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 :).