Tallinn

Tallinn was wonderful. We loved it, and it was a much needed retreat. We didn't end up going to Helsinki, but that's ok. It will be just another excuse to visit again some other time.
I have made some albums (more to come).
Here are the links:
Tallinn Via Doors
Tallinn after the sun sets
Out and About in Tallinn
More Tallinn

For Christmas we got together with some LCC people who also didn't go home (students, staff, faculty, etc). It was a good time, and great to spend Christmas with people. We had a white elephant gift exchange (our 3rd this year), and I scored a container of Nutella that, when I finish eating the Nutella and wash the container, it will become a glass to drink out of. I love reusing things almost as much as Nutella.

The last couple of days we've been relaxing, playing games with friends, and watching episodes of Friends on the little TV we recently inherited. One of the teachers here moved to a different apartment building, and she didn't need the tv she had anymore. Merry Christmas to us! It's a smaller screen than our computer, but it's a whole lot better than nothing at all.

This afternoon, Steve went to the dentist for the 3rd time and had his root canal finished. I'm glad that he's done with that, and was able to get his tooth fixed while we're here.

We don't have too many plans for New Years. We've been told to go up to the roof of Karklu (our building) and watch the fireworks. So we might do that.

On Friday, our friend Guy is coming to visit us for two weeks, and we are so excited to see him and show him Lithuania!

That is all for now, hope you are well, and that you had a wonderful Christmas!

Happy New Year! (Hopefully before then, I will post the rest of the Tallinn pictures).

Heading to Tallinn

Tomorrow we will wake up before the sun and catch a bus to Tallinn, Estonia (see map on previous post).

We are so excited and really need the break.

Hope everyone is having a wonderful Christmastime. We will be back in the late evening on Wednesday (Christmas Eve).

Mid-December update

Dear Family and Friends,

Sorry it's been a week since we've updated on here. Last Sunday, the 7th of December, it was the three year anniversary of Steve asking me to marry him. Since we were engaged on the beach at sunset, we'd been planning for awhile to go to the beach and watch the sunset on December 7th (even though it would be far colder on the Baltic sea than it was in California). We were in luck, the sun decided to be out, and it was a gorgeous sunset over the baltic. Here is a link to see pictures of the sunset.



In other news, this week is finals week for the students, and then on to Christmas break. It will be a much needed break for both students and faculty/staff alike. We will mostly hang out here in Klaipeda. It will be a nice time to relax and catch up on some sleeping and cleaning. For a couple of days, though, we will take a field trip up to Tallinn, Estonia. According to weather.com, the sunrise and sunset here in Klaipeda is around 9am and 4pm (respectively, and give or take a minute or two...tomorrow, for example it said the sun would rise at 9am and set at 4:02pm). On the 21st of December (shortest day) the forcast for Tallinn is sunrise: 10:17am and sunset: 4:20pm. So that will be quite the experience for us.

Here is a map to put it into perspective for you:


View Larger Map

Things to note: Uppsala, Sweden and Helsinki, Finland. If you drag the map over to see what's east, you'll see how close we will be to Saint Petersburg, Russia. If the weather is agreeable, we might take a ferry over to Helsinki, since we'll be so close.

This past Friday, we had our spoken exam for Lithuanian. We knew we'd have to speak on one of four topics, so we studied all four topics and then when we got there we found out what we would have to talk about. We each spoke for about seven minutes apiece, Steve had the topic "my family" and I had the topic "about me." I am relieved that that part of it is over. I think we did an ok job. Tomorrow (Monday) we have the written final. I'm not as nervous about that, because reading and writing is easier than listening and speaking (in any language).

So that is all that is new with us. We've been able and fortunate to talk to various people via Skype. It is such a blessing to live on the other side of the world and still be able to talk, and sometimes see, people from home. We hear there is a blizzard in MN. I'm torn because I kind of miss it on one hand, but on the other hand am relieved that we don't have the same weather here (it's been cold and windy and rainy, but nothing too terrible).

Hope everyone is doing well.

Needs being met

Today on the way over to Lithuanian class I thought to myself, "I am not good at knowing the right words to ask questions in Lithuanian."

What did we do the entire classtime?

Asked and answered questions (nearly as difficult).

My needs are being met as I need them.

We both aced the quiz about the calendar. Maybe we should do a post about asking questions in Lithuanian?

Maybe later. Our oral final is on Friday, and our written final is on Monday. The First Year Seminar final is Thursday the 18th. The end of the semester is upon us -- can you believe it?!

Christmastime is here

On Friday was LCC's Christmas program. In the past it has been this big production, with over half the students being involved, and the whole Klaipeda community invited. This year it was smaller, more intimate gathering, as there is no performing arts coordinator. It was still a very nice program. Some students formed a bell choir and played a couple songs. There was a small choir leading songs, and a live person (not live animal...or baby Jesus) nativity. Small groups of students sang some songs from their home countries. Little kids sang Away in a Manger...in English and Lithuanian. Afterward was a dessert and tea reception. As a surprise, they rolled Steve out on a fake horse (as Santa) at the end. The kids (all ages) loved it. One little girl didn't leave his side the whole night (not referring to me. An actual little (non english speaking) girl).

Thinking Positively.

One of the benefits of the sun rising so late and setting so early is that we get to see the sunrise and sunset within mere hours of each other (I guess it's the same year round...depending on your definition of "mere hours").

Another benefit is that from my office window (which faces south), I can see the sunrise and sunset. And I can also see the sun at noon. It never goes higher than my window. Maybe tomorrow I will get inspired and bring the camera to document this phenomenon. Until now, you get to look at my paintbrush drawings. The first picture is a standard day. The second picture is an example of the short days we've been experiencing (Less than 3 weeks until Dec 21st).


Here is a person facing east and watching the sunrise. (There are not 5 suns in this or the other scenario, it's a progression of time) He stands facing east the whole day. At noon, the sun is above him, and later on, the sun is behind him -- setting. He cannot see it because he is facing east.





Here is a (rough) drawing of what I see when I look out the window of my office (again, there are 5 suns to show progression of time). The sun rises a little bit (also, there's a pond -- same pond from the pitures of the boat races), and then decides that it will start setting right away again. We've heard that in the summer it's the exact opposite. The sun barely sets, and then decides to rise again. I guess it balances out...except we'll be in the states for the long days of summer.

Baltic Sunset

I'm posting this picture not because it's the most spectacular picture of the most spectacular sunset (it's not), but because of the time of day it was taken: Monday, December 1st, 2008, between 3:30pm-3:40pm...from the 5th floor of Karklu. It gets dark early here, folks.

No Internet for Saturday and Sunday

This weekend LCC's internet will not be working, so there will be no emailing, no blogging, no skyping, etc for Saturday or Sunday. Hopefully this doesn't inconvenience anyone (other than us).

In other news, Steve had to go to the dentist today because his tooth has been bothering him for months. Turned out he needed a root canal! So now we can check "get root canal in Lithuania" off our list of things to do. :)

Hope everyone is enjoying their Thanksgiving weekend. Last night, the Study Abroad students from North America cooked a big Thanksgiving meal, and we were lucky enough to be invited. Tomorrow is the faculty and staff Thanksgiving meal, and that should be good as well. We'll still miss being home and around family, but at least we will have some familiar food to help make up for it.

Love and miss you all!

Please study Lithuanian with me for a moment.

In Lithuanian class, we are learning the calendar -- ie names of seasons, months and how to say the numbers ordinally (1st, 2nd, 3rd, etc). We have a testukas (quiz) tomorrow, and to help me study, I will teach you about Lithuanian months (and maybe some numbers, if you're lucky).

The name of each month means something that relates to that time of the year (and I'm not joking on any of these, I'm merely copying my notes and what I remember from class).

January is "Sausis" which means "Dry Cold."

February is "Vasaris" -- reminds us to prepare for summer (there is starting to be more sunlight, the days are not as dark..."Vasara" is the word for "Summer")

March, April, and May are birds

March is "Kovas," or "Crow."

April is "Balandis" -- "pigeon or dove."

May is "Gegužė" -- "Cuckoo bird." (If you're walking around in the forest in May, and you hear cuckoo birds singing in the trees, and then reach into your pocket and find money, it means you will be rich. So you should probably put money in your pocket before leaving the house in May, in case you walk into the forest and the cuckoo birds sing for you.)

June and July are trees

June is "Birželis," (birch tree)

July is "Liepa," (Linden Tree...if you walk down Liepu Street here, there are Linden Trees. That is the description of what a Linden Tree is. Liepu Street is where the Post Office is. The Post office that didn't have our mail, to clarify)

August and September both refer to Rye (lots of dark bread here)

August is "Rugpjūtis" -- Rye cutting (Harvest)

September is "Rugsėjis" -- Rye seeding (Planting)

October -- "Spalis" refers to the white dust from the flax that was used to make linen clothing. I think it literally means "white dust"

November -- "Lapkritis" = "Leaves Falling"

December -- "Gruodis" = "Frost"

Those are all of the nominative forms of the names of months. If you want to say that something happened on the 10th of November, you have to change the name of the month to the genitive case, and the number to indicate that it is ordinal.

So, the number for "10" is "Dešimt." To say "10th" you would say "dešimtas" or "dešimta," depending on what you are counting. If the word or the thing you are counting is masculine, you would say "dešimtas." If it's feminine, "dešimta." Since the word for "day" is "diena," all dates are feminine.

The word for November, as you may recall is "lapkritis," so to put it in its genitive form it is "lapkričio."

There are a couple of ways to say "birthday" that we've learned so far. I will use one example in a sentence. To say "My birthday is November 10th," I could say, "Mano gimimo diena yra lapkričio dešimta."

To say something like, "My husband's birthday is August 1st," I could say, "Mano vyros gimimo diena yra rugpjūčio pirma."

Have a headache yet? Me too.

TRP Cards

We got our TRP (Temporary Residence Permit) cards today! Praise the Lord!

Paštas

On Saturday, while at the leadership conference, I was delighted when the receptionist handed me two slips of paper that said I had packages waiting for me at the post office. I knew I wouldn't be able to get there that day, or Sunday, so yesterday (Monday), Steve and I went to the post office. The last times we've gotten packages, they have been sent to the post office that is near the school. This time, the slips of paper seemed to indicate that the packages were waiting for us at the bigger post office in the old part of the city (closer to our dorm). So we went to that post office. We weren't sure which line to get in, as there were three to pick from (that we could see), so we got into the middle one, and hoped that it would be the correct line. When we got up to the window, we were told that we needed to go to window 9 (we were at window 6). So we went over to window 9 and waited in line. When we got up to that window, we were told that we were in the wrong part of the building -- and that we needed to go back outside and go into a different entrance. So we went to the other side entrance, and got in line there. When we got up to the window, we were informed that we were at the wrong post office, which was (not) clearly (to us) printed on the slips of paper. So after spending a solid 45+ minutes waiting in 3 different lines at the post office, we went home with no packages. My only question is: why didn't the lady in the first window tell us we were in the wrong place? I'm going to guess the answer has to do with our lack of Lithuanian fluency.

So today, while Steve was having a meeting, I took the slips of paper, and went to the post office that is near the school (listen to me saying "near." It's about a 10+ minute walk), and picked up the packages. To our parents: Thank You! Everything arrived as you sent it, and we've even gotten to share some of the treats. We love the packages. We now have a cupboard full of baking supplies and recipes (the packages complimented each other so well -- was this planned?), and now our oven doesn't work! Before we left for fall break, it started to only work every other time. And now, it doesn't work at all. But we're working on getting it fixed. In the meantime, we'll have to enjoy the peanut butter and homemade jelly (each package had something to contribute!).

Again, thank you.




PS - "Paštas" means post office :)

Birthday Treat and The Leadership Conference

This is mostly going to be a post about the Leadership Conference that was Saturday. But first, a picture from Monday:

In Lithuania, a birthday tradition is that they lift you up on a chair one time for each year of your life. Some guys from down the hall and across the hall found out that the day was almost over, and I still hadn't experienced this tradition. So they ran and got a chair and lifted me up 26 times. It was hilarious. I thought they might throw me though the ceiling a few times. Steve took pictures -- and as you can see there were no seatbelts or safety harnesses or anything like that. Just me hanging on for dear life.

Ok. On to the Conference.

We woke up long before the sun, and were over to school by about 7:30am. The student volunteers all arrived, and we made sure everything was ready for the day. When the speakers arrived, we made sure that their powerpoint would show up on the screen (ah technology...thank God it worked!), that they had water, etc. And then students started to show up, and the day was off and running.

There was a good turn out, and even though I was busy most of the day, I felt like things ran smoothly. I've heard good feed back, so that is always good. I also feel like I learned a lot, and that while it has been a stretching experience, I've grown some too.

Here are some pictures:

There were two speakers: John "Skip" Garmo from the United States, and David Kendrick from England. The theme was Responsible Leadership and Ethics, and they spoke a lot about corruption, its effects, and what to do about it. They asked a lot of questions to the audience, and the students were eager to give their answers and suggestions. They were great participants. Here is a picture of Skip speaking.

Some of the students.

Afterward, Skip and David dismissed everyone, but invited everyone who was interested in hearing about how what they spoke on related to Christianity. About 12 students stayed to listen to the Gospel and were able to ask questions. The amazing part is that after this, some stayed even longer to talk with the speakers and ask more questions (The conference was from 9am-5pm...they'd already been there all day, but were still willing to stay longer).

I got to work with 2 amazing students who helped with the planning/happening of the conference. Without them, the day would not have run as smoothly (or, the day would not have run. Period.). Here is a picture of us with the speakers.

From left to right: David, Arunas, Ellie*, Me**, and Skip

Thank you for your prayers. They are much much appreciated!

*You may recognize her, she is one of Steve's RAs.

**I am just now noticing how short I am in comparison to the rest of the people in the picture (and how I still am glaringly from the United States...I show all my teeth when there is a camera in sight :)

In 11 more hours, it's show time

11 more hours until the Leadership Conference. I should really be in bed, because I have an early and long day ahead of me tomorrow. But I thought I'd post first and say thank you for praying for us this week. It was a busy, yet rewarding week....and tomorrow is not even here yet.
Specific things you can still be thinking about when you pray:

***That the weather would calm down a little bit by tomorrow morning (it is SO rainy and windy. to elaborate: My umbrella flipped inside out TWICE on the way from the bus stop to home)...so that people will be in good moods, and that travel to the conference will be easy.

***For the speakers as they speak: They are AMAZING speakers with years of experience, but more importantly hearts for the Lord. Their ministry is that they speak all over the world about leadership, integrity, ethics, etc. Pray that they would get to say everything they want to say, and pray for those in the audience, that they would hear what they need to hear.

Again, thank you. I'll let you know how it went. Good night!

Temporary Residency Permits

Today we received a call that our Temporary Residency Permit decision had come through! So we went to the migration office and signed some papers and next Thursday we will go and pick up our TRP cards, which will allow us to live here and to travel freely in Europe.

Praise God that this came through! It came in the middle of a busy week but it all worked out.

Thanks for your prayers.

Fall Break in Izmir, Turkey Part 1

As previously posted, we got the opportunity to spend fall break in Izmir, Turkey with our friends Murat, Seden, Osman, and Feyhan Balci as well as their housekeeper, Sati. We were treated like royalty, being fed, cared for, chauffeured around town, fed, fed, and fed. We got the opportunity to see the sights of Izmir (which is present-day Smyrna for you Bible buffs), relax and watch movies and tv in English, visit with the family, observe life and family in a Turkish setting, eat wonderful food, and experience Turkey's 85th Independence Day. We spent the holiday in Ephesus touring the ruins of the city and getting a first hand encounter with the Bible and places that the Apostle Paul and other heroes of the faith walked.

We have many stories and many pictures to accompany them (436 to be exact). You can check out the first 60 pictures here (Click Me!)

We will post more pictures (selected ones, not all 436). So check back later...probably after our crazy week is over and we have time for our slooooooooooow computer to upload the picture to the internet.

Pray for this week and all that we have to do with Leadership Conference and Health Week and the normal things of our jobs.

Also, pray that our Temporary Residency Permits come in this week. We are supposed to hear back tomorrow (Wednesday) and then go pick them up on Thursday morning. So your prayers are much appreciated.

Love and Blessings to all.

Prayer Please

There is a Leadership Conference this weekend. I'm the coordinator. I'm overwhelmed...I've never planned a conference before (in addition to the other things that are on my to do list that don't include the leadership conference). Pray for me, as it is Tuesday, and I'm feeling exhausted on all levels -- emotionally, physically, mentally, spiritually etc.
Steve also is in the midst of a busy week. This week residence life is putting on a "healthy living week" and each day has some sort of event to promote healthy living.
On top of all of that, this is the week that we will get our TRP cards (Temporary Residence Permit). We went today to pay for them, and tonight we will hopefully get our pictures taken (they have to be very specific sizes), and then tomorrow or Thursday we will go to a migration place and hopefully be able to pick them up. As if we don't have anything else to do! But we need them in order to keep living here.
Steve made a photo album on facebook with some of our Turkey pictures. He'll have to share the link to that when he has a moment.

Leadership Challenge

The next day after First Year Night (and in the same room), there was another event that coincided with the other part of my job title (Leadership Coordinator), The Leadership Challenge. Students signed up to participate in this event, which is a part of the Leadership Development Program. There are stage one students who participate in challenges led by stage 2 students. These challenges are supposed to encourage teamwork, problem solving, critical thinking, and effective leading.

Here are some pictures from that:

For one challenge each group was given a package of spaghetti, tape, and a water balloon. Using only what they were given, they were to try to build the tallest free-standing "water tower" -- a spaghetti tower that cradled the balloon on top.









In the next challenge, a bunch of random (RANDOM) stuff was "auctioned" off to each group. Then with all the stuff they bought, the groups had to get from one side of the room to the other. The catch is that they couldn't step outside of a hula hoop, or let any of their "belongings" touch the ground outside the hula hoops.

Because I'm fond of feeding people, the next challenge had to do with food. Each team was to make sandwiches together and for each other. Everyone was assigned a certain "handicap." One person couldn't use their dominant hand, another couldn't use either hand, one or two couldn't talk (usually the ones that had done all the talking in the other challenges. Gave some other people a chance to say something), others were blindfolded. There was one drink table. One team sent the person that couldn't talk but could see and use hands to get their drinks. Logical, right? The others sent at least one "blind" person -- it was too funny! Everyone had something to contribute despite their weaknesses.

The final challenge, the groups worked together to make a decision about what survival items to keep on a list (their ship was sinking, and they needed to make it to the desert island). Then we put everyone together and said they could take even fewer items along. It was very challenging because everyone wanted to voice their opinion. I think it was frustrating to some, but I also think the group learned a lot. I didn't take any pictures of this challenge, because it was mostly the group sitting around a table talking. You can imagine.

We'll do the leadership challenge again in the spring semester, to give students a chance to go who didn't get to go this time around.

The ghost of updates past.

Before we left for Fall Break, I wanted to update you about events that had been keeping me busy. They seem like they were ages ago already, but I feel that it's only fair to update in chronological order.

On October 14th (I told you it was ages ago) was an event called First Year Night. As you might be able to guess, First Year Night is an evening specifically for freshmen, planned by their SOS leaders. Being that part of my title is Orientation Coordinator, I am the supervisor of the SOS leaders (SOS = Student Orientation Staff). There are 15 leaders and just over 200 freshmen. With a lot of hard work and planning, First Year Night, with the theme "Masquerade" was pulled off quite well. There was live music (which people either loved or hated...for the same reason: because it was loud), games, food, decoration, and people dressed not only in masks, but costumes as well.

Here are some pictures from that event:

I'm blessed to have 15 wonderful ladies as SOS leaders. They are a good group -- smart, creative, fun, lots of ideas, etc. Here are two of them: Olga and Valerie (I decided not to crop out the girl on the far left side of the picture, so you could see her mask).

Listening to the band.

Getting ready for an activity.

A large game of "Honey if you love me won't you please smile?"

A group of masked/costumed students.

Home Safely

We made it back from Turkey. It was a wonderful time. More on that later. For now, good night!

Turkey

For reasons listed here, we need to (and get to) leave for Turkey and stay there 8 complete days. So tomorrow we'll get on a bus and head to Riga, Latvia and then on Thursday we'll leave from there and fly to Turkey. We'll be staying with a good friend of the Hanson family in Izmir.

We're looking forward to the break. Please pray for safe and easy travels, and that we would feel rested and ready for the rest of the semester when we return.

I had planned on posting some pictures from my events last week, but due to some technical difficulties, it might have to wait until we get back (Sunday, November 2nd).

On an interesting note, Turkey is in the same time zone as Lithuania, but we'll still have to adjust our clocks because this weekend (as far as I know) is daylight saving time. One week earlier than in the states.

Hope everyone is well. We'll update more when we return from Turkey!

(Happy Birthday to my Mom on October 25th -- we love you!)

Overload

Just a quick note...

I am feeling overloaded. I have a few things to get done before break, and things that will be waiting for me when we get back.

Pray for me, please!

A lovely Saturday -- part 3

Sorry for the delay of Part 3. It has been an insanely busy week. I had two events, one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday. I took pictures of those, which I will share, but after a ton from Riga. Enjoy!

So many cool buildings in Riga.

A bunch of our group in the city center.

Keith, who is unknowingly walking into the picture, is the interculeral programs coordinator. He arranged this trip. Lorna, standing by Steve, is an LCC alum who now teaches here. We four were the non-students on this trip.

For 2 Lats each, we rode an elevator to the top of this church (St. Peter's)

The Occupation Museum. It looks like a big tetris piece, but it was really interesting. It educated us about all the times the Baltic states have been occupied by other countries.

A view from the top of the church.

Another view with the river in the background.

Ode to Pittsburgh

Steve at the top.

Me at the top.

Inside the church.

Looking down one of many streets.

There were a lot of these around. We stopped at one to sit down and have some coffee.

I couldn't get enough of the buildings.

This is where we go when we need our "fast"food fix. It's pretty good (we didn't go there in Riga, just took the picture in Riga so I could talk about it.

Didn't go here, but it looked familiar, so I took a picture.

I wonder what kind of food was here?

Us in Riga.

A lovely Saturday -- Part 2

Rundale Pils

When we drove over the Latvian border, they decided to stop the bus and check all of our passports/identification. After some time, they decided that we could be in Latvia.

After driving for a little while, we arrived at our next stop Rundale Palace (Rundale Pils in Lithuanian). You can click on the link above to find out the history of it. It is now a museum, and we got to take a tour. If we wanted to take pictures inside, we had to pay 2 Lats. We decided that we'd save our Lats, and let other people take some pictures. The website has a few pictures that suffice.

It was a really interesting place. Huge.

Here are some pictures of the outside.

A potential Christmas card photo?

Walking toward it. There is a HUGE garden behind. If we were to visit here again in the summer, I bet the backyard would be beautiful.

Walking on the cobblestone path to the front door.

We all had to wear these fancy blue slippers (to protect the floors). This is the only picture I took inside.

A path from the bus to the palace.

This picture was souvenir enough.

Part 3 coming soon!