Last Full English Day & Goodbye!

Last full day in England, Wednesday November 28. Shopping, shopping, shopping at the Manchester mall - basically window shopping and having something to do with Stasys without sitting and watching television. I only bought some licorice allsorts napkins for my mom and drooled over a beautiful expensive party dress that I would have nowhere to wear. Mew. Still wet weather, and so stopped for coffee at a cafe called Zinc and Stasys took artsy photos - oh look, the Lithuanian flag colors! Coincidence? I think not...

Back in Littleborough I knew I should go to bed early since I'd have to be up at 6:30, but Stasys and I of course were up until about 3:30 watching the BBC and talking. I set three different alarm times so I wouldn't hit snooze and sleep through my flight and actually woke up before the alarm miraculously. Probably nerves...Took the train to the airport and got there with plenty of time to have a Coke at the little cafe and spent some of my remaining pound coins. Lovely chat with Staska, and then I reluctantly went to my gate...bye England...hopefully see you before too long!

Chipping Campden, Broadway & Machester

Again, I know this is posted late, but better late than never. The Tuesday I was to leave to Manchester was first going to be another out of town adventure - Regis and I were off to Chipping Campden and Broadway, small towns a short TomTom visit away. The weather was overcast, but not rainy and so our journey started after a breakfast of Regis-made porridge, we were off! Chipping Campden is a town known for its sandstone buildings and the huge cemetery and church as we entered town was breathtaking. We found a parking spot and walked back to the field with the church in it and upon setting foot on the grass, my feet were soaked immediately. Worth it! Sheep were in the adjacent green, green fields and everything was so English! It was a perfect setting. We climbed the wall into the cemetery and looked around at the old tombstones, some dating to the 1800s. The sandstone was beautiful, and very different looking than ordinary old red brick or stucco. The town reminded me of Solvang, the Danish village near my house, but on a less kitschy scale. There were antique shops, tea rooms and little inns. There were Toby Jugs and Bunnykins in one antique shop, and the funny pairs of porcelain dogs my mom has in tea room windows. All of it reminded me of the English knick-knacks we have in our home.

There was a hill Regis wanted to find, so we trekked up the narrow streets trying to find it. The cottages all have names - Emily's Cottage, Meadow Manor, Foxenwood House, etc - no numbers, just the names! The new guy at the post office must have his work cut out for him when delivering mail...but they were just darling! There was one for sale on a corner lot with a cemetery attached and so we fantasized about the clearly low price of 100 pounds on account of the location...we both had 50 pounds in our wallets, so clearly it was fate...if it were true. I do wonder how much those cottages are though, as they were so cute and who wouldn't want a cottage in England? We did not find the hill right away, but found a farm trail and a stack of sugar beets and tie-dyed sheep munching on the vegetables. The view was great, but the overcast weather did not lend itself to breathtaking photos. As it was afternoon already, we decided to trek back to the car and head to the other little town of Broadway for lunch.

A short drive later, we arrived in Broadway - a clearly more upscale town with more upscale-looking tea rooms and castle-like inns and boutique shops. We walked around a bit, taking cliche photos in the red telephone boxes and quickly realizing that the restaurants were already closed and wouldn't reopen until dinner time. Lame. We ended up staying about 10 minutes in Broadway and left for Coventry again to find food and get me to the train station. Pub food, repacking and a tearful goodbye and I was on the 2 hour train to Manchester. Poor Stasys was waiting for me for quite a while, and Manchester was wet, wet, wet. Happened to stop at the store to get peanut butter cookie makings and made a better batch to redeem myself for the 'used the wrong brown sugar last time' batch. Yum.

Coventry Cathedral, China Red & McDonald's

Someone posted some advertisement on this blog, so I deleted it and started over since I couldn't edit the comment itself...so, Back to Coventry...thankfully I was able to get 'funfares' for bus trips and save some money, or travel on the British Isle would have proved expensive. Regis met me at the bus station, and we decided to go out to Coventry and see what there was to see. We took a bus downtown and sat on the upper deck to see the city at night. When we reached the city center, we got off and started exploring.

The Coventry Cathedral was one of the first things we saw, and it was breathtaking. I love ruins, and so to see the ruin of the old cathedral next to the rebuilt cathedral was a treat for me. After doing some reading, I found that the original cathedral was bombed in World War II - "On the night of 14 November 1940, the city of Coventry was devastated by bombs dropped by the Luftwaffe. The Cathedral burned with the city, having been hit by several incendiary devices" - Unfortunately, it was dark and so my photos of both cathedrals do not do them justice, but the glass wall shown was etched with figures, which I found different than I had seen before because they were not the typical angels and saints one might expect, but stylized so that they looked almost skeletal. The spire is all that remains of the old cathedral - the only thing that survived the bombing. There was also a huge bronze statue of St. Michael on the front of the church, and since I also love statues, I wish I was able to take a better photo of it, but maybe Regis will go there in the day time once and I can steal photos from him.

Continued on to more of the city, passing various pubs and closed shops until we found a little nice-looking Chinese restaurant called China Red. The pricing was fair and there were so many things to choose from, it was hard to narrow down choices, but in order to be adventurous we ordered frog legs as an appetizer and found them to be quite good actually. Sort of a cross between fish and chicken in flavor, and quite spicy. For our main meals, I was boring again and got chicken chow mein and Regis got some kind of garlic sauce beef. Both were outstanding and complimented well by the chinese pints of beer - If I go back to Coventry, I'll want to go back there.More wandering around the closed malls and I was surprised at the lack of people walking about - we were some of the only ones on the street. After goofing off for some time, dessert of McDonald's milkshakes was decided upon and caught the bus home. A fun night on the town!

London Calling...Again

London for the weekend - left Friday afternoon and arrived late because of traffic, so after running to the tube station and being held up by slow French students who couldn't figure out the automated ticket machine, I arrived at a theatre where I was to meet Cambria 5 minutes after 7:00, too late to go into the show. I had to wait another 40 minutes before all the late people were allowed in, when finally I was ushered to my seat to see the last half of a play that I had never heard of. The consolation prize was that Ian McKellan was in the play, as was the British guy in Anaconda and the brunette in Vanity Fair. It was called The Seagull, and the brunette from Vanity Fair was awful. After the play, Cambria and I went to pizza and then to her house via the underground. In the morning I joined her at a rehearsal at RADA (Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts) for one of her group projects and got in touch with Ieva and set up a meeting later in the day. Cambria and some of her friends ended up having tickets to another play called The Arsonists that afternoon, and there was a cheap ticket left for me to attend as well - it was a modern, short play that was interesting enough. Then Cambria and I had dinner at Giraffe, which was delicious and then waited for Ieva in the Waterloo tube station. Ieva met us and Cambria went home and Ieva and I went to London-China-Town for dinner for her. It was a highlight of my London trip to see her, if only for a few hours! Then I went back to Cambria's house for a girly movie and giggling...

Photos posted here!

Stratford-Upon-Avon & Oxford

(I know this isn't on time, but better to document the rest of the trip late rather than never) Stratford-Upon-Avon & Oxford at night! Regis and I drove there after he came home from work and thanks to TomTom, arrived in no time. The drive was beautiful, even at night - we strayed from the freeway and drove the scenic route through the English countryside and tiny towns along the way. Stratford is known for being Shakespeare's birthplace and so there are many statues of characters from his plays and the town is just darling. It was decked out for Christmas, with a Christmas market in the center of town. I ended up buying two pairs of Baltic amber earrings, because as much amber as was in Lithuania, the selection of green amber was limited. We then wandered around taking photos and looking for a restaurant that wasn't going to cost us such a pretty penny. We settled on Usha, an Indian restaurant that was reasonably priced and yet fancy looking. It was delicious! I was boring and ordered chicken tikka masala and Regis was adventurous and got something he'd never had before - chicken pathia - both dishes were wonderful and we then treated ourselves to a coconut ice cream sundae for dessert. More walking around, then headed back to the car to give TomTom a new destination for the evening - Oxford.

Arrived at Oxford and had a quick coffee in an Irish pub and then proceeded to walk around and explore one of the hearts of England's academic world. We saw Oxford castle and walked for some time while Regis tried to remember where one of the university's main buildings was. The streets were full of loud teenagers, most sounding drunk and we walked by a 'let's take this outside' fight between two groups of young men. Heart of England's academic world indeed...but the trip was fun, we ended up finding an ancient library and set of university buildings and then wandered back to the car and headed home. It was late and my knack for falling asleep in the car was not helpful for Regis, who was also tired and so I tried telling stories to keep us both awake, but that proved easily ignorable and so I resorted to a random question game. "Would you rather eat a snake or an eel?" etc...

Coventry & London

He's there, the Phantom of the Opera....at Her Majesty's Theatre! The show was amazing...and though the stage initially looked small, the theatre only presents the one show and so there were little touches that made it a very impressive performance - from the candles rising from the floor of the Phantom's lair to the chandelier falling from the ceiling. It's the 21st Anniversary of the play and just imagine, it's been going on twice a day for that long? That's a long time...

Also saw Cambria before and after the show - had a brunch of cottage pie and dinner of a fancy pizza and a pint in a pub, a lovely day in London, except for the weather. The rain kept us from walking too far, and oddly enough did not see any London-y things like the houses of parliament or the London eye at all...only saw the river on the bus on the way out and Trafalgar square because Cambria was studying near the National Gallery. I also found out I do not like the way the English concoct chai tea lattes...

Before London on Tuesday, I arrived in Coventry on Sunday afternoon via a fairly comfortable train and met Regis and rainy weather. We went to dinner at a American-Italian place that could have been a Marie Callendars or Applebees called Frankie & Benny's. My dollar conversions hurt my little wallet's feelings, though I have been good about money so far. On the drive home, it started snowing! Enough to stick until morning even, but the weather has since been off and on rain. The next day I went with Regis to Warwick University and saw the campus and sat in one of the many cafes on campus and read while he attended a class. That evening we went out for dinner again - this time TGI Friday's and splurged and had filet mignons which were very good - followed by store-bought ice cream with custard on top. Tuesday was London and today was a quieter day with me catching up with photos and bloggie and doing some laundry and baking peanut butter cookies whilst Regis went to work. Tomorrow we're going to Oxford in the evening, so I will have another tale to tell then!

Facebook is hosting my photos as Flickr only allows you to have 200 photos total and I think that's dumb. More photos will be posted as I take them.

Littleborough, Manchester & Hebden Bridge

Ah, England. Gloomy skies, a variety of accents, slang words and road signs one doesn't hear too often in the States, and driving on the other side of the road...but all wonderful! My flights were fine, sort of on time and no lost luggage - plus a fairly delicious bbq beef dinner served on the transatlantic flight.

Some highlights so far:

• Unusual Signs - My favorite sign so far has been one of those 'look out for...children, or elk, or tractors' signs, but with 'Watch for Elderly People' instead, with some silhouettes of little old people with canes and walkers on it.


• Taking the train - so fun to just hop on a train and go somewhere, instead of driving everywhere. It costs £2.90 for a roundtrip ticket to go to Manchester from Littleborough.


• British Telly - better than the small sampling of BBC America, though I see now that BBC America does give quite the variety of normal shows on television here. American shows are on quite regularly as well, I saw Scrubs and CSI shows on the guide...


• Pub food - I had cottage pie in a pub, with peas and chips (thick-cut French fries to the Yanks out there...) with some Heinz mint sauce on the side. It was delicious and fairly inexpensive.


• Exploring Manchester & surrounding areas - I've walked along muddy canals with sheep in the hills, poked around a used book shop, looked at Prada and Dolce & Gabbana attire and seen two museums for free - Natural History and Science and Industry. The tiger I'm high-fiving here is from the Natural History Museum. In the Science & Industry museum, there was a hands-on section for kids, and I was having such fun playing with the bubbles and mirrors and other kid-oriented stations - while Stasys was embarrassed but I'm sure secretly thought it was fun too.

On Saturday, Stasys and I decided to go outside of Littleborough for the day, but since Wales, Scotland and York were all several hours away by car and neither of us are familiar with getting there, etc - we decided to just pick a city that the train from Littleborough went to. Halifax was on the map printed in larger letters and was only a 5 pound trip, so we decided to check it out. The weather was sunny, but quite cold and breezy and Halifax did not hold any cool looking coffee shops or cafes that were screaming 'come on in, Love, and try our Yorkshire pudding!' so we ended up walking around the main promenade of several stores and discovered a market building with a big open courtyard with stall vendors and little peculiar shops tucked in the building surrounding it. There was a glass blower's shop and a weird gothic/fantasy store crammed with more dragon and fairy statues than I've ever seen, and a used bookstore where I bought a delightful hardcover 1953 edition of a book about the nature of boys, "the unfair sex." We then decided Halifax had nothing more to offer, and so we headed back to Littleborough via the train. I was treated to Lithuanian food cooked by his mother, and it was a pleasant surprise to have pancakes with curd and curd dumplings again!

More on the way...going to Coventry tomorrow and Phantom of the Opera in London this week!!

Phoenix, Arizona

I'm in Phoenix! My brother Robert was lonely all the way out here by himself, so my mom and I decided to pack some bags and drive to see him for the weekend! It was a long drive, about 9 hours or so, but it wasn't so bad - I didn't even sleep! We stopped for McDonald's breakfasts and a Palm Springs snack. The weather is not too bad - not even cracking over 100 degrees yet, but it's definitely a desert. Nobody has grass in their front yards, the landscaping is all cactus and scraggly desert plants. The area Robert lives in has everything though - any store, restaurant or convenience you could want is a short drive away! It's a suburb of a larger city, but every restaurant we drove by considering stopping at on Friday night had 30 people waiting outside! Robert said everything is always busy because there are so many people in the surrounding communities. His apartment is very nice and very reasonable (compared to Santa Barbara? Anything is reasonable) and he will finish up school next month and come home.

So far we've enjoyed restaurants we don't have near us and went to Phoenix's World Wildlife Zoo and paid $18 a person to go see their very small collection of animals (Grutas Parkas in LT had a similar collection, with the exception of a few large cats & giraffes) - it was full of children in strollers as most zoos are, but I got to feed a giraffe and we saw several white tigers. Their way of displaying the animals was odd, as the fences were not very impressive and seemed like the waterbuck or warthogs could get out if they really wanted to - we could pet them! I'll post pictures so you can see...but the feeding of the giraffe was fun - it stuck its tongue out and you just piled the food on it! We did not go see the reptiles, as Robert is apparently not a fan of snakes, and when I asked why he said "because they can move, and move fast, without legs and that's weird."

We leave tomorrow morning, for a 9 hour drive home and probably the same stops. More on that and photos later...

And the rockets' red glare...

Happy United States of America's Independence Day! Hooray for the uprising of the colonies against the 'tyranny' of the British empire. I almost wore a Union Jack t-shirt today, but figured the flag flying in my room was good enough. Jokes aside, I am actually proud to be an American and do love my country, and so with that - I'll go listen to the Star Spangled Banner...

(P.S. - That's not to say I don't love my German/English/Italian/Norweigan/Irish/Native American heritage, because anyone who knows me knows I do :)

Back in the USSA

Home sweet home. To quote Laura, I'm back in the USSA and it's good to be home. I immediately did laundry and attempted to unpack some, but I have to go upstairs and fix the disaster that IS my room today. Then I kind of want to visit my friends in Santa Barbara and eat Chipotle again (I had it yesterday and it was delicious. Sorry Lithuania, your food was good, but Chipotle is a kick in the mouth that I missed dearly)

Now I've got some things on my agenda, including figuring out what I'm going to do with my life, starting my mega scrapbook, attempting to make some Lithuanian food and becoming the president of the 'let's figure out what I'm going to do with my life' club.

And with that, off to Home Depot with the parentals. Hooray.

One Last Lithuanian Entry...

So this morning I was greeted with thunder, lightning flashes and rain rain rain. I was worried about my flight, but thankfully it has cleared up since then! I am now writing this quickly before I head up to the front desk and order a taksi :)

I just read all the US safety standards and had to change things, took out Navalis matches I had put in my bag on a fluke, took out a lighter (with no fuel) from my carryon and transfered it to my checked baggage and took out my gel footie inserts from my shoes! Those aren't allowed on US flights, so I figured I should play it safe and just do what it said. I've got my baggie with my liquids, gels and areosols (contact solution and lip gloss), so I'm prepared!

Love you, Lithuania, you've given me a great circle of lovely friends (+ a Latvian or two) and I will miss you! Home, here I come after long last!

Vilnius & Viso Gero Lietuva

I have enjoyed a stress-free day of traveling to Vilnius and have just had dinner and dessert with Ruta. I'm now sitting at my hotel room desk, connected to the internet via 56k dialup modem (I have not heard the 'krrssshhh bing bong bing bing doooooooo' noise in some time) and thinking about tomorrow. I have 20 hours+ of traveling ahead of me and that is actually one of the worst parts of leaving - I'm really looking forward to hanging out in airports in Vilnius, Frankfurt, San Francisco and then finally Los Angeles...

I have said goodbye to officially everyone, turned the apartment keys over, and struggled with my bags over cobblestones...I'm dreading paying over-weight charges because I'm fairly certain they do not weigh 23 kilograms each...but, I am so excited to be home and wish teleportation was invented...

could someone get all over that please? Lietuva, see you sometime in the future for surely and Amerika, see you soon! :)

The Day Approacheth

I heard Hungarian Rhapsody #2 by Liszt being played by the bells in the post office today for the first and last time. The bells play a tune promptly at noon every day and I had only heard them a couple times before - the Household lived right on that street and so heard them nearly everytime. Regis had told me that he had heard this particular song before, and so I'm glad I got to hear it too...it's one of my favorite piano pieces and how fun to wrap up Klaipeda with that. We had also seen a pianist play in the Klaipeda Concert Hall and he played this song. For those not familiar with the title, it is the song in Who Framed Roger Rabbit played by Donald and Daffy on their dueling pianos...

Tomorrow...

US and A, see you soon!

But in my heart you'll always stay...

I leave for home in five days...and it is so weird. I have already said goodbye to Rasa, Chad and Dori a few weeks ago, and only just now said goodbye to Regis. Ruta came in to Klaipeda last night for one last Kurpiai, and it was a lot of fun. Regis, Ruta and I just had a last brunch at Jola and then said our goodbyes - though I may see Ruta in Vilnius on Monday. I will say goodbye to Arunas, Cathal, Dovydas, Regina, Evaldas, Ieva and Renalda before I leave this week...and with Stasys in England, I will just have to talk to him on skype or something.

I have given boxes of stuff away that I can not take with me, like my vacuum and speakers and stuff...and so my house is getting emptier and emptier, and yet things remain that make it feel like it's as if we're all going on Spring Break and everything will go back to 'normal' soon. Then my brain kicks in and says "Sorry Chelsea, that's not the case!" I will be going back to the States to face an uncertain future that may include a 'real' job or grad school...but where, when, how? Some people have it lined up already - Dovydas has a secure job he loves in Klaipeda, Dori is working in Albania, Regis is headed to England for grad school, and my heart is unsure of where it wants to be. I have had such a good year here, and thank everyone for everything - work was worthwhile and a learning experience, I made new friends that I hope to keep in coming years and I have deepened previous friendships so that it is very, very difficult for me to tear myself away from these people. I truly love them and Lithuania itself, and obviously this will not be the last time I come to this wonderful country or (hopefully) see my friends, but the timing is not so sure as it was last year - they won't be conveniently located at LCC for me to pop over and visit - they'll be scattered around the world...though most of them seem to be flocking to England, so if grad school in the UK happens for me, I'll most likely meet them. I have been a pack rat this year, keeping little mementos of events and people so that I can make the ultimate scrapbook when I get home to help me remember my wonderful time here. I have experienced new things and learned a lot about myself and others, and again, truly love those that I have encountered here and will miss them something awful. I intend to be a better letter writer...even if I don't receive tons of mail back, everyone appreciates receiving mail and I tend to pour my heart out more on paper. I can cry without them seeing then, you understand :)

All in all, I'm shedding tears as I write this, but I do miss my family and friends at home, so it will be good to finally set foot on familiar California ground. I look forward to seeing them all again and enjoy my own things that I have been without here, see my friends whom I have not seen for so long and enjoy my family's company again. Yes, that means my talking habits will be back in the house - so be prepared! I would like to maybe spend a weekend in Wisconsin when I get home too, as the forest and lakes of my mini-road trip reminded me so much of Mequon and that area, that I long to go and visit my family there.

Highlights of the year include:

• My family's visit in November - it was a blast to be able to have Sara & Robert come to Lithuania and see everything and meet everyone. It was also cool to have my parents be a little familiar with everyone and the area, so it was a very comfortable visit.
• My apartment - it was perfectly located in the middle of town, not far from my friends and a perfect size to host get-togethers. I was very comfortable and content with my first taste of living on my own.
• Christmas & Easter at Regis' - I felt genuinely welcome in their home and had a wonderful time trying new things and experiencing Lithuanian customs during the holidays. I do hope to one day see his family again, as I had a lot of fun there and they are such wonderful, kind people.
• New Year 2007 in Helsinki - thank you Regis, I had forgotten to include it. Naturally, a highlight as I got to be in 4 countries in one day and got loads of stamps on my passport, while exploring a new city in a new country with my dear friends. It was also really cool to see Senate Square where we welcomed the New Year on television during Eurovision and go "oo! I've been there!!" :)
  
• My birthday - having a cake brought to me with a tea light plopped in the middle of it while being sung to in Lithuanian was such a fun time.
• Other parties - I hosted many different types of parties here, from poker night to fiesta dinner to birthdays to "sophistication" wine and cheese parties :) Getting the city police called on you because a guest taps on the radiator back to the neighbor below was also funny, because the music was not very loud to begin with - so the cops were very nice.
• Weekend excursions - to Liepaja, Palanga many times, Veisiejai, Joniškis, the Spit, Kretinga or just walking around Klaipeda. I have many photos and pleasant memories from these trips that added variety to the typical 'whatcha wanna do, watch a movie?'
• My friends - the new and the old, both will be loved and cherished and missed greatly. I hope they had as good a time as I had, as this has been one of the best times in my life. In my heart you'll always stay! Now they just better reply to emails... ;)
  

One Last Time in Palanga

A fun day trip to Palanga with Regis and Evaldas started out with a great drive through the now green countryside. We parked and walked to the pier and walked along the beach for some time. Very few people were on the beach, but as I understand, the summer time brings thousands of people to Palanga and the town is packed. We found the spot where the river enters the sea, and walked inland from there. We came upon a green spot with many dandelions blooming, and I was taking a photo of them and found myself bombarded with dandelion bombs - the boys were picking them and flicking the blooms from the stems like a flower gun. You learn something new everyday! Apparently you can also make a little trumpet out of the stem, as Regis was able to do so and lo and behold, a duck came out of the woods to investigate the sound. He had called a duck with the dandelion trumpet! I tried to make the sound and was only mildly able to make a peep.

We then walked to Cili Pica and sat outside to enjoy the sunshine. After our food, we had planned to walk in the botanical garden, but we were all pretty tired and content, so we ended up just going home to Klaipeda. It was a beautiful day and I'm glad my last memories of Palanga will be this day spent with my friends enjoying our free time and wonderful weather.

Southern Lithuania

What a trip! Short and sweet and absolutely wonderful! Regis and I went on a mini-road trip to the southern part of Lithuania to visit his cousins that began with an early start Saturday morning. We drove out of Klaipeda and along the Nemunas river for some time, stopped at two castles and a mansion and had lunch at his Auntie's in Marijampole. She had made a curd pie, which I got the recipe for because it was delish! I'll try to make it at home...Anyway, the weather was gorgeous and made for wonderful photographs and driving mood. The chestnut, birch and other trees were fully green and beautiful and there were fields and fields of dandelions in bloom. I have never seen so many of the 'weeds' my dad hates in his front yard, and I think of him every time I see one.

After lunch, we were back on the road and headed to Regis' Uncle's house in a town called Veisiejai. The area was gorgeous, surrounded by lakes and forest. The town was small, and their house was right on the lake - with a little cabin built literally 10 meters from the water. The cabin held an upstairs bedroom with a balcony and downstairs held a sauna and eating area. Regis' cousins heated up the sauna for us and started barbecuing šašlykai (Lithuanian shishkebabs) while Regis and I rowed around the lake in a canoe. There was a swan heading our way and I kind of freaked out cause he was so big and seemed like he was on a mission to 'get us' and Regis wasn't making it any better by saying 'I've heard they can flip boats over, we better get outta here!' After that little adventure, the sauna was ready and it was h.o.t. The ladels of water added to the hot stones only made it hotter and moving the air with your hand or blowing on your skin was almost painful because it was so hot. After a few minutes in the hot box, we all went outside to cool off and the boys jumped in the lake. My understanding from their reactions was that it was pretty cold, so I did not join them or intend to do so. After a few more sessions in and out of the sauna, the last time we went outside Regis convinced me to jump in with him, though he had to half pull me to the water. It certainly was cold, but not as bad as I thought - though with the prospect of leeches in the water, I was out of there quickly. Regis actually found a leech just for me, and was poking it in the water and it just kind of wiggled and then bit his finger! He flung it off and I was thoroughly done with being near the water. After eating, our friend the swan was coming over to the pier and Regis was feeding it bread like a trick dolphin - making it reach for it from the water. It was pretty funny, as it was as if it were a dog begging for a treat. Later he chased it around the lake in the canoe until the swan got tired of being followed without any bread as a reward and flew off a bit.

That night, we went on a walk around the town and saw the sights - a huge white church, the local school, lilac bushes everywhere, a wooden sculpture park, etc. Having woken up early that morning, I was fairly tired and so we headed back to the house and sat on the cabin's balcony for a while enjoying the night and then eventually went to bed. The next morning, Regis, Mantas (his cousin) and I went to Druskininkai, a resort town nearby known for mineral baths and sanatoriums. We headed to "Gruto Parkas," a park founded by a local millionaire who gathered all the Soviet statues from the towns as they took them down following independence and put them all in one spot. There were many many statues of Lenin, Marx and other heroes of the Soviet times, with Soviet songs blaring over the loudspeakers, a Soviet canteen, a library, old flags and art...pretty much all things Soviet could be found here. The park also had a mini-zoo, so we saw ostriches, boars and many kinds of birds. It was interesting to see and it was great to just walk in the woods. We saw two snakes and a deer! Earlier in the week, Regis and I had gone to a cafe out of town and were walking in the woods nearby and saw a snake - which I picked up after he poked it first. It was just a little grass snake, but as I had never done that before and he is scared of snakes, it was an achievement for both of us. Anyway, so after the park we walked around Druskininkai and had lunch. The town was very well kept, with flower beds everywhere and a beautiful church in the center. I have posted photos as always at Yahoo - so feel free to browse!

After lunch we went back to Veisiejai and I played with the family cat and her kittens while Regis helped Mantas translate something and then we packed up and drove back towards Klaipeda. It was originally planned to be a two night trip, but Regis was leaving earlier for England than he thought and so wanted to go back and pack up his stuff. It felt like it was a longer trip because of everything that was packed into two days and it was a lot of fun! Naturally, Regis' family was very accommodating and friendly as always and I'm grateful to him to let me tag along. It was also great to see a part of Lithuania outside of Klaipeda, especially when in such perfect weather!

A Triumph & the Mundane

In honor of my 51st post, I think I'll relay a story in which I will say "triumph!" to start off with because I'm rather pleased. Cathal and I went to Akropolis to eat and see Spiderman 3 - and at one of the pizza places in the mall, I ordered my meal and Cathal ordered his and when he asked for a large beer, the waitress turned to me and said "a large Svyturys Ekstra?" in Lithuanian. I smiled and looked at Cathal, who quickly said 'yeah, Svyturys Ekstra...' and she read off what we ordered to me and I told her it was right and she went off to get our drinks. Then I laughed. He constantly makes fun of my 'accent' when I speak Lithuanian - but in reality I think most of the accent is because I roll my R's and he can't do that. The point of the story is clearly she thought I was the one who spoke Lithuanian and he was the foreigner :) Granted though, he only said "a large beer" and didn't specify which one, so naturally the waitress would ask which one he wanted - but to me!!

The movie was only okay - it was pretty predictable and used way too much computer action sequences...but overall it was fine. Spiderific. Then we went to Memelis and met Evaldas, Dovydas & Regina there - and after a few too many drinks, I sang karaoke - American Pie...in front of the whole bar, with a friend of another friend who was also there. I was pushed up there - thank you boys.

In other news, I got my hair cut again yesterday at a different salon on the suggestion of Renalda, who said maybe I should get a more 'classic' cut...so I went and am pleased with the results. It's nothing drastic, just a cleanup.

In other other news, I have been packing and cleaning over the last 2 weeks since graduation and have been making tons of progress. I could not have done this last minute, as the time has allowed me to go through piles of papers and find homes for things I won't be taking with me. I don't leave tomorrow, which means I can't put everything in suitcases, but some of my clothes are in there already, allowing me to save some time later. I will spending the night in Vilnius before my flight the next day to make sure I don't miss a bus or something and then saying 'iki pasimatymo' to Lietuva...

Victory Day

Today is May 9, which means it's the anniversary of the capitulation (I had to look up this word - it's a special kind of treaty) of Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union in World War 2, commonly referred to by the Soviets as the Great Patriotic War. Wikipedia tells me that the Baltic states, which claim that the Soviet Union used its victory over Nazi Germany as an opportunity to occupy them for next 40 years, celebrate the victory day on May 8. I will have to confirm this with a Balticonian.

Anyway, on my walk to the bus station this morning, I noticed scores of people holding red flowers in their hands, mostly carnations and tulips, and walking in the same direction. I passed a group of children speaking Russian on their way back to school walking away from the direction everyone went, and was wondering what was going on. Lucky for me, I met Natalija at LCC and asked her what the occasion for the flowers was and she explained briefly about Victory Day and suggested I go to the memorial monument later in the day to see all the flowers. I did just that - and followed the people with the flowers to the WWII Soviet Memorial that I had seen before in the sculpture park, but never like this. There were hundreds and hundreds of flowers stacked on and near the monument. Most of them were red, and people were standing around with their families. It was beautiful, and I kind of felt bad taking photographs, but I thought I was being respectful and not taking photos of people and staying out of everyone's way.

Natalija also told me that her grandfather was in the war and that he was in a group of soldiers who met the Americans as they closed in on the Nazis. He received a high honor for doing so, and she said that most everyone of Russian descent has someone in their family who fought in the war, so the day is a big deal. It made me think of our memorial days...do we even have a holiday for the world wars? Or do Veterans and Memorial days take care of it?

Countdown

3 weeks................

LCC Graduation 2007

It's over. LCC Graduation 2007 is over. My friends are done with another year of school and mostly heading home or elsewhere early next week. Several will be in Klaipeda during May, as they'll be taking a class at LCC and so my goodbyes have been delayed for a while. Meanwhile, I leave in exactly four weeks!

The ceremonies on Saturday were well organized and went on without a hitch. The weather was beautiful, and I think the flower shops in the area had a boost of business because every graduate was walking around with an armful of blooming well-wishes.

The commencement ceremony went like this: The staff and faculty lined up on either side of the sidewalk leading to Michealsen Centras, where the ceremony would take place inside. We then followed them into the foyer, where we bypassed them and went in to our seats in a mini processional. The graduates then came in and found their seats, and the speeches began. The main speaker was an advisor to the Lithuanian president, who gave his speech in Lithuanian, and then an interpreter gave it in English. His speech was very nice, but it was getting long and somewhere along the line, people in the bleachers started clapping and shouting - I thought the president had just walked in, but apparently they were just indicating that they had heard enough and that the speech should be over. The speaker apologized for the length of his speech and gave his closing remarks in English. It was pretty rude, and a student apologized for their behavior in a later speech given to thank the parents of the graduates. There were 95 graduating students, and each one received a Lithuanian sash with their name on it, and those who won awards received extra sashes. For example, Regis got three sashes that formed the colors of the Lithuanian flag, and Dori got three sashes too, but two yellow and one green. Most everyone's parents and families were there - and it was fun for me to see them and gauge the family resemblance. After thousands of photos were taken, the families grabbed their grad and took them out to dinner for some quality bonding time and more congratulations.

The LCC party was being held at 8 pm at a hall above a bar/club in the old town, and upon arriving a fashionable 10 minutes late, we found that there was not enough seating and not everyone had arrived yet. Champagne, wine, various other alcoholic beverages and many, many fancy snacks were available. There was a slideshow of photos and a dance performance by two non-grads and it was pretty fun. A good time was had by all, seating or no :)

Goodsearch...

Here's a new, easy way to raise money for your favorite cause: Just start using GoodSearch.com as your search engine, and every time you search, they make a donation to your favorite charity, church or school! LCC is currently listed as a supportable institution, and every search adds a penny to their account. It's powered by Yahoo, so you get decent search results - I added it to my Firefox Google toolbar, so it's readily available for me to use as I surf the net.

The button above is a direct link to the default page, with LCC already filled in as the cause your searches will support, but here's a text link as well :) Even if you don't want to support LCC, it's a good idea, as thousands of causes are listed, from the ASPCA to The Breast Cancer Fund - so, you may as well support someone while you search!

Two More Stamps

That's right - two more stamps in my passport because I went to Latvia on Saturday! It was a random event - Evaldas, Regis and I had been sitting around my house wondering what we could do and someone suggested going somewhere and then somehow Latvia was decided upon. Do we have currency for Latvia? No! Do we speak Latvian? No! Do we know anything really about Liepaja? No! Sounds good, let's go!

So we did. It was great! The drive was not very long, only about an hour and we set about trying to find a place to park in the either 'you must turn right' or 'you most definitely may not turn right' small town of Liepaja. After some driving in circles, we parked and walked around and found that old town was about a three minute walk, total. We took some photos and had supper in a nice restaurant where they thankfully spoke English and prices were in Latvian lats (1 lat = 1.92 USD), so initially everything looks really cheap when a full meal is about 3 lats and drinks are .50 lats, but convert that and it's about the same price as Lithuania.

After supper we headed to the sea - or rather, the direction we thought the sea should be in - and ended up driving around random roads trying to find a sign or something directing us to the beach. The signs in Liepaja are ancient - surely not changed since Independence or even before that - many are still in Russian. As we looked for the beach, we came upon rows and rows of empty, not quite finished apartment buildings. It was just like the scene I mentioned from 'Everything is Illuminated' - When Elijah looks at a huge Soviet-style apartment building that has been left to decay and asks 'what is it?' - the Ukrainian young man looks at the same building and replies 'Soviets.' Elijah continues, 'what happened?' and the Ukrainian young man pauses and says 'independence.' The three of us were in awe that the buildings were just relics, left to stand unfinished and as a reminder of apparent Soviet plans for the area. After we saw the buildings, we saw the top of a Russian Orthodox church nearby, so we went to investigate and found to our surprise a huge, beautiful church in the middle of nowhere. We decided the church was built first, and then the apartment buildings which would house the potential congregation.

After our discovery, we again searched for the sea. We went down a very long, rural road through the woods and ended up at the shore. It was very, very windy and the sand was more than willing to fly right into my eyes. Evaldas was no sooner out of the car than he was running down the beach to the top of a nearby cliff overlooking the sea. That's great for him, but I was cold and retreated to the car to avoid getting sand blasted. After a few minutes, we headed further down the road and came upon more relics! This time, it was bunkers facing the sea that were in a state between 'pretty good condition' and 'ruined' - the ones on the cliff directly were torn apart, probably from the sea taking its toll on them year after year, but the ones still intact were surprisingly well kept. The ones I had seen in Klaipeda were always small, dark and full of beer bottles from teenage parties. These were deserted, open and I actually felt comfortable walking into them. It was really weird to imagine the activity associated with the site, with the construction of the bunkers, the soldiers who occupied them, and the people who had visited them after the war was over.

We explored the area some more - came upon a huge wind turbine and more bunkers, and then headed home. I told 'scary' stories on the way home in the dark and had both boys' attention whilst telling the stories that freaked me out as a kid reading those terrible books marketed to 5th graders (which I think are far too scary, especially the drawings, for a 10 year old). We stopped at Maxima and got some food and headed to my house to watch Se7en, since it was the only 'scary' movie I had...We all were too tired to finish it and rain checked it for later. The trip was wonderful though, shame we didn't do more excursions like this! There are pictures from the trip posted in the album on yahoo...

The Spit at Night...and other tales

The thesis defenses are over! My four fourth-year friends who opted to write a business thesis presented them yesterday and in order to celebrate, we had lunch at Skandalas, a great restaurant that my parents favored when they were here. I bought the wine as a congratulations gift and a good time was had by all. Then each of the friendlies went home for a nap, and I met up with Regis and Evaldas later for a 12th Floor excursion. It was a great day and they were feeling inclined to treat themselves to the fancier restaurants in town. While enjoying our food, view of Klaipeda and company of friends, we decided to go to the Spit for a short time - and we ended up catching the second to last ferry across, which meant that we had one hour or so to goof around, and then we had better get our booties back to the harbor, or we would be stranded for 6 hours until morning. There was only us and the two crew members on the ferry, and when we stepped off the boat, we headed to the path into woods, which would eventually take us to the beach. Picture this: the path through said woods starts a short walk from the parking lot and refreshment stands and it is the start of a 'no-streetlamp-zone' which means it is pitch black journey of fun. Being the token scaredy cat girl, I claimed the middle position and held both boys' hands as we began our trek into the black.

Evaldas was enjoying the fact that both Regis and I were not as comfortable with our adventure as he was (though I was the most frightened, and had I not had two strapping young lads to (hopefully) protect me, there's no way I'd have walked around like that) and so he took every opportunity to make a noise or exclaim 'what's that?!' and point into the woods as he could. I swear, I am the jumpiest kid I know - Regis will go ahead of me in my own stairwell, open and close the door so I think he's gone outside, when he's in fact hiding in the dark next to the door waiting to scare me. This is something I know he does and it's obvious when he does it, yet I scream everytime he jumps out at me. Anyway, back to the story - so we successfully walked through the woods and made it to the beach, where we gazed at stars and the boys ran around, apparently trying to scare me into thinking they had left me. There was a particularly bright orb of light near Mars, so we were wondering what it was...Venus maybe? After our beach walk, we headed back to the wooded path, far less intimidated than before and boarded the ferry and we all went home.

The next day was the LCC choir and bell choir concert, which was great! I really like the choir songs and almost wish I had joined it, though my vocal chords were not blessed at birth, I do enjoy singing. After that event, Evaldas, Regis and I were joined by a study abroad student named Rachel and we headed to Kretinga, a small town outside of Klaipeda. We saw the Winter Gardens attached to Kretinga's Museum, which houses a cafe inside the huge greenhouse - picture at right. It was beautiful! There is a small park near the property that had wood and stone sculptures that marked important dates in Lithuania's history - from battles to All Saint's Day, etc. There was also a huge sundial.

We tried to go to an inn-styled restaurant that I hadn't been to before for lunch, but a chicken breast meal would have taken an hour and a half..so we left and headed to HBH, a place that knows how to handle crowds :) The weather was very nice, so many people were sitting outside. We enjoyed our lunch and then headed to the botanical gardens of Palanga, which also has the Amber Museum on the property. I hadn't been to the area in all my time in LT, so it was cool to explore a new place. The statue at left is another interpretation of Eglė and the snake she married that turned out to be a prince - a Lithuanian fairytale. We did not go inside the Amber Museum, but the estate itself was impressive. On our way to the beach, we passed 'Birutė's Hill' - a place that houses a stone altar that a girl called Birutė looked after, but was whisked away by Duke Kestutis, who had fallen in love with her and took her to Trakai (the lake castle) and married her. In true Christian tradition, there is now a statue of the Virgin Mary next to the cave/altar - combining the sacredness of the place into a pagan rooted, now Christian shrine.

We saw the sun set on the beach and headed back to Klaipeda after having quite an adventure!

Margučiai, Šaltiena & Šašlykai!

The Lithuanian words in the title are "Easter Eggs, 'Gelatin & Beef Tongue Cake,' and Pork Shish-Kebabs" - all very important things on my Easter adventure! I headed to Joniškis again to be with Regis' family for the holiday, and I had a great time. Language barrier or no, moms are still moms, worried about your welfare, hunger and thirst levels and unstockinged feet. Side note about those eggs in the photo - the ones with thread and designs on them were made by a neighbor of Regis' family - by wrapping thread around eggs from her very own chickens and decorating them with slices of small branches and seeds, she created a very unique and permanent Easter memento! Apparently she made 400 of them in total, so I ordered a dozen and will send them home. And now back to our regularly scheduled programing - There was constantly food available, and it was dangerously delicious...everything from tried and true herring dishes to colored hard boiled eggs to a cake made from gelatin, cut up beef tongue and grated carrot, served with a horseradish sauce. The 'cake' was not bad, just a different texture than I am used to - and everything else was excellent. The barbecued pork shish-kebabs were outstanding, and what a nice change to have something barbecued! Regis' mama even made cepelinai (the potato dumplings with meat inside) and I had three! A definite record for me.

Regis' older brother Donatas was visiting from England, and he was very nice and definitely a big brother - teasing his little brother about anything and everything in true sibling fashion. It made me miss my own siblings, but I shall see them soon enough! :) On Easter, their Keith & Peggy came over to dinner and the kid side of the table excused themselves early to go play the flag game Regis got for his birthday in February. Anyone know the capital of Malawi (flag shown at left)? If you guessed Lilongwe, you'd be right! It's a great game, very nerdy and informative - I feel smarter just knowing there is a country called Djibouti!

Anyway, I got to bake a cake and made baked eggplant - both of which were well received - I just love cooking! The weather was beautiful, sunny and warmish until Sunday night and Monday morning brought snow! Snow? Yes, folks...snow. Where was this snow at Christmas? Just plain weird, but I'm glad I did not pack up all of my scarves and gloves just yet, as I am sure rain is on its way eventually. Lietuva means rain after all, and we haven't had a whole lot of it...

I have posted some photos of the Easter adventure in my photo album, though I was disappointed I did not take advantage of the nice weather to walk around the small town and take more photos. Mew. More will come when I get them from Regis' camera. Spending time with his family was very nice, and I could tell that my comprehension of Lithuanian was better than Christmas, but my speech skills are still lacking because of my lame unconfidence and plain lack of knowledge of proper sentence structure creation. Don't worry Mom, I will be sure to send a thank you note in appreciation of their hospitality! I even got a bag full of cookies sent home with me, and intend to come back with recipes in order to try and recreate some of the scrumptiousness!

In other news, I'm posting my resume on some places and doing job searches, with little luck...anyone got a media empire that needs an employee or a great business plan they want to share with me? ;)