CAS blog of L. G.

It's my fourth post about Lithuanian language classes with Aušrinė. I can say it was a long and exhausting, but at the same time exciting and useful journey. This month was the most interesting one of all four as Aušrinė prepared a few tasks based on dictation and even a test! I seem to still have a lot of room for further improvement, but as Aušrinė says, 'practice practice practice'! Truly, it's all about keeping practicing as much as possible to get used to writing according to rules without thinking as well as memorizing different exceptions. Based on the dictations my grammar is pretty good, though some random mistakes are still present. I have little trouble with distinguishing which words to write separately and which merged, also not much misunderstanding with commas, dashes and colons. What seems to really confuse me are exceptions as there's only one way to write them correctly which is memorize by heart. I don't really have time for this right kno

They look good, am I right?  Last year my sister and I baked doughnuts for the school Pie day and this year we decided to try something new that would arise the temptation to taste test our creation equally as those doughnuts. After looking through several recipes I proposed to bake some cinnamon rolls which were meant to be slightly sweet, full of cinnamon and, of course, fluffy inside. Recipe itself seemed pretty basic, especially for such cooking-obsessed person like me. Everything was great until we popped the rolls into the oven. I'm guessing it was too long of a time for the rolls to bake for around half an hour, but they came out super hard and not fluffy at all. I was extremely disappointed because not only they took almost half a day to make (a few hours for dough to rise were required), they actually looked great as well! It was misleading to make the rolls twice smaller in size than the original recipe called for and expect them to require baking for equal time

Two of my later-made postcards At this time of the year every charity suddenly remembers the existence of orphans and other life-afflicted people, including the elders. Usually those generous organizations gift toys, clothes and other material things. However, in my opinion it's important to display spiritual attention, this way showing the sincerity of actions. That's why I joined someone's idea to make postcards for retirement home and children's home, especially as it's Christmas time and you can wish to have a warm winter, enjoy life and be happy. I do truly believe that such unexpected attention can make a big influence to other's life. Initially, I made two postcards during IB convention's workshop but it seemed too small of a contribution, so I made two more at home. Of course, I could have made even more but considering the effort and time these four postcards required it's the most I could have done. I tried to make them as "profes

Half a decade or so ago it was very popular among teenagers to celebrate your birthday by inviting all friends to play bowling. Everyone would get super competitive but at the same time would have a lot of fun. For a long time I had a conviction that bowling is an activity for children's birthday parties or a place for men's after-work meetings; however, I completely changed my mind a few days ago. Couple of friends of mine and I decided to mark the beginning of our Christmas holidays by visiting the world of balls and pins. I'll admit, despite some technical difficulties we had A LOT of fun. We split up into two groups of two and three people. Initially, we had an idea to compete between the groups, but as there was an odd number of us, the smaller group played in much quicker pace and we were left to compete only between our own group members. I played with Regina and Migle, both of whom seemed to have a inborn skill of masterfully throwing the bowling ball, so I t

I'm probably the most winter-hating person I know. For me, winter associates with constantly being cold at school (even in three layers of clothes on), brown slush on the streets, which forces you to always look for the "clean" spot to step on, dark morning-drives to and dark evening-returns from school, which almost makes you fell like some kind of a nocturnal animal, and many other similar melancholic and depressing things. The only aspect of winter that I do truly enjoy is Christmas. It's the most comforting holiday of all and always involves vast amounts of delicious finger-licking foods. But before eating you have to deserve it, I guess? That was not the main reason I decided to participate in a Christmas run, more like the desire to actually move my body. Also, last year I really enjoyed to run in a cold weather, so this year there were no doubts I'm taking the chance, especially considering that the organizers introduced a new "Fun run" speci

I was rushing after the event & forgot to return the attributes... Only recently I started to truly appreciate the time of upcoming Christmas. Festive music, sparkling lights, decorated Christmas trees and some kind of lifted mood - it all creates a little happiness deep in my heart. However, there's something else that also adds up to the spirit of Christmas - it's the act of sharing with others and International Christmas Charity Bazaar is the perfect opportunity to share with those in need. It was a second time of me volunteering at this event and this time it was a completely different experience. A year ago I was distributing flyers inviting to visit the event but this year I was assigned to invite people to participate in a lottery. It was a major challenge for me to leave my shyness behind and communicate with people confidently, especially as the majority of them were refusing to even listen till the end what I had to say! After half an hour or so I no

This year is a special one for Vilnius lyceum IB students because exactly twenty years have passed since IB program was founded in our school. It's something we should be proud of and celebrate together with other IB schools. Luckily, there's an annual event called IB convention, first organized by Kaunas Jesuit gymnasium years ago, which was a perfect opportunity to address pride-worthy anniversary. Our coordinators gathered all IB course a month or even more before the event to start an early organization. At first, it was hard to generate concrete ideas, especially as none of us imagined what the event should look like. It was much easier when people started to concentrate on particular aspects, such as food, CAS activities, speakers, overnight stay and, of course, welcoming, which I eventually joined as well. My task was mainly to organize the smooth proceeding of minor tasks such as present-, decoration-, arrow- and poster-making, as well as to find people willing t

Three months have passed unnoticeably and it doesn’t even seem that Aušrinė and I had a solid amount of meetings. The IB workload sometimes distorted our plans but we did everything that’s in our hands to have the most high quality lessons. The month of November wasn’t as exciting as previous ones because the lessons became somewhat boring. There was no feeling of excitment neither from me nor from Aušrinė. It became as a duty for us and we agreed to skip a few weeks. It was nice to take a break in the middle of the month and I instantly noticed the difference when we had a lesson once again. Aušrinė actually offered to start working more individually thus complete the tasks alone without working in a group. I enjoyed this way of learning but not because it was easier (it actually was much harder), rather because I clearly identified my weak sides of both spelling and syntax and knew what to work on a bit more. Aušrinė as always was super prepared but even random question didn’t get

Every teenager is used to hearing the fraze "clean up your room!" and I'm not an exception. My room definitely needs a major clean-up every now and then because I'm not one of those people who can keep a room clean daily. Nevertheless, each one of us still feels obligated to manage the mess created. However, have you ever thought about the mess created in a school? I believe it's not only charwomen's duty to clean the school but students' as well. Kamilė, Ignė and I all agreed on this aspect and decided to contribute to the clearer windows of our school. If charwomen wash the floor daily, they definitely don't wash windows that often. It's simply impossible for them to keep up with our vast school. That's why we thought it would be a great work to do. After all, we, students, are the ones who leave the prints of fingers all around those windows, so we ought to clean them respectively. Today the three of us girls met early before the classes

Colder and colder days are approaching but as almost every girl, the urge to look good remains in my heart. It's easy to go and buy warm clothes in a store, but recently there's nothing that suites my taste. After last year's pretty successful experience I once again decided to create what I want by myself. This time I thought to go for something different and try sewing a skirt. The challenge that I anticipated was the thick material needed in order for the skirt to be warm enough in our windy Lithuanian weather. The thicker the material the harder for the sewing machine to move the needle across it and the harder it is to make stable steams. Despite knowing this, I still was determined to achieve the best result. First things first, my mother and I went to the store to pick up the required material and she helped me to choose the suitable one. Afterwards, I went through all the sewing magazines we had at home and tried to find something similar to what I wanted. Luc

It’s always two kinds of emotions wrecking inside of me when I cook something I’ve never tried before. It’s excitement and fright of failure. This month was especially filled with these emotions because I’ve tried three new recipes that I kind of always wanted to try. The first one was flourless and sugarless cupcakes . This recipe arouse the most doubts in me but the end result was probably the best of all three. Never have I ever before used beans to make a dessert, but who could’ve thought that it’s actually the best idea in the whole world of cooking! I loved the cupcakes and they were a perfect balance between healthy and tasty. In the future I will definitely try more sweet recipes with beans or even create one myself! The second recipe I’ve tried was a breakfast one . This one was quite easy to make but the idea to substitute eggs for tofu was a great discovery for me. I adjusted the original recipe a little bit by excluding some ingredient and including some additional sp

Believe me or not, I always wanted to try yoga class. After a complete failure with a 30-day challenge last year , I was even more determined to try a professional class. Today my wish came true and Kamilė, Ignė and I attended Sivananda yoga center trial lesson. Coincidently, recently I felt completely exhausted and somewhat physically constrained, so the idea of stretching and relaxing my body was more than simply attractive. At the center we were welcomed by the sophisticated smell of incense and a dozen pair of shoes - it turned out that there was a class proceeding at the time and we were kindly asked to wait for a few minutes. While we were waiting, a receptionist told as about the complexity of yoga and the use of it in a daily life. It was interesting to find out this kind of information but it was even more interesting to attend the class itself. As the three of us were completely newbies in yoga, we got our own trainer to run us a personal class in order to introduce us

It was always one of my fears to be unexpectedly caught up in a situation of not being able to help someone with a stroke, seizure or any other kind of similar sudden ailment. My mental weakness in such situations involving relatives especially frightens me  so I decided to overcome this apprehension and finally feel confident in what future might bring. However, this 3-hour course I signed up for with my sister was nothing I expected it to be like. First of all, the courses appeared to be intended to gain general knowledge about the human body and how to sustain it in emergency situations of injury until ambulance arrives. This frustrated me a little at first as my main goal was slightly different. Nevertheless, I was intrigued to finish the courses. Surprisingly, I learned a lot of new information with which I, as a future biologist, wasn't familiar at all. For example, did you know that human's have seven points where major arteries run close to the skin? I certainly thou

In our contemporary world  the majority of people live in a constant stress, especially those working and studying. It's hard to avoid tension, but there are several methods that can help to learn to do so. One of them is meditation. There was always this kind of imagination of mine that meditation is only for yoga-practitioners and super organized people who have everything under control in their life. However, daily stress made me look for solutions and I encountered meditation as one of the best methods to release all the accumulated burden on my shoulders.  After reading a little bit about meditation online, I decided to get an app "Insight timer" which had to provide with guided meditations. Truly, it did. At first, I was lost and confused how to choose the right meditation but considering my busy schedule, I've set a plan to meditate for 10-15 minutes before bed. Surprisingly, I liked it so much that didn't skipped even once, except of replacing half-we

Before IB one of my hobbies was taking pictures of the surrounding world. I never had a proper camera, so Iphone was my saviour. At the time photography was a way to perpetuate the beauty I saw around me, but the tight schedule of an IB student made me forget about such interest. So, to commemorate long forgotten hobby I decided to jump all the way in and try out 30-day photography challenge. Ar first, I was very excited to take pictures but as there were certain themes for each day as a part of a challenge, I really struggled to find the way to convey the ideas of some days in an artsy and appealing way. As a result, I skipped a few days (not intentionally) because nothing managed to catch my eye fitting the theme on those days. Still, I'm proud of the photos I took. The priority for me was quality and not quantity, so forgive the fact of an incomplete challenge. Next time I wouldn't opt for a month-long photography challenge because I'll admit, it's too much to take

It has already become a tradition of IB students to visit Antakalnis cemetary during the leafy period of autumn. Last year it was one of the first CAS activities of mine and also, one of the most enjoyable ones. As an IB student, I spend most of my time sitting by the desk, browsing, typing, reading from the screen etc. All these inactive activities make me crave physical work, so, I guess, that’s why sweeping leaves together with my classmates seems the best way to spend my afternoon. At the cemetery we were met by the same women as last year. She was already familiar with us as lyceum students and even shared some interesting stories about her son, who also studied in our school a long time ago. It was nice to talk to her but we were keen to start working and she quickly explained us what and where to sweep. There were seven or so of us, so together we worked very efficiently and fast. I cannot even imagine how long it would have taken me to sweep all the leaves alone! Aft

Last month was dedicated for learning spelling, however, this month was all about the syntax. I'll be honest, if spelling is my strong side, syntax is completely opposite. I'm never fully sure about where to put a coma or a dash, or a colon. I go with the flow, as they say - write the way I believe is correct. Yet I'm rapidly approaching the exams and punctuation is the thing I should be confident in. What is more, it's my responsibility as a citizen of Lithuania to be literate in all aspects of the language.  As usual, Aušrinė, other "students" and I met in the lobby of our school on a Thursday morning almost every week this month. Our "teacher" was always prepared to explain the rules and their exceptions. She also always had some check-yourself tasks for us to complete together in the "class". It was much easier to understand and remember the rules as well as do tasks in cooperation with other girls than to do it individually at hom

Even though I'm not fully Lithuanian by nationality, I've always been a patriot in my heart. Basketball, cepelinai, kūčiukai - I've always been a fan of these and many more with Lithuania associated things of daily life. However, traditional dance never seemed appealing enough to try it out. Nevertheless, when the opportunity appeared on my way, I took it as a challenge I've never had before. With an ex-classmate as a teacher, lessons started in the beginning of September and since then our group have been having two to three rehearsals a week. I'll admit, the dance itself wasn't that hard to learn even though there were some movements that I didn't understand at first and needed a longer time to master. The actual challenge though was to agree on the timing of meetings. It's not an easy task to find the perfect time when ten people are all free of lessons, additional activities etc. However, we managed to somehow find a solution and eventually, learn t

In the past I have volunteered at the "Food bank" for several times already, but it was always someone else who coordinated the shift. I still remember the time I first participated in the event in the beginning of the first IB year and those from IB2 coordinated my shift. To be honest, I couldn't have imagined to be in their place and to take such a responsibility but here I was, a year later, doing exactly the same as they did.  At first, I doubted myself but not long after I decided to take the challenge and raise the scale a little higher by finally coordinating one of the shifts. The initial task was to gather a team of five people. I underrated the difficulty of this task and didn't give much thought to it until the last minute when there was only one person willing to volunteer. Inactivity of IB1 really surprised me; luckily, there was a lot of first-graders from National program willing to help. The first task was accomplished but many more followed, mainly

When I was probably 6-7 years old, my mom used to give my sister and me all the leftover veggies, cheese, sausage or any other sandwich-type of meat to cut with little knives and make a salad. I'll admit, the salad itself wasn't usually a masterpiece to enjoy, but the process of cutting (what at the time seemed like cooking) was strangely satisfying. It was one of my most favourite activities of childhood! So, this kind of craving for cooking remained till these days. That's why I decided to take a step further and create my own food blog. One might ask what will be so special about my blog for it to stand out of millions of others? Well, in my food blog I'll be posting only recipes containing no animal products. Why? Because I want to challenge and force myself to try something new and not as familiar as usual stews, cookies, cupcakes etc. After all, it's even healthier to exclude meat, dairy products and eggs. The intention of a blog is not only to show my expe

Pollution is one of the most severe problems of contemporary world. As population continues to grow, pollution also increases respectively, and as we all know, waste doesn't disappear but is rather collected in dump holes. They require huge areas of land and are very dangerous not even mentioning the awful smell that can be detected from very far away.  Being aware of such information, I try to recycle as mush as possible. However, it's not enough to look after my own actions and decisions only because there are so many people who don't even care about environment and planet's future. Accordingly, in order to ensure the full employment of my awareness, this year together with my sister we decided to collect rubbish around our living area. We did the same thing last year and found quite a lot of rubbish even if it didn't look like a very polluted area at all. To our surprise, this year we collected much more less rubbish, only two garbage bags were almost full aft

FINALLY. The day of pay-back has dawned. One year ago I got to experience the loud outcry (and sincere greetings afterwards)  of Lyceum students, I got to complete various tasks in the city centre, I got to perform YMCA dance and in the end, I got to be drenched in water (while being sick). Fortunately, this year I only got to watch others experience all of this (ironically, once again, while being sick). Of course, before enjoying 'the show' everything needed to be prepared and I chose to take into advantage my artistic skills and contribute to the decor of the event. A few of my friends and I took the task of drawing waves as the theme of christening was ‘oceans’. I imagined it to be quite an easy and entertaining task, but it appeared to be completely opposite. I realized that to be able to draw realistic waves you actually have to know all the concepts of proper drawing and being a total amateur I failed at the very first attempt. The waves seemed flat and monoch

Those who know my life story will probably understand why I chose to take Lithuanian lessons with Aušrinė who is an expert in this field. Over the lifetime I've spent six years abroad, during three of which I haven't learned Lithuanian at all. I remember, there was a period when my sister and I were even starting to talk in a foreign language with our parents at home. I'm glad that those six years were separated in two cadencies with a three-year gap, which helped me to get back into talking in my native language; however, I didn't manage to catch up some rules of spelling or syntax that I unfortunately missed, and to this day it bothered me and detained from getting the highest grades from my essays. So, these 45-minute lessons with Aušrinė seemed a pretty good idea to learn Lithuanian grammar and improve my writing skills. Plus, when chatting with my friends, I often doubt how to write particular words and this is a perfect opportunity to scatter the fog. I don'

There are several hundreds of nations around the world. Of course, no one is familiar with all of them, but let's admit, it's always fascinating to get acquainted with the outlandish language, traditions and history. That is the reason I was attracted to volunteer at the Nations bazaar. Ironically, in the end, I didn't even do anything related to nations. Organizers of the event offered a few zones that were in need of volunteers and I chose kids zone where little ones were meant to be painting on differently shaped pieces of foam. I knew that this definitely would be a true challenge for me as at this point of my life I'm not fascinated by kids and their sudden upsets. However, it appeared to be one of the most entertaining and beneficial volunteering activities this year so far. At first, we (volunteers) seriously struggled with the arrangement of the tent appointed to kids due to the insanely heavy wind. A plan to bring the "furniture" outside did no

We live in a world where it's getting more and more expensive to live a qualitative life. It's always frustrating to learn that the price of your favorite bread, milk or product in general has risen, but from my yesterday's experience the increase of value is not necessarily a negative thing. Less than 24 hours ago I volunteered at the new Food bank project called "Great price - great job", which was initiated by "IKI" retail chain. This market raised prices of 12 popular products by 1 euro and all the additional money will be donated to Food bank for the infrastructure, warehouse equipment etc. For the past sixteen years this company collected and distributed thousands of tons of food a year to those in need without any payment. After this long period of time, all the equipment has outdated and now it's in need for renewal. I believe it's mandatory to help them because once they helped us as a society. So I felt it was my duty to particip