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!