"are we supposed to know where that is?"

so this past weekend, we thought it would be fun to spend the weekend in Tallinn, Estonia. and wowowowow it was the best decision ever! i never wanted to leave. i'm so in love with it. i can't wait for the day that i get to go back!

so, friday night after school, we came home and packed and relaxed for awhile and then left for the bus station. our bus left that night at 10:30 and we got in to tallinn at 7:00 the next morning. it was about a 30 minute walk from the bus station to our hostel. but it felt so nice outside and it felt good to be walking after a 9 hour bus ride! we stayed at the coolest hostel EVER! it was so clean and so cool and we met some of the coolest people. anyways, check in wasn't until 3, so we dropped our bags off at the hostel and left to find some breakfast. my body was in desperate need of protein so i decided to order an omelet and immediately regretted it. i still hate eggs as much as i thought i did. after breakfast, we started to wander around as a group and then slowly split up. it's really hard to travel in europe as a group of 7. people look at you really weird. so, madi, shelbi, mccall, and i ended up spending most of the day together. we wandered old town for awhile and then ended up at the harbor of the baltic sea. we spent probably an hour just watching and listening to the sea until it got too cold to handle. then we met the other girls for lunch at a place called the Kompressor. they had HUGE pancakes that were so delicious. i got a tomato, feta, and pesto one and OMG. it was so perfect. and after feeling like i hadn't eaten all week and had zero nutrition, it was so nice to eat something and actually feel full. after lunch, we headed back to the hostel to check in and rest. we were all so exhausted from the bus ride. after we pulled our lives together, we decided we would go back in to town. after wandering around for awhile we decided we were hungry again (this trip revolved a lot around food and i'm super happy i'm with girls that travel around food), and we were craving american food so we went to a burger place. it was super over priced and not way good so that was kinda disappointing. but it's whatevs. after dinner, we headed down to the harbor for a festival type of thing. it's a tradition they have every last weekend in august that all across the baltic states, they light bonfires to guide the fishermen that are returning home from the summer. so they had traditional estonian folk dancing and stuff like that. so it was fun to see the bonfire lit and to hang out by the sea. after that we went back to the hostel and hung out. it was so fun to meet and talk to all the people there. we met people from all over the place. one of the boys we met, arthur, actually lives here in vilnius, so that was fun! shelbi and i sat and talked with arthur and simon for awhile and it was such a good way to end our night.

on sunday we slept in until around 10 and it felt so good. we wandered around until we found a cafe to eat breakfast at. we ate yummy food and wrote postcards and it was nice to sit there and just talk with the girls. after that we went to St. Olaf's Church and climbed to the very top. i almost died with all the stairs, but it was so amazing. it gave you a whole view of the entire city. on the way to the church, we stopped by a flower market that had probably 10-15 vendors. it made my heart so happy. i was so excited i wanted to cry. they had dahlias so big i wanted to cry. to my bloomers girls, the lisi and dahlias here are SO nice. i miss you all. the flowers made my day so good. madi really wanted a sunflower and i couldn't help but buy her one, cause that's what friends are for, right? after the church we went to this place for lunch that served elk soup and these vegetable pies/pastry things. it sounds super weird but it seriously was one of the best things i've ever had. heavenly. we wandered around for a couple more hours, ended up in a cool record shop and a design shop that made me think of my mom and sophie. i'm a sucker for a good design shop. a cute couple owned this one and their brand was cool so of course i bought a t shirt. then we were hungry again, and i had found this good mexican food place on the internet (i think we miss america?) so we tried it and it was so satisfying. i was seriously so happy after i ate my burrito. then we headed back to the hostel before we had to get back on the bus. simon showed up so it was fun to see him once more before we had to go home. i'm sad this weekend had to end. but it's a weekend i won't ever forget.

until next time tallinn,
ann eliza

sorry mom

isn't she the cutest thing you've ever seen?

s/o to you madi

saw a german shorthair pointer and almost started

crying because i miss naulie so much

weekend #2

i think we're living in a fairy tale and i love every second of it

miss annie

so our first week of teaching is officially done! i definitely was super nervous to start. i teach the beginning class. my kids are anywhere from 4-7 and i love them so much. it is a struggle to write lesson plans and teach them to kids that don't speak english. you want them to get as much language as possible out of the lessons while keeping their attention. it can be kind of hard at times, but it is so much fun. this week i taught arts & crafts and games. the other teacher that i teach with, katie, taught shop and drama. so it has been fun to see how the kids respond to each subject.

we teach everyday from 3:30-7:30. we have our first block from 3:30-5:30, then the second block from 5:35 to 7:30. during the first block, katie and i solo teach because there are more kids that come during that time. during the second block we team teach because there are fewer kids. in the second block we also have younger kids that don't speak/understand as much. every lesson and block is completely different and you have to adjust and pretty much just roll with whatever happens. all that matters is that you're speaking and the kids are talking back to you. it's only been a week and you can see that there is progress being made. i love it!

while teaching has been fun, it is also super exhausting. lesson planning and being with little kids everyday for 4 hours can get pretty tiring. so i'm way excited for the weekend! tonight we're going to sushi with edgar and greta and i'm way excited for that! i love sushi and it's something other than potatoes! then tomorrow we're going to trakai. it's a lake town with a huge castle in the middle of the lake. they're having some kind of medieval festival, so it should be interesting. then when we get back from trakai, nike is having a women's 5k tomorrow night with a festival after. so obviously we're not running the 5k, but we'll go in to old town for the festival. i'm excited for the little break from teaching.

OH!! and one of my kids calls me miss banana. and if anyone knows what that means, you would understand how cute that is. growing up i was called annie bananie and my brother still calls me banana. so it is a little piece of home when i hear a sweet voice calling me miss banana.

i hope everyone is good at home. i find myself missing america sometimes. mostly when i want durangos, benjas, when i realize i can't flush my toilet paper down the toilet, and when i want a dryer to dry my clothes. but other than that, i'm so happy here.

love to you all.

xoxo,
ann

 paper racoons

  

she's the most beautiful little girl ever, right?!

 this is adrien and he is the sweetest little boy that ever lived

first weekend

my cute friend madison made a video of our first weekend in vilnius! be sure to watch it in hd and full screen :)

it's 12:37 we need to wake up

so our first weekend is over and i don't really know how i feel about it. the days go by so fast here! it's kind of a love hate relationship. because i want time to slow down, but i love how much we're doing all day!

so yesterday was kinda crazy because girls were moving in and out of the apartment. when we first got here it was madison and i and the two other teachers from summer semester. so yesterday morning they moved out and three other girls from our group moved in. so now it's me, madison, shelbi, katie, and mccall! so madison and i finally got to unpack our stuff and move in to our room! it feels good to be unpacked. 

after everyone was unpacked we headed over to the school and unpacked all of our supplies in to the classroom. while we were unpacking we were literally all dying because there is no air conditioning ANYWHERE. so it's super humid and hot and you just sweat all the time. so once we were done unpacking we went to maxima for lunch. and i literally love the maxima. like huge s/o to them. because for lunch yesterday i ate a loaf of garlic bread that i got for .55 and a nectarine that i think i paid like .29 for. the maxima is literally one of the greatest places on earth. and it's so close to our apartment, which is another reason to love it. 

after lunch, we headed back to the apartment to start lesson planning. i have the beginning kids, so they're anywhere from 4-7. it's kind of overwhelming writing all of your plans because you want everything to go as planned and you know it's not going to. i just want to be as beneficial to these kids as possible. i want them to learn as much english from me as possible. so it is a little stressful. but i couldn't be more excited to start school tomorrow!

after everyone decided they were done lesson planning for the night, we headed back in to old town for the night. it wasn't as fun as the night before, but we still had a good time. two girls in our group still hadn't been yet so we went just for dinner and to walk around. we went to a fast food thai place that seriously was so good! then we walked around and stopped for ice cream. we went to a central park right as the sun was setting and we passed a cotton candy cart and i almost died. i seriously was so excited! and the girls that were working there were so cute! and the cotton candy was HUGE. it made my whole night. we came home kinda early in hopes that we would fall asleep at a decent time. i think madison and i ended up falling asleep around 2:30, so that didn't go as planned. 

sunday morning, i rolled over and looked at my phone and it was 12:37. madison is still sleeping and i could hear the other girls in the house up and talking. so i turn to madi and tell her what time it is and she didn't believe me. we slept half our day away AND we had to leave for church in like 20 minutes. so that was a super funny start to our day.

we took the bus to the local lithuanian branch and we made up half the congregation. everyone was super nice and excited we were there. it was translated for us through little headsets. the first speakers talked about the importance of education and what value it is to ourselves. i feel like what i am doing here is better than any form of professional education. i'm learning a whole new culture, lifestyle, and way of life. and i'm also teaching something to kids that they can use the rest of their lives. 

after church, we went to a lake that is about a 15 minute walk from the apartment. it felt so good to lay outside by the lake! there were a lot of people there. and let me tell you, european women do not care what their bodies look like, they're still gonna rock that bikini. it was so much fun! it was a good way to end the weekend. so here's to a new week and the first day of school!

xoxo,
ann 

i miss flowers!