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!