Day 33

So this past Monday marked 4 weeks since I left home. That means that I only have 3 months left... I'm 1/4 the way done. When I think about it, it doesn't feel that long ago that I left home, but then I realize how much I've done so it makes perfect sense.

I wish I updated this last week because I'm having trouble remembering what I did two weekends ago. Saturday 12 September a lot of the study abroads and the interns took a day trip to Palanga which isn't too far away from Klaipeda. We enjoyed walking around, had a picnic on the lawn of the big castle amber museum. There was a wedding that day so we got to see the whole wedding party get their pictures taken. We spent a few hours by the Sea and went on the pier, then walked around the town and had chocolate covered waffles... so delicious :) That night I stayed in Karklu dorm in Ashton's room. We did some homework, played cards, and just talked. It was a good time. :) Sunday I woke up and did homework, then went to Salvation Army church at night with an ice cream social afterwards. Some toppings that I've never had included raspberry jam! A new favorite.

Last week was busier than what I've experienced so far. I had play practice for The Crucible for the first time, and it's going to be interesting playing a 72 year old woman. My voice has to completely change! I also had my first stressful moment involving my photography and TEIL praticum classes so Thursday wasn't the best day. For some reason I thought that being here would be less stressful (even though it makes total sense that it would be stressful because it's so different here). The main point is that God is good, and I'm so thankful for His faithfulness.

Last weekend was fantastic. Friday afternoon I went to get some "fast food" with a few study abroad friends. In the evening I went to watch the sunset at the Sea with Ashton, her roommate Tania, and another study abroad Rebecca. It was nice time of debriefing from the week and taking pictures of the sunset on the water. At night I watched A Bronx Tale with Vilma and some other friends. Saturday I woke up and participated in the Intercultural Olympics. Team America didn't win, and unfortunately I had to leave early on to go to play practice. Afterwards, I went to Karklu to make borscht, a Ukrainian soup made of beets, cabbage, carrots, onions, potatoes, tomato sauce and water. It was actually pretty good! I came back in the evening to go to the gym with Vilma and we had pizza and Slovakian wafers for dessert. :) It was a great night. Sunday I woke up and did homework, then went to Salvation Army church and went to the Sea to watch the sunset with some friends -- seriously has become a favorite thing to do here.

This week wasn't too bad... I had too good of a weekend so it was hard getting back into the swing of things. I'm really liking my Lithuanian class and it's awesome to have 2 Lithuanian roommates to ask how to pronounce words. I help them with English, they help me with Lithuanian.. it's a good deal. Tonight we are leaving for Tallinn, the capital of Estonia. It's about a ten hour bus ride so we'll arrive in the morning, and I think Saturday we'll drive to Riga (the capital of Latvia) and return on Sunday! It will be great and I'm really looking forward to it.

Next time I will post pictures. :)

Day 18

Whenever we go out into town, I pass over the Danės River. It is absolutely beautiful at night.
Another view when walking home, walking next to the Danės.
Michealsen Centras - this is our cafeteria
Neumann main lobby... feels like a hotel!
My side of the room when I just moved in.
This is Neumann Hall, what I see when I am walking back from class.
Part of my kitchen. Taken before we put any of our food or dishes in.


Floor lounge. So nice! It has 2 stoves/ovens, microwave, cabinets, 3 tables, and 3 incredibly comfy couches which looks out at the pond next to Neumann.
Door!


Laba diena! It seems that every time I create a post, it is a beautiful day. I am dressed as if it's summer, which it sort of is still here. This is one of the nicer days we've had in a while, around 70 degrees but usually it stays in the 60s throughout the day. My window is wide open and the breeze is so nice as it drifts into my room. :) The windows are definitely something that I love here: no screens (although a problem at night when bugs come in, or during the day when bees rarely find their way in also), and HUGE.

I just got back from chapel so I am in a particularly good mood. Chapel is not required here which is different from at Messiah with the 24 required per semester. Here I feel like people actually want to go, and not just to get credit. We sang some of my favorite songs (Amazing Grace, Unashamed Love, Amazing Love...). Theresa, the wife of LCC's new president gave her testimony. She grew up in southern California with her two younger sisters and parents. Holidays and birthday celebrations were frequently ruined because of her father's addiction to alcohol. She went to community college and met a man who was also like her father in his addiction, and they got married and moved to Wyoming. She began going to a small evengelical Protestant church. Others reached out to her and a particular woman would not stop telling her about the name of Jesus. This woman made dishes and dishes of banana pudding to bring over to her house and continually talked about God. After this woman left one June day Theresa went upstairs to a room and knelt down on her bed, asking God to come into her life. She knew that he either would or would not, and at the moment she felt the Holy Spirit fill the entire room- it was the best day of her life, she said. However, with this new change, Theresa's alcoholic husband was not pleased. She said that in 2 Corinthians, God promises that His grace is SUFFICIENT. After that, her marriage failed and she moved to Colorado, where she realized that our God is a God of second, third, seven chances - even 70 times 70. From there she met Kyle, her husband and the president of LCC, and they became friends and prayer partners quickly, marrying 1 1/2 years later. So within that time, Theresa was renewed and knew that God is a father of compassion and when He comforts us, He gives us that power to comfort others in their time of need.

I very much enjoyed this as this past week has been an interesting one. I have realized that I am here in Lithuania THIS semester for a reason, even though I do not know why yet. There are a lot of things going on at home that I wish I could be there for. I've realized that 3 of my good friends from Messiah are studying abroad in the spring so I will not see them til 1 year from NOW. There are other things that I will not say on here but if you could just pray for my friends and family, and being content with my being here.

Last week I began classes and as I posted before my schedule, it is very time consuming! For the most part I love my classes and the professors are great. I enjoy the people in the classroom and so my relationships are getting stronger. One of my favorite classes is Lithuanian, where I've learned a lot of phrases so far and now am getting onto verbs and how to conjugate them. It takes a lot of time and I know I need to work on it every day!

I'm also taking Digital Photography which is harder than I anticipated. I don't know the terminology and I have never used a professional camera before. My first project was due today, where I had to do 6 portraits of someone. I chose Vilma and she was a great subject. Ask me if you'd like to see how the photographs turned out.

My TEIL (Teaching English as an Int'l Language) classes are going well also. Tuesdays are very long for me since I only have 1 class first thing in the morning, then a 5 hour gap, and then both TEIL classes from 3-4:30pm and then 5-8:15pm. I got my assignment for my practicum and I will be teaching 4 hours a week in a Russian 9th grade classroom! It was a shock to me that I'm in high school, especially bing an elementary education major, NOT secondary ed. This will be a challenge. I am excited though to see how I'll do and see how God uses me to teach English to these kids. I meet the teacher tomorrow afternoon.

I am also taking a Conflict Analysis class which I wasn't sure if I liked at first, but today I decided that I do like it. Even though I can only think of my own conflicts during this class, I hope it will be useful to prevent future problems, and to understand why there is conflict.

Lastly, my Linguistics class isn't too bad either - it's a little slow and because English is my native language, I have never thought of the reasons behind words or sentences.

So besides classes, I've been having some fun too. :) When I posted last Friday, I was out at the jazz club with a lot of people. It was so much fun. Saturday even more of us went to Humana thrift store and to the market. There were so many long tables lined up outside with people standing behind them with their fruits or vegetables. Inside a big building others were selling meat, cheese, bread, and flowers. They had pig snout just sitting around which was funny to see. I got potatoes, strawberries, chicken, cheese, bread, onions, lettuce, and peppers. Then we walked around town a bit and I went back to Karklu to hang out with some friends. Around 5 we had a big family dinner of fajitas and then played games afterwards. :) I went back to Neumann after that and relaxed, and ended up talking to Vilma til 3am. Sunday I went to the City Church by the Baltic Sea. Spoken in Lithuanian with English and Russian translations, I listened on headphones but sang many familiar songs in Lithuanian. I liked the diversity! Then I came home and had lunch, did some homework and went to the English-speaking Salvation Army service (like the previous Sunday). The service was really great and I enjoy seeing some professors outside of the classroom.

Besides that, life is pretty good. I love having Vilma as my roommate. We are so different from each other but we have really great talks about religion and faith. :) I can't believe I've been here for 2 weeks - it's gone by slow yet fast at the same time. Similarly to being at Messiah, the days seem to go by slow but the weeks fly by. I can't believe it's already Wednesday.

an encouragement

Tonight I went out to eat at a jazz club downtown with 16 other LCC students (many U.S. study abroads and their roommates). I walked home with 3 of them, 2 who were escorting us since this is a place where mugging and assault takes place. (I asked Vilma, my roommate, about it later and she said it happens even more now because of the economic crisis.) When they dropped us off, one friend from Eastern University, James, asked how he could pray for us. I wanted to break down into tears of joy because this was such an honest guy who I've only known for 1 1/2 weeks and this was a breaking point for me. Rarely have friends who I've known for a long time and who share my love for Jesus rarely ask that. It was exactly what I needed someone to ask me.

I'm still amazed, so I can't really put this into words like I wanted to, but I just thought I'd share it.