enjoy EVERY moment

This week has been a ton times better than last. It has flown by and Im finally used to the routine we have around here. This week was our first week of being evaluated while teaching. It was pretty intimidating at first, but its really not that big of a deal. Teaching is coming along quite well and it has been a lot more enjoyable this week. We have also started planning and purchasing flights and busses for our vacations which is super exciting. I find myself looking forward to the weeks to come, but Im not taking the time to enjoy my time here in vilnius. I've been trying really hard to find joy in the little things in life. I know my time here in Vilnius is going to FLY by so I want to embrace everything! The culture, the people, the cold, everything! One thing that I loved about this week was the few days we had of sunshine!! Thats right folks, a few days! It was amazing. It was still cloudy, but just enough breaks in the clouds to see the sun. It was so nice to have a few days break of snow and I even got to go outside and run!! I guess Lithuania doesn't want us to get too used to nice weather though because this morning we woke up to a blizzard. Gotta love it!

This is Gabi. She's my only girl in my catch up class and she is the cutest. My catch up class is a ton of crazy boys and Gabi and their favorite thing is during break they play "zombie" and Im always the zombie. I tell them its break time and they run up to me and say "teacher you zombie" then I scare them and they run up and down the hallways. Its the best. 

Another great thing that happened this week... I found these amazing oreo bars. I'm sure they exist in america, but this is the first time I've seen them and I may have bought 12. My roommates loved my guts when I bought them each one. I definitely win the best roomie award. 

My morning runs might be near death experiences, but I love having a little alone time to do the thing that keeps me sane. In the mornings its about 10 degrees and the ice can be quite scary, but I have yet to totally wipeout so Id say its a success. I also run up and down the apartment stairs which is a killer workout. We live on the first floor of a 10 story building, its boring but its a workout for sure. 

This week was our first week of institute! We got to ride to the nice side of town where the senior missionaries live. We are for sure living in the ghetto... they live in a nice apartment right next to the university. They made us muffins and hot coco and we started the pearl of great price! We usually have lazy mornings so it felt good to get up and get going. Plus we got to see all the cute college boys around campus so thats a bonus. 

Me and the roommates are getting along super well, thank goodness. We party way too hard at night and stay up way too late. We watch movies, plan vacations, roast each other, eat food and play some wicked games of what are the odds. The other night I had to shove my face in the snow and Madi had to roll around in the snow. haha. We're insane. We really are so close as roommates and its only week 2. Im excited for the memories we have ahead of us. 

To wear shorts around here you have to wear your thermals underneath... its called fashion

This week Ive had a max of 2-3 kids each day so its been a pretty chill week. Parents here take sickness serious so usually if a kid is sick they won't go to school for the week and a lot of kids are sick this week... kind of nice for the teachers :) but I do miss the little hooligans. 

This is Kristianas and he's in our Pre-language class. He's three years old and he is thee cutest thing ever. We call him our little boyfriend. 

So like I said, it was a blizzard today and a lot colder than the rest of the week, but that didn't stop us from taking a late night trip to Old town for dinner at our favorite restaurant. We get off teaching at 7:30pm and we probably didn't make it to old town till around 8:30 but it was worth it as always. Our favorite place is called Ento Dvares. We ordered so much food tonight... 3 plates of fried bread with cheese, main dishes and dessert - two plates of tree cake and ice cream. So dang good. We chilled and hung out at the restaurant till 11:30. It was so much fun. We played a game of impersonating each other and we roasted each other all night, as always.  

I tried being thug-like, but I couldn't keep serious for more than 2 seconds soo...

anyways, this week has been so much fun and the weekend is just starting. Find joy in the little things. I watch The Bucketlist Family on Youtube and they recently said something that stuck out to me "A bucket list does not have to take place in a far off location or be a death defying moment...there are special bucket list experiences waiting to be had each and every day." I love this so much because it is so true. There are so many things that happen every day that we overlook because we are too busy and we never notice how special the moment really is. Tonight, for example, we had the same cute waitress that we did the last time we came to this restaurant... we left her a tip (tipping isn't a thing in lithuania) and a cute little note. One of her co workers came by and picked it up and said "Paula is busy upstairs and is having a rough day, so she will love this, thank you." We had no clue our waitress was having a rough day, but we were all so glad that we took the time to thank her. Sometimes we need to slow down and enjoy the time we have right now, instead of always looking forward to something more. I know I need to work on it. Overall, such a good week. Grateful for lots and as always, much love from Lithuania <3