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