I'm in Paris!!!!!!

Ok, I wasn't too concerned about updating while I'm here, but now that I am here, how can I not?! We landed at about 10:00 last night, and the city lights were beautiful. We had to drive about an hour to get to the city though. I was so anxious!! When we finally went over a hill, I saw the city and then... The Eiffel Tower!!!!!! I literally squealed, but then quickly retained my joy and just stared out the window in awe. Not going to lie, I listened to "Paris Holds the Key to Your Heart" about five times. I am so excited to be here! This is a childhood dream!

I've waited my entire life, for this moment. ;) (That's a movie quote)

The Kids; Paris!!

Let me tell ya, I love the students! True that some of them are hard to handle, but I feel really blessed that we have the kids that we do. Most of them are actually interested in learning! A lot even remember my name (I'm suspicious as to why; I told a little boy my name and he started laughing..), and I'd go as far as to say that I think a few of them like me. Sadly, I'm not allowed to give you names, but I have taken a few pictures.

We start our day out by gathering all the kids together and talking about what day it is, what the weather is like, the rules, and then we sing songs! We teach different subjects, such as: Drama, Kitchen, Games, Shop, Gym, and Arts & Crafts. This week I'm teaching gym. I'm learning quickly that you always need something that will hold the kids attention- you can't just try and explain Simon Says and expect them to pay attention.. Silly me!

We've also been having more students come because their vacation is almost over. The kids are so cute!!!!!!!! Oh, my heart. I just want to hug all of them! But, they haven't really warmed up to me yet so that would not be appreciated.

Right now, I am packing for Paris and Brussels!! Woohoo!! I'm not taking my laptop with me, so if I can I will update from my phone, but otherwise you will just have to wait until Monday. ;)

P.S. I will try and be better at pictures!

Our First "Vacation"

This weekend... Yikes.

Let me explain. No, there is too much. Let me sum up. 

Ok, maybe it wasn't THAT bad. I'll just tell the story and you can decide. Ha! We planned a trip for this weekend to two beach towns, Klaipeda and Palanga. We got to Klaipeda just fine, and even to our hostel with no problems. We decided to visit the Curonian Spit, an island off the coast that is shared by Russia and Lithuania. We thought it would be a quick visit to Nida, a small town on the island. The bus we took was really nice, complete with wifi. When we got to the coast, I thought they'd drop us off for the ferry, but the bus drove straight onto the ferry! That was interesting! However, the bus ride actually took two hours... Way longer than we expected and when we got there, we didn't find very much to do. There was a quick hike that led to a view of the Baltic and the lagoon, so that was cool! We hiked back down and went to the bus station, only to miss our bus by about five seconds. That was frustrating, especially when we found out that the next one wouldn't be coming for another 4 1/2 hours. So, we stayed in Nida. Finally, we got some food! And we also got gelato, which is so AMAZING!! Eventually, after waiting and waiting and waiting, a bus came that would take us to the ferry. It was late, we were exhausted and stressed, but miraculously we made it back in time for the ferry and walked to the hostel. The canal was beautiful! I wish I would've taken pictures but I was so tired. The lights reflected off the water and there were restaurants along the alley. There was even an old fashioned ship! Klaipeda was actually really beautiful, and I wish we could've explored that more, but c'est la vie. We made it to the hostel ok, and that was that!

Palanga went much smoother. We took a mini bus there, which is pretty much a van.. Kinda. There are four seats that line the back, and Cameron sat on one side by a window. (The other girls sat further up) I decided I wanted a window seat and sat on the other side in the back. I'm sitting there, just prepping for the ride when this huge old man boards the bus. Oh, no. Please no. No no no no. He's still paying, but I know what seat he's going to sit in. Should I sit by Cameron? No! I want this window seat. Maybe he'll sit by her and not me. He comes back, sits on the middle of the two seats, scoots to Cameron's side (sigh of relief) then changes his mind and scoots next to me. Remember, Europeans don't have a lot of personal space, so we're basically shoulder to shoulder. I'm trying desperately not to scoot as far away as possible, which would be straight into the window, so that's a no. Man, this bus is hot. I'm regretting all the decisions I've made that led to this very uncomfortable situation. Namely, not taking my jacket off and staying by the window that is now serving as a magnifying glass for the sun. What's more awkward is that he wanted to look out the window too, so half the time it felt like he was staring at me. That bus couldn't have taken any longer to get to Palanga.

We walked from the bus station to the beach, down this super cute street with a ton of little shops and kitty rides and street performers. Finally, we climbed a tiny view and behold! The Baltic. It was beautiful! We walked down the pier, and then rested on the beach. I thought the water was freezing, but apparently that's the norm because everyone was jumping in. The sand was so soft! I thought it felt like sugar. We've had many different reactions from people. This guy raised his eyebrows at Kenon, (in a "You're cute" way) and a little girl kicked sand at me while I was laying down. So.... guess it depends on the person! Or maybe she's just a little demon child....

Eventually, we walked to our bus stop and rode home! Lithuania is beautiful. And nothing was more beautiful than our apartment!! This week we are going to Paris and Brussels, so I am super stoked for that! 

The ferry was packed with cars!

The hike in Nida

A WW2 monument

I added a pin for Moab at our hostel!

The park by our hostel

Names of soldiers

The Baltic Sea!

More Teaching

This week of teaching was just a lot of test runs and trials, which was fine. I'm really hoping I can catch on to the flow of teaching sooner than later. My lessons aren't so bad right now, I'm just hoping they can get much better! It's hard teaching right now because our classes are ridiculously small.. Their actual school doesn't start until September 1, so a lot of them are still on vacation.

Speaking of vacation, tomorrow we are going to Klaipeda!! I'm so excited to go swimming and exploring. We also went to the mall on Wednesday and I found an adorable dress, but decided not to get it. But then I thought about it so much I went back to the mall with Cameron to buy it! We tried some icecream, and it was SO GOOD! I can't even describe how creamy it was.

Rasa gave us our first vacation dates! We have next Thursday and Friday off, so we have already planned where we're going. I kind of want it to be a surprise, but then again I've already told a few people so I'll give you a hint. It's somewhere in France. ;)

My roommates! Waiting for the bus in the rain

Ice cream!!!!

One of my cute students! (Can't give out names)

Feel free to keep in touch, I'm available to Skype, too.... So um, hint hint. We got a lot of free time over here. Don't be shy.

Teaching... dun dun dunnnnn

The much feared day of teaching has come and gone... And I am a survivor. This morning I was really getting nervous, even though Paris had said a lot of things that calmed me down. As we were walking to the school, I thought to myself, "Well, if worse comes to worst, I'll just keel over and die". Ha! Sometimes I am dramatically dramatic but it cracks me up.

Anyways, my lesson was super simple which was good because I was pretty scatterbrained. The kids were as expected: some were sweet, some were terrified, and some were demons sent from Satan himself. Ok, they weren't THAT bad.... But I'm preparing for war. ;) 

Some of the kids called me Teacher Sally, which doesn't even rhyme with Lindsay! Sheesh, these kids. But then again, their names are so different I don't blame them. 

My lesson was a game, "Cat and Mouse", and the cat was a paper bowl that the kids used to catch the mice, which were little cotton balls. The cat started as a bowl... And now it looks like a plate. Seriously, these kids got energy. 

I'll let you know how teaching is as time goes on! Lithuania schedules around the months, so we won't have full classes until September. I'm glad that I'm actually doing what I came here to do now!

Yay for Mama Rasa and Church!

Yesterday, we finally met Rasa! She is so funny. We introduced ourselves, and she seemed surprised that there are five of us instead four. Then she murmured something about Dima never telling her anything. She let us ask our questions for her and then every time she was done answering one she would say, "Next question". I don't know why but we got a kick out of it. It was a quick visit but it is so nice to know that Rasa is real. ;)

We also went to church today! We've had some issues with the bus system (i.e. missing it or getting on the wrong one), but today was the day that we had practically no problems! Thank goodness for the last group that left super terrific instructions. As soon as we entered the church building, the missionaries greeted us and it was so nice to hear American's! And the branch was so welcoming, and we got translators, and just everything about church today was oh so sweet. Getting home, we left the church and started walking the wrong way, then turned around and saw our bus at the stop. At first we were like, "Oh well, we'll catch the next one", but then I thought, maybe if we run they'll wait! So I yelled that to my group and took off. They did wait! At the next stop, we were sitting there for a while, and then I started thinking we were going to go the wrong way if we got on this side of the street, so I stood up and Kenon was on the same page. As soon as we got to the crosswalk, we turned and saw our bus coming down the street! We caught it and I feel super blessed that we didn't have any bus problems today.

Hello, Kaunas!

Yesterday we decided if Rasa was still stick today we would go get our bus passes without her help. This morning we walked to our school, and it is so cute!! This language barrier has got to be fixed on our part because we're not going to make it for four months by just staring silently at people. We went into two of the classrooms, but the third door was stupid and we could not get it unlocked. 

After we checked out the school, we walked to Maxima (that's our grocery store) and bought bus passes! When we finally got on a bus, they did not work... What?? We just stood there and the machine was beeping furiously at us until the bus driver impatiently just waved us away. So... Kinda a free bus ride!

Kaunas is so beautiful. We're living in the suburbs, which I thought were kinda pretty, even though all of it's gray, square buildings. But driving into Old Town, the buildings turned into adorable cottages and gorgeous cathedrals. I'm telling you, add Lithuania to your bucket list. Just do it. I was clutching my purse all day long because I was thinking that pick pockets' would be on the rampage, but actually that's not a big issue. As soon as we got to Old Town, it was like a dream! Every corner you turn is another cobble stone street with a new array of colorful, old buildings. 

One thing: European men are very, VERY, open when they check you out. We passed a group of Italian soccer players (I guess they were cute; I got nervous and stared ahead but Cameron got pretty excited and was gushing about how cute they were! haha) and they openly started pointing at us and discussing things between themselves.. Awkward! 

We saw Kaunas castle too! Everything here seems so cheap and it's so weird. The castle tour is only 2,50 euros! We were down in the field  and Cameron (she's like a model) was swinging a swing attached under a bridge and some more European men stopped and pulled out their phones!! 

We decided to go back after that. We were all pretty tired and started to get hungry again. We ate lunch earlier at a little restaurant that kinda reminded me of Zupas. My meal was about 3,50 euros for a hamburger and a bottle of water. I don't know what kind of meat they use here, but it tastes good! Anyways, the buses are numbered according to route, so we knew that either the 34 or the 39 would take us home. We chose the 39, and hopped on. Little did we know that we got on the bus going the wrong direction so we had to go around the full loop of the bus stops! It took us 2+ hours to get home instead of 15 lol. And the driver was so jerky! He literally slammed on the gas and break all the time. It's a miracle we didn't barf. It was so hard not to laugh when people would board! They'd get on, start slowly walking back and then suddenly run to the back because he would peel out! Good times. 

Also, the trash cans and recycling bins here are colorful and round... I'll take a picture because they remind me of telly tubbies for some reason! 

Kitchen view!

Bedroom view.. From my bed.

Our apartment key

Classroom! Ft. Cameron's hand

Everything looks abandoned..

Old Town!!!

Kaunas Castle

Me and Kenon!

Under the bridge

Loving it!

The guy's pipe has constellations on it!

Sitting on the bus forever...