Birthday Weekend in Tallinn and Riga!!

Sept 23

10pm came quickly enough as somehow I managed to write my paper and finish packing just in time. My roommates wished me a good time, and an even better birthday, it was really sweet. We left slightly later than planned, so that meant no Finland for us. Things needed to work out too perfectly for that to happen, so it was decided to just spend our free time in Tallinn and enjoy it. Finland shall be another weekend trip later on perhaps.

We had a 9ish hour bus ride to look forward to, arriving in Tallinn around 8am. Too excited to go to sleep, Gabby, Martha, James and I started playing Kims. It’s the game where I win, every time, all the time :). No, but seriously, you play with partners and you have to get four of a kind and get your partner to say “Kims” before the other two players say “Stop!” It was very exciting playing on my puter that’s resting on top of the seats while on a moving bus, but we made it work. It was a lot of fun.

 Sept 24

And finally, with my little 30-second mental countdown in place, it was finally my birthday :) I am now no longer a teenager; I am a double decade, 1/5 of a century, twice as old as a 10 year old; I have lived 7,305 days... Or in less fancy words: I am 20 :). Gabby whipped out a small gift bag for me including bubbles, chocolate and a card. Then Emas got on the bus microphone and lead the bus full of sleepy study abroads in singing Happy Birthday to me, and then gave me a bouquet of daisies. It was wonderful :)

Succumbing to sleep sounded easier than it turned out to be. I curled up with my Spongebob fleece blanket on my two seats and managed to find a comfy position to fall asleep. I usually don’t sleep on moving vehicles, and Dad you can vouch for me on this one, so I guess I had trained myself too well because I ended up waking up every hour, weirdly some time in the 30s: I went to sleep around 1:30 but woke up at 2:34, 3:33, 5:39, and finally at 7:35 (I didn’t check my watch during the other two times, but I know I woke up around those times). We stopped by a hotel for breakfast, and I got to eat French toast!! It was pretty good.

We stopped by the hostel to drop off our things, and then headed out to explore the city. We thought about taking some bikes out and ride around for a bit, but it was a bit pricey and we figured we would have more fun just walking around. There was this 7-seater bike that we might have been able to get, but it was ridiculous. It was pretty much a circle of seats, and one person steers and the others help pedal. It looked absolutely amazing! I must find another place that has a bike like this and try it out. We went to this church with a tower of 278 stairs, and a few of us had the bright idea to walk up to the top. Mike, I know that you like spiral staircases, but this would have killed that love of yours. It was a ridiculous spiral staircase, but it felt very accomplishing once we all got to the top. And the view was gorgeous, so it was totally worth it. The group headed back to the hostel to rest and take naps, but I was still somehow full of energy and wanted to go out and shop some more and just simply explore.

I talked Gabby into joining me, so we went back out to the market and I got a beautiful teal scarf for myself for my birthday :). We meandered around the other stores in the area and finally gave into our craving of getting coffee and something sweet to eat. Finding a coffee shop was a whole lot harder than we ever could have imagined. We kept seeing signs for them but every time we walked over, it was a regular restaurant. But we finally found one, and chatted for 3 hours before heading over to the restaurant for dinner. Dinner was awesome. There was so much food, and Master of the Table James made sure that everyone was well fed with refills of all the foods. Note to self: As much fun as it was, stop playing with the candle wax.

After dinner, the group didn’t want to stay in at the hostel, so once again we went out to further explore the city. We walked down this one road, and heard all these motorcycles revving in the middle of the street, but couldn’t figure out why. Walking through the park, there was this stage set up for some band that was going to perform. Though we couldn’t understand the Estonian rappers, the music wasn’t too bad. But the beat boxing performance after that was so cool; there’s a video on Facebook for your enjoyment. It was a long day today, very enjoyable and awesome, but tiring. We got back to the hostel, played a few more rounds of Kims, and then waited out the last few minutes of my 20^th birthday. It was such a great day, thank you so much to everyone who helped make it as special as it was. And thank you for the wall posts, I saw all the e-mail notifications earlier :) it made me really happy.

Happy 20^th Birthday self and Squini!!! Double decade! Woohoo :)

Sept 25

So, I’m sitting here at 1am at the table in the lounge starting to type up my study guide for World Lit, and these two British dudes come walking up the stairs and try to get into their room. They’re holding McDonald’s and they are calling to some other guy in their room to come open the door. They are talking to him (in their awesome British accents) as though he is sleeping and/or ignoring their calls to open the door. They keep saying things like, “I know you can smell your Big Mac through the door…. Don’t make us eat your milkshake! Open the door!” Mike and I are cracking up as we are sitting right next to the guys as they are trying to get in their room. So the guy finally comes and opens the doors, in his boxers and cries out, “Oh crap, there’s a girl in the room!” And hastily hides behind the door as Mike and I laugh harder and I quickly turn away and look back at my puter. But I’m beyond done with writing this study guide for World Lit, so I’m off to bed. Gotta get up semi-early to get breakfast and go explore more of the city. Good night :).

Got up, got packed, and got breakfast; pretty effective morning. Went out shopping once again with Gabby to get this awesome fuzzy hat (the one that I wanted to get from Russia.. but heard they were really expensive, and this one was good enough) that I had seen the other day. As we were walking through the park, we ran into Calvin, Heather, Steph Mings, Mike, Lauren and Nastia around these round, tilted circles that you’re supposed to run on yet somehow not impale yourself into the ground. I guess Calvin didn’t get that memo. But we walked around, and people kept bringing up getting tattoos and piercings. I totally wanted to get one, but I knew I was going to be too lazy to want to take care of it while I'm here, and if anything happened to go wrong, it was going to be quite a pain to have to go to the doctor's or hospital for anything.

Finished exploring the city, stopped by Rimi (supermarket) to stock up on some food, and got on the bus for the 5ish hour bus ride to get to Riga. Right now as I’m writing this, side note to Chels, Sam and Squini: the bus just passed another truck while going around a curve. It wasn’t as bad as our trip because it’s not raining and we weren’t going up a hill, but I must say I stopped typing this to completely pay attention for any cars to suddenly appear around the corner. Stupid white car… scarred me for life. Anyway, I managed to sleep for about an hour on the bus, and now I’m convinced that I am incapable of sleeping for more than an hour on a moving vehicle. But we got to the hostel, dropped our stuff off and headed off to the restaurant for some dinner. Got some lasagna :) sooo delicious, but I only wish the serving portions were slightly bigger. One of the things that I miss most about home is the amount of food served at restaurants.

After some hardcore decision making, we wandered around the city at night. It was gorgeous. We stopped by some outdoor restaurant place where there was some music playing and sat and enjoyed that for a short while. Then off to some hotel with a skyline bar to see the whole city lit up. It was a relaxing way to finish off our first day in Riga. Then we headed back to the hostel, got ready for bed and played a card game called Durak. Durak is an awesome Russian game that Nastia taught us. It’s about “attacking” one person with a card, which they then have to beat with a card of the same suit, or of a “trump” suit (higher than the other 3). If they can, then the cards get cleared, and the next person goes. If not, then the person has to pick up all the cards laid on the table. The game ends when there are no cards left in the pile, and the player is able to play all their cards. I’ll have to teach you sometime how to play, it’s super addicting!

Happy 21^st Birthday Chelsea!!!!

Sept 26

We had about 4 hours to explore the city this morning. It was more than enough time since we had seen most of everything last night. But we moseyed around, taking our time and enjoying all the sights. While we were walking, we decided to run up this hill and walk on the train tracks. Unfortunately, before we got the chance to take some cliché pictures, an alarm sounded and yelled at us in Latvian to get off the tracks as the train was coming up behind us. Haha oops :)

It was getting close to 2, so we started heading back to the meeting spot at the square. We stopped by a church nearby, and right outside was this wooden horse. So of course we climbed up and took some awesome pictures. There was this lady with a bull stuffed animal, similar to my bear Amore that I’m traveling around with. Unfortunately, Amore could not make it to this trip in fear that he would be too squished in with everything else and might get lost. It would have been really cool to have him with me now though to take a picture with the lady and her bull. Sorry guys :(

Finally, we drove off to somewhere to stop for lunch. The restaurant worked in a way that you paid only for each plate that you used. So at the salad bar, you could get whatever you wanted, and only had to pay one set price for your plate, no matter whether you got a grape or 5 kilos of various salads. It was pretty cool, and very filling :). Sadly, we had to get back on the bus for our 4-hour bus ride home. Didn’t get much studying done, but I’m not too worried. Whatever happens, happens, I just can’t wait til Wednesday :)!

Exams, Brownies and Birthdays

Sept 20
Got my Soc exam back and I did better than I thought :). Ditto with my Lithuanian quiz. Pretty good way to start the week, too bad it’s only going to get a lot worse very soon…

Sept 21

Thanks to Calvin’s massive craving for brownies, a few study abroads got together to attempt to make some. We had most of the ingredients, kind of, or at least similar enough for us to attempt the recipe. Though most people here had no idea what brownies were, I believe, “a super moist, fudgey chocolate cake” kinda helps explain it. But, they didn’t quite turn out as normal brownies usually do. We’ll have another attempt at perfecting the recipe. But hey, they weren’t a total failure. Oh, and we’ll actually try to watch the movie which was the whole point of the evening. Well, that and studying…

Sept 22

My life is officially exploding. Here’s what my life looks like for the next two weeks:

          Thursday: Motivation and Emotion exam; Social Research exam; leave for Latvia and Estonia around 10. Friday-Sunday: travel around, perhaps go to Finland also? Attempt to study for… Monday: World Literature exam; Cross-Cultural Seminar presentation… Tuesday: Social Research proposal paper due… Wednesday: Lithuanian quiz; World Lit paper; leave for “4 for 4 Countries” trip including… Thursday-Monday morning: traveling around Poland, Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia… Monday: go to class after a severe sleep deprived weekend… Tuesday: Motivation presentation… Wednesday: Lithuanian quiz… Friday: Sociology project paper. Saturday: pass out… Sunday: study for Lithuanian midterm. So in about 2ish weeks, my life will become more manageable again. Until then… I don’t even want to think about it.

I don’t mean to complain because I know I’m very lucky and I love traveling, but I’m sorry, I think my academic life majorly sucks right now. You’re probably wondering why I’m taking my academics so seriously while I’m studying abroad, and everyone else keeps asking me this, but my answer is I just can’t help it. They are still real classes, and the grades are still counting towards my GPA. Call me an overachiever if you want, but hey, I am who I am. One of my best/worst qualities is caring more than I should.

Sept 23

Don’t ask me when I wrote this. All I have to say is I’m sick of studying…

I love it when what I studied isn’t on the exam. That’s how I felt through both tests, but we’ll see how I did on Tuesday, so til then, I don’t care anymore. I still need to pack for this weekend trip. We leave tonight at 10, and I still need to write a paper to send to my research partner before then. But, I did buy the tickets I needed for my trip next week. I’ll talk more about that during next week’s post. Oh, and the reason why this post is shorter than usual is because I figured I would have some pretty exciting stories to tell from my weekend trip, so I’ll let that be a special weekend post when I come back. A very special weekend ;)

P.S. Happy 20^th Birthday Squini, my fellow Birthday Girl :), and Happy 21^st Birthday Chelsea the day after!! Sorry I couldn’t be there to celebrate them with you!!!! I’ll make it up to you, I promise ;)

Realizations 2

I had a very interesting walk back to Karklu last Friday (Sept 17). I walked back with Mārtiņš, and before even leaving DeFehr, we had begun a very interesting conversation. He will probably call it an argument, but whatever it was, it made me think.

We had just finished Lithuanian class, and Mārtiņš had to stop to talk to someone quickly. So I was tagging along, and I walked ahead of him through the doorway (since gentlemen here let the ladies go first.. men back home, take notes), and stopped a little further ahead to wait for him to catch up. There was another guy trying to walk through the doorway at the same time as he was, and instead of either one stopping and letting the other go first, both of them tried to squeeze through the frame. So I questioned him, ”Why didn’t you just wait three seconds and let him go, then you could have easily fit through the door?” To which he oh-so-calmly replied, “What are you saying? That men are impatient? What, did I walk through the door incorrectly because I’m Latvian? What do you have against Latvian men?” and opened the door for me to leave Defehr. (I’m sorry Mārtiņš, I know this isn’t quite exactly what you said, but it was along these lines: that I had something against Latvians, and something against men, yeah?) He had a mischievous look in his eye, and I knew he was only teasingly picking a fight with me, but I still attempted to explain what I had meant by my comment.

After I eagerly denied any bad feelings against men, and especially Latvians, he then moved on to pick on me about being American. I am not saying that Mārtiņš honestly believes these, because I’m like 99.9% sure he was just teasing, but I think there was some truth behind his words. This list describes the *stereotypical* American that I think everyone can nod, kinda laugh, and agree with. A few things include:

          As an American, I thought I was better than him

          As an American, I was trying to impose my beliefs on him because I thought my way was right and his Latvian way was wrong

          Americans can only speak one language and we’re selfish

          Americans are stupid

I was trapped, my back against the wall as I was being called the stereotypical American that I wanted so desperately not to be. So I did the only thing that I could think of: I told the truth. I, in no way, thought of myself as being better than he was, either as a man or especially as a Latvian. I was merely curious of why neither one of them had stopped to allow the other one to go through the door first so that they didn’t have to squeeze through the doorway at the same time. I had noticed other people doing that too, and I wasn’t quite sure why it happened. I think it is more convenient to be able to walk through a doorway one person at a time rather than two, and it takes about five extra seconds to let the other person go first.

The “Americans only speak one language” really gets me. I believe that it is important to know more than one language (preferably fluently), but I think America is stuck in a pretty tricky situation. The world language may as well be declared as English because nearly anywhere you go, people can pretty much speak it. Other countries have their home language, and the shared language of English. Now, America’s own language is English, which is also the shared world language. So I ask you, as a nation, what other language should America speak? America is forced to *choose* one language to have as a second option? That would most likely cause a bit of a problem. If we chose German, would not the French be offended that we didn’t pick their language? If we chose Ukrainian, would not the Lavtians be insulted that we didn’t pick theirs? If we chose Russian, would not Lithuanians be upset that we didn’t pick theirs? I don’t want this to come off as an excuse, but I don’t think it’s right to make America as a nation choose a second official language. I do believe it’s important to make people learn a second language, even if it is their choice to decide which one.

The “Americans are stupid” card. I want to make this very clear, the *stereotypical* American, I will agree, is portrayed as being stupid, and I admitted this to Mārtiņš. But as all stereotypes do, they only truthfully portray a very small portion of the group they are assigned to. But, I think it is important to think about the difference between ignorance and stupidity. I believe most Americans are ignorant to how the world really is. Sure, we are educated in school to learn about history of other countries, what wars have taken place, and know of some of the world’s current news, but do we fully understand and comprehend what that means? I know I don’t. I was naïve about the truth. The words I read in textbooks, the multiple choice answers I circled on history exams, the essays I wrote about information I quickly skimmed over; I don’t think I ever fully realized what that information meant. It is a completely different perspective to leave home, to go to a different country, different continent, different part of the world and experience a different lifestyle. I believe ignorance is not knowing something, whereas stupidity is knowing something but choosing to believe in it knowing it is wrong or incorrect.

I believe that each and every country has a group of people that accurately portray their stereotype, but the vast majority of the population differs from that label. Sure, America has people who have done some pretty stupid things; unfortunately some of them happened to be people that were in charge or at least in the popular spotlight that is portrayed to the rest of the world. But I hope I am not part of this stereotype. I hope I am not seen as a stupid individual who refuses to admit when I’m wrong and acts unaccepting to others in light of that. I hope I am seen as an open individual who can see and understand that there are different ways of doing things. I hope I am not seen as a selfish individual who only knows one language, and just because it’s English, I believe that learning another language is pointless. I hope it is not an internal pride that keeps me from being bilingual, but maybe growing up in a system that did not value speaking multiple languages as other countries had. I hope I am recognized and accepted for being different; not better, not worse, but simply different. I am proud to be an American, though I may not be proud of every aspect that an American may stand for.

I hope this post doesn’t come off as conceited or arrogant, and I hope it made sense. I don’t want you to think badly of Mārtiņš for some of the things he brought up in our conversation. I’ve had parts of this conversation with many people, and no one has ever verbally attacked me for being an American. It just so happened that Mārtiņš had put a lot of common themes that others have talked to me about together, and so I figured it might be important to stop and truly think about. Plus, he agreed with my answer of every country has stupid people, and that there is a difference between stupidity and ignorance. Just something to think about.

Ugly Ducklings, Memelis, and Papa Smurf Dying

Sept 13-15

Nothing special for the beginning of the week. Class, some scattered rain, almost forgotten homework… You know, the usual.

Sept 16

Today was the Ugly Duckling Cup. Now, when the flyer said, “Ever wanted to swim across Neumann pond? Well here’s your chance. Build a boat and let it float”, why would I ever think they would be joking. Oh, silly me. Why wouldn’t they be serious? I signed up as a sailor of the raft, showed up in a pirate-wannabe outfit, and allowed Gabby to decorate my face with stars and glitter to enhance the pirate effect. I don’t think I ever fully understood what I had gotten myself into.

The flag runners participated in a three-legged race, and then potato sack hopping, and I don’t even know what else to transfer the flag to the sailors. My partner and I raced to the water, maneuvered our raft to the edge of the pond, splashed into the water, climbed on and started paddling for our lives. Now, I can steer a kayak quite easily on my own, wherever I want to go and even upstream if necessary, but not this raft. 

This was one tough arm workout, but somehow we managed to get to the other side of the pond. I was all too glad to pass on my shovel/paddle onto my fellow sailor, and off they paddled back across the pond. My partner had turned back and swam across with the two on the raft as he had another turn to paddle. The order of the rafts stayed the same as the order of which the flag runners reached the sailors: Karklu came in second, following Neumann West and beating the Staff. Sadly, Neumann East’s boat never made it into the water because it fell apart, though theirs won the most creative. It was called the I-Boat, and had a GPS system to call Mom if they got lost, and other hysterical innovative and creative things.

I carried my laptop much further than I ever would have wanted. I hauled it to campus in hopes of studying for my sociology exam tomorrow, but that didn’t exactly happen. And to add insult to injury, I got off at the wrong bus stop. I wasn’t quite paying attention so I didn’t notice the landmark that I was looking for to get off at the creepy alleyway to get back to Karklu. It was an additional 15 minutes, and I was walking pretty quickly since it was 10:20, dark, and raining. Finally I trudged up the 5 flights of stairs to get to my room, where I, as gently as possible of course, dropped my backpack on the ground as soon as possible and collapsed into my chair. Way too much laptop-carrying went on today. Chelsea and Sam, you know how you guys were making fun of my ‘man-calves’? Yeah, no.. just wait until I come home from here.

P.S. Happy Birthday Derek!

Sept 17

By the request of SOMEONE! (ahem ahem Mārtiņš!!) I will attempt to make future blog posts a little longer than they have been. I’ve been trying to keep them short, sweet, and to the point for all of you so you wouldn’t get bored and stop following my blog. But if you want to read more, please let me know so I will try to write more where applicable.

Had my first exam today, and it was for Sociology. Probably could have studied a little bit more effectively for it, but I think it went alright. EXCEPT for the fact that the guy next to me was using his I-phone to google answers for the essay questions. Ugh… makes me SO mad! But, from what I’ve heard, in Ukraine? (please correct me if I’m wrong, I forget who told me this), it is totally acceptable, and even encouraged to cheat as long as you could get away with it.

Yra (my roommate) invited me to dinner. She cooked chicken and potatoes, something I’m going to attempt to make sometime while I’m here. Once I get my stipend money for next month, I’m going to try some more complicated meals than just dumplings and fish sticks. So stay tuned for some truthful accounts of my cooking adventures. You know this is going to be awesome when I describe cooking as an adventure.

Sept 18

Saturday, a day for rest and relaxation… and time to catch up on all the work I’ve put off during the week? Oops… I have a paper due Monday, presentation info due Tuesday, quiz Wednesday, two exams Thursday, weekend trip to Riga and Tallinn only to return to a World Lit exam Monday, paper due Tuesday, and another quiz on Wednesday. Remember in a previous post I promised that I would talk about how my life was going to explode? Yes, at this moment, the fuse has been lit and I will be sure to let you know when it is set to go off for me to lose my mind.

Last night Yra invited me to go with her for some shopping at the produce market down the street. There are about a hundred people selling their homegrown produce every Wednesday and Saturday morning, rain or shine. The rain held off long enough for Yra to get her honey and vegetables. Now I know where I’ll be hopefully shopping in the future to expand my cooking skills. Going shopping with her meant that I would have to book it across town to get to Neumann for my seminar presentation meeting. I made the usual 26-minute walk, with my trusty laptop once again on my back, in 18 minutes. Someone tell me that’s not dedication. Sadly, it didn’t matter at all, because I was an hour late, and my group had met without me and assigned what part of the project that I would be responsible for. I will never live this down.. but once again, I’m sorry guys.

What better way to forget all about school and other nonsense than a night at Memelis? It was a night of getting lost in laughter with friends, dancing my worries away, and singing my heart out to “Your Sex is on Fire” along with the entire club. The two ‘entertainment dancers’, as I will call them, made the night that much more memorable. Let’s just say, there was more pelvic thrusting than was wanted. **Added Content: I'm sorry for denying one of my friends a shout out for making my night that much more wonderful. James, thank you for being as sauced as you were. Your energy level allowed me to be that much more crazy, and I will hold true to what I said and you somehow managed to remember.** Oh, and I can’t forget my drunken friend who, after saying we were a disgrace for being in Lithuania but not speaking the language, says that he loves me and America as I answered him with a few short phrases in Lithuanian. AND, he said he loves New Jersey :). But in all seriousness (not that loving New Jersey isn’t serious), the way his eyes lit up at my attempts to speak Lithuanian meant a lot to me. A little effort and hard work can go a long way.

Sept 19

Sunday: continuation of Saturday to finish all the work you failed to complete earlier. I think I left my room for a total of 5 minutes to cook some noodles for lunch. But, I did finish one study guide, the majority of the other, and my paper for tomorrow. Yra fed me again tonight, some rice with a mixture of vegetables. Though, as appreciative as I am, I don’t think serving her my first attempt at cooking is a proper thank you. Hopefully, “It’s the thought that counts” will be applied and she won’t laugh too much. I’ll get a handle on this cooking business eventually… Wish me luck.

R.I.P Papa Smurf, I will always love you. Thank you for being such a loyal car and breaking down on everyone except me: years ago when you were experiencing your first few problems, you only did it to Jeff or Dad; then, you started shaking when Mom took you out to drive; you were missing windshield wipers during a storm for Richard; and now, in your few last glorious moments, you broke down on Jeff, but still got him home safely. I know you loved me the most.

Although everyone else in the family called you the Blue Bomber, I knew you liked being called Papa Smurf better. So Papa Smurf, thank you for helping me become the driver I am today. You were my first car I drove around town once I got my license. And though I trusted you, Mom and Dad wouldn’t let me take you more than an hour away from the house in fear that you would betray me and break down. Thank you for putting up with the countless times I rubbed your tires up against the curb in front of the house, and keeping it a secret. And thank you for trusting me enough to parallel park in between those two cars in front of the house that one time. Remember that time picking up Mike, going to Mcy D’s to get chocolate milkshakes and showing that new driver who’s boss at parallel parking in the high school parking lot? Thank you (and Sam and Caroline) for keeping that one trip to WAWA a secret, I’m sorry that happened. But as I promised, that never happened again… except for that time I gently backed you up into Mike’s car. And even though I also abused you by driving you to Eastern, thank you for making it up that hill as I floored the gas, yet only to go 30 mph. Oh, and I know you enjoyed ‘going dashboard’ as much as I did. So many more memories; I will never forget you.

I love you too Papa Smurf <3

Another Crazy Week

Sept 6

I had one of my worst procrastinating moments in a really long time today. Went to sleep last night around 3, woke up at 8:15, got out of bed at 8:30, started writing my 3 papers at 8:45, and finished around 10:20. Now, one paper was a journal entry for my seminar class, so that wasn’t too lengthy. Then a 200 word essay for World Lit, and a 2 page essay with field notes for Sociology. But still… that’s a lot to write in less than 2 hours. Then I had to print the papers, but I didn’t realize that I needed a printing card. So Nastia helped me print my Soc paper, and then during my next break I got my card and printed my other paper out. But then I found out that I had Lithuanian homework due that day, so I had to do that between classes as well. Never again self. Never again…

Oh, and on top of things, my throat is swollen. Not just like sick swollen, but like allergic reaction swollen. I don’t know what happened, but I don’t like it. The swelling kind of went down now that the day is over, but we’ll see what happens tomorrow. Not a good way to start the week… Hurry up Friday!

Sept 7

My throat got worse today. I definitely look worse than I did when I got my wisdom teeth taken out. That’s really sad, and kind of scary. Of course I would choose the time that I leave home for a long time to develop an allergic reaction to something random. Fantastic. Good job self.

Sept 8

Happy Community Day. Too bad my blister was gross, otherwise it would have been fun to join in some of the games. But waiting in line to get my face painted with Gabby was a much more effective way of spending my time. Along with waiting, I also got to fetch the hotdogs for Gabby and me. Ever try a hotdog with cucumbers on it? As different as it sounds, it really works. I dare you to try it. Finally it was my turn, and the wait was definitely worth it, cause Stephanie is truly talented at what she does. I loved my face painting, but I think Merunas’ was beyond special: a rainbow with a pink unicorn. But it would have been epic if he had gone through and gotten the unibrow done.

Have you ever shared your Ipod with someone? Ever been worried about what kind of music you have on it? Songs you claim “you never listen to” but yet they’re still on there? Ever want to show someone something really quickly, and then it turns into an hour-long conversation? This happened tonight with Ieva, a beautiful young woman from Latvia. She came downstairsto draw or to do some homework, and I was down
here wasting time waiting to see if anyone would be on to talk to from back home. Ieva came over and started talking to me, and asked about my two silly bands [one of a Jesus fish, and the other a frolicking Spongebob :)] and other “American” things. We talked about how exactly we celebrated Halloween and Thanksgiving. So as I showed her this picture from 2004 (Sorry Sam and Caroline, but it was one of the few pictures that I have of Halloween, and she was so excited about it lol.. such fun times). I
had the opportunity to share things that seemed so normal about my life, things that I found trivial and pretty uninteresting and nowhere near important.

Sept 9

Thursday… so close to the weekend! I apologize greatly to Gabby, Martha, Calvin and James for blowing you guys off today. Guess I’ll never live this one down! But good news, my throat didn’t swell at all today. Not entirely sure what my body decided it was allergic to, but apparently I haven’t aggravated it since.

Sept 10
Happy Independence Day Moldova
(Even though it was back on August 27).

Oh, what fun cooking adventures tonight. So, after my ridiculous craving for some mozz sticks and a Philly cheesesteak, Gabby and I decided to attempt to make some mozz sticks. We picked out the closest things that looked like something tasty, and headed back to the dorm to test our cooking skills. Now, remember, we don’t have a fryer to just dump them in, otherwise I’d be a pro (thanks Breezeway). So we got a skillet, put some cooking oil in, and piled the mozz sticks on top. Now, I let Gabby be top chef of the mozz sticks, I made my cheese/potato filled dumplings, and Martha made pasta with her chili sauce mixture stuff. I think this may have been a fail of epic proportions.. though I do not blame the chef. We weren’t adequately equipped to properly make these things… But it was fun to see everyone try some of the cheesey mush.

Then out to Memelis to join the group for some Karaoke singing. It was a lot of fun.. Oh Memelis… <3

Sept 11

Never forget- September 11, 2001. Forever in our hearts <3.

Sept 12

Today was saved to fulfill all of Gabby’s dreams. Or at least the one she’s had for the past week or so: To see Mr. Creepy Ghost Dude. Plus, my Soc professor told me to do something I wouldn’t normally do. But lately, I’ve been doing a lot of wandering around without a definite path of where I’m going. So we took off in the general direction of the water, and we found it with nearly no problems. And there he was, Mr. Creepy Ghost Dude. Gabby was so excited :). We took some silly pictures, which you can see on Facebook.

Why does the weekend always have to fly by?!?! Once again, I’m having the worst feelings of procrastination. But it’s not as bad as Monday, I will never have that happen ever again…

P.S. Planning in your procrastination helps… Right Kate?

Sociology Realizations

I absolutely love my Sociology class. The things that we talk about are so true, are so real, that they really hit home for me. We act like we are fine on the outside, yet we hide behind the familiar and the ‘normal’ way of life so that we don’t have to talk about what hurts us the most. I want to share with you some of the things discussed in class that have really touched my heart.

1. Picture this: on stage, there is a backstage and a front stage. The front stage is where the actors want you to see all that they had prepared to reveal to you. But the purpose of the backstage is to remain a hidden, unknown, secretive place where things can and maybe should remain a mystery. Let me ask you, how big is your backstage? How much of your life are you keeping from everyone, living each day terrified that someone might find out what you’re hiding behind that curtain? How long can you keep performing on your front stage, knowing that you will soon have to return to all the secrets that you hold in your backstage? Will you let someone in? What would it take to let someone into that part of your life?

P.S. Yes, this is one of my poems.

2. I would not be the woman I am today if it wasn’t for the events of my past: triumphs, failures, friends, lost friends, all the good and the bad that have mixed together to form whatever it is that I’ve become. But given the chance, would I have chosen that? Would I still have chosen to go through some of the hardships and pain, knowing what wondrous results came of them? I hope I would say yes, because some of the people and things (not material things, more like lessons learned and other knowledge) that I have today, I would not give up for anything.

Now please, don’t use this idea as a way to look back at your life and wish it were different. That’s not what I’m asking of you. What I am asking is that you look at the events of your past to see how they’ve shaped and defined you. Not to look at failures and hard times as times of weakness and despair, but look at those times and know that they made you stronger. Embrace your past, because that was the path that brought you to your present, and is preparing your way to your future.

3. Each person will affect about 10-15 people over the course of their lifetime. What do you want to pass on to those people? What kind of example do you want to be in their lives?

Fun Facts - Aš tave myliu!

Sooo I have some fun facts for you:

1. My address is:

Kimberly Strauch
Kretingos 36
LT- 92307 Klaipeda
Lithuania

*Note: I don’t think they tell me when I have mail, so if you want to give me a heads up when you send me something so that way I have an idea when to ask. Or, don't get mad at me when you don't hear from me for a really long time cause I got tired of asking the people at The Box if I have any mail all the time. Thanks :). Oh, and I promise to send you a letter for each letter you send me!

2. A few important phrases in Lithuanian:

            Labas! = Hello or good: (rytas= morning; diena= afternoon; vakaras= evening)

            Labanakt= Good night/ Sleep well

            Iki pasimatymo= See you later

            Prašom= Please

            Ačiū = Thank you (achoo)

            Mano vardas…= My name is…

            Atsiprašau= I’m sorry

            Pasiklydau!= I’m lost

And my favorite… Aš tave myliu!= I love you <3 :)

3. Developing an allergic reaction to something unknown when you’re super far away from home is not fun.

4. Cooking is never:

            As fun when you have to compared to when you want to

            As successful when you’re in an unknown kitchen compared to the one at home

            As easy as your mom (or dad) makes it look

5. Letting someone see the songs on your I-pod is one of the most revealing things about you. But it's such a great conversation starter.

6. What are some other things that you want to know? Questions about Lithuania, LCC (my school), my life, me in general? Feel free to send me a message, and I'll try to work in my answer in a future post :).

Surviving the First Week

Sept 2

Survive class? Check… Eat something besides bread and cheese for dinner? Umm.. I think I can check that off. I attempted to cook dinner tonight because I am quite tired of eating bread and cheese. I went to boil water.. and I waited, and waited and waited some more. I really want dumplings, but while I was still waiting for the water to boil, I cooked one fish stick to make sure they were edible and that I heated it up right. 45 minutes later, water still never boiled. Fish sticks it is.

After dinner, I went out for some coffee with Nastia (different one from the student intern). There was a nice little coffee shop that is near the dorm, and we had a coupon in the student handbook which made it even better. Walked back to the dorm, quickly worked on my Lithuanian dialogue (terrifying!) and then headed out with the SA group and other friends to a jazz club. So much fun! Today was pretty hectic, constantly running from one place to the next, but I wouldn’t have it any other way :)!

Sept 3

This is a true TGIF!!! It’s not that this week was bad, but I am SO glad to have the first week of the semester under my belt. It’s a comforting feeling to know how the swing of the semester is going to go, and I have an idea about how the professors and classes are going to be. This will definitely be an exciting adventure. Happy Independence Day Ukraine! And I do agree that your borscht is amazing, and I will be attempting to possibly make it sometime this semester, so stay tuned. But some games that were played were absolutely hysterical. Derek and Denis had to clip clothes hanger clips on each other, and then blind-folded girls had to race to remove them from the boys. It was hilarious.

Oh, speaking of exciting! I got my water to boil in about 10ish-15ish minutes tonight! I used a different burner, and things went a lot more smoothly. And the dumplings were pretty good. A little bland on the outside, but hey, they were definitely edible and only cost 4 lita. It was a pretty quiet Friday night, especially compared to last night. But I got to see and talk to some pretty awesome people :) so I really enjoyed my relaxing night in. Miss you all <3!

Sept 4

Ahh, my first day of sleeping in. It’s really a shame, both my roommates have early morning classes, but alternating from one another. So at least one of them is getting up early each morning, but it only gives me the opportunity to do something productive earlier than I normally would. Now, if I actually do anything productive is a totally different story.

I headed off to Neumann for something fun to do today. Cooked some pasta with James, and realized what a difference a little seasoning could make! Then a long walk back to Karklu. Another relaxing day, but hmm… I guess I really should do some work tonight. Buuuut I really don’t feel like it, so I won’t :).

Sept 5

Sunday.. how quickly my weekend has left me :(. Totally jealous of all of you back home that have tomorrow off for Labor Day. I went shopping today and got a pair of skinny jeans and a pair of heels. Did a sociology observation, and notice a few things that are different from the mall here and the mall back home:

1. Europeans have a much smaller personal bubble. People walk insanely close to one another, and there is miniscule space while waiting in lines for stuff. Walking in the mall, people will not always alter their walking path to avoid hitting you. Instead, you will do a quick dance move right at the last second to avoid colliding shoulders.
2. The noise level is much quieter. You can’t unconsciously eavesdrop on someone’s conversation as easily. You know when you’re sitting somewhere and you can pick up all those crazy snidbits of people’s conversations as they walk by? That doesn’t happen as much over here. It might have something to do with the closeness of people with one another as they walk, or it can also be due to the fact that people talk much quieter here. I knew I could get loud and obnoxious with my friends, but that was usually at a crazy level. But here, I need to use a super quiet inside voice, because my inside voice is apparently at the level of their outside voice.
3. The quietness of the mall has NOTHING on the silence that you can feel on the bus. I honestly, with no exaggeration, could hear my own silent breathing. I felt as though no one was moving, and people who were traveling with someone else weren’t even having whispered conversations. It was an eerie silence that I could feel surrounding me. It totally freaked me out.

Ummm, lesson learned. Do NOT wear heels unless you have protection on your heels and or the rest of your toes. Cause it is severely painful to power walk in heels. It's not that I had a hard time actually walking in them (Mike and Calvin, you guys can vouch for me that I was able to walk perfectly fine in them), but the blisters that they produced are beyond painful.  My poor little toes :'(

Soooo I have 3 papers due tomorrow and I haven’t started anything and it’s about 12 now. I actually have no internet tonight, so that’s why it’s probably going to take me a while to upload this post. The internet is very sporadic here, and you can never be sure how much longer you will have connection before it is taken away from you. But I’m enjoying distracting Martins from doing his work, and his writing style is beautiful. Kate, he reminds me a lot of you.

And for all you people that can roll your Rs…. AAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR…

No Internet.. once again...

Sept 1
You know, I knew that when I left home that I would be leaving my phone behind. And honestly, I was ok with that. I could handle that because I knew I had to. I didn’t want to (and trust me, I REALLY didn’t want to), but I didn’t have a choice. But seriously, when you take away my internet connection too, that’s when I have a problem. I dealt with the super slow connection in Italy because I knew it was better than nothing. And I even dealt with no internet in Switzerland because I knew that I would have it again a few days later when I got to France. But to completely and fully take away my internet, when I know that I have messages from people back home and can’t get to them... Seriously? This is not healthy for my patience. So if I don’t respond to your messages for a long period of time, know that I am longing to respond and it kills me to be so close to my computer yet so far from any communication accessibility.

But I do want to make something very clear! I did all the right steps to try and fix my own internet connection. I did not just sit here and click “refresh” on the website hoping that something would magically fix itself. I clicked random buttons, and I clicked the correct random buttons to try and fix things, cause Denis and Mike clicked those same random buttons and he couldn’t get it to work either. So this is serious ridiculousness that is out of our control.’/;[1).p[;/[‘ ß    <--that was Mike.

But anyway, enough of my angry ranting about how the internet sucks. Though it has been down for about four days now, and I’ve put up with it pretty patiently for that long, but enough is enough. Though it is sad to think how dependent I’ve become on having the internet, and quick connection at that, right at my fingertips at all times. Sorry, I promise I’m seriously done ranting for now. Nothing too exciting today, though it is the first of September, which means that we have entered THE most important month of the year. You all should know why.

But since I’m sitting here right now in the student lounge, talking to Mike and Mārtiņš about how the lack of internet is awful, I just want all of you to know that it is not my fault that there has been a complete week of no recent blog posts. Because even though I have random moments of internet, I am sitting in the computer lab on campus. I am not able to switch my word documents off this laptop and onto the world wide web, which sadly isn’t hitting this part of the world. But for future blog posts, I do not plan on posting every day, because my life really isn’t that interesting. I plan on posting to catch up on week to week events, so if something special happens, I will share it with you. For example, when my life is about to explode when I have four exams on my birthday weekend, I will be sure to let you know.

And don’t worry.. I didn’t forget about you, my fellow September babies. Here are some birthday shout-outs:

Derek- September 16

Alyssa- September 24

Chelsea- September 25

P.S. Mike and Mārtiņš approve of my ranting. So you should too.

First Days of School

August 30
So my roommate Yulia had told me kind of how to get to campus, but I kinda forgot most of what she told me. So I started walking, giving myself 1 hr 10mins (an extra 40 minutes for special getting lost time) and immediately knew I was going the wrong way. But there were some guys doing construction and I didn’t want to look stupid by turning around. So Sam, thanks to you and all our wonderful adventures, I decided to keep going and hope I would see something familiar. After a while, I noticed a bank ATM that Nastia and Bekzhan had pointed out during a walk to campus. Finally, something familiar!

So I turned there… but then had no idea where to go. I had a feeling that I had to go in the general direction of left. I saw a bridge up ahead, and I remembered my roommate mentioning a bridge, so landmark number 2!! Having (once again) no clue what to do next, I determined that going straight was the best policy. I saw a map up ahead and looked at it, and realized that I was still super far away from campus! I had half an hour, but it looked like a far walk. So I’m walking.. and walking.. and walking.. and I look off to my right and see “Klaipedos Universitetas” and thought that it seemed familiar. Either Merunas or Denis had told me the school was connected to a store, and that the store is called Studlandas, like ‘Student Land’. The map had told me to stay straight, but I was pretty sure that I remembered seeing this building on my walk with Nastia the other day. So I turned and walked down that street, and gave a nice big sigh of relief as LCC International University came into view on my left!

Can I just say that it was a pure miracle that I made it to campus, and on time! I still had about 20ish minutes before my first class at 11. Sociology was AMAZING! Professor Garrett sounds like Owen Wilson, and is a free spirit. His hopes for us is that we will become better dinner guests and will look out of different windows. I am definitely going to enjoy this class! Then off to Cross-Cultural Seminar at 12:15. This is to help Study Abroad students not go into culture shock and severe homesickness. World Literature will not be the most exciting class I’ve ever taken, but the play Tartuffe doesn’t sound too horrible so far. And finally Lithuanian. Can I just say that this was only the first class and the professor is already speaking fluent Lithuanian to us?!?! Um HELLO!!! My Spanish teachers didn’t even start fluently speaking to us in Spanish til Junior year, after I had already had it for 5 years!!! Terrifying… purely terrifying.

Walking home was a lot easier. I was told to go straight, go over an orange bride, continue going straight, and turn rightish across the open square, and I would recognize things from that. I really want to know what path I took this morning, cause this is nowhere near the way that I got to school. But hey, for having nearly NO idea where I was going, getting to campus in 40ish minutes, not too bad self :).

My schedule for MWF:

11:00-12:00 Sociology

12:15-1:15 Cross-Cultural Seminar

1:30-2:30 World Literature

2:45-3:45 Lithuanian

August 31

First day of Tuesday/Thursday classes, both Psychology. Made it to campus today in 30 minutes, and a lot more confident than yesterday. First class was at 1:30, yeah I know, pretty awesome. Motivation and Emotion is definitely a brainteaser. What motivates you? She gave us a Sudoku puzzle to do, and said that the first two to finish would get a piece of candy. I think I’m a bit too competitive, cause my heart was absolutely pounding and my hands were shaking as I was getting closer and closer to finishing the puzzle. And Mom, I thank you for racing me all the time, because I came in first of course ;).

Then off to Social Research right after that. Sadly, I’m feeling a bit of déjà vu from last semester… Tuesday nights, a class that I liked followed directly by a class that I didn’t care for that had a lot to do with Stats with the same professor.. and this semester, Tuesday/Thursday afternoons, a class that I like followed directly by a class that I’m not going to care for that had a lot to do with Stats with the same professor. I’m going to need to find some ice cream somewhere.. and I don’t even have a freezer… :’(

My schedule for TR:

1:30-3:00 Motivation and Emotion

3:15-4:45 Social Research

August 27

My first adventure walking to campus. It is a 25 minute walk when you know shortcuts and walk at a comfortable pace. It really wasn’t too bad, but I really don’t understand why I’m not picking up the streets like I did in the other countries I’ve been in. So Mom, I’m sorry for making fun of you, and Dad, I wish I didn’t brag about how awesome I was about finding my way around. But please, don’t say I told you so (even though I’m pretty sure you just did). I’m just hoping that I can find my way to campus when classes start on Monday.

The campus is nice and cozy, but what else should I expect when there are only 650 students (smaller than my graduating class!). So all of my classes are held in DeFehr (de fair) which means that I won’t have to run outside during the random rain shower to get to another class. I’ll save all that for running to and from campus during my half an hour walk. Then we had a talk with some important people from the University telling us how to succeed and to be aware of our cultural differences. Like when most of the class starts speaking Russian, they aren’t really talking about the “American”. It’s just like how in Spanish class, whenever we had the opportunity to talk in English (our native tongue) we milked it for all it was worth. Well, it’s the same for them.

And then we walked back to Karklu, but we took a different way so I couldn’t even test my memory to see if I could find my way back. Oh well, I’m sure I’ll survive somehow. I think one of my roommates stopped by today, cause there is a suitcase here and some bags. But she hasn’t come back yet tonight, so hopefully she will either come later or hopefully tomorrow??

August 28

The SA program took us to Nida (need-uh) today to give us a chance to get some air and just relax before the start of classes. We took a really short ferry ride across the lagoon, and then took about an hour bus ride to the city. I sat next to Donatas, a very nice local from Klaipėda who asked me about my accent!!! You cannot imagine how excited I was to hear that I have an accent. And Martha keeps telling me that I actually have a Jersey accent?? Even if you don’t think I do, lie and tell me that I do. Cause so far, I have failed miserably to pick up a British accent when I was in London, and I doubt I’ll pick up a Lithuanian one. But here’s for high hopes…

But anyway, we made it to Nida, and it was gorgeous. We walked along the water toward the sand dunes, and I really wanted to walk up the side of them but the sign told me not to. There were a lot of stairs to get to the top, but the view was more than worth it. It was a beautiful sunny day, which made it really easy to enjoy our time outside together. Then part of the group went shopping to grab some lunch and we walked over to the water to eat and sunbathe (even though we were all bundled up in jackets, it was still enjoyable). Then all too quickly we were back on the bus to return to Karklu and Neumann. At least we didn’t have anything else planned for tonight, which is nice in some aspects. Time to attempt to unpack and start settling in.

August 29

We went to Kretinga today to go to a contemporary Catholic service since it’s Sunday. Unfortunately, the mass was preached (I always want to say praught.. like taught, but it’s not…) in Lithuanian, but this is what I understood as Emas stood behind me whispering what the Father was saying. The least shall be placed first. It is better to think less of yourself so that others will raise you up rather than thinking too highly of yourself and having others put you down in your place.

We went out to lunch one last time as a group. I tried some gira, which is basically bread cider. No, that is not a typo. Gyra is a drink that is made out of bread, yet it has some sparkly taste to it. It was much better in small quantities and not the full liter that I got of it to drink. The group ordered kepta duona again for us, that addicting bread and cheese concoction. And for my meal I got chicken with lots of green beans and a potato and carrot mixture. It was wonderful, and I was finally full after eating. It was a normal sized portion like back home.

Good news!!! My roommates are here! Iryna and Yulia and Anna. But as the other two say, Anna got a better roommate cause she got married this summer ;) haha I thought this was hysterical. So sadly she will not be rooming with us, but now I have more space for all my crap. But they really liked my little bottle of blue sand with seashells that says Ocean City. Thank you Chelsea, Sam and Squini for helping me make this very important decision. It was a great icebreaker!

I can’t believe that classes start tomorrow. It’s not that I’m not excited for this semester, but I just really want the first week to already be over and done with.

Touring Vilnius

Nastia and Bekzhan took us on a tour around the city the first day. It was a cozy place, and very old feeling. We stopped at a café for breakfast, and it was then I realized that our portions were very different from back home. For paying 8 litas for a breakfast sandwich, it was about the size of my fist. Whereas back home I would pay $4 and get an awesome breakfast bagel from McDonalds. This is just something that I’m going to have to get used to. The SA program gave us all 100 litas to last us the week, but I had to keep in mind that I am now responsible for paying for all my food. We went to an Iki’s (food store) to get some groceries, where I quickly learned that bread and cheese spread and I were going to become very close friends.

We went to the KGB museum to learn more about the Lithuanian history during the Russian regime. It was very sad and eye opening because these events happened within the past 20 years. I was alive when some of these events took place. That’s crazy! There were different torturing methods that the Russians used to get their information out of their prisoners. There was solitary confinement, a cold room, and water torture (standing on a small disk for days while the floor is covered in freezing cold water. And sometimes, they would put the person in hot water then dunk them back into the freezing water. Kind of like sitting in a sauna/jacuzzi and running back into the pool, but when it’s against your will and it’s freezing cold temperatures, I can imagine that it’s not as fun…)

After the KGB museum, Irena took us for a walking tour through the city. We started with the cathedral, which the archeologists still aren’t finished excavating underneath it (Sam!!). But from what they’ve found, it’s pretty cool. They still hope to find the most powerful King of Lithuania, but for now his remains continue to be a mystery. Then walking through the city, we saw this one street that writers had asked artists to make an image that represented their style. And while walking along one of the foot bridges, there were a ton of locks attached to the bridge. It is a tradition that when a couple gets married, they attach a lock that is engraved with their names and wedding date onto the bridge. I think this is an adorable idea, and future husband (whoever and wherever you are…) we are so doing this when we get married!

Then we went bowling. Sure it was something common for us back home, but it is a new sport rising up in Lithuania. But Derek got lucky and won a home cooked meal from Nastia. So props to you Derek.

August 26

We left the hostel at Vilnius and drove to Trakai, which is known for its castle. Note to self: never forget your ISIC (International Student Identification Card) card ever again. This card is very good for discounts on stuff, like going on top of the tower or riding the lift. But to save money, most of the group decided to brave the side of the mountain and walk (except for some of the boys who were determined to run up). Unfortunately, we tried to take the lift down without paying, hoping we could just get out at the bottom, but we failed. Well… at least all but two of us failed. Then back to the bus to finish our journey to Klaipėda.

So nothing too exciting, pretty much just a travel day. Except it was very exciting trying to carry up all my luggage to my room on the 5^th floor!!! Thank God Merunas (an RA on the 4^th floor) helped me carry my 44lbs suitcase up the five flights, because everything else on its own was already crazy heavy. After dumping everything onto my bed, I went downstairs to enjoy some tea and cookies (provided by Denise [pronounced Denis, though the other way is a male’s name in Russian]) and watch Iron Man 1 (provided by Mike, and which helped make the second movie make more sense).

No roommates yet. I hope they will show up soon. I’m really anxious to meet them!

Study Abroad: Lithuania

After months of planning, praying, freaking out, and second thoughts, I am finally in Lithuania. It’s amazing. A bit colder and windier than Jersey (about 20C= 70ish F), but warm for Lithuanian standards. Flying went perfect, I got through security with no problem, and Allison (the LCC recruiter) recognized me at once at the Vilnius airport. Derek had arrived on a slightly earlier flight than me. Once I got all my things together, we headed off to the hostel where we would be spending the next two nights while we explored the city of Vilnius. Once we got to the hostel, which was only about 20 minutes from the airport, I made a beeline to my room to quickly get rid of all my bags. It was ridiculous.

There were two other study abroad students that were on a flight half an hour after me, Heather and James. After dropping their things off in their rooms, we all huddled around a small table in hopes of getting on the Internet to let everyone know that we were still alive and had arrived safely in Lithuania. A small group came in from their walk around the city: Steph, Lauren, Nastia and Bekzhan (both student interns that are helping show us around and translating for us). Once we got everyone together, we all headed out together to meet two other students at the airport. Calvin got a very warm welcome from James (they both go to Messiah and have been friends for a few years), but Gabby got a much quieter welcome from all the other jetlagged sleepy people.

After quickly dropping off their luggage at the hostel, the group headed off to a local restaurant for dinner. We got to eat karšta duona (pronounced karshta donuh), which is deep fried bread strips with mayonnaise and cheese. Pure deliciousness! And then we each ordered some traditional Lithuanian meal, and attempted to pronounce it while giving our order to the waitress. It was interesting. I split my meal with James, so we ordered some potato meal stuffed with meat, and then some type of potato pancake with meat sauce. The potato pancake was amazing, but the other one was a bit too thick. It was like severe sticky rice (but potato), but with the meat it was pretty good.

Then back to the hostel to relax and get prepared for the next day. But Mike had arrived while we were out at dinner (he had been traveling around on his own and the trains messed up his arrival to Vilnius). And then later two others joined us, Stephanie and Martha. So here we are. All of us on an experience of a lifetime, just eleven seemingly random people with one commonality that brought us together.

Derek- from Canada (and with a wicked accent, eh?)

Heather- from New York

James- from Massachusetts

Steph- from Pennsylvania

Lauren- from California

Nastia- from Ukraine

Bekzhan- from Kazakhstan

Calvin- from Pennsylvania

Gabby- from Maine

Mike- from Pennsylvania

Stephanie- from California

Martha- from Minnesota

And me, Kim- from New Jersey

Welcome to my journey of Study Abroad: Lithuania!