My Take on it All, Ej

So, its approaching 3 weeks tomorrow that we got here. It sure doesn't seem like its been three weeks. In some ways it feels longer, and in others it feels shorter.

I think that moving to another country is bizarre, I was just talking to Becky about this yesterday. Hopping in an airplane and being transported within hours to some other country, on the far side of the world, and yet I didn't really experience the distance that I travelled. I mean to look on a map or globe and see Lithuania in comparison to where we were, I just cannot comprehend it. It is probably similar to what getting older feels like. You may not have felt like you lived 60, 70, 80 years to get to the place where you are, but you did. You actually are that old. And no matter what it felt like we are where we are. Its nice to have things make you stop in the present moment and think about what brought you here. And where Becky and I find ourselves is quite enjoyable.

I was righting an email to my friend Erick Briden yesterday and I was telling him about three things that I have truly enjoyed about being here. First, the Baltic Sea. We are about a thirty minute walk from the beach (which upon walking everywhere since being here, it doesn't seem that long now). The beach is so beautiful. I have gone there many days so far and just laid on the beach with a book, or an audio version of one, and just watched the sun and sea. It is good for the my soul to sit and watch that pair.

Secondly, the forest. There is an enormous pristine forest almost right outside our door. The university, where we live, is on the north side of town. Up here there is this huge swath of forest that sits between us and the Sea. I don't really know how big it is, but I will go walking for hours in there and not find the end of it. The trees are huge and there is thick moss on the ground. There is an immense trail system, nothing paved or marked by any signs. It feels like some universalist's dream, cause all these paths are so winding and interwoven it seems like they do lead to the same place. Other than it being flat, it looks similar to the forests in British Columbia, Canada that I was in for a couple of summers.

And finally, the town. Klaipeda is a good sized city, but the down town/old town is pretty quaint and cozy, its easy to feel familiar with it. There are all sorts of old buildings and streets to explore. The restaurants are really great. The prices are good and the food is wonderful. It is just meat and potatoes, but man, do they know how to cook.

Other than those things, I have been playing basketball, recording songs, and getting ready for school. Also, I have been trying to learn the language, and boy is this one a doozy. I learned some french in middle school and high school, and this is considerably more difficult. I heard that since this is arguably one of the, if not the oldest language, instead of simplifying over the centuries they decided to go the other route and just continue to make "exceptions". Which we all know is often not the best approach to take in life or, as it turns out, languages, as the case may be. And I think I like it more for that.

As for the school itself and the community of LCC I have been very encouraged. What struck me about it was the similarity it bares to my favorite communities that I have lived amongst. The staff here are gathered around a purpose to serve people for the sake of love, through their faith in Jesus. We gather as people who believe in God, and we want to better peoples lives with relationships, personal growth, and faith . And this place could use some softening through love.

The culture is one that seems to be about a hardened exterior for protection. Due to their past they have needed to adapt to the realities that they lived in, which sadly is an inability to trust anyone because of the Soviet times. I have heard stories of peoples grandma's getting sent to work camps in Siberia for singing old Lithuanian folk songs and getting told on for it. Folk songs for cryin' out loud. So everyone learned not to trust people who are not their closest family, much less people of different nationalities.

My experience with the people has been mixed. Some people are rude and seem to be angry, trying to keep a tough guy image, while others have been really friendly and helpful. Walking down the street I have experience all sorts of different interactions. Old round women who, upon finding out that I am american, start waving their hands at me like they are trying to swat a fly thats been busing around their head. And old men who, at any time of day, literally bump into me because they are so drunk, at least thats their excuse. The children are great to hang out with (thanks for the advice Dane), and they are really kind and fun. And every age between treats me with kindness and smiles, or acts like I don't exist (and if I am to choose between non-existence, or existing, but only as a fly, I still haven't decided yet).

All these different responses I am getting are probably not much different from what I would experience back home. I am willing to bet these observations of people are brought on due to two reasons: one, I am looking for how people are treating me here (Apparently we have a need to do that when we go to new places and not in the old ones). And secondly, here, I stand out...to say the least. I have a feeling that its about as fair for me to judge Lithuanians based on my experiences of walking around here as it would be if I were to judge minnesotans based on me walked around downtown inside a human-sized plastic hamster ball, dressed in something as culturally out of style as a kilt, trying to hug everyone that makes eye contact with me. Which of course would fail immediately, and would become quite awkward due to the giant plastic ball that I would be sliding down the inside of.

So, I have this to say, I love it here. I am so thankful for everyone of you who is supporting us to be here. You are all so, so great. I love the challenges and the beauty of this place, these people, and the community that I get to be a part of. I know this is a long post, and thanks for reading it. I think there will come a day when life here will become pretty normal and I won't have as much to write about. so until then...

Ej

Pretty, pretty, pretty good

Yesterday I became 26 years old. The night before we had a bunch of people over to hang out in our apartment and have a grand old time. It was sweet to have some chill time to talk and laugh with people that I had been training alongside all of this week. Good to get out of meeting mode and into fun mode.

Erik surprised me with singing me to sleep that night as it was officially the 15th of August by the time we headed to bed. Ahh, one of my favorite things about being married to EJ, the musician. Then we woke up Saturday to have a true Erik and Becky adventure as we paddled 12.8 miles down a river with a group of new friends.

We checked out the school van and drove to the countryside to rent kayaks and take a mini-bus to our drop point 20 km up the river. We were surprised to find that the water in the "river" was about waist deep in most parts and we were glad that we had decided to forego the life jacket rental due to the extra and seemingly unnecessary charge. The sun was shining and I felt like it was a day to fully relax as we paddled downriver. Another one of my favorite things...relaxing. We paid little attention to the map because there really was no way to go the wrong direction; we figured we would get there when we got there. Our stop for lunch happened to be a spot on a hill that had a sweet rope swing and we were soon joined by some local boys to utilize the swing into the river. Erik and Steve launched themselves off the high tree branch to land in the river using the swing as well. The mood was still pretty laid back at this point. Little did we know that our lunch spot was only 1/5 of the way into our journey for the day. The paddling continued.

And continued. The sights were beautiful. We saw some native wildlife as well as some native Lithuanians. I even had a drunk guy swim out to my kayak and try to hitch a ride down river with me. The thing I was most concerned about was getting tipped over and getting fully submerged. I survived without getting wet. And the paddling continued. At this point we got more serious about our paddling as we finally did the math and realized that 20 km meant we were going to have to paddle 12.8 miles. We made it to the end. We were still having fun, although our enthusiasm was all used up. We were glad to come to the end. The picture here shows one of the odd sights we saw along the way...a bicycle hanging in the air with fresh flowers in the front basket.

Well, our experience took the entire day as it was 8 o'clock when we got back home. Erik ran to the grocery once again and then we made spaghetti for dinner. Mary called just in time to share my birthday dinner with us. I think we are getting the hang of these Skype conversations. There was a moment while we were all interacting that I almost started crying because I felt like Mary was really sitting in our apartment with us and I wanted it to be true. I am thankful for technological advances. Later Erik and Jaxxon were hanging out on their respective couches having a Skype conversation while I put together a collage frame of our wedding photos to hang in our apartment. Now and again I feel like being crafty.

Well, that was my day. Some of you already know that I have a lot of expectation and anticipation when it comes to celebrating birthdays. This was a true success. It was fun to get out with 5 new people who are quickly becoming friends. It was fun to have a day away from work and all the planning that is going on for the soon-to-arrive student leaders. It was fun to be outside and get physically worked out on the water. Thanks to many of you for all of the kind messages and emails I was blessed to receive when I got home last night. Each of them warmed my heart. Thanks for caring for me. I will leave you with a quote from Erik, spoken aloud this morning. "If there's one thing to celebrate in life, it's each other."

First time...

-we saw the Baltic Sea! I must say that it felt like we were on a Californian beach, although way less crowded and the waves weren't as convincing. The sand and the view were beautiful! These Lithuanians seem less concerned about dress code than the Minnesotans we know. Either way, we are definitely going to love having the beach in our backyard (or under an hour's walk away).

-we had an old Lithuanian man smile and greet us.

-Erik made an attempt to greet him back, although he may have sounded more French than Lithuanian.

-we walked thru a carnival that was in town.

-we bought toilet paper in Lithuania.

-we made dinner in our new apartment in Neumann Hall.

And last, but not least, we had our very first Skype conversation!

Thank-you Sheehy's!

Beginning to be here

Our first Saturday afternoon in Lithuania. We have unpacked most of our belongings and found a place for each item that travelled along with us in our 3 Rubbermaid bins or 1 large duffel bag. Erik got up early (10 am) this morning to visit a market somewhere in Klaipeda with Andrew, Steve and Andrew's two kids (Andrew and Steve are other LCC staff from the States). Erik had his eye out for a new pair of wheels, and he came home with nothing less than a stylish high-riding, 1-speed bicycle. I, myself, am a fan of its green color. We aren't even discouraged by the lack of air in the back tire. I guess that bike pumps work differently in Lithuania and so we lost all the air in the process of pumping up the tire with our pump. By the way, the picture shown here is of the city view we have from our roof of the student dorm.

Erik is taking a nap on our new living room couch. We are both still working through the jet-lag from traveling. We slept about 3 hours of our 28-hour journey on the way year, 2 hours on the flight to Frankfurt and then 1 hour in the Frankfurt airport. We are thankful that all of the flights and everything in between went without a hitch. I didn't even realize I was going through customs when the German man checked my passport so that I could get through to my gate. I kept waiting to pull out all my paperwork to prove that I had medical coverage and show my reasons for going to Lithuania. It never happened. They let me in with no questions asked.

We met another couple destined for LCC while on the plane to Germany. The plane was incredibly huge and almost spacious, so Erik was taking advantage of the hallway by the bathroom to do some stretching mid-flight. He started talking to an Indian man about attending a university in Lithuania. Soon a stranger came around the corner and entered the conversation with his own questions. It didn't take long before the stranger became Mark and later Sherry, who are both serving at LCC this year in English professor and librarian roles. Please take note of the indoor smoking lounges we saw in the Frankfurt airport.

A hired driver met all of us at the small airport in Vilnius. It was fun to see the people waiting in the small airport lobby with beautiful flower bouquets in hand, ready to welcome their visitors to Lithuania. Although Justinas (J is a Y sound), our driver, didn't have flowers in hand, it was a relief to see the black type of our names on his white sign and know that at least someone knew we had arrived. We loaded our luggage into the van and then ate some food and walked around while waiting for Rachel Johnson, another LCC staff person, to arrive on a different flight.

The drive towards home in Klaipeda seemed familiar and strange all at the same time. We thought that the countryside of Lithuania looked similar to the farm and open spaces in Minnesota, with a few more hills. All of the billboards, road signs, gas stations and evenautomobiles reminded us that we were in a foreign country and not at home. Justinas spoke excellent English and was kind and helpful with our questions about his country. I was impressed with my first real Lithuanian.

We have been in a haze since arriving at LCC on Thursday evening. Steve and Laura Hanson (Steve is a 2nd-year RD at LCC) were here to show us our new apartment and then take us out on the town so that we wouldn't be able to fall asleep. They performed their job well, guiding us all over town and finding a great restaurant to sit outside and eat true Lithuanian fare...potato balls stuffed with meat. Erik and I slept for 12 hours that first night. Steve and Laura's helpful tips and suggestions may not be remembered very clearly, but they served as our tour guides all of yesterday as well. We ate in another Lithuanian cafe for lunch with Veslava (she is the other RD I will be working with and is a 2006 grad of LCC), took a tour of LCC's campus, shopped for groceries at our first Lithuanian store called Maxima and then ended with eating pizza at the Hanson's apartment.

I am all caught up with the significant events thus far. We are feeling settled in our bare, yet cozy, apartment. We have survived all of our outings because we have had language guides along. We are missing the usual people and places of home, but I don't know if it has sunk in that we are staying here for a while. I am sure the reality will come. We love you and are thankful for this opportunity to be here. Good morning to all of you in the states...the weekend has arrived!

I hate to say Good-bye, So I'll see you when I see you...

The time has come. We board a plane here in Chicago in about 15 minutes that will take us on our 2nd flight to Frankfurt and our 3rd flight to Vilnius, Klaipeda. The plan from there is for a driver hired by the school to pick Erik and I up for the 4-hour drive to LCC International University. Wow.

I don't know what to think, so I thought I would check in and say that the blogging will now commence. I am so excited to share the experiences of this next step via the world wide web with those we care for so much and are sad to leave behind. Frankfurt, here we come! Tschuss.

(Please note that I am a responsible wearer of my fashionable passport holder, unlike Erik's technique of taking it off as soon as we passed through security in Minneapolis. See pictures to understand.)