For your morning,

Because my family is going apple picking today,
and I went on Thrusday.

From Neens, to Me

The best part of today was reading this:

"It is now time for me to partake in some homemade banana bread, while wearing a striped sweater that belongs to you. I hope you don't mind I took the liberty of borrowing it while I was rummaging through the storage room for my fall clothes :) It will make me think of you!"

I laughed and cried all at once.

Joy!

Postcards from somewhere

I must write it all out, at any cost. Writing is thinking. It is more than living, for it is being conscious of living.
-Anne Morrow Lindbergh-

A little about this place

Linked to the title "LCC" are the words "International" and "University"
The latter for reasons I don't need to explain.
However, did you know that as an international school,
LCC's student body includes 600 students from over 20 different countries?
Pretty incredible, right?
All of the classes are taught in English however,
(Thank goodness for me)
meaning that each student (besides the SAS and any North American students)
speaks at least two languages.
I use "at least," because most speak three or four.
Walk down the halls of DeFehr,
or into a kitchen in either dorm and you'll hear
Lithuanian, Ukranian, Russian, and maybe some English.
It's incredible, really.
Such a diverse crowd makes for a bright community, wouldn't you say?
Another interesting fact:
LCC is celebrating her 20th anniversary this year.
In light of this celebration, the school hosted an international fair in the city.
There, students set up booths with information, candy, and pictures from their home countries,
and some countries were even represented through song and dance.
USA students led the crowd in a rousing routine dance known as "Cotton Eyed Joe"
and so many people participated! It was great!
To conclude the fair, a professional Lithuanian song and dance group
played traditional folk songs and taught us traditional dances to go along with them!
Here's a bit one of my professors caught on his cellphone:

*If you look towards the right, you can see me dancing right in front of the camera. I'm in the black coat and blueish/periwinkleish scarf!

For days like today

Fernando Ortega-More Love to Thee

When I miss my home institution and just my home, these things are good.

From a place so dear

Mail takes a long time to travel over 5,000 miles,
So when Mom informed me that she had sent me a package
I knew it would be a bit of time before I received it.
But that did not stop me from checking the mail room almost every day...
Anyways, it came a little after a month to the day it was sent
and it came just in the nick of time.
See, I left Thursday night to spend a weekend in Latvia and Estonia
and I had been hoping that the package would arrive before I left
because it contained a certain purse that would make traveling much easier.
That morning, I checked the mail and much to my dismay: nothing.
(Actually, that's not true. There was a letter/card in there from someone
in the Study Abroad office back at school that I've been corresponding with - what a nice surprise!
but in regards to the package, that statement is true.)
Knowing there was nothing to do, the situation left my mind
and I looked forward to preparing for the upcoming adventure!
Later that night, the fire alarm went off in my dorm
and we had to evacuate to a common meeting area.
There, another SAS informed me that we both had packages waiting at the reception desk
and could pick them up as soon as possible!
So hooray! Long story...but I was so happy.
There's something about those washcloths that feel so like home...
Here are the other contents:

basically empty because they came along for the adventure

hooray for familiarity!

this x3

YUM

DOUBLESUPEREXTRA YUM

All from TJ's
All deliciously excellent
All thoughtful
All from my mama

Thanks ma!
xoxo
Han

A little niblet

I went to Riga and Tallin this weekend.
More to come when I've done some editing.