Friday night dinner

Friday night after work I had a few friends over for dinner.  Most had never been to my place for a meal, so it was fun to welcome them into my home.  We had a tasty meal of "haystacks" followed by warm chocolate chip bar cookies.  The group stayed for about 3 hours just chatting and telling stories around the table.  It was so much fun to get to know these friends better and to share a meal with them.  I hope to do more of this sort of entertaining as the semester goes on! 

My friends - Mackie, Deborah, Robin, Jennifer, and Jerry.

KVN

All year I've been hearing about a campus event called "KVN".  Everyone said it is a "must attend" event on campus.  The reports were true...it was a great event and I am so glad I didn't miss it!

What is KVN?  It is actually a Russian television show.  KVN stands for "Клуб Весёлых и Находчивых" or in English, "Club of the Happy and Inventive".  It is a comedy competition between 2 teams - some prepared material and some improve stuff.  Our event was a live student competition based on the television show.  It was SO MUCH FUN!!!!  The skits had me laughing so hard that I gasped for air.  The students were SO creative!  I loved it! 

The best part for me was that the humor was genuinely funny, but not crass.  I am so used to people pushing the envelope or quickly going to the sexual innuendo or inappropriate joke for a cheap laugh.  These students were really creative and truly funny without resorting those methods.  I was so pleased and proud - especially since many of our students are not Christians, but were just using good judgement.  It made me happy to be a part of a community that gave such things some fore thought.   

 During one of the skits

The team from Moldova...such funny people! 

Team "Eric Kasper" who won the competetion!  :)

Student Life January Gathering

As I have mentioned before, the Student Life department has a social gathering each month.  We believe in working AND playing together!  :)  This month we were all attending a video lecture on a Tuesday evening at 7:30 and decided to just all gather at before hand and have dinner together.  Several of us spent the afternoon making a big batch of spaghetti, some salad and garlic bread for the meal.  We enjoyed the meal as an entire group and anwered some questions from Becky's box of random discussion starters...it was a fun evening! 

Here are some photos from our clean up time...

 Kim & Alex packing up the leftover spaghetti.

Ina enjoying the last bites of the Gooey Butter Cake! 

Becky enjoying some laughter while washing dishes!

(I LOVE this picture!) 

Vaida and me

Another Susie self portrait shot!  :)

Ticket to Ride

A new favorite pastime of mine has become playing the game "Ticket to Ride."  I had heard about the game from friends back in the states, but never actually played it until I moved to Lithuania.  My friends, Kim & Andrew, have the game and we play it a lot...and I do mean a lot!  I've been back three weekends this semester and we've played multiple games each weekend.  I still haven't won, but I have hope that one day!  :)

Kim & Andrew 

me & Bethany 

And a bonus of going over to the Staves to play games is that I get to cuddle with sweet little baby Greta!  :)

Dolce Vita and Max Coffee

Friday evening I went out for dinner with our new Spiritual Formations Coordinator - Bethany.  We tried the new Italian restaurant in town, Dolce Vita, which actually ended up not being Italian and much as just a nice restaurant.  We did order the few Italian items on the menu, so it was an Italian meal for us - but there are plenty of other non-Italian menu options there as well.

The meal began with three types of bread and a bowl of seasoned olive oil to drizzle on the bread. 

 Spinach and three cheese ravioli - topped with a chicken sauce, sun-dried tomatoes, and arugula.

The appetizer of bruscetta came at the END of the meal.  It was delicious!   

After dinner we went to Max coffee for drinks and more chatting.  I had a caramel macchiato.  It was highly caffeinated and extremely sweet...a perfect ending to a great dinner!  :)

A not-so-great ending to the dinner was the big dog who came into the coffee shop.  He didn't scare me or anything, but I had a hard time seeing a big dog walking around in the coffee shop - putting his paws up on the counter and such...guess this American still has more adjustments to make over here!  (He was actually a very pretty and friendly dog.)

Kazakhstan Independence Day

On Friday we celebrated Kazakhstan's Independence Day.  Their actual ID was December 16th.   We were in the midst of finals that week, so we waited until now to celebrate.  I always love going to these celebrations.  This one was of particular interest to me though, as some dear friends are in the midst of adopting a precious little boy from there.  :) 

The Kazakhstan flag being raised. 

Several of our Kazak students singing their national anthem. 

The Kazak guys answering questions from the group.

Some tasty Kazak treats made by the students. 

The Kazak gals in full costume! 

I LOVE that students bring their national costumes with them to school!

Our six Kazak students...a great group of kids!

A BIG treat of the evening was the girls doing a traditional Kazak dance!

A final hurrah!

The day before I left for home I went shopping in Old Town with my dear friend, Deborah!  We walked around all sorts of shops and then ended at a cute little chocolate/coffee shop where we enjoyed some chocolates and coffee.  It was a wonderful way to spend my last day in Lithuania before the holidays.

me & Deborah!

Saying "Good-bye" to a friend...

Thursday night of finals week a group of us went to the jazz club to say good-bye to our friend Teresa who was only here for the fall semester and returned home to Canada after that.  I did a lot of fun things with Teresa and we had some good chats.  I miss her and am so grateful she was a part of my first semester here!

The obligatory photo of my meal. 

I was freaked out at first at the round things -thinking there were chicken balls of some sort.  Instead they were potato puffs!

Teresa, me, and Wes 

Wes, Jerry, and Veslava 

Veslava, Robin, and Leah 

 Robin, Steve, and Steve's daughter

Steve, daughter, and Diane (Steve's wife) 

Teresa and me!

Community Life Christmas!

My Community Life staff and I went out for lunch the week of finals to celebrate the holidays.  We went to the Chinese resaurant in the little mall by school.  I don't know if it was the fact that it's been a long semester and we were all tired or what, but we were a little silly!  It was so much fun!  Here are some photos of us all just keeping our germs to ourselves (or some other such silly reason for covering our faces with scarves & stuff!)

 Alex & Gabija

Becky, me, and Veslava

A special gift

One of my FYS students stopped by my office a couple days before school let out.  He wanted to drop off a bag of cookies.  I asked what kind they were.  He said they were traditional Lithuanian Christmas cookies that he and his mother had made the night before.  They were delicious!  Yummm!



You can see how messy my office desk is by all the clutter surrounding the bag of cookies!

(Though it is NOTHING like the mess that my GC office was!)

Student Life Christmas gathering

Student Life celebrated Christmas with a party at Vaida's house during the week of finals.  We each brought a treat to share and a gift for a white elephant gift exchange.  It was a fun evening - full of laughter, food, and great conversation.

A few photos...

The delicious food spread!

One thing seems to be constant across continents...food is always a part of Student Life gatherings! 

Vaida (with her daughter), Becky, and Gabija 

Steve, his daughter, and Mackie 

Paul and Sergio (Olena's husband) 

Kim, Veslava, and Margarita 

Olena, Steve's other daughter, and Alex

Ina peeks over the back of the chair 

Erik (Becky's husband), Andrew (Kim's husband), and Jarrett (Gabija's husband) 

me & Kim!

Some of my favorite people!

After church I often go out for dinner with Marlene and Deborah & Mackie.  This photo was taken in the middle of the street on a snowy Sunday night.  Mackie took the photo, so that's why he's not in it.

Marlene, me, and Deborah!

A few more self portraits!

Here are a few more self portraits...one of my silly pasttimes!

 in my apartment

out in the snow!

A date with the Bryckos!

The last Saturday before break I was just hanging around my apartment...taking self portraits and other such fun to keep my self entertained!  :)  I had skyped my neighbors to see if they wanted to go out for dinner early in the afternoon.  They said that they had a babysitter coming and were going out for a date that evening.  I resigned myself to an evening at home watching tv online.  sigh.  Then they skyped me closer to dinner and said that they had decided that they'd like to invite me to join them on their "date."  We always go out to eat with the baby, so they thought it'd be fun to go out to eat just as a group of adults.  We went to the new French place in Old Town, "Le Cle."  It was a DELICOUS meal and a wonderful evening of conversation.  After dinner we walked back to Stora Antis for dessert and drinks. 

a self portrait with my glasses on 

the restaurant let us cut our own bread 

Brooke cutting some bread 

My delicious dinner

flounder with mashed potatoes and brussell sprouts...SO good! 

My dessert at Stora Antis

ice cream with cranberry sauce and a tower of whipped cream

Carollers!

While my staff was helping clean up from the Christmas party my doorbell rang.  I thought it was likely a student who had forgotten their mittens or something.  When I opened the door this is what I saw....

 Christmas carollers!!!

Jerry, Erik, Teresa, Robin, Leah, Wes, and Dima

It was a lovely treat to be surprised by this fun group of LCCers!  :)