pumpkin party

Tonight Bethany and I organized a pumpkin party! We ate pumpkin chili, cornbread with jalapenos and cheese, and pumpkin chocolate cheesecake. We also carved pumpkins and played a game. It was especially fun because today was the last day before fall break, and so everyone was very relaxed and excited for the upcoming week. (I'm going to ISTANBUL!!!!)

Levi and John after enjoying pumpkin chili

scooping out the insides of the pumpkin

 carving artists at work inside

Bethany's cupcake

Jennifer's bat

Susie's spider

Levi's sad face

 Levi's and my ladybug

 John's kiwi bird, fern and "NZ" for New Zealand

Alex's thought bubble with shapes inside

Pumpkins with Klaipeda in the background

The other sides

fall

Yesterday was a beautiful fall day in Klaipeda, which is apparently very unusual for this time of year. My good friend and boss, Susie, and I walked in the sculpture park near her house. The sun was so warm and the air crisp - a perfect day! (Thanks for the pictures, Susie!)

 The sun streaming through the trees

 laying in the leaves....

 One of the many sculptures in the park

Friday, Friday

Yesterday I did two unusual things! 

1. I dyed my hair with henna! My RA, Anya, came to help me - actually she was the one who thought of the idea. I've done this before, but not within the last year or so. It was fun to talk to her and just hang out. 

 Mixing up the dye

 Waiting....

The finished product! It's just enough red to make people look twice. :)

2. I gave a presentation in my Lithuanian class on my family - all in Lithuanian! We've learned verbs, grammar and most recently some adjectives and family words, so I was able to talk about my parents, brother, grandparents, and what they do for a living or for fun. I also described the animals we have on our farm, including the peacocks which everyone was very excited about. Someone even asked me to imitate their sound, which I did, much to the class' amusement. 

"Povas" in Lithuanian

progressive dinner

Last night we got together for a progressive dinner with the Student Life team. We went to the five different on campus apartments for five different courses. It was a fun evening of fellowship and food! I apologize for my lack of picture taking, but here's a few....

First we went to Levi's for kepta duona, a Lithuanian appetizer made with fried rye bread, mayonnaise, garlic and cheese - delicious!! 

Next we walked across the hall to my apartment and had pumpkin curry or broccoli and blue cheese soup.

 Then up 6 flights of stairs to Olena and Sergio's room for salad.

Next over to Enns Hall for a delicious vegetable pasta bake served by Alex.

And finally to Bethany's apartment in Enns for a rich peanut butter and chocolate pie!

Here we all are the end of the evening - full and happy!

horse back riding retreat

Yesterday, my RA's and I went horseback riding! We are given a small amount of money for a staff retreat each semester, and horseback riding was what they wanted to do. It was the first time for everyone except Anya, but we all enjoyed it very much! I found out about this farm from a Lithuanian colleague at LCC - it is very close to Klaipeda. We went with a guide/leader on a trail through the woods, ended up on the beach. The horses drank from the sea, and then we galloped along the beach - scary but fun! Ira actually almost fell off at one point because the horse turned unexpectedly, and Iuna was quite scared at several points, but they both said they loved it and want to go again! The weather was beautiful - not sunny, but not rainy or windy. All around, it was a great day!

 Waiting to start the trail

 Into the woods (I had some trouble taking clear pictures while riding a horse)

 Anya's horse drinking from the Baltic

Galloping along the beach

 With our guide, Tadas, at the end of the ride

Our legs felt bow-legged after!

We're not in the US anymore!

The other day one of my RA's told me that I should start wearing make up - people here are more dressed up and want to look nice before going out. I let her do my face today, and I wore it all day, which was quite a stretch for me.... I'm not sure if this part of Europe will wear off on me or not!

 Oh my! :)

We also went to Susie's for dinner this evening as a staff. She served us two Goshen College (the college we both were at before coming to LCC) favorites - Chicken Curry in a Hurry and Gooey Butter Cake!

My awesome staff and me!

Serve Day

This past Saturday afternoon, Student Life organized a campus-wide Serve Day. We did lots of service projects around Klaipeda and on campus. I helped the Spiritual Life team cook soup to serve to everyone afterwards - about 250 people! It was a bit stressful at one point for me, because we had four big pots of soup, and nothing was boiling after being on the stove for almost 3 hours! We ended up splitting everything into smaller pots and using the 8 burners in mine and Levi's apartments to cook everything. I'm glad to have had some experience at Rachel's Bread in dealing with stressful situations like this. :) It all turned out ok in the end, and I heard many good comments about the food. Here's a few pictures (not taken by me) that I like.

 Cutting up onions

 Cutting up cooked chicken

 Silvia's excited to be serving! :)

Spiritual Life team serving our soup

a lucky weekend!

Last night I played a game of poker with some students and Levi, the other Neumann RD. I've only played poker once before, and I wasn't very good at keeping a poker face! But last night, somehow, I had quite a few good hands, and ended up winning the game even without a poker face! I was very excited!

 Look at all my winnings!

 Woo hoo! I love Bekzhan's face in this picture.

We also went to the beach after church today, and again we received a beautifully sunny day. A bit colder than last week and with some waves leftover from yesterday's rain, but still an enjoyable walk home.

Service Week

This week is Serve Week at LCC, so we're doing an activity each day related to service. Last night, the RA's in Neumann decided to serve the students by handing out apples, bananas and carrots to each room. We spent some time cutting up the produce and then went to each room to give them a plate of food! I hosted the cutting party, and we had plates of produce laid out all over the apartment (45 in total)!

 Plates in the middle of assembly

Some of the servers - they look very happy! :)

Ira, Iuna, Anya, Levi, Roma and Roman

team meeting #awesome!

Tonight, our weekly team meeting night, was unusually awesome - not too many business items to talk about, a good meal, and DUTCH BLITZ! I made roasted potatoes (originally supposed to be a baked potato bar, but this was easier) with toppings: bacon, broccoli, caramelized onions, sour cream and raw garlic (YUM!). We played Dutch Blitz after the meal for a bit - it was a new game for 3/5 of us, and although they were a bit overwhelmed at first, we had so much fun! One of my RA's even came back later tonight to borrow the deck to play w/ her roommate and her mom, who's visiting this week.

Thanks to those who are praying for relationships on my team and for those who supported me with money. You play an important part in making these special evenings happen!

 Ana, Melisa, me, Iuna and Ira

weather

The weather has been so beautiful the past few weeks here in Klaipeda - which everyone keeps telling me is unusual. So, I've been trying to enjoy the sunshine and warmth as much as I can since winter is quickly approaching. The church that I've decided to go to regularly is less than a 5 minute walk from the sea, and two friends and I have started a tradition to take a short walk after church every week. Today was the perfect day - sunny and warm, and the sea was so blue and calm. We're hoping for the same weather next week so we can take a picnic lunch!

 Jennifer and Bethany

WOW!

mudslides

Last night I had two friends over for a movie and mudslides. Mudslides are something that I've learned about from Hacienda, a chain Mexican restaurant in the Midwest. It's a big chocolate chip cookie slightly underbaked, served right out of the oven with ice cream on top. YUM! It's great in the restaurant, but home made is so much better.

Usually I go somewhere else for an evening away, but I was on duty, so I needed to stay in the building in case anything happened. We were missing one friend who went to St. Petersburg for the weekend, and so we made sure to take pictures of our mudslides to make him jealous. (Although we're a bit jealous of his trip as well).

 Jennifer, me and Bethany ready to enjoy