Strumming Lithuania: June 2012

Sunday, June 17, 2012

Rumsiskes and Klaipeda

Whew! I've had lots of adventures the past two weekends as I left Vilnius for the day. Not this Friday, but the Friday before, I went with Janese and one of our favorite students, Z, and his mother out to the Lithuanian country side to a place called Rumsiskes. It was essentially an outdoor museum featuring different Lithuanian historic homes. While the homes were nice, once you've seen one, you've basically seen them all. But it was fun to play with Z, be away from the city and just enjoy the beauty of nature.

Then this weekend, the five of us teachers took a train up to Klaipeda, a city on the coast, for a YSA activity. The best part though-- we went to the beach! Now the Baltic is too cold to swim in but I had never been happier to see the sand in my life. Not going to lie, I cried a little once I stuck my toes in. I just really miss Hawaii sometimes and I was one of the happiest/loudest people on the beach as I ran around feeling like a free bird. Especially when chasing the sea gulls.

Here's pictures!

Home

Z and his mom, Silvia

Cranking the well

Commemoration at the Beach in Klaipeda

Ok so this isn't from Rumsiskes or Klaipeda. This is me skinning a chicken rib cage/spine to get meat for Janese's and my dinner tonight. But it was so epic and I was so proud of my work that I had to share.

Tuesday, June 12, 2012

Sickness and WHAT THE NEW SONG?!

So I've been pretty sick recently. I know again. My weeks in Lithuania just aren't complete unless I'm sick at least one day. Shrug. No worries. The real problem is a sick Bailey is also a very bored and frustrated Bailey. As I've laid incapacitated in bed, I've taken to planning my future wedding via pinterest (which was a very stressful thing for me--it was one of those moments where you have a reality check and you're like OMG real life is expensive and requires a lot of planning) and when I've felt up to it, I've even pulled out my uke since it's been a couple weeks since I've really practiced. Now I really like Ingrid Michaelson a lot. Every time I listen to her, I am so relaxed and happy. But she's also one of those artists who I haven't gone out of my way to buy her album, which I'm realizing is a shame on me. But this last semester to the chorus to her song Everybody would get stuck in my head. I'd never actually heard the song but the chorus is featured in the trailer for the new release of Lady and the Tramp, which ended up on our TV a lot. So yeah, never actually heard the song but it was frequently stuck in my cranium. Well that changed a yesterday when I decided to listen to the whole thing. Not only did I love it, but I decided I needed to play it. So I spent a while last night learning and after a couple of outtakes, I hereby present what I've come up with.

Wednesday, June 6, 2012

Hot Potato, Hot Potato

Ba! I love my kids!
So this week, I officially switched from teaching Drama to teaching Games, which is a bit sad since I love Drama so much but also probably a good adjustment. It can be a little difficult since you're explaining rules to little kids who don't always have the language much less the attention span to follow what you're saying. But it's a new challenge and I've come up with a lot of what are, in my opinion, pretty cool ideas. Today, we played Hot Potato but with a twist. Initially, we did review just how to play the normal hot potato. Once each class mastered that concept, we took it a step further and played Digital Hot Potato using my digital camera (which I'm really thankful is shockproof just btw). We set the camera on a 10 second timer than passed it around till it went off. Whoever ended up being in the picture had to say "Hot Potato" while using their lips to hide their teeth. If they picked up on that quick enough, we even went through and picked out costumes for each of us to where. It was hilarious and we spent the whole time just laughing our heads off. Here are the pictures!