The Beginning of the End!

Tomorrow is the first day of my last month in Lithuania! I cannot believe it, I never thought this month would come and now that it is here i'm not quite sure how to feel. The thought of beginning my new journey of the rest of Europe makes me ECSTATIC, but the thought of leaving all these people forever makes my heart very sad. I can't imagine my life with out these people, my little polish family, Dima and his family, my kiddos, all the people I have met here have made in impact on my life! I'm so thankful that I have had this chance and that I took it, I love what this experience has made me and will continue to...I have made an amazing life long friend here and luckily I get to take her back with me to the states, you da best Em :)
My heart will always have a home here...I can't believe its almost over!

On that note, we have a list...a long list of things we still need to do here! Last week we checked some off...
The Museum of money was a pretty impressive place :)

 Shredded up money from all over Europe, they had little bags of it that we took for a souvenir!

 A journal for everyone who visits, American teachers left their mark!

 MEXICAN FOOD!!! Food with ACTUAL spices!

 Saturday morning we played football, tag, and capture the flag with my little brothers and some of their friends! This week we are inviting our whole elementary class, so it should be epic!

We packed a lunch and ventured into the woods! It was a week of BEAUTIFUL weather!!

We FINALLY got to see Divergent, It was wonderful!! :)

Belmontas :) It was beautiful!

Photo booth moments :)

These two this morning, I couldn't help myself :)

Nighty Night!

улыбка :)

Life is happening everyday, we notice when our milk goes sour, when we wake up late, someone does something to bother us, or you hit a red light when your in a hurry. Do we notice though when a stranger holds the door open for a bit longer so you can make it inside, someone smiles at us, or we are on time to something we were running late for? There is so much good in everyday :) The Lords tender mercies are in everything, all around us...we must only remember to open our eyes!
This week began horribly, one thing after another came reminding me how far away I am and how much of a challenge it is to be here! However I have wonderful news everyone, prayers are answered. Always.
I was reading this article about finding passions in life, it said that in order to discover what we are most passionate about we must first learn to have a passion for everything in life! From teaching or work down to brushing your teeth, to fake it till you make it. If we can find the beauty in even the things that appear plain or ugly, how amazing will the real beauty seem!
So my challenge to all of you is to merely open your eyes to the beauty around you! You will see The Lords hand in your life everyday, wither it's a big answer to a prayer or maybe just a little sunshine on a rainy day. We find that there is always a reason the smile :)
I have seen this little light of bliss in my tiny tots lately! Usually my 3-4 year olds are the hardest, they come the last hour everyday and they are just tiny little things who are only just learning their native language. So trying to do things or explain things to them in English is really shooting for the stars! This week however, I found myself smiling bigger than I ever thought and really having fun with them! Innocence and joy just beams out of them, even when they are running around and kicking each other haha...I just love them! I am so incredibly blessed to be their teacher :) and let me tell you, these are the future leaders of the world people, they are the smartest little ones I know!

I was sick and missed school on Monday and I got some letters :) ...sometimes they love me haha

Не волнуйтесь, все будет в порядке :)

Life from far away...

Well we are to that point where I look at my count down about every other day :) Really I will be home in no time at all, but the days are very long...and cold! I figured out why no one smiles here, not enough sun so everyone is always a little more sad than usual. I fear that this winter really is never ending and we just have to accept the fact that we are going to be white, cold, and a titch sad for the next 45 days...but hey who's counting.

As amazing as all of these places are, they are all unique in their own ways and I love them :) but I think the more you travel the more you realize that the world really isn't all that different. Just places...big or small, pretty or plain, places full of people who are trying to find happiness. I suppose that makes me sound a little ungrateful to be here, but that's not it at all! There is so much beauty in the realization that it doesn't really matter where you are. period. But I do think you need to leave at one point to discover that and to fully appreciate where you are right now, always.

I guess all we can do is try to live with love in every aspect, love for our home and our city, love for the people in our lives and those who aren't. Try and hope that just maybe to can help someone and share the love and happiness that you have through our Savior. Realize how absolutely lucky you are to be you, who you are, where you are, and who you are with. 

Voyage across the Baltic Sea

Our trip this month was SO fun! It began with a REALLY long bus ride in Tallinn with a group of students studying here from all over, it was cool to meet so many people our age finally! From Tallinn we took a ferry to Helsinki and spent the day there!

Helsinki really was pretty but it honestly wasn't all that :) haha it was very windy and super expensive! We walked around and went shopping (which was GREAT) The hard part of Helsinki was that we got there after a 10 hour bus ride and a 2 hour ferry and no sleep in between! We kind of walked around half asleep but it was still cool!

After our day in Finland we hopped aboard our cruise ship! The first few hours on the ship was VERY rough, sea sickness is REAL people!! Luckily we ran into the caption in the elevator and he invited us up to the control deck! This was the coolest thing ever!!! It was like 1 am so we went into this dark room overlooking the Baltic Sea, there was monitors and buttons and maps and all sorts of fun things! He taught us how the ship worked and let us sit in the look out chair, we just watched as we followed the moonlight and then he told us he wants to share the beauty of the sea with us! He started singing :) He had a wonderful voice, it was just filling the room! He told us stories of sailing as a young boy and all of his adventures! He invited us to come back the next night and we did :) The next night he let us sit in his chair and type in the coordinates for the next turn, we had to watch the screen to see when it all lined up to turn the boat and he let us turn it! Who can say they have sailed a cruise ship in the Baltic Sea!? It was one of the most amazing and unreal experiences I've ever had, after that I didn't get sea sick again!

And of course we ended our night dancing :) Most of the students that were with us were from Portugal, Spain, and Morocco so it was a big Spanish dance party! Good thing too, we got to learn some moves before going to Barcelona :)

Okay, now the real fun begins... SWEDEN

 I can not begin to describe the beauty of Stockholm, in every aspect! It was like a dream, a beautiful dream :) From the sights (literally in every direction you looked) to the people! Something I really liked about it was how diverse it was, in Lithuania pretty much everyone looks the same and they seem to want it that way! In Stockholm there were people from all over and the city embraced it all!The pictures don't even scratch the surface of how lovely this city it! Most of the day I walked around with my mouth wide open in awe...so far this is my favorite city in the world!

These cinnamon rolls are the BEST THING EVER!

The Royal Palace :)

It was a LONG journey back and unfortunately we didn't get to see any of Tallinn...but it was an AMAZING trip :) I honestly can't believe this is my life right now, yes a lot of the time I am exhausted and teaching and missing home, but other times I am getting to experience this beautiful world through all these unbelievable adventures! I am so incredibly grateful to all my friends and family who support me and stay up strange hours to talk to me :) I defiantly wouldn't be here if it wasn't for my amazing family!! I love you all, and will see you soon! What a wonderful world, how blessed are we to be living in it! 

Till next time :)

Farewell February

Last Saturday little Nicole (our coordinator/Russian teacher/kickboxing trainer/Jujitsu trainer, Dima's daughter) got baptized! It was SO cute and sweet, and diffidently a neat experience to be apart of (especially in a different language)! Their family is so wonderful and I love them all so much! After us teachers went to dinner with their family and then took the two girls bowling :) It was wonderful!

Also that night Em and I met up with some new friends, one is from Lithuania and her friend from Milan was visiting her so we met them for tea and then met up with their other friends to go to a concert! They were from all over Europe so the other common language was of course English, which was helpful for us :)

The Baltic Scene

On Sunday after church one my older students wanted to hang out with Kami and I :) Her family took us up to the top of the TV tower (similar to the space needle) it was so great! We got some wonderful fancy deserts and could see all of Vilnius! That morning was SO foggy so we almost didn't go but it ended up being the most wonderful day outside so it was perfect! However I forgot my camera so I had to take them all on my phone, what a shame...it was a BEAUTIFUL day!

After they took us to the city center were we climbed up to Gediminas tower, where we saw another wonderful view! It was such a lovely day, I can't wait until the weather is like that all the time!

Last week Em and I started our 'English School Olympic Games' with our kids :) We did our own variations of speed skating and ice hokey, they made medals and it was SO funny!

My host mom invited Emilie and I to go to "the TV" which I had no clue what she meant, but she put our names on a list and we went! It ended up being a Lithuanian talk show  and we were in the audience clapping and what not, haha it was LONG and I don't know what they were talking about! Be on TV in Lithuania...check :)

We taught the kids "If all the raindrops were lemon drops and gumdrops oh what a rain that would be.." Here is them with their mouths open wide "ah ah a ah ah a ah ah a ah" 

Yesterday there was a festival in the city center! It is supposed to be casting out winter, lots of people in strange masks dancing and some good old Lithuanian music :)

Fish anyone...

After we went to a wedding :) One of the teachers met a guy on a bus and they started talking and he was going to his friends wedding and invited us to come, it was pretty cool!

This next weekend is the BIGGEST festival though, it is the one that celebrates Spring :) Which really means nothing because I fear that casting out winter and inviting spring will still not change the fact that we are living in a freezer. Hopefully these really are magic things and they successfully banished winter! Sadly we will miss next weeks celebration though because we are going to...TALLINN!! We are taking a bus to Tallinn, Estonia and from there taking a CRUISE around the Baltic!!! We will spend a day in Tallinn a day in Stockholm, and finish in Helsinki :) THREE countries in 1 cruise...I can't wait :)

Yeah, I know! Feeling lucky :)