April & Vacation

Happy April everybody!

For April fools Lexi and Kim had lots of fun lol. To start they glued kopeks to the floor of our apartment building because they knew I pick up every kopek I see. They tied all the toilet paper to a string and hung it in a bag out the window. We could’ve easily gone and gotten it but we decided to just go with it. It’s funny we got a call from Alla telling us that the babushka below us called her to let her know that something was hanging down in front of her window. We told her that it was just joke and she laughed. Umm, there was just a bunch of stuff that went on throughout the day. Bree and Lexi found a bag of costumes in their room and had a fashion show, then they duct taped Kim in the bathroom and told her there was a snake in the washer. They put my toothbrush in a bag and froze it in jello. Kim, Lexi, and I made ourselves duct tape mustaches. It was a party. Also our Russian teacher texts Kim and asks her why I’m being sent home. Kim almost had a heart attack until he told her that it was a joke. He also texted me asking if I wanted to join the other girls for disco. Idk, he’s a weird guy.

Despite it being April, its still pretty much Winter here. Its just barely on the edge of Winter and Spring, we’re just waiting on it to take the leap.

This past weekend we had our second vacation! We went to Vilnius Lithuania! K, I’m just gonna post my journal entries like I did last time.

“Friday, April, 4th, 2014

We just drove all night on a bus from St Petersburg to Riga Latvia! Now we’re on a bus from Riga to Vilnius Lithuania! I’m so excited! Right now it’s about 9 am and it’s super sunny! Latvia is so pretty! There’re so many trees. The trees are tall and skinny and would remind me of redwoods if they were taller. And even though they’re all still in their Winter-phase, they’re still beautiful. I love it. It’s just countryside. It reminds me of America with subtle European hints. I just saw a windmill! I’ve never seen one in real life before! No mountains still. I miss mountains. But it’s nice to be out of the city for a bit though. I don’t have anyone sitting next to me which is nice. I didn’t on the bus ride to Riga either, but Kim’s seatmate was drunk so she came and sat by me.

It really sucks not having a phone. No camera, no internet. I was thinking not having my phone would make me more aware of the beauty around me, but it’s just made me more aware of the fact that I can’t take pictures of it. It really sucks.

Lithuania is so amazing! It’s so adorable and classy! I almost wish I’d gone here instead of St Petersburg. I was going to. It hasn’t really been warm here, but it’s warmer than St Pete. So today we arrived and checked into our hotel which is way nice and only cost $11 for the one night per person! There’re two levels of the room. It’s really modern and classy.

We decided to walk around Old Town! It’s so adorable. I got a new wallet! I love it. It’s so spacious and darling. That’s pretty much all we did. It was really nice. We also got pizza for dinner.

Saturday, April, 5th, 2014

Today is the most beautiful day in all of existence. We’re just sitting in a park in Old Town while a few of the other girls shop for souvenirs, just enjoying the sun and feeding the birds! It’s so nice to just sit. There’s this little girl about 2 who’s feeding the birds with her mom and she is SO cute. I love how relaxed Lithuanians are. I have never seen any russians stroll. I don’t think they know how to stroll, but everyone here strolls and I love it! I also love the way adults get around kids. Their hard exteriors fade away.

This is such a wonderful adventure. I’m across the world from my home and it’s absolutely beautiful! I love this place so much. The people are so nice, the air and city are cleaner, plus there’re hills. Hills are as close to mountains as we can get. Lithuanians are so classy. Gah! I never want to leave. I wish we were spending more than two days here. We’re leaving tonight.

I think here in this park, the warm sun shining and the peacefulness, is my new happy place. I am purely happy. The only thing making me sad is thinking about leaving. It’s absolutely spring here. It’s so warm, but just a tad bit chilly. It’s so clear and sunny and THERE ARE FLOWERS! There’s a little sparrow just sitting, chirping right by my foot. There’re tiny green leave on the bushes and pussywillows on the trees. I feel like we’re gonna go back to St. Pete and it’s gonna be drab, grey, and wintry still.

I think one of the things I love about this place is that the sun is on the right schedule. In St Pete the first half of the day looks like 10 am and the second half of the day looks like 4 pm. You can never tell what time it is by looking at the sun. Here is just like home. The sun goes in an arc. Right now it’s 6 pm and it looks like 6 pm. I don’t know why this makes me so happy. It also helps that it’s so warm. I’ve taken my coat off like 4 times throughout the day. We were gonna rent bikes, but the machine wouldn’t accept our cards. I’m kinda bummed, but its okay. I’m in Vilnius Lithuania! And it’s my new favorite city.

Earlier we hiked up this huge hill to this tower/castle thing that was super cool! We walked through this huge awesome square where everyone would just chill. We went to a KGB/genocide museum that was actually pretty interesting. In the basement was an old KGB prison with lots of cells. There was a super creepy padded cell with a black straightjacket in it. It may or may not give me nightmares. There was also this bald Italian man that scared me. He looked like a mix between Voldemort and Doc Brown. When he looked at you his eyes bore into your soul.

For dinner we got some super yummy Lithuanian burritos and then went and got some ice cream. I got vanilla. It’s my go-to flavor for when I can’t decide. You can’t go wrong with vanilla, it’s either good or better. Once it started to get dark, the sunset and then twilight on the river was absolutely breathtaking. I almost cried. I was quietly singing What a Wonderful World because it fit the moment. The sky was such a gorgeous shade of dark blue and purple. I wished so badly that I could take a picture. It probably wouldn’t even capture the true beauty of it. I wish I could relive walking along that river, admiring the sky, over and over. We walked an eternity to get to the bus station. We chilled in a bookstore in the mall next to the stop until it closed, then we parked ourselves on the bus stop bench until the bus came. The ride home was okay. I got stuck next to a russian girl that I didn’t even talk to. But I watched Les Miserables and Forrest Gump. It was a good trip, but sure enough, St Petersburg was gloomy and cloudy and cold and wet. Home sweet home.”

Because we were on vacation we missed the Saturday session of General Conference, so I’ve been catching up. I still have to watch half of Sunday morning and Sunday afternoon. I love Conference. I never realized how much I would miss watching it with my family though. But, because I watch it by myself with my earbuds in, I do get more out of it because there are less distractions. I’ll probably watch more this upcoming weekend because I’ll have more free time. They actually broadcast it at church this Sunday so we’ll be able to watch it then. Almost all the talks seem to pertain to me. It’s crazy how revelation works, especially for general authorities. They manage to give talks to 15 million people and they’re still so incredibly personal. I love this church. It’s amazing.

Miranda’s dad is one of the ILP directors and he’s coming to stay with us this weekend. That’s pretty much the only out of the ordinary thing that’s going on. We got back from vacation and back into our routine. Not super exciting, but it’s never boring. These kids keep me on my toes.

Lucy