the sun is out!

It's been like this all weekend!

The sun has been out for at least the last five days.. It rained friday afternoon pretty hard but since that little episode it has been beautiful.

This weekend started off with the International fair on friday, and there are a lot of different people from a lot of different cultures here. So it was great! Oh! And it was the 20th anniversary of LCC, and the opening of the new hall that was built last year. The opening was first, and people spoke and prayed over it then they cut the ribbon and now it's open, which was really cool to experience. Right after that we were encouraged into my dorm's lobby where there was a HUGE 'birthday' cake for LCC. So we sang Happy Birthday to LCC and then ate cake! Yum!

super short walk to downtown

A few hours after all this there was a parade (escorted by police.. the real deal) to a downtown square where there were booths filled with culture and a stage where people performed their country's dances. The Americans did Cotton Eye Joe.. the whole song.. it was great everyone joined in. If there's one thing I'm learning in eastern europe, they know how to party! So great! The fair ended with a band playing Lithuanian folk music and we did an array of traditional dances. I tried to find a link on youtube to give you an idea but I couldn't. Some of them were really strange, entertaining nonetheless.

After the celebrating a few of us went to this really good restaurant in the oldtown part of downtown, and then when we got back to campus some of us watched Little Women. The best comfort movie in the whole world.

Berries at the market!

Saturday I went to the outdoor market, that I think goes on daily but I'm not sure. I got some taters, local honey, some gifts to send home, oh and I went to a bakery across the street that has the best chocolate croissants! It was so beautiful though I wanted to stay outside as long as possible, so I wandered my way bay to school as slowly as I could. Then in the evening some of us went to Charlie's, a pizza place. The pizza here is thinner than a quesadilla. I kinda like it though.

Sunday I spent all day indoors watching free movies online. Haha. I know super lame, it was beautiful out too. Oh well.

I have no classes M/W/F so today I picked up a few more things to send home, it was really nice to walk around. Really peaceful.

National Lithuanian Cake (not that good..)

I have a paper due tomorrow, and when we did peer reviews it was interesting the reviews I got both said I had a great paper minus the fact that I used too much opinion. That is essentially what the paper is supposed to be about otherwise the teacher would just be reading summaries of the book the whole time. I thought that was interesting, it's like people have been taught not to use their opinion. Especially on this paper, where the topic is gender stereotypes and what we think about the author's take on the subject. hmm..

T/Th are pretty busy days for me, I have three classes. All almost two hours long. Which isn't too bad except for my last class which is literature.. I almost fall asleep pretty much every time there is class. It is so boring and the teacher's voice is so low and mono tone. Blah.

This is Chalva.. it will be the death of me. It is SO GOOD. Google it.

The study abroad office is looking into ceramic opportunities for me to be involved in this semester. I really really really hope something works out. I am going insane with no art. I'm not fond of drawing, so I guess I may have to become fond of it if this ceramics thing doesn't work out. :[

This thursday the study abroad group is leaving for Riga (latvia) and Tallinn (estonia) for the weekend! I'm pretty excited to explore more of the beautiful baltic cities. And I WILL take lots and lots of pictures!

Have a great week!


Cheers!