Day 1.

Wow.
I'm gonna die here.
Mom? Start planning my funeral.

Oh dear, where to begin..So we had a more intensive training today for our teaching, and boy, is it going to be difficult. We have 4 teachers and 2 of us have different teaching grades than the others. For example: Myself and another teacher teach pre-k (3-4 years old), basic reading (6-7 years old), and elementary (8-15 years old). And the other 2 teachers teach only basic reading and primary (5-6 years old). So the elementary kids know english pretty well. So we can communicate with them mostly. So with them, instead of teaching them basic english we will teach them subjects like math, science, social studies, spelling, language arts, etc. So that'll be pretty fun I think, being able to talk to them already and all that. I'm pretty excited. The only thing that stresses me out is that we've only had 1 day to prepare to start school. We arrived tuesday morning and didn't do any planning until today and then school starts tomorrow. So really, we have no idea what we are doing. Normally, when the volunteer teachers arrive in their country, they have at least 4-5 days before school starts so they can prepare everything. We definitely got screwed on that part. But I'm sure we'll be alright.
I really am so pleased with my group. My head teacher is very helpful and knowledgeable about everything ILP. Which is sooo great. Her name is Jenna. The girls in my group are Kelby, Hayden & Joni. Kelby & I both live in a host family and the other 3 live in their own apartment. People think it's a joke when we introduce ourselves as Kelby & Shelbi :) It's kind of interesting that it turned out that way! She's super nice and we have a lot of common so I enjoy living with her so far! The other girls are lots of fun too! They don't eat much ;) haha which is crazy to me. I eat everything, we all know that. So they'll have to get used to me always wanting to stop for snacks and stuff.
I don't want to make these blog posts TOO long, because I don't like to read long posts myself haha..so I will try to break them up a lot into smaller posts. And start uploading more pictures!! I haven't taken much, but being here for 4 months I'm sure I'll be able to entertain you all with plenty of photos :)

 My roommate, Kelby.

 If you've ever had Kinder, you know that it's incredible. 

 Lithuanian pizza. It has crust on the bottom AND top. And inside is tomato sauce, cheese, mushrooms & chicken. I HATE mushrooms. And they eat them in everything. Same with onions. But you just gotta choke them down :) 

 Mexican food!!

 You stand on this stone, make a wish, and then walk around it. Hopefully mine comes true :) 

 My coordinator, Dima. He might be the greatest person I've ever met. So friendly and helpful. So grateful to have him as our guide. 

 So I don't really know what's in anything that we eat. And I don't want to know really, so I don't ask. But I'm pretty sure this is just rice and assorted vegetables. Not too bad. But everything has such a strange taste. 

Pizza break! Myself and Hayden on the top. And Kelby, Jenna & Joni on the bottom! 

All is well. xx

-Shelbs

Lithuanian Soil. Finally.

After just about 24 hours of driving, flying, and hanging around in airports, I've finally arrived in Vilnius! It's been really neat trying to communicate with people here. Surprisingly, I am not even scared. At all. Yeah, people are angry and not friendly haha. And when they find out your American, they just won't give you the time of day. BUT, it just makes me laugh :) And kind of makes me want to talk to them even more. Anyway.
My flight to Chicago was a piece of cake. 3 1/2 hours was nothing. I was supposed to meet up with a friend during my layover, but it didn't work out and I was really bummed out the whole time. Darn :/ The flight from Chicago to Sweden was hellish. It was through the night mostly, but it was impossible to sleep. I just can't figure out how to sleep on planes! It drives me nuts!! My neck gets all sorts of kinked and my legs become restless. And I had the window seat, which was pretty cool, but I had to pee real bad and the boy in the aisle seat was asleep...So I had no way to get out. I wasn't about to wake him from his peaceful slumber. So yes, that flight was nothing but uncomfortable. They took pretty good care of us though! We got complimentary blankets and pillows, headphones, there were movies to watch, and we got free water bottles. Which was nice after spending $12 on TWO water bottles in Vegas. Yeah, I said two. Ridiculous. They fed us dinner and breakfast on the plane. Dinner was mystery meat with rice and mystery vegetables hahhaha. Not too bad though. some creepy crackers, with yummy cheese. DELICIOUS bread & butter, salad, sprite, AND AND this sooo yummy caramel cheesecake tart thing. Oh so good. Then breakfast was a ham & cheese sandwich, with greek yogurt & granola, and orange juice. I was pretty pleased with it!
We almost missed our flight to Sweden because our layover was so short and we had to go to passport control and security again. So by the time we got to the plane we had about 5 minutes left. I was disgustingly sweaty and unattractive by the time we arrived here. And I don't know how to work this shower..But it's pretty great here. I love it so far. It's incredibly beautiful and lovely. We went into a catholic church and the architecture was astonishing! I couldn't believe that human hands could actually create something that perfect. I don't know what I was expecting, but it's NOTHING like I expected. It's so...normal. It seems so typical for an American to think that any foreign country is dysfunctional. Like really, they actually have grocery stores here? And cute clothes?! Whoa. Hahaha. I'm a typical "Ugly American" is what they call it. Our first meal here was McDonald's. Right? And it was so much tastier. And the currency was a lot easier to understand than I was thinking. I paid 14 Lits for a chicken sandwich, a medium fry and a medium drink. Which is about 5 US dollars. So it's about the same.
Well, that's about how my first day went here. It's 3PM and we all want to go to sleep but our coordinator won't let us!! He says it will screw up everything! Which makes sense :) So we have to be zombies for the rest of the day.
Hope America is treating you all well. xx
Shelb.

7 days.

Hahaha ew, writing that title reminded me of watching "The Ring" in like 6th grade. Gross.

HI! Okay, I am leaving in a week. I'm beyond excited for this to finally happen. I signed up back around Christmas, so 8 months of just waiting has been torturous. Now that it's finally here, I AM frightened. Very frightened. But so stoked as well. There are days where I'm just like "Okay, I don't want to do this. If I don't go, my life will be so much easier.." But that, my friends, is no way to think. Ever. To be honest, that's always been my motto (sadly): "Always take the easy way out. Give up on everything you start." Not that I wanted it to be that way, of course not. But I've never really succeeded at...well, anything! I started college: gave up after 3 semesters of failing. I tried to learn the banjo: Gave up after 1 day of sucking. Tried to save up to buy a nice car so I can travel cross-country: Became impatient and bought a dud instead. So you see, taking the easy way out is second nature to me. So for me to do something like this, so out of the ordinary and unbelievably hard, is going to be one of the greatest challenges of my entire life. But I am so proud of myself for not giving up on it. Every person I know who has done this program, has absolutely loved it and has grown so much because of it. And boy, do I have plenty of growing up to do :)
      I went to my training course for the program and it was a bit crazy! Trying to learn a teaching method in 1 1/2 days is a bit overwhelming. They tell us we'll mostly be learning WHILE we're over there. So our first week or so of teaching will kind of be a disaster, which is silly to me. You'd think they'd give us a longer training course to prepare us better. I guess I'll find out! The teaching seems pretty simple. Really, you're just playing with the children. Making crafts, playing games, building things, etc. You just have to constantly be talking. Repeating everything, asking yes or no questions, and eventually they get the hang of it. I really hope my kids like me. I'm so bad with rejection, and if children don't like me then there really must be something wrong with me. Hahhaa. Let's just hope they do :)
       I head out for Vegas at 2:00 AM on Monday, the 26th. I have so much to do! So many friends to see before I leave. I'm going to miss all of them dearly. And my family. Oh goodness I will miss my mother so much. And my nephews. And everyone. Can't wait to bring them all home nice gifts. Now, before I keep rambling...
Toodaloo!
-Shelbi