The Johnstrand Band

Graduation

2011-05-08T03:45:00.000-07:00

It was one week ago that I was buttoning my shirt, looking out my window onto the sidewalk that runs in front of our dorm apartment. Down the sidewalk were small families of two's or three's walking around with rare, unreserved smiles on.
The soon-to-be-graduates were scurrying about, their excitement clearly warn along with their black cap and gown. I was running a bit late, but I wasn't in too big of a hurry. I knew the drill, we had run through it so well the day before. We were to all go into Neufeld Hall auditorium, sit in our assigned, alphebetical, marked-by-number-order seats, while Michelson Center gets filled with parents, relatives, loved ones and friends. Then we were to descend from our assigned seats in an every-other-row to opposite door order and walk across campus with a rose in our left hand to the awaiting graduation ceremony. Since I had it all memorized, and since LCC is notoriously late with any event, I stood tying my tie in ease, watching my fellow classmates run past my window.
Ceremonies serve as signs that mark certain days, and in doing so those days in some way become sacred. They allow you to reflect on the growth and gain, on the loved and lost. I realized that this day was a ceremony which encompassed the past ten years of my life -- it was a closing of many things in my life which I have kept open for a long time. My openness has led me through the past ten years. It was as if I were going wherever I pleased. I made many plans and shared many dreams, but no one could tell where I was coming from or where I was going.
This way of living may very well have led me to become a permanently open and utterly unformed person, but I found the opposite happened. I have been molded. I have found a center and boundaries. I have lost family members. I have found true friends. I have committed to marriage. I have been given so much, and what I was given was exactly what I needed. I was given love by those around me and by God. And that love came in the shape of pushing and pulling. If it were not for that rising and crashing of these years I would not have become a man who can identify up from down, right from wrong. I would not be able to stand at that window, Becky's and my window, in Lithuania, watching the gathering of a community of which I am a part.
In the stage of life which was closing before me, I became aware that I knew how to stand for the first time--how to stand as a son, as a husband, as a friend. And it is not by strength of self. I learned that one can only stand in the midst of others. One will only stand because of others, for others.
I didn't know it then, but this awareness was soon to become only more poignant when, later that night and over the next few days, Becky would hand me a stack of letters from what would amount to nearly everyone from back home. How could I have foreseen the filling up of my heart, and the accompanied longing for home which was to come? How could I have known my inability to express my gratitude? How could I reflect all that I have been given for so many years?
And as I put a light cotton sweater on over my shirt and tie, and then my cap and gown on over those, I could feel that I was standing. And I see now that standing was, in itself, what I could do to reflect what I was given. I can be present for all the people in my life. I can be there for my family and friends. I can be a source of love and support for Becky. If it were not for all of the people surrounding my life, I would not know how to do any of these things. I could not stand if I had not been picked up so many times.
As I walked out the door, I felt the loving hands of my parents from my childhood, from my friends which I've had for half my life or would give my whole life for, and the enormous amount of others, pressing against me, keeping me standing up and giving me the desire to stay standing.

Merry Christmas, and Happy New Year!

2010-12-26T00:56:00.000-08:00

Becky and I have had quite a year. The year of 2010 was good to us. We spent most of our year here, in Lithuania, but we were fortunate enough to head back home for just over two months in the summer. To look back on a year from abroad is different than looking back from home. The sting of physical distance between family, friends, and ourselves is more present the greater that distance grows, and it makes us stop and reflect on our life here, together. And when we do, we see our blessings rise as if from sightlessness to sight (W.B.).

This past year Becky came into more familiarity with her job as an RD. She was able to get more of a routine with her work, so that she could invest more relationally with her students. She spent many hours this year sitting and listening to students share about her life, whether that was in her office or in our home over tea. She has quite an open ear for all those who are willing to share, and, as I’m sure you know, she is pretty good at talking too, so those students got to learn about her as well. I have watched her grow through the difficult aspects of being here also. She has been a light of caring, patience, and love to all those that surround her. That is one of the reason’s why I fell in love with her, and to see her grow even more in that regard is beautiful. I have learned much about selflessness and giving from her this past year. She is becoming an even better woman than the one I first met almost 5 years ago, and I am honored to have her as my wife.

I spent most of my 2010 days getting tossed between some sort of abstract wonder and real life. From attending classes and reading an accessive amount theology and philosophy, I would return to earth by trying to join in around the community here wherever I could be of use. I loved helping out in the seasonal events like community day, ugly duckling cup, oktober fest, or the Christmas pageant. And sometimes I was able to work with local high schoolers here on campus, or visit an elementary school and presenting about where I come from. I look forward to graduating this spring and finding out where our next steps will be.

Aside from our work here at LCC, we spent much of our last year around a table, eating or drinking with friends. We have many people here who have shown us much love, and three scenarios stand out the most. One is on our Sundays mornings. We often meet the Kaethlers, Andrew, Alene and their two little girls, for breakfast. Usually we are slow to rise and slow to leave, so it turns more into brunch, and we love those mornings. It is great to have friends who we feel so at home around, and who let us enter their lives so freely. Another scenario is our Friday morning Celebration Breakfasts, where we gather with 5-20 people in our home to share about the past week. Doing that breakfast has tied many of us closely together and has been a highlight of our time here, getting to learn about one another and share in what we have seen God do here. Lastly, our friend Vaida and her family will not be forgotten when looking back at this year. She is a Lithuanian co-worker of Becky’s, who has become more like family through opening her house and home to us over this past year. Her, and her family’s care and affection has made this year so valuable for us. We have spent many evenings speaking broken Lithuanian around her table, in her sauna, or celebrating a holiday with her family. We are so thankful for her.

And the final piece of this past year that we will share is about our cherished summer months back home. There was nothing more needed than time to see family and friends. We crammed in all that we humanly could, squeezing every day for what it was worth. We worked some and met up much. We got to join in with our family and friends' lives, going to cabins, meeting up for meals, hosting races, building things, and worshiping together. We did fewer things than we normally would be able to in an entire summer, but we felt like we were able to see our family and friends enough to be recharged. No matter how much time we had, it did not quite seem like enough on the day we had to leave. We miss you all, and look forward to late May, when we return home.

We wish the best for everyone this next year. We pray that your Christmas was filled with hope and joy, and that the New Year will treat you kindly.

The Johnsons

Happy Thanksgiving

2010-11-21T05:03:00.000-08:00

Yesterday we gave our RAs a cultural experience by introducing them to the tradition of celebrating Thanksgiving. We have our own staff & faculty Thanksgiving gathering the weekend after all of you back home in America are eating turkey and stuffing until the point of comatose with family and friends because it is hard for us to survive an entire year without a Thanksgiving of our own. Still, students only get the chance to hear about this magnificent American tradition. This year we decided to show them how it is truly done. The other Neumann RD, Alexandra, and I came up with a menu that would display a variety of typical Thanksgiving dishes, which included turkey, stuffing, cheesy mashed potatoes (it must be an East coast thing because Alexandra is from New Jersey), gravy, cranberry sauce, broccoli, homemade bread with butter, deviled eggs, and of course, a pumpkin pie. The food was a success with everyone at the table, and I was happy to hear that the stereotype of American food looking like a fast food burger with fries was quickly being wiped out of their minds.
We began by gathering around the table to tell a brief history of the reason we have this holiday back home before we prayed and dove right into explanations of all the dishes present. The eating and conversation brought us to a jolly place of laughter and we paused before dessert to go around the table and share our thanks. I was not sure what to expect from this activity because around here it less common to be open about personal things in a large group such as ours. I was blown away. It was incredible to hear student's reflections about their thanks, starting from supportive family and friends to the multiple opportunities they have been given in life, remembering the gift of being able to wake up each morning and walk around on 2 working legs, and for the challenges and hardships during this past year that are part of the beauty of life as they look back on the growth that came from those times. Many of the RAs mentioned the life changes that have happened and are happening at this place that brings all of together, this place we call LCC International University. It was a blessed time together to practice the state of thankfulness.
Prior to eating the delicious pumpkin pies with whipping cream, we had a wishbone war. That is something that all the cousins look forward to around our extended family's Thanksgiving, so of course we had to include this silly tradition, with Roman (one of the RAs on my staff last year) coming out with a victory. I hope he had a good wish! Then we settled in to the couches to conclude the evening by watching the classic It's a Wonderful Life. Afterward, we were half expecting the snow to start falling and Christmas melodies to start playing as we cleaned up the kitchen and went home. We will be thinking of you with thanks in our hearts as you are celebrating this wonderful tradition together this week.

My LCC twin?

2010-11-10T11:50:00.000-08:00

I have been meaning to share this photo with you for a while now. The big news is that I finally met my twin here in Lithuania. Ieva (pronounced Yev-uh) made an appearance on campus this fall as a freshman. I kept having people tell me that I looked like someone else on campus or that someone else looked like me...and I have to admit it felt a little eery when I officially met Ieva for the first time. I'll leave the final say up to you all. It's not the greatest photo, but even her squinting looks vaguely familiar. ;)

PEEP OF THE WEEK

2010-10-24T14:10:00.000-07:00

This week marked the beginning of a small, yet hopefully meaningful practice of building community in the residence halls. We claimed a spot on the bulletin board near the elevator that everyone walks by multiple times on a daily basis to highlight selected residents from Neumann Hall with personal photos and interesting biographical information. This week it was Vasile and Cristina from East side (both students who hail from Moldova), and our only set of twins on campus, Masha & Dasha (from Belarus), representing the West side. Next week it will be a new group of faces with their own personalized stories that are chosen to make a special appearance as the ‘Peeps of the Week. Not knowing how students would respond to my idea, I was pleasantly surprised to see the smiles it brought to faces as well as witness the simple sense of belonging that happens when we are given the opportunity to make ourselves known to one another.

My favorite part happened when we celebrated the start of this weekly tradition by hosting all the ‘Peeps of the Week’ for dinner in our apartment late on Friday night. We had quite the feast to help us celebrate. One of my RAs, Anton, taught Erik and I how to make plov (a delicious dish made with rice, beef, onions & carrots) according to his mother’s recipe. We are learning that plov is such a traditional dish in all Central-Asian countries that every family has their own recipe along with their own ‘way’ to make it. Maksat, a student from Kazakhstan, showed us his family’s recipe last month, and this week Anton showed us the way his mother makes plov back in his home country of Kyrgyzstan. I do not think we could call ourselves plov experts yet, but we are definitely acquiring an affection towards the consumption of this tasty dish.

Mr. Clean unveiled

2010-09-10T14:20:00.001-07:00

Finally, the long awaited photo of my last RA. You'll have to refer back to my earlier post to get the scoop on Mr. Clean. Although my face may not reflect it, I am really looking forward to working closely with this individual. He is an independent thinker and adds a unique perspective to any group. He likes to remind me of the differences between Eastern Europeans and Americans, especially in our interpersonal interactions. I like to remind him of all the similarities between Americans and Eastern Europeans...

Крузенштерн

2010-09-10T13:43:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that we live on a port city? In fact, one of it's claims to fame is that it is the northernmost 'ice-free' port city on the Baltic Sea. Since Erik spent every summer weekend of his growing up life on a sailboat with his family, it's a good thing I get a similar thrill from watching all the boats - I mean ships - sail their way in and out of the harbor here in Klaipeda. We often find ourselves mesmerized by the lights bobbing far out on the shoreline as we imagine the stories of sailors and other crew members coming and going from our home. I am sure it is more romantic in my mind than in actuality, because I am pretty good at that.

Last weekend the world's 2nd largest tall ship was in our port. We had the opportunity to tour this huge and very old (built in 1926) Russian ship that continues to be used for training purposes and is normally docked in Kaliningrad, the port city to the south of us. The sight was impressive, although I was wishing that the sails would have been out for us to see this old ship in all its glory.

Meet the EAST side

2010-09-01T11:15:00.000-07:00

It's time you met the 4 lovely students I hand-picked to work with this year. I haven't had much time to email and fill you in on the last month of preparations, student leader training, and move-ins, but I am starting to feel guilty for not introducing my fabulous team of Resident Assistants. Drum roll please...here they are!

This is Tanya from Kaliningrad, Russia. Tanya is a 4th-year student who will be graduating from LCC in 2011 with a degree in English Language & Literature. Kaliningrad is a part of Russia that is located just south of Lithuania on the Baltic Sea, so her home is less than 3 hours away, depending on how long it takes to get through customs at the border ( 30 minutes - more than 4 hours!). Tanya graduated from with an undergraduate degree in Economics this summer through a university back home that she attended through mostly long distance correspondence and going back to Kaliningrad for a week of tests at the semester's end...all at the same time as she was attending courses here at LCC. She is 21-years old and dreams of someday moving to Canada...although she realizes she first needs to pay the country a visit.

And here is Anton. This is his 3rd year at LCC, although he is officially a 2nd-year student. He attended the English Language Intensive course for his first year to improve his English-speaking abilities. Anton is one of a few students we have at LCC who hail from Kyrgyzstan, which is sometimes known as the 'Switzerland of Central Asia.' He attended a May course at LCC before spending the rest of his summer working in Greece. One thing I remember about his interview from last spring was that his family runs a business selling ice cream. His previous communication experience with shop owners will serve him well as he relates and interacts with his fellow peers as anRA. Anton has a laidback style that is somehow super productive at the same time. Those of you who know me can understand how he will balance me out well. :)

Natasha is our RA on 3rd floor. She is a returning RA with plans to graduate this spring with a Business Administration degree. Natasha is originally from Moldova and has spent the last 3 summers working at a tourist destination in Ohio...I think the place is called Rattlesnake Island? Natasha has adapted well to the long, dark Lithuanian winters, although she does mention that she can never get used to the weather here. Not enough sunshine for someone who comes from a fertile country of grapes and sunshine. I don't know if any of our students from Moldova would choose to live through a winter in Minnesota either, though Natasha could fit in well as a sweet midwestern gal.

no photo available
at this time

And lastly, the 4th RA on East side would prefer to be unnamed and for the time being, unphotographed. I am still waiting on his picture. We both agreed that he would like to be introduced as Mr. Logic (the story about that could appear later), although at the moment he looks more like Mr. Clean. Remember Mr. Clean? This member of our team is beginning his 3rd year as an RA and will be graduating with Erik on May 1, 2011 with a degree in Theology. Mr. Logic (or Mr. Clean) has a creative sense of humor. He constructed a homemade manequin in his pod kitchen to welcome his residents to their new home using a broken chair and other random items he found around the dorm. He calls this unusual resident of the hall 'the nightguard,' and above him hangs a sign that reads, "The Nightguard NEVER sleeps." Oh yeah, did I mention Mr. Logic is coming to us from the country of Belarus, the country that shares the eastern border of Lithuania?

Thanks for your attention. As you can see, we are an odd group with lots of potential, together. I look forward to reporting more as the year unfolds.

Common Ground

2010-08-12T03:38:00.000-07:00

There are different kinds of journeys that people take - different kinds of trips. We as people decide to go out and find something. Maybe for some it's to find something new, maybe it's to come to peace with something, maybe it's to say good-bye. But, often I think we journey in order to know, in order to understand something that we don't quite get. It was for this reason that Becky and I found ourselves traveling over 1 400 km in a car that shared the size and safety that a gnat would afford its passengers.Since being in Lithuania we have glimpsed at what we felt was Lithuania. Having nothing to chalk these decided differences up to other than the sole fact that they weren't American, made us start to wonder, "What is Lithuania? Who are Lithuanians?" This is clearly an enormous question that to do it any sort of justice would require an in-depth, unbiased research methodand highly sophisticated minds that are capable of crunching the data that would be presented. Lacking the resources for both the former and the latter, we were faced to make a series of decisions. The only thing thatwasn't Americanabout our decision to have us two uncultured, inexperienced individuals take a road-trip was the Deawoo we affectionately called the Tao, we drove.

The Road Trip

It was a good start. And for that statement to be true you must know that I am speaking comparatively. It was, after all, monday evening around 5 30 pm, and we had planned on leaving Sunday bright and early. What's 36 hours, right? Did it bother us that the car we wereborrowing had managed to brake down before we got it? That the bakes literally fell off of the car while it was getting driven to us? Nope. Way better that it happened ahead of time than if it had happened after one of us got that rubber-band motor spinning full-speed going into a roundabout.

We did eventually get the car from its wonderfully gracious owner, Emas, and then got a pep-talk from the expat who we were copying in doing the road trip. She informed us of how wonderful Lithuania was when you get out there and see it all first hand. She incouraged us to go and see whatever we wanted, there is plenty of time and it's a small enough country. We happily took her advice since we had not planned anything yet and we would be leaving in

under two hours. We grabbed her map, Lithuanian travel books and GPS and threw them in the pile of clothes, shelters, food, and camping gear we had assembled. Saying goodbye to Klaipeda, we rolled the windows down and opened our eyes for what was ahead.

Our days were filled with camping, exploring, walking in new cities and towns. We got to see Lithuania and Lithuanians outside of our school and our immediate community. It seemed like the aspects that were consistent from our city to the rest of Lithuania shone through. We went through enough villages and towns to see what village life looks like compared to city life here. Lithuania has 5 different regions, with their corresponding stereotypes, and we pretended that we could tell the difference. We could see the difference between the types of land, and consequently the farming, fishing, and general living.

What we did discover is that a small Lithuanian town will most likely have:

a large outdoor crucifix at the entry and exit of the village and they are usually wooden, beautifully landscaped gardens, little stands with people selling vegetables, mushrooms and fruits from their garden or the forest, a bus stop with two things - a bench which has no back and at least one vacant, empty beer bottle. The towns also have a statue or bust of someone, a church - located at the very highest or best place in town, a gas station, a village drunk walking through the streets, at least one babushka (elderly grumpy grandma who somehow owns and runs everybody's everything) who is walking or biking, either way she has a loaded basket of goods (possibly stolen, ha), a village name sign announcing entry and a sign with the village name on it with an X through it to signify your departure, lots of huts, dilapidated buildings, at least one Soviet relic - some cement building/structure/form left from the old days, colorful homes with decorative tree limb bridges, fences, arbors, flower boxes, and all towns have many, many people walking the streets.

One of the places we stopped was at a museum of sorts. It is a man's property that has many of the old Soviet statues from during the occupation. He purchased them after independence, and set them up in his yard. There are two huge loops that have all sorts of statues along with the propaganda that people were told. Most of the statues were of Stalin and Lenin, but some were of other heroes. I loved this statue.

As I said we camped the whole time. The forests are beautiful, and for the most part free. They have completely different philosophies when it comes to property and land. Most of the space is Lithuania is Lithuanians. Not the governments, but just the peoples. It can be used as wanted by the people, but no one owns it individually. They are just forests and fields left to the care and use of the people. Which leads to free use of the space, for the better and worse. We loved though. The lakes that we would camp next to were some of the most clear lakes I have ever seen.

We got to meet new people on our way. One of our favorite was Ryma from the south western corner of Lithuania. We camped in her campsite for night. It was actually just her yard, but her and her husband turned it into a great little campground. They live in the National Forest because their house was built before the country even had national parks. She was a terrific hostess and treated us graciously. I love how the Lithuanians we get to know always want to hear our impression of Lithuania. We always tell them how we love it here, and what shocks me is that our answer always surprises them. They want to know why we love it, and then a number of them tell us what's wrong with it. It seems similar to how people back home think about America in a very different way than the rest of the world. It's interesting how outsiders can often see the brighter spots in our own situations than we can. We'll be headed back to see her soon.

One other thing that really stuck out to us was the depth of history. Its so crazy to live in a place that has been lived in for thousands of years by people who are still carrying the stories along. A bit different than the story of Europeans in America. One thing that Lithuanians have deep in their traditions is how they deal with death. I don't claim to be an expert by any means, but you can clearly see it through their maintenance of graveyards. They have many graveyards that are hundreds and hundreds of years old that are still meticulously kept up. Every village and every church have them, and they often seem to be a central part of the community, being decorated with flowers and light up with candles. This graveyard was from the German settlers from the 1800's. I think it wasn't as well cared for because of the tension between Lithuanians and Germans. Nevertheless, it was impressive to stumble upon driving down a tiny road in between farms.

Overall we loved our trip. Our favorite times were with the people we got to meet and the half understood conversations. The last night of our trip we met up with a Lithuanian friend of ours, Vaida, with her Mom, sister, daughter and nephew in a town 75 Km north of Klaipeda named Plateliai. There is a huge lake there which is about two hundred feet deep where people learn how to scuba dive. There is also quite a bit of sailing there. We spent that night hanging out with Vaida, her family, and her friends' family (the scuba diving instructors) with our first experience of Lithuanian Vodka. We enjoyed ourselves and had a great night chatting with new friends about the same old things: family, children, politics and what we all love to do in life. It's beautiful to see how much we all have in common, and how it comforts us to be around people who among all our differences we can find good, honest, common ground.

The trip put us in a good place to start this next year, and more experiences that will help us understand more completely, but never wholly, the people who we are trying to serve here at LCC.

Farmer Boy 5K 2010 Results

2010-08-08T05:12:00.001-07:00

For all of you that have been anxiously anticipating the results of the fabulous Farmer Boy 5K Fundraiser that took place at Rod's Berry Farm on the 24th of July...here they are! Sorry to have kept you waiting. I hope that the photo display I have put together below allows you to experience the blood, sweat and tears that all of our participants, racers and spectators alike, shed as the cutthroat competition unfolded.

Runners and bikers assembled at the starting line, race tags attached, and the official race clock ready to tick-tock. This is starting to sound like the old poem Casey at Bat. I'll stop. Note the official starting gun being waved in the background by my youngest brother, Paul Henrik. He returned from showing his steer at the county fair just in time to fire the Farmer Boy 5K's starting shot.

And they're off...the race begins!

The course traveled across the front lawn and in between the sheds...

...down the dirt road...

...and around the bend. Out of our desire to not reveal too many details about the course terrain, we will refrain from posting photos of the remainder of the route. To give you an idea of the Farmer Boy 5K's difficulty, we can tell you that the route crossed over alfalfa fields...up and over creeks...and through the woods. Needless to say, this race was not run by the faint of heart.

Ten minutes after the race began, Erik hopped on his 4-wheeler with a supply of water and band-aids to bring aid to the weary racers.

My dad, the Rod of Rod's Berry Farm, represented 1 of our 3 bike entries. Here he appears to be riding Schwinn's latest model - complete with a very flat rear tire. Good on ya, Dad!

TJ, our youngest competitor, was 1 week away from celebrating his 3rd birthday.

Look at TJ's strong finish!

Speaking of strong finishes, here comes our 2010 Farmer Boy 5K Grand Champion, arriving at the finish line an incredible 23 seconds ahead of anyone else...

'ol Mr. Caleb Hudson!!!

And here comes TJ's proud grandpa...another strong finisher...his first time back in running shoes since the 1970s.

A recap of the awards ceremony following the completion of the race.

Our Running Victors

1st - Caleb

2nd - Nate & Jonah

3rd - Tyler

Our Incredible Cyclists

1st - Paul Hank

2nd - Ash

3rd - Dad

A huge thank you to all of our race participants and spectators. Thanks for coming out to show and share your JohnstrandBand support, both in physical exertion as well as financial donations. Over $500 was raised towards our work this next year at LCC International University. We are so grateful. Thanks to the many of you that stopped by to give us a proper farewell. We are well loved. I couldn't resist ending with the photo below. Jaxton (pictured below) was demonstrating how we all felt at the end of the day. We'll look forward to seeing you all next summer at the 2011 Farmer Boy 5K.

The End

Farmer Boy 5K Fundraiser coming up July 24

2010-07-10T15:36:00.000-07:00

Who?

YOU and anyone else you can get to come along.

What?

The FARMER BOY 5K FUNDRAISER

When?

Saturday, 24 July 2010

10-10:30 am – Registration

11:00 am – Official Race Start

Where?

Rod’s Berry Farm

How much?

We are still raising funds for our work and ministry at LCC International University (www.lcc.lt), so we ask that you consider making a free-will donation instead of paying the usual flat-rate race fee.

How?

You can race any way you want. This includes running, walking, biking, skipping, crab-walking and even sitting. You are invited to join us whether or not you want to race.

Sign up for the FARMER BOY 5K FUNDRAISER by replying to johnstrandband@gmail.com with the number of participants by Thursday, 22 July 2010.

Yard games & lunch will take place on the lawn at the completion of the race. Burgers and hotdogs will be provided. Please bring a dish to share.

Hang out as long as you can. This event will serve as the send-off for our 2^nd year in Lithuania (as we plan to fly out of Minneapolis on the 27^th of July).

We hope to see you there!

Becky & Erik

more Elmstrand's in Lithuania

2010-05-04T06:19:00.000-07:00

Somehow almost a month has come and gone since we waved good-bye to my parents and brother, Paul, and sent them off on the early morning train out of Klaipeda...and I am ashamed to admit that I haven't shared anything about their 2-week visit to Lithuania with you. Erik and I feel extremely blessed to have had the 2 communities we come from and are a part of meet together in one place.

"Thank you mom, dad & Paul, for each of you jumping into life at LCC with both feet. We are so grateful. Our visit at home this summer will be richer because you were able to experience the people and places that make up our life here. Thank you for bringing your love and support across the world."

While my family was here, we did just about everything but sit down. This included meeting & talking to LCC students, attending campus events, going to classes with Erik, watching the Inauguration of LCC's new President, getting our hands dirty at the groundbreaking ceremony for a new residence hall, getting cepiliniai-making lessons from Vaida, participating in a Seder Meal with some of our friends, visiting the public sauna followed by a cold dip in the Baltic Sea, taking an international road trip to Latvia & Estonia for Easter weekend and hopefully drinking & eating plenty of European cappuccinos & pastries to make the visit worthwhile. They say that a picture is worth a thousand words...and for that I am thankful. I'll let the pictures do the talking.

our town

2010-04-17T10:11:00.001-07:00

Today is one of those days, upon getting to the end of it, that I realize my life is actually here in Lithuania. That Klaipeda isn't a city in Eastern Europe I am merely exploring and experiencing, but it is our home. It is our town. We belong here. Well, it is about time - it has been growing on us for 8 months now. There used to be a day when that amount of time in one location was long enough for Erik and I to decide it was time to move to another state. It makes me ask, "What makes a place become Home for the wildly wandering tumbleweed that I am?"

3 things come to mind:

one-usual places,

two-neighbors, and

three-baking.

Usual Places

And by places, I mean shopping. The Old Town market, the bandele bakery, and all of the little shops between Old Town and campus in which I stop to buy my multiple odd grocery list items of toilet paper, olive oil and red pepper flakes are now the norm. I really am dreading the day I must attempt to step back into Super Target and try to find toothpaste on aisle D46, remembering that I must make a decision about what kind of toothpaste I want to buy. No thanks. I have found that this kind of shopping is much more my style. I have 3 or 4 choices in Lithuania and I have reached the point of knowing where and how to find/ask for our typical necessities. It wasn't this easy back in August, but I realized on my walk home from the market today loaded with potatoes, onions and eggs how far I have come. I was even able to recognize a lot of the faces selling their wares from my early adventures at the market last fall. Much to my surprise, I bought my 2 kilos of potatoes from my favorite maintenance man at LCC. It's nice getting used to usual places and usual faces.

Neighbors

Of course we have had neighbors all along. We live in a dormitory with 200 college students running around on the floors above us. We go to bed after midnight on weekends to the sound of high heels click-clacking all the way down the hall on their way out the door on the other side of our wall. I am talking about the kind of friends in the community whose door you can knock on without calling ahead. Alene & Carrie have grown to be those sort of friends for me this semester. I am thankful for times of being out and about in town and being able to stop in to drop something off, say hello, or just use the bathroom since public restrooms in town are so hard to come by. The timing of finding neighbors seems to be ordained as well. At the same time that I realized my deep need for female friendships outside of work, my interactions with these ladies happened more frequently. Gotta love how that works out. I am thankful for my chance to drop off produce from the market at Alene's this afternoon and the impromptu cup of tea we were able to share together, in spite of her being too sick to feel like leaving the house today. Now that's a sign of a good neighbor.

Baking

Lastly, I know I have settled into a place when I have started to bake. Baking is probably one of my favorite therapeutic practices; though I must admit it comes after cleaning for me. When all is chaotic in my world, I start to clean. If life is busy, but I am getting into some sort of groove, I begin to bake. Cookies, apple crisps, granola, scones, cinnamon rolls & bread to name them all. My repertoire has been limited since living in Lithuania due to difficulties in finding the same ingredients, but I still enjoy being in the practice of baking here. I am attracted to baking bread because of the intensive labor of love that it requires. I love how hands-on it is and how accomplished I feel when I see the golden loaves on the cooling rack and have the aroma of homemade bread swirling around our cozy apartment. Before I go, I should also mention here that having a love for baking does not necessarily mean that I am a good baker. Sometimes I win, sometimes I lose. There were quite a few times this semester that my initial attempts to make whole-wheat bread turned out super-dense, wheat bricks that we choked down only out of principle.

Surprising as it sounds, Kretingos g. 36, LT-92307 in Klaipeda, Lietuva has become home for us. It doesn't mean that we don't miss people and places back home terribly, but this feeling is something new for us Johnstrand's. I might even go so far as to say that maybe familiarity, routine & commitment aren't so bad after all.*

*Don't hold me to that. :)

So what makes a home a Home?

I would say a walk to the Market,

a cup of Tea, & homemade Bread.

a spring break lesson

2010-03-09T09:18:00.000-08:00

I'm the RD On Duty for spring break this year, so that means Erik and I must limit our exploring to within Klaipeda's city limits. I am not complaining though, as it feels like we need a break from the consistent pace of school and a reason to take time for the less commonly visited places around us here. Thus far into the week has been a lot of soaking up time together inside our apartment with carefully budgeted trips out and about happening here and there.

I thought I should fill you in on the Lithuanian holidays that are happening this week. They are the kind of holidays that feel like Groundhog's Day does back home (Who celebrates Groundhog's Day in the United States besides AmySue and me?), but people actually get a day off work for these ones. I suppose they are actually more similar to our President's Day weekend. All that to say, I have been doing some of my own research to try and understand the holidays observed around here and so it seems appropriate to give you the scoop as well.

+St. Casimir's Day+

St. Casimir was a Prince of the Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania who became a patron saint of Lithuania, Poland, and the young. "Little Casimir's" Fair (or Kaziuko mugė if you want to say it in Lithuanian) is held in cities in Lithuania on the Sunday nearest to the anniversary of his death, March 4. Some helpful info from Wikipedia I inserted below explains what Erik and I discovered in the theater square downtown this weekend. It's the closest thing to the MN State Fair we have experienced since being here. Definitely worth checking it out. Erik and I tasted hot beer and waffle cakes, bought the most creative palm fronds I have ever seen, and then wished we could buy heart-shaped honey cookies for all of our friends who had to remain at home. It was a joyful celebration of everything truly Lithuanian.

Kaziuko mugė

• The arts and crafts at the fair include hand-made goods from local craftsmen, such as apparel, knitted clothes, footwear, toys, utensils, metal crafts, souvenirs, and paintings. Foodstuffs like rye bread, bagels, honey cookies, meat and diary products, natural honey, beer, and gira are sold as well.

• "Palm" bouquets (called "verbos", hence Verbų sekmadienis) are one of the fair's specialties. Made of colorful dried flowers and herbs, they are taken to churches on Palm Sunday. The shape of the "palms" resembles a lily, a flower which St. Casimir is traditionally associated with.

• Another popular product at the fair is the "muginukas", an often heart-shaped honey cookie, decorated with colored sugar flowers, zig-zags, dots, and birds. Popular men's and women's names are written on the cookies. People buy them to give to their loved ones. It is a customary tradition to bring back some cookies for anyone who had to remain at home.

+International Woman's Day+

Yesterday, March 8, was a major day of global celebration of women, but it wasn't until I moved to Lithuania that I witnessed its observance in any form. I was informed by students at LCC that Woman's Day is an old Soviet holiday that they have grown up celebrating in many of the countries previously occupied by Russia. I was also told that the usual custom is for men to give the women in their lives - mothers, wives, daughters, colleagues, etc - flowers and other small gifts. It all became more clear when Erik and I finally understood what an older gentlemen at the bus stop was trying to communicate to us through a mixture of Lithuanian/English & sherades - he wanted to make sure that Erik intended to give me a flower in honor of Women's Day. Now that I think about it, I don't know if I ever did receive that flower in honor of Women's Day. :) I did notice that there were a number of public events advertised this last week to promote awareness of women's topics. Once again, a quick search in Wikipedia enlightened me on the history of this holiday's beginning and the various ways it continues to be celebrated in different places today.

• Started as a Socialist political event, the holiday blended in the culture of many countries, primarily Eastern Europe, Russia, and the formerSoviet bloc. In many regions, the day lost its political flavour, and became simply an occasion for men to express their love for women in a way somewhat similar to a mixture of Mother's Day and St Valentine's Day. In other regions, however, the original political and human rights theme designated by the United Nations runs strong, and political and social awareness of the struggles of women worldwide are brought out and examined in a hopeful manner.

• On May 8, 1965 by the decree of the USSR Presidium of the Supreme Soviet International Women's Day was declared as a non working day in the USSR "in commemoration of the outstanding merits of Soviet women in communistic construction, in the defense of their Fatherland during the Great Patriotic War, in their heroism and selflessness at the front and in the rear, and also marking the great contribution of women to strengthening friendship between peoples, and the struggle for peace. But still, women's day must be celebrated as are other holidays."

That's enough of a cultural lesson for now. To be continued...coming up this week on March 11 is Lithuania's Restoration of Independence Day. More about that next time.

a Holy communing

2010-02-22T12:08:00.000-08:00

Mug 'n Muffin arrived at LCC this weekend. Just in time for the ladies here on campus, or so it seemed. It was an idea that came to mind sometime for me last fall, briefly shared with some fellow gals on our Student Life team and then brought back up in our conversations at the start of the new semester in January. Mug 'n Muffin refers to an event just for ladies that started back when I was an RA at Northwestern College. It occurred on a couple of Saturday mornings during the semester and almost guaranteed feminine bonding, all scripted to happen as sleepy female students wearing slippers listened to wise older women share their life stories openly and honestly while sipping homemade mochas from their mugs topped with extra whipped cream. It was an intentional way for women to pass down wisdom to those of us in the next season of life. As a student, I absolutely loved it. My adoration of stories has only continued to grow since then.

I observed early on in my arrival to LCC International University that there is a large female presence on campus...and later found that over 60% of the student body are women. Thus, the ladies have a strong voice in the classroom and are generally the leaders in extra-curricular activities on campus. I started to think, What better way to treat the hard-working ladies of LCC than to their very own Mug 'n Muffin? So, there you have it. I gathered 4 other staff that are about my age, organized a few meetings, shared my vision of what I thought a Mug 'n Muffin could look here, and poof! our very first Mug 'n Muffin appeared this last weekend.

390 handmade invites were sent out to every female student beforehand and about 35 RSVPs were returned. I was impressed by the turn-out as it was a non-traditional way to advertise for events around here. The typical approach is to send out as many emails and hang up as many posters as possible in order to lure in all sorts of unsuspecting attenders. My desire was to create a meaningful time for the women on campus that were wanting to be present. The only problem was that students didn't have any idea how to know whether or not they wanted to be at this women's gathering that invited them to wear their slippers, bring their own mugs and show up with a smile at the early hour of 11 o'clock on a Saturday morning. All questions were supposed to be directed to bjohnson@lcc.lt. No questions appeared.

We were overwhelmed by the crowd that filled the 6th floor hall kitchen on Saturday. The only delay we were experiencing in our preparations was that the homemade chai tea recipe was taking longer than anticipated. Otherwise, the couches were arranged, the coffee was steeped, and the muffin platters were stacked. We watched as ladies continued to file in through the door, taking time to put on a name tag and fill their mugs with their own delicious hot beverage creations - complete with whipped cream & cinnamon-sugar sprinkles. There were almost 65 women in total once we had a chance to count them all. I was even more impressed by the eager spirit I was sensing from this room full of ladies that I hadn't felt at LCC before now. I started out by sharing my hopes for this time together as women and then introduced the 4 women from our community that had been invited to share that morning. Our topic to guide the sharing for our time together was on the different roles that women are able to play in the professional world & at home within the family, as well as all of the combinations of ways you can combine the two. We had women representing all seasons of life share pieces of their life story, including the joys and struggles and decisions along the way.

It was beautiful. The girls seemed to hang onto every word that was spoken. The openness and vulnerability was refreshing. There was lots of laughter and there were sometimes tears. The time for questions that followed lasted more than an hour. All of the questions we had prepared in case no one was asking questions were tossed aside... it seemed as if everyone in the room couldn't get enough of the realness being offered to them so graciously. I was in awe of the respect that filled the room. It truly felt like a Holy moment in which God was smiling upon us. This group of women were giving and receiving wisdom so naturally with one another, in spite of the fact that we were all coming from different backgrounds and beliefs. I am honored to be in a place where provision met a need so effortlessly. It's one of the more encouraging stories to share about being here and why I am grateful for the opportunity to serve. Thanks for celebrating with me.

Oh no...almost forgot about the birthday boy

2010-02-04T00:24:00.000-08:00

I know I am a bit behind in recording the events of Erik's first birthday celebrated in Lithuania, but I am committed to sharing a few pictures from a really fun day of seeking to give thanks for Erik's presence in all of our lives. I think he truly enjoyed his day back on January 24th. Another reason to give thanks on that particular day was for our newest member of the family, Jaxton, who entered the world back home in Duluth, MN, the firstborn son to my cousin Heather & her husband, Jeff. We waited in anticipation as the delivery updates showed up in our inbox. Now I'll have to anticipate even longer as I wait to hold the little guy when we are home in a few months. Man, it is hard to be far away when so many family members and friends are growing large with pregnancy and giving birth without me there to share in the experience. I have to smile as I think about what my mom would say in response to my feelings. "Becky, you aren't the center of the universe. Life does happen whether you are there or not." Tis true. Still, I do miss being able to participate in the ways that I normally would.

January 24 fell on a Sunday this year. We woke up late and had the most delicious pancakes...a batch of chocolate chip pancakes delivered straight to our kitchen in a package sent by cousin Heather (the new mother!). We have not been successful in making fluffy pancakes since we arrived, so we fully appreciated the American baking staples of flour and chocolate chips. Next came the birthday gift. I gave Erik his first, authentic, sauna hat. Everyone here in Lithuania has a sauna hat. It is believed (and is most likely true) that a sauna hat prevents your head and hair from drying out during long sauna sessions. This sauna hat is the only one of its kind. Our good friend, Vaida, a local of Klaipeda, has a side business of selling her handmade felted sauna hats. She and I worked together to come up with the design for Erik's hat and then she introduced me to the steps involved in felting as I watched and participated in the creation of Erik's gift. It was incredible to watch her work. As you can see, a masterpiece was produced! She even embroidered his nickname, Ej, on the backside of the hat in Lithuanian letters. Pretty sweet.

Of course, the logical next phase of the birthday is to go try out the birthday gift. We wrangled up a crew of Erik's friends who were willing to brave the local public sauna I had heard about being located near the Sea, and we crossed over to the beaches on The Spit via a 15-minute ferry ride. The picture included below is not actually the boat that we were on, but one of the ships in the harbor we could see from the ferry. The high temperature that day was approximately -17 degrees Celcius, which is right around 0 degrees Fahrenheit for those of us still getting used to the Celsius scale.

We trekked the 1 km across to the white sandy beaches and discovered the public sauna. Sunday afternoons must be a favorite time for the locals to enjoy this national pastime as the sauna was pretty full. No one seemed to mind allowing our group of 10 additional people, who were obvious outsiders, to join in to the fun. This next picture is of Erik and I standing by the Sea before we all changed into our swimming suits in the busy waiting room, crowded into the hottest sauna I have ever been in, and then followed one another out into the cool, wintry air to dive under the icy waters of the Baltic Sea, shrieking loudly the entire way. (Okay, maybe the only one doing the loud shrieking was me.) We did it over and over again. Well, at least 3 times. What a rush. It was officially decided that this is one place in Lithuania we are definitely going to have to include in the tour we give to our visitors. So, hurry on over before the weather gets nicer. The cold, snowy days have been lingering around here since Christmas, while everyone around us here says this is very unusual weather for coastal Lithuania. I am convinced that we are the reason the deep drifts of snow are stickin' around so long; I always appreciate a winter with lots of snow.

So, Erik's new sauna hat passed the test with flying colors. We wrapped up his day with an evening church service (where Erik played guitar and sang one of his own songs) and a sloppy joe dinner with everyone afterwards. The last event for Erik was the Vikings game, starting at 1:30 in the morning here in Lithuania. Although we may have celebrated in true Lithuanian fashion earlier in the day at the sauna, he made sure to end it in true American fashion with a late night football game and die-hard fans. Thanks for waiting around to hear the report on Erik Kristofer.

January Light

2010-01-22T13:30:00.000-08:00

"If there were no light in the universe, we should never know it was dark" - C.S. Lewis

The sky was a faded blue and the clouds were red and yellow when I left the main building after my last class of the day. It was after five pm and I was walking back to our apartment and I was thinking about how the sky was still lit. I stood there in the late-day sun, soaking up the light that had so quietly stretched itself into the evening after it had been disappearing in the early afternoon for so long now. Things around here seem to have a way of doing that.

Every friday morning starts the same. The alarm goes off early, much to Becky's chagrin, and the only true success in the alarm clock's week happens when I get out of bed on the first attempt. I make my way around the inside of our place with a special kind of slowness for two reasons. One- having my senses dulled due to staying awake too late the night prior to get up at that time, and two- because our place is rearranged in such a way that our tables, being stretched out and slid together, take up most of the walking space in our apartment. I turn on the little light above the stove and once my slow eyes adjust I begin to make breakfast. My grandma's recipes seem to be everyone's favorites ever since I first made her famous Christmas Egg Bake a couple of months ago. By the time people start to show up just before 7:30am Becky has usually made her way out of our bed and her stooper, and we are ready for them with some coffee and fruit. Sometimes only the latter due to an overflow from the shoddy coffee maker.

There is a need in Christian communities to gather frequently and talk about what has been happening in our lives and in the life of the community. For us, we do it over a meal every friday morning. It breathes fresh life into all of us involved. We ask questions and listen to the responses. We share our lives and experience what it is to be in a community.

This morning continued a pattern that has been occurring as of late: the increased inclusion of students in our stories of thanksgiving.

It may seem like a small change, but thats only when taken out of context of this place. Much like the small increase of light might seem from someone who experiences only subtle seasonal shifts. But here, on these sable mornings, we huddle around these stories like candles. Every time we hear of students seeking for the Light and realizing that there is truth in the world that one can hold on to, trust in, and rest on, we are full of thanks.

December in Review

2010-01-03T09:13:00.000-08:00

I often spend time crafting specific blog entries in my head while walking to and fro in my life over here in Lithuania. I have to admit that those thought-provoking blog entries rarely make it to a posting status here on johnstrandband. It is very similar to my habit of carrying out conversations with friends from back home in my head, complete with all of my latest personal updates and all the wonderings I have about their life's happenings as of late. More and more, I think I truly understand the meaning of being with someone 'in spirit.' Thank you for the many times you friends and readers send emails with answers to my unspoken, and even unwritten, questions. I appreciate the connection that can continue to happen across the distance.

The last month in 2009 had some of the fullest days of the school year so far, as well as some of the quietest and most peaceful moments for us Johnson's here at LCC in Lithuania. It is often said that a picture is worth a thousand words, and so I am going to give a report on some of the main events of the last month through photos. Never short on words, I'll insert a few of my own explanations, descriptions or whatever else I deem necessary. Here goes!

This year LCC's annual Christmas Program was a modern-telling of the events of the Christmas story from the Gospels; a sort of parallel to what the story could have looked like if the Messiah had been born in our town today in the year 2009. Who would some of the key characters involved have been? Leading up to the program, I assisted the student actors (who represented the shepherds visited by the angel chorus) to prepare for their scene that takes place in a university residence hall as students are studying for final exams. It was probably my most enthusiastic group of students that I have worked with thus far and I appreciated the enthusiasm and the spice they added to my usual meetings. Erik stole the show in his role as Hector, one of the 3 amigos (who were of course casted to fill the roles of wisemen arriving from the east) that see a star during a card game where they are trying to find the fourth king (get it? the fourth king is where the star leads them). The 3 amigos were toting guitars and a mandolin and would break into song as they travelled. Everyone else was amazed at the energy and character Erik brought to his role. I, though unsurprised by his expert performance, was a proud wife in the stands. The program even included The Hallelujah Chorus sung by a brave group of faculty and staff and Silent Night sung in a number of languages by various student groups formed to represent their country in song. The evening concluded with a Christmas cookie reception in the lobby...what a great start to the season.

Hector's performance was so well received that Erik was sought out by the university's president, Kyle, for a follow-up appearance of Hector (turned into a Mexican singing Santa) in an appearance at Kyle's own Christmas party for the VPs and department Chairs at LCC. Kyle reworked the lyrics to the John Lennon song Imagine and Erik and I (supposedly dressed as some sort of elf assistant to Hector) showed up after dinner to sing the LCC version of the song and pass out gifts to all from Santa's sack. We turned quite a few Lithuanian heads as we traveled to and from the party on Klaipeda's local buses dressed in all our get-up.

Each department on campus has their own Christmas parties to plan, including ResLife. The 3 of us Resident Directors planned an off-campus gathering at our supervisor's home for our student RAs, complete with a white elephant gift exchange, of course. Here is Steve Hanson, my co-worker, with Vasile and Artsiom, a couple of guys from his staff, showing off their ugly Christmas sweaters purchased at the local thrift store for just the occasion. I am finding that white elephant gifts and ugly Christmas sweater parties appear to be practiced worldwide.

I was given the chance to present a leadership seminar on Friday, Dec 11, the last day of classes, on whatever leadership topic I wished. All students are invited, but the usual participants are those students who are enrolled in LCC's Leadership Development program. I could have been better prepared, but still, I surprised myself with how much fun I had during it. I discovered that I really enjoy teaching and the process of trying to involve students in a new concept or idea. I chose the topic of Assertive Communication and then briefly introduced 3 main points: active listening, using "I" statements as a leader, and the process of giving and receiving feedback. I explained at the beginning that all of these concepts appear to be very Western in their approach because of their direction communication style. It made for lots of great dialogue and at least opened students up to the practice of these communciation techniques. Who says I am not using my Communication degree? By the way, this picture has nothing at all to do with the seminar I gave.

I had my own Christmas dinner celebration with my RAs too. Erik and I hosted them for a lasagna dinner in our apartment and we all shared about our family holiday traditions. Before allowing them to sit down and eat our meal, I sent them on a wild goose chase together following clues posted all over Neumann hall to find their stockings. Not being an eastern European tradition, this was the first stocking all of them had ever received. Here they are, looking only slightly enthused to discover the contents inside their stocking.

Of course, the end of the semester brought its usual craziness and extra tasks. Erik completed his first semester as a full-time student at LCC with seven finals! My RAs and I had our hands full getting ready for and carrying out winter break inspections before every student left their room. This year a youth conference that the school was helping to host over Christmas vacation added a few extra steps to our usual winter break preparations.

We hosted our Christmas Celebration Breakfast early on the last Friday morning of the semester. Erik has been organizing and cooking for these weekly breakfasts that we host for staff and faculty every Friday morning since fall break. We gather to eat good food, talk about the week, and give thanks together for the ways we see God working in our lives and the greater LCC community. This was an especially great Celebration breakfast as it was identical to Grandma Johnson's Christmas brunch menu back home - egg bakes & porridge!

And last, but certainly not least, the other important news of December is that Erik switched his focus of studies from working towards a degree in Business Administration to a bachelor of arts in Theology! I am confident that Theology will be a perfect fit for Erik's gifts and interests. He is super stocked about the change and has already begun reading his textbooks for the upcoming semester classes. I am pretty sure I can't say that I was ever that motivated while I was in school. Conveniently, this change allows him to be on track to complete his undergraduate program by the end of spring semester 2011, as he plans to be enrolled in courses over the next couple of summers.

Arrival of Advent

2009-12-01T04:20:00.001-08:00

Advent is my favorite season of the church calendar. I enjoy all of the ways that preparing for Christ's birth on earth is emphasized through the traditions of opening Advent calendar tabs, lighting Advent candles & spending time reading the prophecies of an Emmanuel promised to the Israelites told in the stories of the Old Testament. Our gathering in church this last Sunday night highlighted the way that God emptied himself by coming to earth in human flesh as a baby. It's odd that those of us in the West are used to celebrating Christmas by piling more on ourselves - more parties, more commitments, more lists, & more material things. Is this our symbolic way of preparing to celebrate God's arrival on earth? I don't know if it will be any different over here in Lithuania. Although there were no signs of Black Friday happening down at the nearby mall, I have already seen the hints of materialism and its control here during some of my experiences thus far. While my disapproval of materialism lasts longer than just the Advent season, I am hoping to hold on to the Christmas traditions that seem to be more about preparing my heart and soul and mind to be involved in the ways of God here on earth instead of making sure I have my gifts and social calendar perfectly arranged. I know that I don't have to wait until December comes around each year to try this way of life, but that is why I am thankful for the changing seasons of the church that remind me and guide me to prepare myself to be involved in God's work on earth.

I start with a thankful heart. I look around and count the blessings. I look back at this last week of Thanksgiving and see the real things and experiences that have been given to me in my part of the world. I am encouraged by the stories I hear of how God is showing up in the lives of others around the world. I would like to share a few thanks that come to mind.

I am thankful for Skype and the ability to stay connected around the world.

I am thankful that pickled pumpkin tastes almost just as good as Thanksgiving pumpkin pie back home.

I am thankful for my staff of student leaders that is willing to celebrate Thanksgiving by humoring me and eating this thing we call pumpkin pie.

Most importantly of all, I am thankful for the support of Steve & Laura Hanson, our fellow Minnesotans across the hall...as well as the use of their kitchen appliances...and don't forget about all of our late night games of 500. Thank you, God, for friends.

Thanksgiving in Lithuania - 2009

shipping overseas 411

2009-11-29T23:55:00.000-08:00

The months of October & November brought the arrival of our first packages since living abroad. Thank you AmySue! Thank you mom! Thank you Trish & Pat! Thank you Karen! I have always loved receiving mail, but I believe that moving to a different country is definitely the way to make mail of all shapes and sizes the best thing ever. All of the North Americans working at LCC appear to have similar feelings about getting mail in Lithuania, demonstrated by the large smiles pasted on faces when you see someone walking around with a highly coveted package. A Lithuanian student asked me one day, "What do you get in those packages? I can't understand what is so exciting about the stuff you get in those packages that you couldn't possible get here (Lithuania)." I had to laugh as I tried to explain that people are excited about the contents of their mail because it often includes food items or baking ingredients that we use a lot back home, but doesn't seem to exist in the stores over here. I listed off the things that first came to mind, "Well, of course there's peanut butter, baking powder, chocolate chips, brown sugar, American candy...I know there are others too," but I couldn't seem to come up with a very impressive list of our needs that aren't getting met here in Lithuania. Although my answer may not have satisfied this girl, it made me realize that the best thing about getting mail in a foreign country is that it helps me feel remembered. My absence is noticed and I am being thoughtfully and physically considered by the people I left behind.

The following is in no way intended to be a desperate plea for packages, but a mere mention of some simple, yet helpful information for sending packages overseas to your loved ones. Please keep this in mind. Declare the value of the package to be less than $50 for customs purposes. If the stated value of the package is greater than $50, it requires a lot of money for the person picking it up (us!) from the post office on the other end. Believe me, we found this out the hard way. You are already spending an arm and a leg to mail something in the first place, so keep this in mind to help prevent the pain of another leg on the other side. It will make the arrival of your package an experience of pure bliss and anticipation. And guarantees that your recipient will thank you.

another reason to give thanks

2009-11-25T09:27:00.000-08:00

It's Thanksgiving Eve here in Lithuania, even though Lithuania doesn't acknowledge the fact. Still, I am thankful tonight. Erik had a bunch of music practices this evening and I had a lot of work to still do, so I decided to do my sit myself down in the lobby and be a part of the student activities. One of the student activities happening tonight is a photo scavenger hunt competition. I remember doing a photo scavenger hunt during my college days that took us all over the Roseville, MN vicinity. I remember that I had a blast...trying to get strangers to do ridiculous things and than taking a picture to verify the ridiculous things we had done. It looks and sounds like these student are having a blast tonight as well. The event is confined to the residence hall and there are 4 teams of students running around trying to take the most pictures and see who can get the most points.

I am laughing quietly to myself as I think about the reason this event is happening. It's all part of my creative, strategic, and of course calculated, attempts to create community in Neumann Hall. Part of my job as Resident Director entails coming up with consequences for students who violate policies. I have made it my goal to hand out consequences that are as related to the behavior as possible. Hosting drinking parties in the dorms is exclusive to others and is disrespectful because it requires students to hide their behavior from the rest of the community. I am always trying to consider the possible ways that students can give back to the community around them. Therefore, I have required students to plan and coordinate hall events that encourage appropriate behavior and invite others to join in the fun. Sounds easy enough, right? To tell you the truth, I am surprised at how intimidating this type of consequence is to students. Sometimes the process is painfully slow and discouraging. At other times, I am amazed at the result.

Tonight our photo scavenger hunt organizers were two female Lithuanian students in their 3rd year at LCC. These ladies usually avoid attending organized events or anything that looks too much like community, yet I can tell that they are natural leaders within their social group on campus. It took them awhile to own the event, but it was neat to watch them problem solve and work through the issues that our RAs commonly face when trying to plan activities. I have noticed that there are LCC students that attend almost every single event that happens on campus and then there are others that seem difficult to convince to attend any event at all. 99% of tonight's photo scavenger hunt participants were definitely from the latter group I described. I could hardly believe my eyes when I saw which students were racing noisily around the residence hall trying to find the most photos before time ran out. I witnessed real enthusiasm and real laughter. I was even asked to be in some of the photos taken for the competition. It made my day. To top it all off, another group of ladies that I had given the same consequence to came back from hosting their event in Karklu, the other LCC residence hall. Their report was really positive. They said that the students had a good time, and they even admitted that each of them had a good time as well.

Today I am thankful for photo scavenger hunts. And the laughter that comes as a result. And the times when life works out even better than I expect.

our winter wonderland

2009-11-04T23:48:00.000-08:00

I believe there are some things worth mentioning and some things worth celebrating. I don't know which one this is, but it's important to announce it anyway. Lithuania has SNOW! This photo is the morning view outside our window today. It's November 5th and winter has officially begun here. The first snow always brings a mysterious excitement with it for me. It is especially mysterious for me today as I have no idea what to expect from snow or winter in Lithuania. I can tell the wind is blowing fiercely, and yet the scene appears beautiful from my perspective inside our cozy apartment. I think I would rather stay inside today, but I have to admit there is something thrilling about bundling up as much as possible in all of my warmest layers and stepping out to brave the elements. I will probably have the chance to experience both today.

Our Baltic Tour

2009-11-01T05:04:00.000-08:00

Erik and I got back last night from traveling the Baltic countries. We are SO glad that we left ourselves a cushion of 24 hours on either end of the 7-day trip so that we can slowly enter back into normal life today. We feel thankful for the chance we had to get away. Our spirits are refreshed and our interest in life at LCc has renewed energy. I propose that everyone should follow the schedule of a student. It is so helpful to occasionally switch up one's routine and pace of life in order to better focus on one's work. Ah, the seasons of life.

Speaking of seasons, the sun didn't rise until 7:42 this morning. As I write, the sun is on its way down, officially scheduled to set at 4:56 this afternoon. Sunshine is becoming an elusive memory around here, scarcely coming out of the clouds in between all the rain showers. I hope to take advantage of my time indoors this winter. Some of my aspirations include reading books, working on knitting projects, and continuing my study of the Lithuanian language. I am hoping to read books and watch documentaries that help me learn more about the history and culture in the Baltic countries. My attention was captured while exploring this last week and I realize I still have a lot more to learn.

Quick Trip Summary - We took a bus from KLAIPEDA to RIGA, the capital of Latvia. From there we rode a bus to TARTU, a university town in the country of Estonia. We went by train from Tartu to the capitol city of Estonia, TALLINN. Yesterday we took a 9-hour bus ride back home to KLAIPEDA from Tallinn through Riga. I included the map so that you can get an idea of how accessible these places are to each other. My friends and I used to drive the 8-hours out to McLaughlin to spend the weekend in South Dakota in college. That is pretty much the same distance we traveled to get to our farthest destination this week. The part that stands out to me is how different everything is in between these 2 cities only 300 miles apart. These photos will give an idea of what Erik and I saw on our journey, starting with RIGA.

The city of Riga is situated next to the Daugava river and is filled with beautiful old buildings (in Art-Nouveau style for any art history buffs) and lots of statues and monuments. The Freedom Monument, erected in 1935, is one of my favorite statues of the week. It is a symbol of Latvian independence and continues to function as an unofficial location for political debates. When we there, we were able to witness the hourly changing of the guard. You can see the flowers that people bring to cover the base platform of the statue.

On a very important note, The Museum of Occupation in Latvia provided a detailed timeline with pictures of the Soviet and Nazi occupations between 1940 and 1991. Of the 3 Occupation museums we have visited, this presentation was the easiest one to follow, showing the progression of the events in history, as well as the dismantling of culture, education, and economy in Latvia as a result of these events. On a less important note, we also found a bakery similar to Hermann's Bakery in Cambridge that we visited twice for its very delicious Latvian pastries and lattes. Our next stop was TARTU, a university town in Estonia of 101,000 people and 11 institutions of higher education.

Erik and I noticed a difference about Estonia immediately upon our arrival. It was obvious that education and the arts are valued in Estonian culture. Research, philosophy, literature, and music were emphasized by the things we saw and read, as well as by our interactions with people. It was fun to be among students who were creative and idealistic. We didn't even realize how much we had missed the presence of this until we witnessed it again in Tartu.

We enjoyed our 24-hour stay here, which included walking through multiple parks, reading more descriptions of statues, touring old church structures, eating at delicious restaurants and cafes, and even a brief visit to Tartu University's Medicine Faculty building with its "Frankenstein-style exhibition of all kinds of body parts." Eek. Too many preserved body parts for me. Then again, I don't know how many preserved body parts I would actually enjoy seeing. Not my deal. And of course, Tartu wouldn't be a college town without a second hand store. We checked out Humana (the Baltic version of Savers) before grabbing a bite to eat and heading out of town on our way to the capital of Estonia, the coastal city of TALLINN.

Our hostel in Tallinn happened to be the 7th floor penthouse suite of one of the new commercial buildings near Old Town. I have no idea how we got so lucky. It seriously came up as the cheapest price as I was booking a place to stay for the last 3 nights of our trip. We have a funny story about our experience here, but I'll save that for another conversation. Ask me about our shady hostel host sometime.

Tallinn combines a unique mixture of building structures; medieval style, Soviet times style, Soviet-remodeled to modern style, and brand new modern style buildings form an architectural mosaic. We appreciated the variety. We continued our touring by strolling the windy streets of Old Town. We ate Estonian style pancakes and listened to live jazz. We visited the Museum of Occupations and watched video footage of the Soviet control in Estonia. We walked the promenade through Kadriorg Park down to the sea to the mermaid statue, passing a palace and 19th century villas along the way. A friend that we met on the train to Tallinn offered to show us around the city one day and took us to a modern art exhibit at Kumu (Art Museum of Estonia), which was given "The 2008 European Museum of the Year Award." She even brought us along to her professor's art show that night where we got a personal tour and explanation of the paintings from the artist himself.

Thanks for staying tuned to hear about our trip. We are back home and ready to stick around Klaipeda for a while. Please come and visit. We'll bring you with us on our next Baltic road trip!

Museums

2009-10-25T14:39:00.000-07:00

It's autumn here in Lithuania and this week is fall break if you are a student and staff at LCC. I am thankful to say that I am not the RD on duty this week, leaving Erik and I free to explore the neighboring countries of this place we are beginning to call home. We took Saturday to recover from a full week of work and classes before we threw our packs on our backs and ran to the bus station this morning to catch the Eurolines Lux Express for a 5 hour bus ride north to Riga, the capitol city of Latvia. Since stepping off the bus in this beautiful city of ornate architecture and many statues, Erik and I have been wondering how it is that a city less that 150 miles away as the crow flies can actually feel as if we are in a completely different country, complete with its very own language. Although we can tell that the Latvian language is definitely related to Lithuanian, Erik and I are realizing that our basic Lithuanian phrases aren't getting us anywhere now that we are in Latvia. Good thing so many of the young people here speak English.

The bulk of our afternoon was spent in the Occupation Museum of Latvia in Old Town. This was our second time seeing and hearing the telling of the Russian and German occupations of Eastern Europe since making a Baltic nation our home. The first time was earlier in October when we travelled to Vilnius, Lithuania's capitol city. We spent hours walking through The Museum of Genocide Victims (also called the KGB Museum), hearing and reading about the people and events of Lithuania's tumultuous and tragic history over the last hundred years. Both museums do an incredibly detailed job of recounting the story of the Baltic perspective to those of us that lived on the other side of the globe and were less involved in the struggles caused by the Soviet and Nazi regimes. I have included a web address below for you to check out if you are interested in hearing about our time at the KGB Museum in a round about sort of way by reading the blog entry of a friend of ours that experienced the museum with us. I would highly recommend checking it out as she is an excellent writer. Once you get to Michelle's blog, you will need to scroll down to her October 4 entry.

http://mwebsterhein.blogspot.com/

So what do I do with this story I am learning? What I read and saw today at the Occupation Museum of Latvia is adding to my understanding of people here. Not only am I becoming informed of the atrocities that people here faced - deportation, imprisonment, executions - I am also starting to understand the ways this story has affected the current generation through my interactions with and observations of students at LCC. I am by no means an expert on the whole topic, but I am thankful for this hands-on way to have history and today connect in such an unmistakable way. It is my hope to share with you as Erik and I see, hear, and continue to take it all in.

Fall Retreat

2009-10-17T08:17:00.000-07:00

"Oh, man." This is a phrase that I have noticed myself saying a lot lately. Why don't I ever say, "Oh, woman." I don't know. I guess it doesn't come out that way. Erik and I have just returned from our first official RA retreat with my very first RA staff as an RD . I have so many fond memories of RA (Resident Assistant for those non-Student Life people) retreats from my time in student leadership at Northwestern College. There was the round-trip van ride to Chicago with a day in between to explore downtown Chicago one year. And then there was the camping trip north of Duluth, MN where we used much of our hiking energy to stop and take staff portraits along the way, trying to capture how beautiful we were amidst the autumn colors. What I remember thinking about these retreats was how lucky I was to be an RA. I loved the fact that we were required to take a weekend each semester to get to know each other. What's better than "mandatory hanging out?"

Mandatory hanging out doesn't seem to get the same response from students here. We have midterms coming up this next week at LCC and I felt like I was having a hard time convincing my staff to relax and have fun for the 24 hours I stole out of their busy schedules to spend an evening and a day for the purpose of having fun with each other. We "retreated" to a staff member's summer cottage that is located on a beautiful wooded lot, complete with indoor sauna and multiple fireplaces. I was looking forward to getting away from campus and all of our discipline issues of the last month and I could tell my RAs were needing a break as well. We ate lots of food, played games, watched a movie, visited the sauna, and had a group discussion to check-in about the year. Now I am back home and find myself wondering if people enjoyed themselves. I know that it ultimately isn't in my control. I can only be intentional in providing opportunities for people to connect.

I am just learning more and more how different this place is. Work and relationships seem to be so very separate. My RAs seek to be excellent in all of the areas they invest themselves individually. They strive to get good grades academically. They are motivated to interact with the residents on their halls, make sure policies are enforced, and plan floor events. As well, each of them is highly social within their own friend groups. I am noticing that this doesn't necessarily carry over into our time together as a staff. For the most part, all of them respect each other and even like each other enough to call one another friends. Something that I am noticing when we are all together as a staff is that business is purely business and not as much relational effort is put forth (I should clarify that it's not as much relational effort as I would expect to see.) If it's required, they want to know my agenda and what they can expect to gain from our time together. This approach isn't necessarily wrong, it is just so different from my past experiences in Student Life and even my personal approach as an individual. It doesn't mean I won't continue to dream and hope and put energy into creating a united team in ways that I have experienced it in my life. It may have to be through other means...maybe non-mandatory fun opportunities. The end result may even look different than how I imagine it now. I may have to get there though a different approach. So, once again, I am remembering that I am here at LCC seeking to understand more than to be understood. I know Erik and I have a lot to bring to this place. I also know we have a lot to learn from this place. This is just one observation along the way...As well as one photo I have to document the retreat. I kept waiting until I could tell that everyone was really enjoying themselves, but then decided I had better at least capture something.

And then another picture of us from a different weekend. This is already out-dated because 24 hours after the picture was taken, Erik shaved off the beard. Seems about right. Winter is coming and he gets rid of the beard. It has been funny to see people's reactions to his bare face. Lots of comments and looks of surprise.

2nd Annual Ugly Duckling Cup

2009-09-24T10:23:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that Erik and I have a lake in our backyard? We probably would have said, "No, there's no way that can be called a lake...that's a pond," at the start of being at LCC. Now my perspective has changed and I sometimes catch myself calling it Neumann Lake. Well, today a few of our students floated and paddled their way across Neumann Lake through the wind and rain in hopes of becoming the victorious team to take home the Ugly Duckling Cup trophy. I'll let the video I have attached explain the rest. Notice you don't see the end of the race. That's because our team's (East Crew) raft sunk in the 2nd attempt to cross the lake. It was still good fun to watch. The other 2 rafts did surprisingly well, in spite of the fact that they all looked like a pile of trash crossing the water. Oh well, there's always hopes of taking home the trophy next year.

ps-Yes, if you pay attention to the video closely, you'll be able to see the Johnstrand's 3 Rubbermaid bins under our team's raft. They seemed like a good idea during the brainstorming last night, but the submerging began once all the bins had filled up with water. It's good to know that our Rubbermaid bins can serve a purpose here other than carrying our belongings from the States all the way to Lithuania.

pps-Pay attention even more closely, and you'll see a brief appearance of the Johnstrand-duo as well. :)

The family increases

2009-09-13T05:56:00.000-07:00

Well, Erik and I have some news. Our family has grown and we have decided to adopt a little girl born in Lithuania who goes by the name of Ieva! What do you think about that? As you can see from the photo, she and Erik get along quite well and spend their time running around together being each others' best playmate. :)

Actually, the true story is that the the adoption is NOT official. Our family has not actually increased in size since our arrival in Klaipeda. It IS true that Erik's best friend here is a 4-year old charming girl named Ieva.

Ieva (pronounced Ye-va) is the daughter of Kim and Andrew Stave, who have both worked at LCC for the last 7 years. Ieva is their oldest child and their son, Isak, was born in the middle of this last June. The Stave's have welcomed us to the LCC community here by offering a home off-campus to visit, where we have made meals together and shared our weekends exploring the city. We appreciate this friendship that has developed so quickly and naturally. It's fun for us to spend time with a couple that brings their kids into the fun that is already happening and are still able to be present with others too. The feelings between Ieva and Erik are mutual and there is nobody that can capture Ieva's attention the way Erik can. I know that Erik is used to being "Mr. Fun" and/or a mobile jungle gym when my cousins are around, so this is helping him stay in practice while we are away from close family for now. We miss you, Wees'.

Yesterday we explored south of the downtown area with the Stave's for a couple of hours. We bought a week's worth of fresh fruit and vegetables from a variety of stands at the local market. Then Kim and Andrew drove us out of town and we headed to Palanga, which is a city on the coast 25 km north of us. Kim's parents are in town visiting for the month and volunteered to babysit the kids. The four of us stopped in a linen store before strolling the boardwalk out to the beach to take in the sea view out on the pier. The night ended with dinner at HBH, which kind of reminded us of a Chucky Cheese meets Disney World, complete with rope courses and a full outdoor basketball court in the middle of the restaurant complex. Well, I wanted to make sure we were introducing some of our new friends. We hope you get to meet them yourself when you come visit us!

bandele's & breakdowns

2009-09-08T13:24:00.000-07:00

Erik and I started off our day today with an authentic Lithuanian breakfast. We discovered that we can walk down to the best-tasting bandele shop in town and all the way back to campus in less than an hour. Good to know for those days we wake up to blue-sky mornings. Bandele's are a delicious treat that we discovered a couple of weeks ago. A bandele is essentially a warm, airy, flaky sweet bread roll with different fillings tucked away inside. The best part about them are the endless filling options. You can find chocolate, whole pieces of fruit, cheese and even hotdogs stashed away inside. Erik and I each decided to get 1 cheese and 1 chocolate for our visit today. We grabbed 'em and cruised back before Erik's class began.

I think the beginning and end of the day were the best parts. The middle was not as delightful as the filling I found in my bandele. It was one of those days where I felt overwhelmed with the tasks and conversations before me.

My role as Resident Director in Neumann Hall is to provide security for all the residents, which means I (together with Steve) am supervisor to our Resident Assistants, as well as the receptionists and night guards who sit by the front doors during the day and through the night. Our campus is situated in the middle of the city and it is common for us to have many locals wandering through our property on their way to somewhere else. We also seem to have our share of strange personalities who have nothing better to do than hang around the buildings on campus. I have found it challenging to keep the receptionists at the desk, monitoring who is coming in and out of the building. It is a frustration that seems to come up time and time again. Last night I was coming back from a late afternoon meeting and walked into our apartment as Erik was escorting one of the strange local men out of our apartment. Apparently he walked into the building, past the vacant receptionist desk and then into our place where Erik was doing homework. Well, we were able to persuade our unwelcome visitor to leave the building, but it definitely took some coaxing to get him to leave the property. I don't know if the Lithuanian students were much help in translating, as this man wasn't making much sense in any language - it seemed due to some degree of mental illness combined with alcohol. The more frustrating part about the incident to me was how difficult it was to find the receptionist on-duty and coax her to call the police. I was surprised by her lack of concern to be a part of any solution to our problem. Ah, the joy of supervision. I'll spare you the details about my follow-up as it doesn't really matter to you.

I am finding myself in a culture that seems to have little regard for procedures and policies that keep order and make sense, yet I am responsible to maintain a safe and secure place for students. I am coming from a culture that is so dependent on carrying out the correct steps of action when responding to any type of crisis that I almost feel lost when I haven't been briefed for any and every possible problem. What? I need to think on my feet and make decisions in the moment? On the other hand, should I even expect anyone here to follow my requests, especially when it seems to be a part of their job description?

I definitely think I am overreacting. It isn't as bad as I am making it to sound. But it's different, that's for sure. I will adapt and find balance. I have been told many times by Lithuanians and students here that the police can't do anything if no one was hurt. Well, for now, I'll keep plugging along. Finding the holes and trying to come up with ways (and of course, procedures) to bring helpful change. Taking myself less seriously and realizing that life keeps rolling along... like they tell me, "Nobody got hurt this time."

So even though the middle of my day was all about discipline and other frustrating moments, the end wrapped up as well as the morning. My first staff meeting of the school year with the Neumann East RAs. We met tonight from 8-10 and had a great time. It felt good to laugh. It was good to hear each of them share about themselves. We worked on creating a staff mission statement together before getting down to business. I am really looking forward to the year with this group of student leaders. They are terrific. I consider it an honor to be working so closely with each of them. You can see their beautiful faces in the picture below we took during RA training week.

Tonight I look back and decide I am thankful for the gifts and the challenges that are here before me.

41 Moons Given

2009-09-04T22:36:00.000-07:00

Last night Erik and I celebrated our 41st full moon together. What, one might ask, does that even mean? Let me explain. The first walk Erik and I took together just four summers ago up in northern Minnesota happened under a full moon sky...which was shining beautifully on one of the lakes near us. That was the start of us. It wasn't that that we officially started dating or had any monumental conversation during our full moon stroll, but something was started in each of our hearts that would begin to align the direction of our lives. Since that first moon, we have paid attention to the phases of the moon more closely. The waxing and waning that happens in the sky provides a more understandable timetable for our life together. 41 moons makes sense in my head and heart better than if I were to tell someone that I met Erik the summer of 2006 and that we have been married for two years.

The way you celebrate a moon is quite simple. All you need to do is get out under the dark night sky and look up at the moon in all its fullness. You soak its beauty in with your eyes. You notice the way it lights up the night around you as it reflects the light of the sun back onto the earth. Ha! I am laughing at my description because I have never thought of teaching someone how to do this. It's sounding like some ancient pagan practice by some more serious lunar followers. Well, Erik and I have celebrated some of our moons next to each other and some of them in separate states. I always liked thinking that we could see the same moon even if I was at Grandpa's house in Washington and he was out in the field with students in the Utah wilderness. The moon is a piece of Creation that we pay attention to more closely as it symbolizes our love for each other. I am thankful for 41 moons given.

We watched the full moon last night from the roof of our house, which happens to be a university dormitory with six floors. It was fun to listen to the night sounds of our new city on a rather calm Friday night. Our watching almost always brings us back to talking about our first moon and all the life that has happened since then. We have full hearts as we look back.

Our first month spent living in eastern Europe has increased our interest in the people and culture around us. We are excitedly trying to progress in the language and I was even able to sign up for the same class as Erik for Lithuanian 101. Erik has jumped in with both feet as he completed his first week of the fall semester as a student registered for 8 classes! (It appears as if all of his semesters at LCC will be quite full if he is wanting to be able to graduate within 2 years.) I find myself in one of my dream jobs as a Resident Director here at LCC. The challenges and demands of the job are sometimes consuming, but I know that learning the ropes is taking a lot of my energy and attention right now. I enjoy this beginning and am looking forward to a more balanced pace of life once I figure out how to live and work and socialize all in one place.

I am really eager to invest in these students. I know I have much to learn from them and their stories. There are over 21 countries represented in the LCC student body this year. It makes for quite an interesting mix of people. The other day I answered the phone in the lobby and I could tell that the caller was speaking Lithuanian. I tried to find someone in the crowd in the lobby that could help me out with translation. You would be surprised at how long it took me to find a Lithuanian speaker in that busy lobby. I was struck with the diversity that is in this place. The stories will continue to happen and I will continue to share them with you.

My Take on it All, Ej

2009-08-26T01:47:00.000-07:00

So, its approaching 3 weeks tomorrow that we got here. It sure doesn't seem like its been three weeks. In some ways it feels longer, and in others it feels shorter.

I think that moving to another country is bizarre, I was just talking to Becky about this yesterday. Hopping in an airplane and being transported within hours to some other country, on the far side of the world, and yet I didn't really experience the distance that I travelled. I mean to look on a map or globe and see Lithuania in comparison to where we were, I just cannot comprehend it. It is probably similar to what getting older feels like. You may not have felt like you lived 60, 70, 80 years to get to the place where you are, but you did. You actually are that old. And no matter what it felt like we are where we are. Its nice to have things make you stop in the present moment and think about what brought you here. And where Becky and I find ourselves is quite enjoyable.

I was righting an email to my friend Erick Briden yesterday and I was telling him about three things that I have truly enjoyed about being here. First, the Baltic Sea. We are about a thirty minute walk from the beach (which upon walking everywhere since being here, it doesn't seem that long now). The beach is so beautiful. I have gone there many days so far and just laid on the beach with a book, or an audio version of one, and just watched the sun and sea. It is good for the my soul to sit and watch that pair.

Secondly, the forest. There is an enormous pristine forest almost right outside our door. The university, where we live, is on the north side of town. Up here there is this huge swath of forest that sits between us and the Sea. I don't really know how big it is, but I will go walking for hours in there and not find the end of it. The trees are huge and there is thick moss on the ground. There is an immense trail system, nothing paved or marked by any signs. It feels like some universalist's dream, cause all these paths are so winding and interwoven it seems like they do lead to the same place. Other than it being flat, it looks similar to the forests in British Columbia, Canada that I was in for a couple of summers.

And finally, the town. Klaipeda is a good sized city, but the down town/old town is pretty quaint and cozy, its easy to feel familiar with it. There are all sorts of old buildings and streets to explore. The restaurants are really great. The prices are good and the food is wonderful. It is just meat and potatoes, but man, do they know how to cook.

Other than those things, I have been playing basketball, recording songs, and getting ready for school. Also, I have been trying to learn the language, and boy is this one a doozy. I learned some french in middle school and high school, and this is considerably more difficult. I heard that since this is arguably one of the, if not the oldest language, instead of simplifying over the centuries they decided to go the other route and just continue to make "exceptions". Which we all know is often not the best approach to take in life or, as it turns out, languages, as the case may be. And I think I like it more for that.

As for the school itself and the community of LCC I have been very encouraged. What struck me about it was the similarity it bares to my favorite communities that I have lived amongst. The staff here are gathered around a purpose to serve people for the sake of love, through their faith in Jesus. We gather as people who believe in God, and we want to better peoples lives with relationships, personal growth, and faith . And this place could use some softening through love.

The culture is one that seems to be about a hardened exterior for protection. Due to their past they have needed to adapt to the realities that they lived in, which sadly is an inability to trust anyone because of the Soviet times. I have heard stories of peoples grandma's getting sent to work camps in Siberia for singing old Lithuanian folk songs and getting told on for it. Folk songs for cryin' out loud. So everyone learned not to trust people who are not their closest family, much less people of different nationalities.

My experience with the people has been mixed. Some people are rude and seem to be angry, trying to keep a tough guy image, while others have been really friendly and helpful. Walking down the street I have experience all sorts of different interactions. Old round women who, upon finding out that I am american, start waving their hands at me like they are trying to swat a fly thats been busing around their head. And old men who, at any time of day, literally bump into me because they are so drunk, at least thats their excuse. The children are great to hang out with (thanks for the advice Dane), and they are really kind and fun. And every age between treats me with kindness and smiles, or acts like I don't exist (and if I am to choose between non-existence, or existing, but only as a fly, I still haven't decided yet).

All these different responses I am getting are probably not much different from what I would experience back home. I am willing to bet these observations of people are brought on due to two reasons: one, I am looking for how people are treating me here (Apparently we have a need to do that when we go to new places and not in the old ones). And secondly, here, I stand out...to say the least. I have a feeling that its about as fair for me to judge Lithuanians based on my experiences of walking around here as it would be if I were to judge minnesotans based on me walked around downtown inside a human-sized plastic hamster ball, dressed in something as culturally out of style as a kilt, trying to hug everyone that makes eye contact with me. Which of course would fail immediately, and would become quite awkward due to the giant plastic ball that I would be sliding down the inside of.

So, I have this to say, I love it here. I am so thankful for everyone of you who is supporting us to be here. You are all so, so great. I love the challenges and the beauty of this place, these people, and the community that I get to be a part of. I know this is a long post, and thanks for reading it. I think there will come a day when life here will become pretty normal and I won't have as much to write about. so until then...

Pretty, pretty, pretty good

2009-08-16T01:01:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I became 26 years old. The night before we had a bunch of people over to hang out in our apartment and have a grand old time. It was sweet to have some chill time to talk and laugh with people that I had been training alongside all of this week. Good to get out of meeting mode and into fun mode.

Erik surprised me with singing me to sleep that night as it was officially the 15th of August by the time we headed to bed. Ahh, one of my favorite things about being married to EJ, the musician. Then we woke up Saturday to have a true Erik and Becky adventure as we paddled 12.8 miles down a river with a group of new friends.

We checked out the school van and drove to the countryside to rent kayaks and take a mini-bus to our drop point 20 km up the river. We were surprised to find that the water in the "river" was about waist deep in most parts and we were glad that we had decided to forego the life jacket rental due to the extra and seemingly unnecessary charge. The sun was shining and I felt like it was a day to fully relax as we paddled downriver. Another one of my favorite things...relaxing. We paid little attention to the map because there really was no way to go the wrong direction; we figured we would get there when we got there. Our stop for lunch happened to be a spot on a hill that had a sweet rope swing and we were soon joined by some local boys to utilize the swing into the river. Erik and Steve launched themselves off the high tree branch to land in the river using the swing as well. The mood was still pretty laid back at this point. Little did we know that our lunch spot was only 1/5 of the way into our journey for the day. The paddling continued.

And continued. The sights were beautiful. We saw some native wildlife as well as some native Lithuanians. I even had a drunk guy swim out to my kayak and try to hitch a ride down river with me. The thing I was most concerned about was getting tipped over and getting fully submerged. I survived without getting wet. And the paddling continued. At this point we got more serious about our paddling as we finally did the math and realized that 20 km meant we were going to have to paddle 12.8 miles. We made it to the end. We were still having fun, although our enthusiasm was all used up. We were glad to come to the end. The picture here shows one of the odd sights we saw along the way...a bicycle hanging in the air with fresh flowers in the front basket.

Well, our experience took the entire day as it was 8 o'clock when we got back home. Erik ran to the grocery once again and then we made spaghetti for dinner. Mary called just in time to share my birthday dinner with us. I think we are getting the hang of these Skype conversations. There was a moment while we were all interacting that I almost started crying because I felt like Mary was really sitting in our apartment with us and I wanted it to be true. I am thankful for technological advances. Later Erik and Jaxxon were hanging out on their respective couches having a Skype conversation while I put together a collage frame of our wedding photos to hang in our apartment. Now and again I feel like being crafty.

Well, that was my day. Some of you already know that I have a lot of expectation and anticipation when it comes to celebrating birthdays. This was a true success. It was fun to get out with 5 new people who are quickly becoming friends. It was fun to have a day away from work and all the planning that is going on for the soon-to-arrive student leaders. It was fun to be outside and get physically worked out on the water. Thanks to many of you for all of the kind messages and emails I was blessed to receive when I got home last night. Each of them warmed my heart. Thanks for caring for me. I will leave you with a quote from Erik, spoken aloud this morning. "If there's one thing to celebrate in life, it's each other."

First time...

2009-08-09T12:58:00.001-07:00

-we saw the Baltic Sea! I must say that it felt like we were on a Californian beach, although way less crowded and the waves weren't as convincing. The sand and the view were beautiful! These Lithuanians seem less concerned about dress code than the Minnesotans we know. Either way, we are definitely going to love having the beach in our backyard (or under an hour's walk away).

-we had an old Lithuanian man smile and greet us.

-Erik made an attempt to greet him back, although he may have sounded more French than Lithuanian.

-we walked thru a carnival that was in town.

-we bought toilet paper in Lithuania.

-we made dinner in our new apartment in Neumann Hall.

And last, but not least, we had our very first Skype conversation!

Thank-you Sheehy's!

Beginning to be here

2009-08-08T06:59:00.000-07:00

Our first Saturday afternoon in Lithuania. We have unpacked most of our belongings and found a place for each item that travelled along with us in our 3 Rubbermaid bins or 1 large duffel bag. Erik got up early (10 am) this morning to visit a market somewhere in Klaipeda with Andrew, Steve and Andrew's two kids (Andrew and Steve are other LCC staff from the States). Erik had his eye out for a new pair of wheels, and he came home with nothing less than a stylish high-riding, 1-speed bicycle. I, myself, am a fan of its green color. We aren't even discouraged by the lack of air in the back tire. I guess that bike pumps work differently in Lithuania and so we lost all the air in the process of pumping up the tire with our pump. By the way, the picture shown here is of the city view we have from our roof of the student dorm.

Erik is taking a nap on our new living room couch. We are both still working through the jet-lag from traveling. We slept about 3 hours of our 28-hour journey on the way year, 2 hours on the flight to Frankfurt and then 1 hour in the Frankfurt airport. We are thankful that all of the flights and everything in between went without a hitch. I didn't even realize I was going through customs when the German man checked my passport so that I could get through to my gate. I kept waiting to pull out all my paperwork to prove that I had medical coverage and show my reasons for going to Lithuania. It never happened. They let me in with no questions asked.

We met another couple destined for LCC while on the plane to Germany. The plane was incredibly huge and almost spacious, so Erik was taking advantage of the hallway by the bathroom to do some stretching mid-flight. He started talking to an Indian man about attending a university in Lithuania. Soon a stranger came around the corner and entered the conversation with his own questions. It didn't take long before the stranger became Mark and later Sherry, who are both serving at LCC this year in English professor and librarian roles. Please take note of the indoor smoking lounges we saw in the Frankfurt airport.

A hired driver met all of us at the small airport in Vilnius. It was fun to see the people waiting in the small airport lobby with beautiful flower bouquets in hand, ready to welcome their visitors to Lithuania. Although Justinas (J is a Y sound), our driver, didn't have flowers in hand, it was a relief to see the black type of our names on his white sign and know that at least someone knew we had arrived. We loaded our luggage into the van and then ate some food and walked around while waiting for Rachel Johnson, another LCC staff person, to arrive on a different flight.

The drive towards home in Klaipeda seemed familiar and strange all at the same time. We thought that the countryside of Lithuania looked similar to the farm and open spaces in Minnesota, with a few more hills. All of the billboards, road signs, gas stations and evenautomobiles reminded us that we were in a foreign country and not at home. Justinas spoke excellent English and was kind and helpful with our questions about his country. I was impressed with my first real Lithuanian.

We have been in a haze since arriving at LCC on Thursday evening. Steve and Laura Hanson (Steve is a 2nd-year RD at LCC) were here to show us our new apartment and then take us out on the town so that we wouldn't be able to fall asleep. They performed their job well, guiding us all over town and finding a great restaurant to sit outside and eat true Lithuanian fare...potato balls stuffed with meat. Erik and I slept for 12 hours that first night. Steve and Laura's helpful tips and suggestions may not be remembered very clearly, but they served as our tour guides all of yesterday as well. We ate in another Lithuanian cafe for lunch with Veslava (she is the other RD I will be working with and is a 2006 grad of LCC), took a tour of LCC's campus, shopped for groceries at our first Lithuanian store called Maxima and then ended with eating pizza at the Hanson's apartment.

I am all caught up with the significant events thus far. We are feeling settled in our bare, yet cozy, apartment. We have survived all of our outings because we have had language guides along. We are missing the usual people and places of home, but I don't know if it has sunk in that we are staying here for a while. I am sure the reality will come. We love you and are thankful for this opportunity to be here. Good morning to all of you in the states...the weekend has arrived!

I hate to say Good-bye, So I'll see you when I see you...

2009-08-05T13:05:00.000-07:00

The time has come. We board a plane here in Chicago in about 15 minutes that will take us on our 2nd flight to Frankfurt and our 3rd flight to Vilnius, Klaipeda. The plan from there is for a driver hired by the school to pick Erik and I up for the 4-hour drive to LCC International University. Wow.

I don't know what to think, so I thought I would check in and say that the blogging will now commence. I am so excited to share the experiences of this next step via the world wide web with those we care for so much and are sad to leave behind. Frankfurt, here we come! Tschuss.

(Please note that I am a responsible wearer of my fashionable passport holder, unlike Erik's technique of taking it off as soon as we passed through security in Minneapolis. See pictures to understand.)

Hip Hip Hooray

2009-07-20T10:32:00.000-07:00

Erik and I often laugh together about a memory of ours that happened soon after we met at Boundary Waters Experience, a camp up in Ely, MN. I'll fill you in on the story now as it is fresh in my mind as I look over our fundraising progress for Lithuania today.

It was one of our first days off of the summer (June 2006) and Erik and Luke were planning on going fishing for the day. Anna and I hoped to bike over to the lake and join them for the afternoon on the boat. When I called to ask them what kind of sandwiches they wanted me to make for lunch, the boys told me they had caught a large number of fish so far. Without skipping a beat, I exclaimed, "Praise the Lord! We're going to have fish tonight!"

Little did I know that Erik and Luke had barely cast their lines out that morning and had instead been enjoying each other's company over pipe tobacco and poetry...leading to absolutely NO fish caught thus far. The boys could hardly stop their laughter as they listened to my genuine response about our potential fish fry that evening. I soon learned the truth of the situation when Anna and I showed up to join them and I later became the consistent joke of the summer. Praise the Lord...We're going to have rain tonight. Praise the Lord...the campers show up today. This photo taken at a later date shows all of the participants of the particular story, including Luke and Anna.

I tell this story as my first response to calculating our pledge responses so far is...Praise the Lord! We're going to Lithuania this year! I can hardly believe it. As of today, we have been given $11,745 in pledges towards our first year at LCC.

I must say the process of putting our dream to be a part of LCC International University and our financial need to make it happen out in the open has been a vulnerable position for me. I like to have an answer to give people and an explanation of HOW I am going to make it happen. This time I have an answer to give and I am trusting that the people in our community and support group are going to respond with exactly how this will play out.

Thank you to those of you who have taken time to capture our dream of being a light and a blessing to a new culture in a new place in the world. Thanks for sending your contact information to stay involved in our story. Thanks for sending your hard-earned dollars so that we can meet our needs. We feel FULL with love and encouragement. This will be what carries us through this transition time of leaving Minnesota and starting in Lithuania.

A first experience for the Johnson's. We may not be able to make up our minds about a lot of things, but we know for sure we like to experience life fully. In new ways. In new places.

With humor and in seriousness, Praise the Lord...we have supporters who give!

the busy beginning

2009-06-19T13:50:00.000-07:00

So here's the first post. I couldn't see the day that becky and I would have our own blog, and sure enough its here. And for what a great reason. We are planning on leaving on August 5th to Lithuania.

Thanks for checking this out, your on the right track. We will keep everyone updated on the progress of our fundraising and events as they come up.

As of now we have had donations that add up to $600! we have a way to go, but that's a great start. We are really looking forward to hearing from all of you and being able to keep in touch.

See ya,

the Johnstrand Band

here is a video that will give you a picture of Lithuania for all those that have no idea (like ourselves). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OStISjdmmSI