Arrival of Advent

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

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

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

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

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

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

"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.