RA Retreat

This weekend I went on retreat with my RAs for about 24 hours. We had a lot of fun, played games and ate some delicious food. We found a place to stay for free (a friend's apartment) so we had money to spend on food and other entertainment. We played pool, Ticket to Ride, the question game, and cards. We ate at a new pizza place which is a new favorite of mine - my favorite pizza we got had spicy mustard on top! We watched a movie, slept in, and ate chocolate pancakes with raspberry jam and sour cream. Overall, we had a wonderful time together, and I feel more excited about finishing out the semester with these 4 very special people.

  Dima and Kirill trying to catch a few last minutes of sleep before breakfast.

Viktoriya and Nasta enjoying the chocolate pancakes.

V-day and Smelt

This week we had several big events to plan and execute, but they were very funny and enjoyable. One of the events was called Blind Date - it was a game show where couples matched during the show compete to be the funniest by playing different games. My RA team was in charge of advertising, so we did several things to make sure students knew about the event. One of them was dressing up as Cupid and delivering Valentines to many residents.

Dima and Kirill dressed up... they were actually excited to do this!

Another thing I did this weekend was go to the Palanga Smelt Festival. Palanga is a town about 20 minutes away from where I live. Two friends and I took a bus there, and went to celebrate the Smelt Festival with other Lithuanians. Smelt (stinta in Lithuanian) is a small fish; apparently it is plentiful in February, so why not have a festival?! Today there were craft and food booths and live musicians. It was cold but we enjoyed walking around and eating fried smelt and smelt soup. The other crazy thing that happens during this festival is a "polar bear run" into the sea. We didn't get there in time to see this, but I found this picture of the run from earlier in the day. Crazy people!!!

BRRRR!!!!!

Birthday #2

And tonight we celebrated Nastassia's birthday - she is turning 20 tomorrow. She requested Thai food, so I made a green chicken curry with rice and spicy pear chutney. Also, for dessert we had the infamous carrot cake with cream cheese frosting. We also learned that both Kirill and Nasta were born in the afternoon on their birthday, which is uncommon - apparently most babies are born in the morning.

The birthday girl with her dinner. She said her hair was in two braids because this is her last chance to be a "child" before turning the big 2-0.

Vika and Nasta

Birthday #1

Tonight we celebrated Kirill's birthday - he is turning 22 tomorrow! On his request, I made orange chicken with rice, and chocolate peanut butter cake. Everyone including Kirill enjoyed the food very much, and they left with full bellies! I learned how to say "Happy birthday" in Russian as well, but I can't write it so you'll just have to ask me next time you see me! :)

Kirill getting ready to taste the first bite...

Everyone enjoying... L-R: Dima, Kirill, Vika and Nasta

I'm pretty sure Dima's face is just a joke!