Klaipeda Ankommen

I've been in Lithuania for 4 whole days now. In Vilnus, I stayed at a hostel in the old part of the city. Since I arrived late from Dublin on Saturday evening, I didn't have much time other than to crash for the night. My body was still on Dublin time, although my mind tried to convince it that a 2 hour time difference wasn't that big of a deal. I slept until 11AM. Yikes! To my relief, the majority of the shops were open on Sunday (despite Lithuania being predominantly Catholic), so I was able to hit up the Iki and Maxima (grocery store chains) to pick up some bread, fruit, juice, and scope out the food scene, seeing which food items I could decipher from cognates. I spent the majority of the time hanging out in the park near Cathedral Square, in the heart of the capital. A small reenactment of a medieval decree in the main square was very amusing; Marijos cathedral has some great Passion artwork and held a continuing string of baptisms for most of the day; the riverwalk was great with the avenue of trees (not as junkily polluted with random trash as Galway); and I had an interesting time asking desk clerks recommendations of where I could catch the final Meisterschaft football game. This may be revealing a little too much, but I went to thre different locations until I was able to settle on an outdoor garden view of the final match. I was greatly disappointed in Germany's passing skills, but was relieved that a winner was determined within regulation time, as I was not looking forward to inhaling 30+ minutes of second hand smoke more than was necessary. Had an interesting conversation with a young man from Sligo, Ireland at the hostel at 3AM.

On Monday morning, I went back to the Vilnus airport to meet up with fellow SLI instructors. It's about a 50-50 mix of Midwesterners and Canadians, ranging from different professions and ages. I am currently rooming with a young woman from Wisconsin, and we're getting used to not flushing toilet paper down the toilet, rather stowing used toilet paper in the close-lidded trash cans next to the toilet. Awesome! Just have to keep on top of the trash, I guess.

I'm sharing an office at the university with a woman from Pennsylvania. She is an English teacher in the states, but has taught at SLI before. The teacher resources are above and beyond what I expected to receive: two working photocopiers, a working computer in each office (with Internet), a modest supply of office supplies, a great textbook resource room, whiteboards, etc. We've been having orientation meetings yesterday and today. Tomorrow, we'll have the chance to take a bit of a break with a walking tour of Klaipeda and a ferry ride to the Spit (a great beach area on the Baltic Sea).

As I was explaining to Sonya last night, it's weird seeing the same people for more than two days and being able to say "See you tomorrow," and mean it. There are activities that are planned out more than three days in advance, and I've been able to unpack the entire contents of my hiking backpack without the niggling feeling that I'll have to pack up everything in two days. My insular lifestyle is transitioning into a communal one fairly well.

Well, I better finish up here at the office if I'm to make it for a group dinner at 17.30. This feels like such an early dinner time, but for the sake of building relationships, that's when I'll eat for now.