Ugly Duckling Cup

Thursday was a big Residence Life event called the Ugly Duckling Cup. This is an annual LCC event that I have heard a lot about and was very excited to participate in! Four teams (3 student and 1 faculty/staff) built boats mainly out of inner tubes, plastic bottles and wooden palates (and a few other things) to race around the pond on campus. This year, no boats sank, and my side (Wild Wild West was our team name) won! We got an ice cream party and the Ugly Duckling Cup - a trophy with a rubber ducky on top. 

The miracle of the day was that it was rainy pretty much all day except for the one hour when we were outside for the race! The weather in Lithuania is very unpredictable, but it turned out to be sunny and beautiful! I don't have very many pictures since I was participating and planning, but here's a few....

 Two girls (Ana and Nastya) from the West side showing off their boat and flag with the team name - Wild Wild West

 Wild Wild West is the best, the best, the best! (announcing our team)

 Faculty/staff team 

Our team name was "UGLY" and our cheer was "U-G-L-Y! You ain't got no alibi! You ugly!"

We lost the race, but we won the prize for snazziest boat (in the left of the picture)

 A warm-up game where each team had to have, for example, six feet, one head, and 4 hands on the ground.

Teams beginning the race! The West side team is just getting in the water in this picture. They were behind at the beginning of the race, but their boat held up better than the others, so they ended up pulling into the lead!

 

office

Sorry it's been a while since I've posted - it's been a busy week! Today when I was working in my office, they finally came to put my name on the sign outside the door! It's official now! :) 

 That's me! :)

 My office - I love that there are two big windows to let in light and warmth!

the weekend

I had a fairly relaxing weekend - the weather continues to be sunny, which I'm thoroughly enjoying! On Saturday, the Intercultural team held the Intercultural Olympics. Nine different countries competed by playing lots of games including a photo scavenger hunt, water balloon toss, pillow fighting and more. Saturday evening I spent with Susie and Bethany planning for our fall break trip to Turkey (and eating Thai food) at Susie's house. A few pictures...

 The Intercultural Olympics carried on the tradition of an Olympic flame (a tiki torch in our case) and each country's representative parading with their flag around the stadium. The teams are standing in the center cheering them on!

 Moldova vs. Russia in the pillow-fighting game

 A final shot of all the participants and their flags - so beautiful!

Getting ready to enjoy a delicious meal

Community Day

Community Day was a huge success! The whole event was moved inside because of rain (welcome to Lithuania!) but we still had fun! There was face painting, a cake walk, twister, tug of war and more. When it was time to serve hot dogs, the rain had stopped, and people went to stand outside - and the DJ moved outside and we had an impromptu dance party! A great start to the year!

 Lithuanian style hot dogs - with cucumber and onion

 line dancing

 face painting

 We had a few sponsors for the event, including Red Bull - Alex's favorite.

 Yum!

Chapel worship band

I've been put in charge of organizing the Chapel Worship band this year. Last week I was pretty stressed out about it, considering I don't have much experience with leading worship. There are several returning members from last year that helped me get things started, and I sent an email out to students asking if they wanted to be involved. I was totally amazed by the response! (I'd definitely say it was a God thing!) I have two guitar players, at least one piano player, a drummer, and 8 singers! (AND one of the guitar players has a lot of experience leading worship already, so I get to play the bass and not be up front, which I prefer). The best part is that they're all very talented and have true hearts for worship! I'm so excited to get to play with this this semester/year!

Today was our first chapel, and it turned out really great! Energetic, meaningful and so much more! I had a friend sneak some pictures today as well so you can see these awesome students! :)

 Julija, Angelina, Anna, me, Amanda (another one!) and Alexey
Aliya, the drummer is behind Alexey

A bit closer....

Community Day prep

Today is Community Day! This is an annual opening of the year event planned by Student Life, which includes games, a barbeque, and prizes. We've been planning for weeks, and yesterday was a big prep day. I got to go shopping at a bulk store called Promo to buy cucumbers (which is what Lithuanians put on hot dogs), napkins, charcoal, and many other items. My team is in charge of the guessing game, so last night we counted out candy, cookies and tea into different jars. Students will guess how many they think are in each jar, and who ever is closest will win the goodies!

 Vaida (Student Life Office Manager) and I taking a coffee break after shopping for groceries at Promo.

 Iuna and Ira counting mini Snickers

 Melisa and Anya counting tea and cookies

 The finished product! 

 Today we cut buns and peeled hot dogs for the barbeque.

celebrations!

Yesterday was the first day of school in Klaipeda, and so there was a celebration in the town square. There were stilt-walkers and dancing and singing performances as well as lots of flowers. The students almost all bring flowers for their teachers on the first day of school. It was so neat to see all the bright colors, beautiful flowers, and dressed up students - young and old!

 There's a Euro Basket tournament going on in Lithuania at the moment, so of course part of the school celebration included students dribbling and shooting baskets.

 All the little ones dressed up and watching the ceremony from the center of the square.

We also celebrated the first week of classes with a batch of egg nog!

 Skaiste, Kate and John in the kitchen

 Putting the finishing dash of nutmeg on the top