a busy weekend!

This weekend was full of events - one was that I went to listen to thesis defenses by this year's seniors. One was done by my RA, and many others by students I knew. I couldn't understand most of the business presentations, but the psychology one was a bit easier to comprehend. Still very interesting and a good way to celebrate the work the students have done!

 The five economics thesis presenters

Ana, Nastya, Eric (their professor and advisor), Ira (my RA!), Denis and Vaiva

The other thing I did yesterday was go to a music festival in a town called Taurage, which is about an hour away. There is a band that I play with sometimes, and we went to play a few songs at this festival. We were quite out of place because most of the other performers were choirs or classical soloists, but we still had a good time. (We are a rock worship band). It was fun to hang out with them, to laugh, talk, and play together.

Here's our band! :) 

(I'm in the back on the bass)

apple crisp party

Tonight my RAs and I organized an event for all the West side residents. We made TEN pans of apple crisp served with ice cream! We were hosted in a faculty apartment and we opened the door and had loud music and chairs outside! It almost felt like spring! I was hoping that students would come to get food and at least stay while they were eating instead of just being served and going right back to their rooms. And they stayed - I got to have conversations with many different students. A lot of students also came to me and said thank you - I felt like we did a great job of executing a big event all by ourselves!

Thanks to my awesome RAs for their help and to Bethany (a fellow staff member and good friend) for hosting us in her luxurious apartment!

Ira, Iuna and I serving apple crisp and ice cream

finished product

I finished all the folding, addressing and stamping of the invitations from yesterday's picture! The invitations are for an event on April 16 called "Mug n' Muffin", which involves homemade muffins, a special coffee drink, and women from the LCC community sharing their stories or speaking on a specific topic. This time the event is entitled "Who Am I: Knowing and Loving Yourself". Mug n' Muffin is usually well-attended and always very encouraging and thought-provoking. This weekend I had the task of finishing all the invitations so we could hand them out on Tuesday. I watched 4 movies while working on them, and my finger was black from so much stamping! I think they turned out well....

(Inside there are details about the event)

my weekend plans

Here's what I've been working on for over 3 hours already this weekend! Later I will tell you what their purpose is....

I've had a really busy week working on housing for Fall 2012, and getting ready for the long weekend - we have a day off on Monday. I have lots of plans, including:

- An on campus movie festival organized by StuCo to show student made short films

- A "girl's party" at Susie's apartment

- Going to see an Easter muge (craft fair) at the shopping center close to campus

- Lunch with a visiting drama team (called Covenant Players) who did drama at our Good Friday Chapel yesterday

- Worship team practice in preparation for another worship night

- Making tortillas from scratch

- Helping a colleague iron and sort her kid's clothes to give away (they are leaving after this year)

- Shopping in preparation for a Neumann West event on Tuesday

- Having the future Neumann West RAs over for dinner and games

It's going to be a busy weekend! I'm on duty, so I get to stay here and make sure everything is going ok as well. I can be off campus, but not for long periods of time, and not overnight. So, I will be celebrating Easter in a non-traditional way this year. Have a great weekend everyone!

Another week gone by...

One more week closer to returning to the States! The last week has been full of events, but I apologize, because I have not done a good job of taking pictures. Last Friday, there was a major annual event called Parade of Stars. Different countries represented at LCC make a presentation about some aspect about their country. This year the theme was "celebration" and there were different skits about how a wedding or baptism would be or other stories. The evening was very entertaining!

 Participating countries holding their flags to being the event

(L-R) Lithuania, Albania, Russia, US, Moldova, Latvia, Ukraine and Belarus

On Saturday evening, I went to a concert! For being in Student Life, we get one free ticket to a concert of our choice. I picked one with the Lithuanian National Orchestra and a piano soloist playing three of Tchaikovsky's piano concertos. The piano player especially was very good and the evening made me want to be in orchestra again!

AND, tonight I had my new RAs over for the first time! I was a little nervous, but the evening turned out really well. We ate tacos, talked and played charades - and they stayed for THREE hours!!!! (Not what I expected, but still awesome!) It's very different having guys on the team, but I think I will like it! :) We laughed a lot, and I think already have set a good foundation for friendship and conversation. Hopefully we will be effective workers too!

Susie's birthday

Today was Susie's birthday, so the Community Life team planned a surprise lunch for her! I blindfolded her in her office, and led her around campus so she would be confused as to where she was going. We ended up in Alex's apartment, and ate garlic rice with thai chicken sauce, a salad, and carrot cake. It was fun to eat and talk together about something other than work! Happy birthday Susie!

Getting ready to leave the office

Group shot

L-R: Levi, Olena, Alex, Susie and me

Susie is holding the flowers and card that we gave her

RA retreat

Last night we had our RA retreat - I planned the evening's activities. I spent Saturday getting my apartment ready - I changed the furniture around and brought in pillows and mattresses to make it comfy and a bit more special. And I made sure to say once they got there that we were NOT going to talk about school during the evening! Our first activity was a short photo shoot done by another LCC student. I had gathered some props that we used, and the pictures turned out SO GOOD!!!! I can't wait for you to see them, so I'll put them in right now - aren't they all so beautiful?!?!?!

In front of LCC's sign

Neumann (our dorm) is in the background on the left

being silly!

After the photo shoot, (my RAs had requested foods including peanut butter and fruit), we ate homemade peanut butter granola with yogurt, milk and fruit. It was good, but took a long time to chew. :) Then we played several different games, including Dutch Blitz (one of our favorites), and another one in which we drew pictures, analyzed them, and answered some "life" questions based on the pictures to get to know each other better. Then we talked for a while about many different things. I didn't want the evening to end!