School Retreat

On the second day of school, the whole MYP  (Middle Year Program) got onto three buses and headed out to the middle nowhere to spend our retreat at a campsite (it wasn't really out of the middle of nowhere, I just literally have no idea where we were and it was actually quite nice). The bus ride was only about a hour long and didn't feel that long at all. I sat with my new friend, Miruna and talked about my life and high school in the States. Luckily, there were no dramatic experiences on the bus ride like Argentina (if you don't know what I mean, read my post titled Buenos Aires Trip) and it was actually surprisingly calm. Soon we arrived at the campgrounds, got placed in our
'cabins' (they were more like trailers), and were sent off to put our stuff away and get ready for the first activities. I was placed in cabin 23 with Miruna as well as one other girl from my grade and two ninth graders. Cabin 23 also happened to be the farthest from the main meeting point and camp activities so it wasn't exactly convenient for us to go back and forth to our cabin. Our cabin had one main living area with the walls lined with couch-like things, a fireplace, and a kitchen. There was also two bedrooms, a master and a normal bedroom with two beds. I got the smaller bedroom, Miruna the master, and the other girls camped out in the living room. There was also a little bathroom with a sketchy shower and light switch that was on the ceiling. Overall, it was a very interesting, sketchy yet cute place.

  After settling into our cabin, spraying each other with weird lemony smelling bug spray (ticks are a big nuisance in the region of Lithuania that I'm in so I was basically freaking out the whole time about them because I've always had bad experiences with bugs and bug bites both in Oregon as well as foreign countries) we headed to our first activity. We then got split into groups by color, I was in the black group, and played icebreaker games in order to get to know each other. The first one was call "I have never/I have never been" where we had a piece paper that we were to stand on placed in a circle and someone was in the middle of the circle. The person the middle would then something they have never done or a place they had never been and the people who had done it or had been there had to run through the middle of the circle and find a new place to stand and the person in the middle could steal someone's spot. If somebody didn't find a spot then it was their turn to say I have never... It was actually a pretty fun game until it started pouring down rain and every group decided to go into the shelter tent. After that we played another game to learn each other names that we had to imitate a washing machine, and three other items that I can't remember. It was awkward for me because not only did I not know people's names, I didn't know how to pronounce them but luckily nobody remembered my name so I was the last person to be told to do something and didn't have to say anyone's name. After that we had to split our groups in half and then build a tower that was a meter high and self standing out of four pieces of paper, as much tape as we needed, and a cup. We were given a few minutes to plan and when that time was up we could no longer communicate and had to build it in silence. Unfortunately, my group failed to build the tower so that it was self standing and failed at not talking. We then were sent back to our cabins to prepare for lunch. Lunch took quite a long time because of the rain, the teachers were having a hard time lighting the BBQs for the chicken. My cabin was the last one to get food. After that we were regrouped and then sent off to do other activities.

   My first activity was a survival one. We were given the task to 'survive the night' by building a shelter to withstand wind and rain, find food, build a fire, and construct an SOS sign (and possibly a fifth one but I don't remember it) but we couldn't pull anything off of trees or brushes, approach the water, and had to use only what we found on the ground. However, we could take one thing from one of our group member's cabin to help us. There was basically nothing on the ground and the wood that we found had just been drenched in the previous rain shower so we basically failed the task. The other group was very determined to start a fire and tried to use bug spray to start it with a match... I think the girl holding the match was very lucky to not of burned her fingers.

  After that activity we headed to another one called 'hiking' and were split up into three smaller groups. It wasn't exactly hiking it was more like do an activity and then follow coordinates by measuring meters to the next activity. The first activity we had to run around a pole ten times, throw a ball at a goal post, collect the ball, and then hand it off to our next group mate. They timed us for each activity. The second one was to transfer water cup to another person's cup with our mouths (exactly how it sounds) which was extremely difficult and ended with a lot of people getting water poured on their faces instead of into the cup. We finally finished that one and then went the final activity (that we got to) which was where we all had to stand on a mat and flip it onto it's other side without stepping off of it. One kid knew exactly what to do so we got it down very quickly.

     The final activity of the day for my group was boating. I got paired up with a eighth grader and we basically just paddled around the area of the lake that we could go. Some kid (a 7th grader) kept on trying to capsize us by ramming his boat into the side of ours and others just wanted to splash each other. I saw this as sort of immature and actually got quite frustrated with the fact. I began to reflect on the other activities of the day and realized how immature almost all the kids were. This made me super upset, hesitant, unhappy, and really miss my host family. However, I reminded myself that a lot of these kids were two to six or more years younger than me so it their behavior was quite normal for their age, I was just used to being around people who were mature as I am (or at least somewhat close). They then started to grow me as I saw this difference and made myself accept it.

   After boating we had dinner where we had to help roast sausages. We had hotdogs basically but the hotdog buns were more square and less puffy than what I'm used to in the states. I wish I had taken a picture to show the difference (however I couldn't because they took our phones away, that's the reason why I have no pictures for this entry, sorry about that). None the less, the hotdogs were still good. We then had our final activity before bed which was a choice between board games, campfire songs, football (the thing that the weird Americans call soccer), basketball, volleyball, and relaxation/mediation with the school counselor. My friends and I choose to play board games. After that 45 minutes we were sent to our cabins but I was in charge of getting our bedding. After collecting all five of the blanket and pillow cases and sheets I headed back alone in the pitch black forest to my cabin. I was super scared of walking into the wrong cabin that when I walked into my cabin and saw someone who was not from my cabin I instantly said "Wrong cabin! Sorry. Wait yes, right cabin? Cabin 23?" and my cabin mates just stared at me like I was crazy. I gave them their bed stuff and started to get ready for bed. When it was time for lights out I couldn't fall asleep for some reason despite being very tired. It wasn't because the girls in the living room were taking half the night (this was not reason at all actually, I just have a hard time sleeping in new places) but I like half slept/half lied awake all night long. When it was finally time for morning I got ready quickly and then headed for breakfast.

     After a breakfast of sandwiches we split back into our groups and headed to the first of the last two activities. Mine was capture the flag and I was, surprisingly (well to me because this game is quite popular in the States), one of the only kids who had ever played it before. The other team won first which took them about ten minutes to defeat us. After that my team won in a matter of two minutes. The third and final game was to determine the winner had started. We went back and forth on trying to get the flag over and finally one of the girls on the other team got our flag, however, she got tagged right on the border. Then the debate of what to do started. The teacher in charge stopped the game and each team debated what we should do. The teacher then asked me, the most experienced one what to do and I told him my most honest answer: I had never seen experienced this before and had no idea. However, in the States, if this were to happen the teacher probably would have called it a win on the other team (and our team would get angry because it was on the border and so on). We then concluded to put the flags a couple meters away from the border and then see who won from there. I don't anyone won that game because we were all constantly fighting about it.

    The final activity was a communication exercise. They split us into two groups and sent us to two activities. One of them we had to navigate through 'high voltage wires' between two trees and if someone touched a wire then the whole group had to start over. Some of the guys decided that they wanted to jump over and others wanted crawl. After some of the guys jumped over (they had carried a table over, climbed on it and then jumped over the wires. I was about ready to jump when I remembered my fear of falling. I didn't want to jump but I was determined to but I knew if I did I would probably land wrong and seriously injure myself on barely my second week of being in Lithuania. Luckily, one of the guys offered to help me over by having me step into his hands and lower me done (this was a lot harder than we thought and I ended up doing an arabesque {balancing on one foot with the other extended to the back for those who do not know ballet terms} as he tried to lower me down to the ground). I was still terrified and luckily he didn't drop me and I didn't injure him (that I know of). However, that was all in vain because one of the crawlers couldn't keep his butt down (this was a reoccurring problem) and we all had to go back. We all ended up crawling under it. After that we had to navigate through a chess board like course with only sounds (one person was blind folded). This was my least favorite activity. After that we had lunch, collect our things, cleaned up the camp and cabins, took a picture, and then headed back to Vilnius by bus. The bus ride felt longer, probably because I was extremely tired but I couldn't sleep. I just looked out the window at the beautiful countryside of Lithuania. We arrived at school and then all headed home.

  Even though I got frustrated quite bit during the trip, it was overall a good experience for me because I got to know my classmates as well as other students in my school. I'm glad that was able to go on a culturally enriching, interesting yet fun trip with school while I was here.

*Sorry for taking so long to post! And also sorry for the super long post, you can probably see why I procrastinated writing it for so long.

The 1st of September

Every year in Lithuania, school starts on the 1st of September and carries a series of traditions. First off, the students dress up nicely and bring flowers to their teachers. There was also a ceremony at the beginning of the school day  to welcome everyone back. Oh and school generally started later. For example, my school day started at 10:00 where it normally starts at 8:30. Apparently, the school day on the first is normally over when the ceremony concludes, however I had a regular school day instead.

First day of school flowers

   My day started off around 7:15 and I got ready for school. I wore one of my favorite dresses (the only one I brought) and took pictures with my host family. After that, they left for my host sibling's first day of school. Then, around 9:15, one of my coordinators came and picked me up for my first day. We got stuck in traffic (and because I forgot my flowers) and were a little late to school which was okay for that day at least. After a short ceremony, I headed with my grade for Homeroom. Homeroom was for like half of the day and it was one of my classmate's birthdays so we ate pizza (and didn't go to lunch after). After lunch we had Lithuanian (which lucky for me,  it's to learn the language and not a literature class). And finally Humanities/ Individuals in Society. The day went pretty quick and I made a few friends! I then met with my host brother and headed home by bus with him and his friends.

  That was September 1st for you! I'll talk more about school in another post as well as the school retreat I went on with the whole MYP program (6th-10th grade)!