Hello from our homeland

Long time no blog - at least it seems that way. Life here in Lithuania is pretty routine. It took a few months, but we have become so familiar with our hometown. I would say it is officially spring out here. Last week there was a pretty crazy snow storm, but it melted the next day. Other than that, it is decently warm out here - and by warm I mean its warm while still bundling up. One thing that I have loved is starting back running. I couldn't run the first couple months because of all the ice, but now I have ventured out and seen quite a bit of the city with my morning runs. Im trying to think of what else is new - nothing really. Like I said life has become pretty normal here in Lithuania. The count down has started, only one month left. Not gonna lie, the more time I spend out here the more I want to stay. Yes, the first few months (winter months) were TOUGH, but wow now that the sun is out I could definitely stay here longer. Makes me teary eyed thinking about leaving, but I still have a month! And this month will be the best one yet. Oh and yes I do still teach! No one believes me that I actually teach, but I do, I promise! I actually have one of the biggest classes on wednesdays and its normally straight chaos, but its kind of fun. I also recently got a new student in my elementary 6 class. He was also the boy who blessed the sacrament yesterday in church. He came up to me after, said hello and shook my hand. His mom then walked over to me - which made me a little nervous at first - but she told me how much her son has already learned and progressed in a week. She continued with how grateful and happy she was that I could teach her son english. It made my day! Its always good to know that the little lessons and things we do in class pay off. Motivates me to be the best teacher I can be.

Arnelija and little Max

 

Arnelija kept asking me for tape, but I didn't have any with me. I was confused why she wanted tape because it wasn't needed for the lesson. Well she decided glue would work just as well... she literally glued the pipe cleaner to her upper lip to make the mustache stay. She is something else. 

Crazy kiddos 

This was on my elementary 6 day... the little primary kids wanted to be in the big kid class - until I brought out the textbooks haha. 

Depends on the day whether I like teaching or not. Some days its terrible and some days I love it! But its always fun to see these crazy cuties. Besides teaching, it was a pretty chill week. This weekend we explored more of Vilnius. We played a game where we hopped on a random bus and saw where it took us. We would roll a die to see how many stops and then we explore a little where we end up. Well it was kind of a fail, but we still ran into some cool stuff like an elephant! I didnt get any pics, but vilnius has a circus going on so there was an elephant we got to pet (reminded me of thailand, low-key cried) we also ran into two different pairs of missionaries. First the elders and one recognized me from cross country lol Im famous. Then the sisters and one happens to be family with madi's really good friends.  One of my favorite things about the church - it is such a small world! We also found some famous street art!!

We love riding city busses, always an adventure

Lately we have felt so weird taking pictures in Vilnius because it makes us feel like lame tourists but we really aren't tourists anymore - I mean kind of but not really ya know? Sunday we went to church finally! Its been awhile... there are definite pros and cons to traveling every weekend. Anyways, after church we walked around Old town some more and decided to walk up to the Vilnius castle because we haven't done it yet!! It was a beautiful, windy day. We walked along the river and had great views of our town. I really do love it here. 

Well this blogpost has officially made me realize my time here is running out fast. How sad? These have been the most challenging, rewarding, once-in-a-lifetime months of my life. I truly love this place and these people and the kids and everything in between. Im going to miss late night Maxima runs and getting on the wrong busses and random dance parties with my roomies. Oh before I forget - this week something happened that I've been waiting for for awhile now. SO if your stomach is easily upset or if you get queasy at the slightest of things stop reading now. ok you've all been warned... so ya know how I ran 52 miles in NOVEMBER.... well Ive had a bruised toenail ever since. Saturday night it finally came off. I stubbed my toe while moving my bed - it hurt pretty bad. I looked down and touched it and it almost came off. My toenail was hanging on by a couple threads so I clipped and pulled and bam Im now "no toenail laynee". My roommates were enthralled with the whole process and pretty pumped that they got to witness it. They even videoed it for me - true homies. Thats when you know you have real friends... well enjoy these rad pics. If I'm being real, my big toe looks way better than it did with the nasty black toenail so Im happy.

Well this is one of our last weekends spent in Vilnius. The next few weekends are booked out with some more countries... five more to go. Love this crazy life Im living. We were all talking about how boring life is going to seem once we get home... no more weekend trips to the UK or Norway. Its crazy though because it hasn't hit us how cool this actually is. Its so normal to travel to multiple countries so easily out here that it doesn't feel like they are actually different countries. I hope that makes sense, but it just feels like traveling to different states, not countries. Pretty rad. Well I hope everyone is happy and doing well. Everything is good out here. As always much love from Lietuva <3