And So It Begins...Almost

So...today I feel that I really started working with direction and approval from my superiors. For those not in the know - my official title is "Volunteer & Service Learning Coordinator" and I am slowly trying to figure out how to develop the volunteer program into a real program with documents/guidelines/direction. Previously it was run by the Career Development Center coordinator, and it was a side job, so I hope to turn it into a streamlined, unique program for LCC. I am making contacts, compiling documents, putting together a database to keep track of student progress and now I'm in charge of the BBQ part of the first annual "Serve Day" next week. Two-hundred hamburgers for hungry volunteers of staff, faculty and student leaders helping to beautify the campus with various projects!

I went to 'The Spit' via ferry today with two lovely faculty members, and it was a fun outing. We got to the beach just as the clouds overhead were beginning to let loose what will probably be a storm tonight...and lightning flashes began as we were heading back to Klaipeda on the ferry. We had dinner at the Bat Cave - I picked my meal off of a Lithuanian language menu even! I decided to sign up for the language class being offered to the expatriates just to supplement my vocabulary, as I don't know the grammar structure of the language very well. I really want to try to learn as much as I can, so I can get around independently and use it with friends. I think it's a beautiful language and even if I can never use it in California - I can use it now!

Students start school in less than two weeks...the countdown is on! I anxiously await my friends' returns and summer stories over coffee, the start of my real job responsibilities and what the semester will bring...