Su naujųjų metų
visiems!
For all of you
non-Lithuanian-speakers: I wish you all a happy new year and all the
best for 2015 :)
I hope you all spent the Christmas holidays and new year’s eve with
a lot of fun and beloved people and also got back to the normal daily
routine well. We definitely did.
There’s a lot to
tell about the last few weeks. I’ll try to roll it all back up
quickly and I will start with the last working week before the
Christmas holidays. Like the rest of December that week turned out to
be incredibly busy for us but besides all the hurrying to finish
Christmas presents or the last few preparations for work there also
were a lot of very lovely times. For there were a lot of Christmas
parties :)
One very special
evening definitely was on Tuesday when we celebrated together with
the children and youths from the dormitory. We all met in the
school’s canteen, everybody prettily dressed, where we all sat
together on a long long table. The evening started with some calm
words, some children and youths also read something out and also
there was a priest present to say a few words about Christmas. Though
it’s usually pretty chaotic with the kids, for this evening
everybody was quiet and listened. After all the talking we had dinner
together with some food that’s traditional for Christmas in
Lithuania. I didn’t get to remember the name of it but I can tell
you that it was really good. The last part of the evening was playing
some traditional “games” together. I can tell you about one that
I tried myself: For this game there was a big bowl of water which got
stirred for a while until there was some circulation. Then you had to
throw two pieces of coal inside; if these ended up touching each
other it meant that you will find a boyfriend or a girlfriend within
the next year. And guess what, my coal pieces touched each other, so
wish me luck :p
It was a really nice
evening together with the kids, they were all pretty excited and
seemed to have a lot of fun with the games in the end. Also it was
very interesting to see a little bit of the Lithuanian culture
concerning Christmas.
On Wednesday evening
we met with all the other volunteers in Panevėžys to celebrate
together. It also was quite a calm meeting but with the fun part of
resolving our Secret Santa game. A week before we had all drawn a
name from one other person and for that person we had to bring a
small present to this Christmas meeting. I got the loveliest present
from Laia, a blank fabric bag and a black fabric marker to paint it
myself – I’m still wavering about what to draw on it :)
It was nice to see everybody one more time before the holidays since
all of us had the plan of spending them at each one’s home country.
After another
Christmas party on Thursday evening together with our project team
Friday had come and with it the day of the first departure. Emily
travelled back home in the morning, Laia and me left on Saturday and
on Sunday finally also Fine. I stayed in Austria for ten wonderful
days, though I had been a bit unlucky for I got ill after the very
first night at home. Nevertheless I spent a very nice time at home
finally seeing all of my friends again. I can tell you that it also
was a little peculiar in the beginning for me. You know, four months
are quite some time without seeing each other completely. I had
experienced a lot of things in that time, but all of it happened with
people that my friends don’t know. So I was basically trying my
best not to talk too much about all of the things I had done those
last months. But by the time I could adapt to the situation and I
enjoyed all the hanging around that we usually did before I left for
Lithuania. Something very special for me in those holidays was that I
also found the time to go to Innsbruck for a weekend where I finally
got the amazing view of mountains again. Unfortunately I was still
too ill to go up but I also enjoyed just seeing them. And I was very
lucky too, just on time for that weekend it had started to snow and I
got the most picturesque image I could have only wished for :)
Ten days of course
went by way faster than expected. I kind of managed to meet all the
people I really wanted to see again but still there would have been
tons of things left that I had wanted to do. But well, on the 30th
it was time to get back to Lithuania. I had not too much time to
think about how I feel about leaving home again and coming back to
this place where I had already spent such an amazing time. When I
arrived in Vilnius I stayed there in the flat of another volunteer
that I had first met at the Light Festival in Vilnius. Fine had
already arrived there the day before and together with all the other
volunteers who had stayed in Lithuania we celebrated new year’s eve
by watching the amazing fireworks at the city’s Cathedral Square
and of course going out after that.
By now we’re all
back in Panevėžys, Emily had arrived on Monday, Laia on Tuesday. I
was really looking forward to the first day of work after the
holidays – not only because the 5th
was my birthday :p I was very excited to see my class and all the
other children and youths again and I felt so good from the very
first moment I walked into the school building in the morning. Now
everything’s quite back to normal, maybe with the difference that I
also bring a lot of new energy and thoughts from home. I’m looking
forward to the further time I’m going to spend here at the
“Panevėžio ‘Šviesos’ Specialiojo Ugdymo Centras”, together
with Emily, Fine and Laia, all the other lovely persons I met here
and of course the children and youths. Let’s make this next half
year amazing!
Viso
gero,
your
very excited Monika
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