race - Neumann East is in the lead, with Enns and Neumann West close behind

part of the grand prize for the winners (Neumann East) was mini duck erasers

Nothing like a little bit of healthy competition to bring students and dorms together!

multi-tasking

I'm playing in Chapel again this year, and today I played bass, tambourine AND oboe all in the same Chapel! (only bass and tambourine at the same time, though.) :) Bethany (a good friend and also Spiritual Formations Coordinator) took a picture of me, and posted it on the Spiritual Life FB page. I thought it was funny, and so I'll share it with you...

She told me to "look happy" so I did!

Half Marathon Results

Today I ran a half marathon (13.1 miles/21.1 km)! This summer I started running again (little by little) after having knee problems for 1.5 years, and was finally able to work up to the race today! My knees and legs are sore right now, but it was so worth it. I went with 7 other colleages from LCC - 5 who ran and 2 who took some pictures of us and walked around Vilnius while we were racing. It was a cool morning, and there were LOTS of other runners there. I don't know exact numbers, but I'm pretty sure there were over 1000 in the half marathon alone.

I ran another half marathon race 3 years ago, and got a time of 1:54, which I was really happy with. Because my left knee was sore before we started, I was just hoping for anything under 2 hours. But, I was able to get 1:54 AGAIN! The worst part of the race for me was between 16-19 km, when there were a few hills and I got really tired and sore. Right after we crossed the finish line, we had to stand in a huge crowd to wait for our medals, and my legs tensed up fast. But after I got my medal, I found the others who ran and we took pictures and went to eat Indian food to celebrate! (Thanks to Sarune for all the instagram pictures. I hope more will be coming soon.)

the night before the race... getting ready mentally

1 hour before the race started... nervous but excited

afterwards... tired and happy to be done!

L-R: me, Sanna, Sarune and Robin

I need to get me a blue shirt! :)

Community Day

Every year Student Life plans a big event called Community Day to kick off the new year... The event always includes hot dogs, games, and prizes! Last year we started a new tradition of a 5K run/walk. The event happened yesterday, and the weather was thankfully really nice - sunny and almost warm! My RAs and I planned several games, and I also helped prepare food and grill hot dogs. It was a really fun (and exhausting) day! These pictures I have to share are from the LCC Facebook page.

runners after crossing the finish line (these students are all from my hall)

hot dogs before (you can see my head in the background)

and Alisha (my new boss) in the front

hot dogs after (this student is also from my building)

tug of war! To brag about my awesome residents, 
in the Enns vs. Neumann match, Enns WON!

new RAs

So, we've had a busy week of training and classes started today! This means a bit more relaxing schedule for me, and more time to plan events and spend with my RAs. Tonight we are having spicy peanut noodles and key lime popsicles for dinner after our team meeting. Here are some pictures to introduce them to you. Thanks to Josh, a fellow RD for the pictures.

Viktoriya, a fourth year business major from Ukraine

Dmitrii, a second year business major from Russia

Nastassia, a third year business major from Belarus

Kirill, a fourth year business major from Russia

(probably you recognize him from last year, too!)

Here is a picture of all the RAs and RDs for Neumann and Enns,

taken at the end of training week.