RA End of Year Celebration!

For our End of the Year party with the RA staff this year we hosted a murder mystery dinner.  It was one designed for a large group and was SO much fun!

Natalia, Ieva, Sasha, Angelina, and Kristne

Toms, Josh, Ira, Alisha, Kristine and Ieva

Vadim and Kiril

The AWESOME RD team and me!

Amanda, me, Alisha, and Josh

Amanda and me  

Chapel

For the last chapel of the year, a departing faculty/staff member is asked to give the farewell message.  I was chosen to do it this year.  I was honored to be given this platform to share a bit of my story, a few words of encouragement, and to say farewell to a place that has meant so much to me!

Chapel Band...playing outside!

me

I'm sure I was making a very profound point right here!  :)

Here's a link to the audio of my message if you are interested:

http://vimeo.com/64872478

Final TriS

One of my favorite things to do at LCC was to lead TriS with Marlene.  It was so much fun to connect with our groups of American Study Abroad students.  We always seemed to get the best groups (in my opinion!), but this spring the group was really above and beyond all our others.  I bonded with many of them and am hopeful that we will stay in touch in the future.  

For our last TriS event of the year we went to the beach for a pizza party.  Unfortunately it was way too cold and we ended up going to my apartment halfway through the evening.  Not what we planned, but memorable and fun none the less!

Outdoor shot...don't we look cold?!

A backseat full of beautiful smiles!

Travis, Krista, Taylor, and Justine

A picnic on my living room floor!

Travis brought Marlene and I scarves from his trip to Istanbul.  We wore them like babuskas would...since we were his TriS moms!  

A fun shot from the ground up!

me, Marlene, Taylor, Krista, Travis, Justine, Caitlyn, and Dan

I love these peeps!  

First of the farewells...

As I geared up to leave LCC I spent many meals hosting students who had been particualry important to me for a meal.  Here I am with the first group of students that I taught...my fall 2010 FYS group.  Not everyone could make it, but this is about half of the group.  

 

Julia, Laura, Mariya, Ira, me, Paulis, Romanas, and Oleksi

Lituanian souvenirs

When we were shopping at the markets outside of Trakai I snapped these photos of some very common and traditojnal Lithuanian souvenirs.

 

Display dolls

 

Amber trees

 

Paintings decorated with amber

 

Dolls to play with

 

More dolls to play with

Last trip to Vilnius

Rachel and I went to Vilnius in late May.  We wanted to pick up a few last Lithuanian souvenirs and we wanted to spend some time together without the kids underfoot before we parted ways.  We arrived on Saturday and did the normal Old Town stuff.  It was fun to visit our favorite shops "one last time" and to pick up a few final pieces of pottery and such.  We stayed in nice Holiday Inn and went to Trakia Castle on Sunday.  Here are some photos of our time at the Castle...

 

Me in front of the Castle

 

The inner courtyard

 

Beautiful ceilings and light fixtures

 

Ancient Lithuanian money

a painting of a king

 Stained glass window

 

 

a painting of the castle

 

Assorted game heads

 

A lion's head!

 

fancy pipes

 

and a risque pipe!

 

a beautiful porcelain box

 

lovely bowls

 

Looks like these people were about MY size!

 

me and my dear friend, Rachel!

 

me pretending to serve up some delicious Lithuanian food!

Trading allegiances?!

Has Dr. Marlene Wall traded allegiances?  Here she is sporting a GOSHEN COLLEGE sweatshrit rather than her trusty LCC one.  What is going on?!  

Marlene was off campus on official LCC business all day on a Friday.  She came by my place for a Friday evening Haystack party and felt a little over dressed in her suit.  All I had to offer her was my lovely GC sweatshirt.  She wore it because it was far more comfy than her suit and begrudgingly allowed me to take her photo!  :)

 

You can imagine her thinking, "Take the picture already!"

What a good sport!

She made sure I had an LCC sweatshirt when I left LCC in May!  :)

REVENGE Breakfast!

The RAs contacted me in April asking for my assistance in pulling off an early morning breakfast for the RDs.  The RDs had done one for them and they wanted to get a little bit of fun revenge in before the year was over.  I was game!  :)  So, the RAs arrived at my apartment around 6:00 AM and made breakfast.  At 7:00 I called the RDs and told them that they needed to come over to my apartment due to an emergency situation with a student.  When they showed up, we yelled "Surprise!" and had breakfast with them.  It was a lot of fun to scheme with the RAs on this fun event.

The awesome RA staff..starting at the 12:00 position and going clockwise...Ieva, Ausrius, Sarune, Kiril, Ira, Toms, Natalija, Vadim, Angelina, Sasha, Kristine, and Melisa.

early morning smiles - Sasha, Kristine, Kiril, and Ausrius

Melisa, Sarune, Toms, and Ieva

Ira, Natalija, Angelina, and Vadim

me with the guests of honor

Amanda, me (perky) Alisha, and Josh

Precious Baby Nikole!

My dear friend, Olena, had her first baby during my last month at LCC.  Little Nikole Rusu was born on April 5th.  We watched her mommy's tummy grow all year and I was so worried that I would leave before she was born.  She ended up being born early and I was grateful to get to spend some time with her before I left.

Olena and Nikole in the hospital

Precious baby!  

A weekend in England!

As my days in Lithuania dwindled I realized that the ability to travel inexpensively in Europe was also dwindling.  I decided to take advantage of the cheap airlines and flew to England April 5th - 8th to spend a couple days with my best friend from childhood, Rebecca and her husband, Earl.  We had a great time exploring a nearby village, playing games, cooking fun food, going to church, and the grand finale was an afternoon in Windsor where we went to Windsor Castle - where Queen Elizabeth spends much of her time!  

Windsor Caslte

Beautiful archways

The flag flying above meant that the Queen was there!

Can you imagine how gorgeous those gardens are in the summer?!

St. George's Chapel on the grounds of Windsor Castle

We went to Sunday evensong there...beautiful service!

I had an EARLY flight out on Monday morning, so here's Rebecca and me saying farewell at the airport.  So glad I got to spend some time with her before heading back to America.  Being with her is always refreshing and fun.  LOVE her!  

Happy Birthday to Amy!

Amy's birthday was a few days after mine.  Rachel and I took her out for breakfast at Navalis on Saturday morning to celebrate her special day.

Rachel, Amy, and me

A week before our birthday, the gals in our supper club celebrated our March birthdays with cakes in our dessert that night.  How sweet!  :)