CAS blog of L. G.

The test-sock    Not many know, that in fact my sister and I were born preterm. My grandma still tells stories about how frightened she was when first saw us so tiny laying in incubators. Once we needed help of others to survive and now the time has come to pay back our debt.    It was a merit of a few classmates that came up with a brilliant idea to knit socks for premature babies and gift them for a hospital. As I already mentioned in my previous post about knitting it was a struggle to remember my long-time ago acquired skills of handling needles and yarn. Nevertheless, I truly enjoyed the process of actually materializing my desire to help.    At first, I wanted to practice a little so a test-sock was a way to go. I took the first yarn I could find at home and started the hard work. After a few solid sweats the sock was nearly finished and there was no point in continuing it. At this point the knitting seemed a lot easier, however, still challenging, as I wanted to make the

  19th of December came extremely fast! The day before the Christmas eve I got super nervous about the success of our performance. The worries about transporting all the required things to place somehow, not forgetting the words and pleasing the kids couldn't leave me alone. However, my concerns were for nothing as it all went so much better than was expected.    The time at school went unnoticeably fast and here we were, standing near the foster home waiting for a social worker to welcome and introduce us to little listeners for the evening. All the possible scripts of the so important meeting already went through my mind at that point but the actual union was not like any of them. Kids were sitting by the kitchen table and waiting for our visit. It was nice to see curious but not even close to shy looks. Orphans were just like typical kids, buzzing around, arguing with each other and always communicating with us.    As planned, the Christmas eve began from theoretical part wher

   It was a little more than a month left before Christmas filled in everyone's home. That's exactly the time Kamilė, Ignė and I came up with a brilliant project idea. The inspiration came from the same upcoming celebrations. I do not remember the initial idea as we polished it out as much as possible and ended up with the perfect combination of activities in a form of Christmas eve. It seemed there's no better way to share our love and kindness than to visit the ones mostly deprived of those things - orphans.    As I already mentioned, it all started way before the day of materialization. First of all, half of the job was to plan our activities to fit into a limited amount of time and work on full effectiveness. After setting our goals we had to start implementing them. Of course, in the first instance it was important to find a foster home willing to welcome our project. Ignė was the one responsible for contacting with orphanages. Unfortunately, it took a week for us to

   Stage was one of my biggest fears for as long as I can remember. I just cannot handle the idea of everyone's eyes pointed on me. I guess too much attention scares me. However, that's exactly what pushed me towards participating in a play organized by a few of my classmates.    The initial idea was to perform in a few kindergartens and this way share our creativeness and warmth with little ones. Nonetheless, to everyone's surprise we ended up arranging a performance for our school's students as well. Do we look like tees?    It all started after autumn break in the beginning of November. Me and my sister got a role of pine trees in a "War of the Mushrooms" play as we are the only twins in the class. Let's admit, it is much more entertaining to see two similar people saying the same words at the same time, especially for kids. When I saw the script the first feeling that arose in me was some kind of disappointment because there was just two lines fo

   Cooking has been my passion number one for as long as I can remember so it's not a surprise that I got all excited after hearing about the Pie day, traditionally organized by IB students in my school. The main idea of this event is to sell cakes, pies, cookies and  everything else sweet to students and after donate all the collected money to a local hospital. Ignė perfecting the chocolate coating     Three of us classmates, Kamilė, Ignė (also my sister) and I, figured to collaborate and make something special and crowd-pleasing together. So after Christmas run  we gathered at our house to make some delicious doughnuts. It might sound as a very unhealthy treat, however, we made a totally opposite of that. The recipe did not include any butter, eggs or dairy products. So vegan and one may even say guilt-free doughnuts were on the way to the oven after our work in the kitchen with all the ingredients.     I must admit, the recipe was easy to follow. However, it was a chal

    Never have I ever thought the day like 18th of December will come. That date was special for me as I participated in a Christmas run for the first time. It was a true challenge to win the battle against cold and slipperiness. The idea to join other crazy runners who are not afraid of winter came from my classmate Kamilė. She's a former athlete so obviously she had an interest to try it out. If you ask what was my reason to agree with Kamilė's offer only one thing would come up to my mind. It's curiosity. I was extremely curious to see what my body is capable of. Somehow my whole life I've had the conviction that I could only run when it's warm outside. It appeared to be a figment of mine and usually an excuse to avoid working out.     To be honest, even though the distance I signed for was only 3 km I felt the need to prepare myself physically as well as mentally. Unfortunately, my plans to work out a few times the week before did not materialized due to my

   We all know that Christmas is about sharing and not only within your own family but with others around you as well. This year I got a chance to share in a totally new way to me by giving strangers flyers. Not any kind of flyers but those inviting to visit International Christmas Charity Bazaar (ICCB) at the Rotuse o f Vilnius. This annual event is organized by International Women's association of Vilnius and more than 40 contributing Embassies and organizations. Hundreds of participants prepare hand-made souvenirs and treats to be sold at the bazaar. All the collected money is always donated to carefully selected Lithuanian charities and at this 14th ICCB more than 100 000 euros were raised. It is so satisfying to know that I was one of the people who spread the message of the event and may be thanks to me one or another person dedicated their time and money to the charity.    I might have created an illusion that this activity caused only positive emot ions, however, it is

   Not even a month have passed since I first volunteered for the "Save the children Lithuania" and I'm already back with another post of this activity. This time I shared the experience with my classmate Kamilė at the shopping centre "Mandarinas".    To be honest, that evening my desire to volunteer was below zero. All I wished for after a long day at school was to get home as quickly as possible and curl up in my cozy bed with a cup of hot tea. However, despite of the aversion to the upcoming work the thought of a good cause kept me going.    From the beginning till the end of volunteering hours the flow of people we met was minor but consistent. Kamilė and I agreed in advance to share the responsibilities this way increasing our efficiency. My job was to walk to people and introduce them to the program and Kamilė's job was to show how to make a donation on the terminal. Compared to the last time our team managed to convince almost the same amount of p

   It is a long-standing tradition in Vilnius lyceum to exchange Christmas letters. This year I got a chance to not only write cards to my new friends but to make a special Christmas letter box as well. I spontaneously agreed with the offer to join the making and do not regret it at all. It was one of the most entertaining and enjoyable activities I have done for the school so far.    Firstly, we had to discover a box suitable for this purpose. Luckily, I found a huge and quite an old box at home. The problem was how to transport it to the school in an overcrowded bus at the morning peak hour. Accidentally, it was Friday and I did not have the first two lessons so the task was completed without any complications. Funny enough, we ended up not even using that box but everyone appreciated my effort.    The second part of process was the actual designing. After spraying the box with green dye and letting it dry we could finally get creative. you can see the stars I've made I d

   My mother has been knitting at her leisure for as long as I can remember. I think it is clear without saying that she's the one who made me wish to learn this craft and consequently taught it. It was six years ago when I developed a real passion for knitting. However, after a year or so it faded away and mom was left alone to knit clothes for the whole family.    I did not have even a slight thought that the skill of knitting will ever come in handy. Surprisingly it did and for a very kind cause. As some of my classmates came up with the project idea of gifting knitted socks to premature babies in hospitals I offered my help in teaching them how to do it.    To be honest, it took a while to remember the actual process but with the help of my wonderful mother I managed to finally memorize it step by step.    The initial thought of passing my skills to others excited me but soon I faced not so attractive reality. It is extremely hard to get us ed to proper holding of knitting n

   Ever since the sixth grade, the moment I was introduced to volleyball, I had a secret dream or even a goal to learn how to properly play this sport game. Unfortunately, I did not get a chance to do it until now as there was a volleyball club recently established in my school.    To be honest, at first I wasn't going to join the club because of numerous doubts that were on my mind. However, after constantly hearing more and more positive feedback from my classmates I decided to give it a go. Not even a slight thought of regret came to my mind after this fatal decision. I enjoyed every single minute of the first training even though I was playing terribly. It was challenging not to give up as failure after failure came. Despite all of that I was not feeling disappointed in myself whatsoever because of the joy and satisfaction feelings that came afterwards. I actually remembered some rules and techniques from P. E. lessons in primary school, however, it is clear for me that there&

From right to left: Miglė, Ignė and I    Even though yesterday was the first day of autumn holiday I did not get to sleep in. That's because at 10 a. m. I was already near Antakalnio cemetery waiting for others to go to clean part of the graveyard. So let me tell you everything from the start.    On the set time we gathered together at agreed place and a really nice women met us. She was really talkative in a good way and kept a company for us till everyone came. After she gave us all we needed and showed what area to clean.   I will admit, it was not easy to rake the leaves and at some point it even felt like a decent arm workout. However, I was determined enough to keep working till the end. Our group of around 10 people managed to clean a middle-sized field and a quite big area of graves in less than two hours. By coincidence as I was cleaning around graves some family was visiting the grave of their relative conductor. They were so thankful to us and complemented our dedi

   The 22nd of October was not an ordinary Sunday for me as I dedicated the whole evening to volunteer work for  "Food bank" . It's a charity and support centre that collects food for the organizations that take care of poor people. Each year it arranges this kind of action of kindness during which volunteers invite people to donate food that does not expire for a long time. It includes grains, flour, sugar, oil, chocolate, canned food etc. That's exactly what volunteers, including me, were collecting.    There were several tasks you could choose from and I was appointed to hand out little calendars for each person who donated. It felt so good to thank them for their kindness! My happiness grew higher and higher with each product given. I was amazed how much we collected in less than four hours! We could hardly turn around as there was boxes full of food everywhere. You can see how wide my smile is!    To be honest, I didn't really expected to like this kind

    Not a while ago one of my classmates offered to the whole class to volunteer for a public organization "Save the Children Lithuania" ( "Gelbėkit vaikus" ). Almost everyone agreed to take part including me.     So yesterday was the day Augustė, Ugnė and I were inviting "Rimi" supermarket customers to donate part of their discount card money to socially sponsored children of Lithuania. Augustė, Ugnė and I     Within two hours we managed to talk in about twenty people to set their card settings so that at the  end of each month all or part of their saved money would be donated. It was quite a surprise for us that the first person who agreed with our offering was a foreigner. He was generous enough to give away all 100% of discount card money.    Despite the high number of people who made donations, there were much more the ones who refused to even listen us till the end. The majority of passers-by were rushing or making stupid excuses such as "

    There's no doubt that 21st century can be called the era of technologies. This is not only a positive change to the humanity, but also an extremely negative from the aspect of physical activity. People spend more and more time by siting at a desk, scrolling trough social networks on their mobile phones and driving even to the nearest place. However, personally, I enjoy being active. For example, almost two weeks ago I took a part in a "LEMONGYM" students' run . Actually, half a month before that I practiced a little bit and went on a few runs per week. It made me feel confident about finishing 3 km distance in time on 11th of September.     When the day came I was a little bit nervous about how am I going to perform. The start was quite late at 16.20 pm, however, the time flew so quickly that I didn't even noticed how me and my sister were already rushing to the race.     The actual run was unforgettable! I can't even describe the feeling I had when I