Give thanks!

"that my heart may sing to you and not be silent. O LORD my God, I will give you thanks forever." -Psalm 30:12

Laba diena, happy Thanksgiving! :) I am reminded by a song I used to sing in church growing up, and I hear my mom's voice...

"Give thanks with a grateful heart,
Give thanks to the Holy One,
Give thanks because He's given
Jesus Christ His Son."

Another year I am not in Philadelphia for Thanksgiving. Last year I spent Thanksgiving break at Eric's house with his family and had a wonderful time. This week has been a bit nostalgic thinking about all the Messiah kids heading back home for break and seeing their families. And I'm in a country where they don't even have Thanksgiving, and I don't get a few days off either.

However, there is much to be thankful for, whether that is my family, Eric, this study abroad experience, old friends, new friends, roommates, Messiah, etc etc etc.

Yesterday I had a linguistics presentation, and then went to Green Hill to teach my last 3 lessons to my ninth graders. I brought in some soda and snacks to celebrate and I took some pictures. :) The past 10 weeks have really flown by. It was a rewarding experience. I learned a ton through the challenges of the language barrier, hours spent making lesson plans, having a teaching partner with different teaching strategies, and even just the fact that I am studying to be an elementary school teacher, not high school. I got to talk with Galina Rusu (the actual teacher of these students) afterwards, and she gave some good advice. We had to give evaluations and she gave me all perfect marks, generally complimenting my teaching. As she was handing me back the paper, she asked if it was okay what she wrote. I was surprised because I wanted her to constructively criticize, giving me helpful tips, etc. I talked to a friend about it later and she said that's just how Eastern Europe is. So although on paper she didn't have much that was helpful to me to be a better teacher, just talking with Galina was great.
Below are my two classes, 9B and 9C. This week we only had 7 or 8 kids in each class because the swine flu has spread. Usually we have twice this size per class.


In the evening I went to Kyle and Trisa Usrey's for Thanksgiving. All the study abroads, LCC's chaplain Chris Hatton, Emas, Allison and Dalius came. It was so wonderful to eat Thanksgiving food and have good company and conversation. A real blessing. I even got to use their phone so I got to talk to my parents, Granny, and Eric. :)

I've really gotten closer with Trisa, as I've started going to Bible study at their house on Wednesday nights. We talk about who spoke in chapel and although I haven't been in chapel because of teaching, the discussions are still great. Last week Wednesday we talked about whether it is okay to die, and it brought a lot more questions to mind. This week Wednesday we talked about love and sex, as well as purity.

I have a lot of work to do within the next couple weeks with final projects. Just 6 more classes of my Monday/Wednesday/Friday classes, and 4 for Tuesday/Thursdays... crazy! I am glad for another semester done though. :)

My classes have gotten better... photography has turned around completely from the beginning of the semester. Recently my professor had a critique session on class excursions, and he had about 15 of my photos up there. Of course he tore them apart, but many of them were his favorite he said. So although it has been a tough semester, it's starting to pay off. :) My final portfolio is due in a few weeks.
Practicum is now over, which is a relief as I said earlier, so I have about 8 more free hours in my week which is much needed. I can start to go to chapel again!

Tomorrow I am going to a teacher's conference, helping out with registration and attending one of the seminars. Also going to work on my projects and watch Elf, since Christmas is soon to come! :)

I hope you all had a great week and Thanksgiving. Thanks to you all for reading this, for praying and being patient with my lack of updates. ;)

Ecclesiastes 8:15

"So I commend the enjoyment of life, because nothing is better for a man under the sun than to eat and drink and be glad. Then joy will accompany him in his work all the days of the life God has given him under the sun." --Ecclesiastes 8:15

So this is it.
I have less than a month.
Just 24 days.
3 1/2 weeks.
2 1/2 weeks of classes, 1 week of final exams, packing up and I'm home.

Is that enough time?
Where has the time gone?

Ever since the play I've gotten a lot closer with people here, and they said the last several weeks will fly by. They weren't kidding. I was doing laundry today and I stopped into the office of Rachel Johnson, the intercultural education coordinator. (I don't think I really know what that means, but that's her official title at LCC.) We were just talking and the last time I got to talk with her I was registering for classes and had a bunch of problems.. maybe 2 or 3 weeks ago? She asked how that was. It really surprised me that she remembered something from a few weeks ago. She was asking how I was doing, how this semester has gone by so fast. It really has. I told her that I'm doing really well, and I am.

On Monday we had a professor come talk to us. His name is Garrett and he's from California, met his wife and got married at 22, has 4 kids now. He started his life off how anyone would want to with a great family, money in the bank and a house. 10 years ago his wife came up to him as he was working in the yard and asked if he was alright. He turned to her and said, "You know, if this is all life is, I'm going to be miserable for the next 35 years." That began his journey to being at LCC and they've been here for the past 4 years. All this being said, he just brought up some issues of what it means to be here, living in the multicultural environment that LCC is. It's great, but at the same time so hard. Most of us in the class grew up in a Christian home and pretty much had a steady life. He gave the picture of us sitting in a classroom, looking out the window but can only see certain things out the window -- can't see everything. That's what I've been seeing my whole life. But now I'm in Lithuania and I see differently; I am standing next to the window, seeing so much more. What does this all mean? Well when I go home, everyone will ask me how Lithuania was. Garrett advised having a 30 second answer, a 2 minute answer, and an answer that can be discussed over lunch. All this being said, some people will be interested, and some just won't be, they won't care because they haven't experienced it. Not to say that anyone who hasn't experienced living in another country for some time won't be interested, but not everyone will care.
I have to be prepared for that. I have to reflect on how this semester has impacted me, because it has in so many ways.
In that, I have less than a month left here. 24 days. 3 1/2 weeks. 2 1/2 weeks of class, 1 week of final exams, packing up and I'm home.
I am ready to enjoy these last few weeks. Ready to enjoy them to the fullest. :)

3 months experience, 26 days remaining

I forgot that I haven't written here for a while because the past couple weeks I've sent out some mass emails to you. To recap...

It was my 21st birthday on the 4th, and I went out to eat at a Chinese restaurant with Danielle, Ashton and Olya. I had 3 packages and lots of letters to open that day, which was fantastic... many from some of you that I didn't know you knew it was my birthday! :) Saturday about 20 people (study abroads/roommates, etc) went out to eat to Hansa, then I came back and I called Granny because it was her birthday... which apparently was a bad thing to do because Danielle and Ashton planned a mini surprise party for me in the lounge -- lots of music, cake, dancing, playing Ultimate Spoons and Musical Chairs, finishing up the night watching The Princess Bride. It was amazing. :)

Practices for The Crucible became more intense. Opening night was Friday the 13th (Ian's birthday), so the four days before was tech rehearsal for 5-6 hours each night. It was difficult while managing schoolwork, but doable. I got to know the cast even more since up until then I was missing at least a third of practices because of class. I got to know the cast pretty well and the weekend of performances went well; it was strange to not have my parents and grandparents in the front row, but it was a great experience.

This past weekend Vilma and I went to Brussels, Belgium. :) We left at 6:30am Friday morning to catch the bus to Riga, Latvia. We arrived in the evening and stayed with Zach's friend Christophe, which was great. We went out for drinks in the evening and he met up with us later after being with some friends. I was so surprised at how international this country is; they speak French, Dutch and English. Vilma and I had a fun time reading the signs... she said I speak French better than Lithuanian (har har). Saturday we had breakfast and then spent the whole day downtown. We didn't have a map and realized we really should've researched more before we came, but we managed pretty well. I can't say what exactly we saw, but we saw some really beautiful places. From what I do know, we saw the Parliament building with pieces of the Berlin Wall in front, as well as the King's Palace and park. We saw a few cathedrals, and I went to part of a mass led by a Chinese priest... very cool. We really enjoyed our time just walking and talking, eating at a restaurant outside, and we had absolutely gorgeous weather. It was about 55 or 60 degrees, sunny with just a few drops of rain in the evening. We tasted nutella covered waffles, french fries with our kabobs (wrap), and the chocolate. Sunday morning we left early and got back to Klaipeda in the evening. Quite the weekend trip spent with my wonderful roommate. :)

Lastly (for now), above are some pictures that I took for my photography class. It snowed a couple weeks ago and I couldn't resist taking pictures. :)

More later about how classes are going and such!

Priviet!

Olya and me at the ballet. :)

The ballet stage!

Yes, we found a Starbucks in Moscow! It was delicious...
St. Basil's at night.

In front of Lenin's tomb.

Stalin look-alikes

An illegal picture of the metro. You're not supposed to take pictures because of terrorists.

Maksat and me in front of Cathedral of Christ the Savior

All the study abroads and interns in front of St. Basil's... with the dog that we named Basil. (I'm down front right)

At the circus, the acrobats were INCREDIBLE.

At the mosque I went to with Maksat. He took the picture.

Beautiful sunset in St. Petersburg. :)


Priviet! (hello in Russian) I have traveled many miles and hours to Russia and have safely returned back to LCC. "I am more confident and mature".... not really, but apparently after this trip I am supposed to be, so who knows? ;)

We left at 9:30am on Saturday (24 October) and took a bus to Riga. We got there in the afternoon and ate at LIDO, then explored a bit before our overnight train left at 6pm. It honestly resembled the Hogwarts Express, but with much smaller rooms.. pretty much wide enough for a person to stand, with a window and a small table which had complimentary cookies and bottles of water. There were 4 beds (2 on each side, bunked) and I slept on the top. I roomed with a girl from Taylor, Rebekah, and also an older woman from Russia. She was very nice and helped translating when we were stopped at the border going into Russia. Most of the night we played Mafia, which was a ton of fun. Nobody could read me, which by the end of each game people would then start accusing me, when I was rarely the mafia. We arrived in Moscow around noon on Sunday, and walked to our hostel, Godzilla. It is run by an American, and a very nice looking hostel with a main lounge with a TV (and had movie nights every night). I stayed in a 10-bed room with the other study abroad girls.. the furniture was from IKEA, which was awesome and very comfortable. We dropped off our things, quickly had lunch at Pizza Hut, then took the metro for our first time. It was awesome; I've always loved the busyness of people traveling, whether it's walking, in the airport, train station, etc. We then went to the Red Square and had a tour of the Kremlin. In the evening we went to the circus. They had similar things like a circus at home, but then some things were very different. It had one arena, so we all sat around it. They had a kangaroo that boxed, and at the end the arena was filled up with water and they had a seal! The women were dressed extremely provocatively which almost everyone complained about. They didn't have elephants, which I was disappointed about. But they had dogs, zebras, a kangaroo that boxed, horses, monkeys, lions, a tiger, porcupines, camels & alpaca, and peacocks. It was very enjoyable. :) Monday we went to see St. Basil's Church. It was absolutely beautiful and one thing that I wanted to see here was to see it at night, which I also got to see. We got to go inside, but couldn't take pictures. We also got to see the Cathedral of Christ the Savior, which was HUGE... also very beautiful. We went to the market in the afternoon, and then to the State History Museum. Tuesday we went to see Lenin's tomb in Red Square. Although while we traveled we were in smaller groups with 4 study abroads and 1 intern, even here we weren't together as much. It was so serious being there! I guess I stopped and stared too long at his short wax-looking body because a Russian guard nudged me along and said something in Russian. Then I went to a modern art museum. We met back, got our things and went to the train station for the 5 hour train ride to St. Petersburg. I napped for the beginning of it, then had a really good discussion with Ashton and Sasha. It was great. We arrived at the Puppet Hostel, which was less than perfect than our last hostel. They have puppet shows here, and it was a long 5 flights up to the top. I roomed with the 3 girls from Taylor, Rebekah, Melanie and Annah. There were 3 girl rooms and although Ashton, Danielle and I wanted to be together, we were each in a different one. This ended up being perfect because I really got to know the girls from Taylor. Wednesday we woke up and it was raining outside; I wasn't feeling the best which was unfortunate because we had a 4 hour walking town with a local, Peter. It was a great tour and we walked all around the city. I ate at a pancake place, then came back to the hostel and got ready to go to see Swan Lake at the Mariinsky Theatre! Transportation is much different in St. Petersburg because it takes an hour to walk anywhere. Despite it was cold, it was good exercise for the week. Most girls got blisters wearing their heels, but my cowboy boots and converse all stars held up nicely. :) The ballet was absolutely beautiful... I really enjoyed it, a highlight of the trip. Thursday morning I went to Yusupov palace, and had a tour by headphones. It was gorgeous.. also a highlight. In the afternoon I went to the HERMITAGE... I walked around with Ashton and Melanie, and we saw one of our hostel-mates from Moscow! In the evenings when we would play mafia in the kitchen, some of the other residents needed to make food and we even lured one in to play with us. He's an English teacher in Korea and has been traveling the last month. Of all the places to meet him again, in another city, in a place as big as the Hermitage. In the evening we went to another palace where they had something called Feel Yourself Russian, full of traditional dances, songs, and a live band playing! They interact with the audience, and two study abroad boys from Eastern got chosen to go up on the stage and dance. We all sat in the front row, so we got a lot of interaction. Also one of my favorite things. :) They even had free champagne and caviar! Friday I went out with Maksat, Dan and Brock. It was great, just the 4 of us and we were on our own time. This was probably one of my favorite days, because we went to the Russian political history museum. I was in the same room as Lenin worked! We also went to eat at a Soviet cafeteria and it was delicious. We went to a Mosque. Friday prayer had just let out, and because I was with the boys, and I wasn't going to pray, I got to go into the men's room. It was intimidating, especially because I've never been in the same room as so many other people who do not practice Christianity! It was powerful, and I'm glad I got to experience it. We tried to go upstairs to the women's room, but I didn't have a long skirt on so they wouldn't let me in. It's amazing to know that even a thief cannot steal in this sacred place, so nobody would ever steal your shoes. In the evening we got ready and went to see a modern day version of The Barber of Seville. It was of course in Russian, and the theatre was freezing, so that made it twice less enjoyable. It was okay. It it have been in English, I would've loved it probably, but it's an experience at least. Saturday I got to go to the Church of the Savior on the Spilt Blood... pretty much St. Petersburg's version of St. Basil's. It was beautiful, and we got to go inside. I souvenir shopped a bit, went to a superb pie place (and had rabbit pie!), then the ladies split from the boys and we went to the sauna! The key trick here is that it is a naked sauna, so we had our own rented room and well, we got pretty close pretty fast. We even played ping pong and pool. :) It was marvelous! In the evening we experienced a Russian Orthodox service at Kazan Cathedral, then went out for Mexican, packed our things and got on our overnight train. We got home Sunday afternoon and I got some laundry/unpacking done.

The beginning of this week wasn't the best. It felt good to come back to LCC and start classes. However, since Sunday morning on the train I was feeling achey. I had a temp of 101.8 and it finally went away for Wednesday... a wonderful birthday present. :) Although I wasn't up to top speed, I still taught at Green Hill with Inga. I opened all my cards from my cousins and family and friends... it was wonderful. I got 3 packages, 2 from Mom and 1 from Granny. Mom had candy and such in 1, and clothes (scarf, pjs, jewelry, gloves, the fuzziest blanket in the WORLD) in the other. Granny had silly things like stuffed animals (which are on my windowsill now), and a Phillie's newspaper and Phanatic. Also from my Uncle Jimmy there were those silly nose/glasses/mustache... and also a picture of Granny & Grampa wearing them! So funny. In the evening (on Wednesday) Danielle, Ashton and Olya took me out to a nice Chinese place. :) I got to talk to my family and Eric as well. :) The rest of the week flew by, with play practice on Thursday and again yesterday. We open in less than a week! So this week is tech week, so we have practice every night for 5 or 6 hours. I also have 2 projects and a big photo project... but I am halfway done with the projects and finished the photo project. It's hard not to get stressed, and having hardly any time... it doesn't feel like I was in Russia a week ago! It's gone by really quickly. Friday I got Eric's package, which was had a digital picture frame and an SD card that had pictures of us and some of our songs. :) Although frustrating to get set up, I finally got it and I love it. I also got some Burts Bees, which was seriously lacking, and goldfish and animal crackers. :) Yesterday we had practice for 4 hours, then in the evening a lot of us went out to eat at Hansa. I thought that was the other birthday thing from Ashton and Danielle, and we were going to relax and watch a movie. So I came back and called Granny for her birthday and didn't think it a big deal to talk for 25 minutes, until Maksat kept coming in my room to ask if I was coming. So I go upstairs with him and Dan, and in the TV lounge they have another mini party, with drinks and pineapple upside down cake, with music and everything. I was SO surprised! We danced, and played musical chairs and ultimate spoons. Spoons is where you have 1 less number of spoons than people, and sit in a circle, passing cards around until you get 4 of a kind. As soon as you run to the other side of the room where the spoons are laid down and whoever does NOT get a spoon is out. This is ultimate spoons because the spoons are not right in front of you... after waking up today, I have rug burns and bruises on my knees. :) Then we watched The Princess Bride (which I almost watched on my own on Wednesday night). I also happened to watch that for my 12th birthday... so again I got to for my 21st. :)

So that is the past few weeks. Unfortunately because Russia was over a week ago, there are less details than there could be. I can't remember when I did certain things... we ate at McDonalds, and went to Starbucks in Moscow, and really walked around quite a bit. I overall got a lot closer and got to know each one of the interns more, and study abroads who I don't see as much.

Having my birthday last week really made me miss home, since it was the first time I haven't been with my mom for it. In high school I always had like 20 of my friends over and we played games and the girls would sleep over. At Messiah she came out and did something, whether it was dinner and a surprise party my freshman year, or going to Hershey Park last year. Although I did have a great birthday and I will always remember turning 21 here, I realize more that it's never about doing something or getting a lot of gifts, it's about the people you are around. So, despite these people have only known me for a couple months, I had a really great time. They tried so hard to make it special and it was wonderful.

I only have 3 more weeks of teaching at Green Hill. It will be nice to get it over with, although I do love my kids. I even saw 2 of them on the bus this evening. :)

Tomorrow is the start of Week 12. I've already spent 77 days here (2 1/2 months) and I have less than 1 1/2 to go. That is 41 days left til I will leave and be home (in the same day technically). Crazy. I'm still not sure how I feel. I do miss home a lot and I'm ready to go back to Messiah... I miss being on campus and the classes there. I'm ready to take education classes again. The next few weeks will be tough and busy, and it's difficult to enjoy life here when I'm so busy. It's more comfortable to be busy at home. With saying all this, prayers would be appreciated because I've been told that time will fly by being here. I just actually want to enjoy it and not have to worry about things.