... and the last shall be 1st

We experienced that Biblical passage on our way home. After being dropped off at the airport by Ewa, Marcin and Kuba, we headed for the gate. Of course we got there in plenty of time, so we waited in a small cafe and had coffee. Finally, we boarded our plane---seats 37 C and 37 E, separated by a man in the middle. I asked him to exchange seats with me and he did. Snuggled in for our 9 and one half hour trip, we waited for about 45 minutes in the plane as people were being seated. Then, we noticed a woman in a white blouse walking our direction. She asked several people for their boarding passes and passports. It was interesting. She asked the man next to me [the one I had exchanged seats with] if he was David Watry. I said I was and then she asked for my ticket. I couldn't find it. She asked Jude for hers and then said follow me. Jude got up and started to follow, asking her if I could go with. The lady said, "Yes, both of you should come."

As I fumbled for my baggage in the upper compartment, Jude scooted ahead. I found her sitting in Business Class, Seat 2 A. I was asked to sit in 2B. Moved into Business Class. What a NICE surprise. There were buttons all over the seat--one for recline, one to bring your feet up, one for your lombard. I tell you...there's no feeling like being in those seats for 9 plus hours. Needless to say our trip home was pleasant.

It was hard leaving the plane once we landed in Chicago. But we had another plane to catch in Chicago. The passport control had a DisneyWorld wait--45 minutes. Then off to baggage. Half of the bags were unloaded by the time we had arrived...but not ours. Murphy's Law in action. The red light flashed again and out came our bags. Now through security. Since we had been to more than one country, our bags we checked by xrays, so we waited again in a line. Once off, we headed for United, checked the bags again and headed for Terminal 2, a slight train ride way from Terminal 5. Off the train, we headed to the Security check once again. Another line...our time was getting short. We had a little over 20 minutes to board our flight to Milwaukee. Many of you know the feeling of running through the airport. Jude and I separated. I found the gate while Jude patiently waited behind a person who kept questioning why she had to take her shoes off. Our gate was F6, we thought a short walk from security. When we got to the gate, they were paging us. We made the flight, a 17 minute jaunt to Milwaukee.

As I looked out the plane's window, I began to notice familiar sights...the power plant in Kenosha, South Shore Yacht Club, the interstate. It was a good summer, but it was good to be home. On the ground, we headed to baggage, where we waited again. Except this time, our bags didn't come. Instead we heard, "Gigi, Captain" and our bags didn't really matter anymore...

Auschwitz...still a nightmare

At 8 this morning, we boarded a bus to Auschwitz/Birkenau Memorial and Museum. It was an hour by bus. During the trip, we watched a Russian made movie called the Liberation of Auschwitz. That film was unsettling, and we hadn't even stepped out of the bus yet. Auschwitz is the most well known cemetery and place of genocide in the world. The Nazis killed 1.5 million people there, mainly Jews as well as Poles, Gypsies, Russian POW's and members of other nationalities.

Getting off the bus, we noticed the red brick buildings, nicely attended to in rows with building numbers. They looked like row houses, but they were prison blocks where the Nazis contained political prisioners like intelligentia--teachers, priests and political figures collected after the invasion in 1939. These prisoners were not meant to be killed but rather to work in the German amunitions' plant in the city, Oswiesim. Auschwitz did have a crematory which was used to kill up to 700 people at once. Joseph Mengele and other doctors worked at this place performing "experiments" on prisioners. One of the doctors focused on twins for his experiments, giving one injections before injecting phenol into the heart for instant death so organs could be preserved. There was a wall where people were executed too. Parents were actually standing their kids at this wall and "shooting" pictures of them...

Then, we traveled over to Birkenau or Auschwitz II, built for killing Jews. In this facility, made even more famous by Spielberg's Schindler's List, there were over 300 barracks made of wood, originally used to stable 54 horses. Instead, the Germans stuffed over 500 Jews, ones that could be used for work. All the other Jews sent to Birkenau [70%] went right to the gas chambers where they could kill and burn over 2000 a day. Of the 1.5 million who died there, 1.3 million were Jews. The whole experience was eerie and surreal. At Auschwitz, pictures are not allowed to be taken in the buildings, where rooms of human hair, suitcases, shoes and eye glasses are piled to the ceilings. It was all too real--solemn, contemplative and sorrowful.

Getting back onto the bus made me think--how could this have ever happened? Once back in Krakow, we ate lunch Jude and Ewa prepared, walked back to the city square, shopped for some more stuff and got settled into the hostel for the night. Jude and I are baby sitting while Ewa and Marcin take a well earned night off.

A couple days in Krakow

We landed in Warsaw and met up with Ewa, Marcin and Kuba. Instead of heading directly to Krakow, we went to Marcin's brother's flat for the night and met his lovely wife, Anna and Sophia alnong with Jacek. We had a great time there and will see them on our return trip.

Monday, we drove to Krakow and scheduled a tour in the afternoon of the city center. It's an incredible city--a must see for everyone who travels. We walked the royal road, a walking tour of the city center. The square is the largest in Europe and comes to life after supper. WE saw St. Mark's Church where a trumpeter plays on the hour around the clock the same song played to warn the city of the invading Mongols. The playing stops abruptly at the moment in the song where he got shot throught he neck with an arrow--but the city was spared...There are huge bazaars in the square, selling everything imaginable. We also toured the Wawel Castle, saw where John Paul II went to school, along with Copernicus--sadly the university of Krakow would not admit Madame Curie because she was female. We also saw where all the kings of Poland are buried in the church--the same church where all the same kings were crowned--the same church where John Paul II was the Archbishop. Did I mention it's a gorgious city.

The hostel we are staying at is in the city center, close to everything. It's great talking to different people and visiting with them about their travels. It's also very quiet and comfortable.

We drove to the salt mine Wieliczka this morning and took a three hour walking tour through over 3 miles of underground tunnels, and we only covered 1% of the existing tunnels. They have churches carved out of salt over 400 feet below ground. In one of the chambers, a man carved the Bible history. In the middle of the chamber, there are about 4-5 chandeliers made from salt crystals. The mine is over 700 years old and many famous Polish people including John Paul II and Copernicus visited the place. Later in the afternoon, we walked around the Jewish area of town called Kazimierz. Many if the iron gates surrounding houses were shaped like menorrahs and had stars of David in them. Again, it was an old section of town with many memorials of Nazi victims of the WWII. We took a picture of one such memorial dedicated to the 88 victims of the Ferber family. Tonight, we will enjoy a Polish feast at the hostel. Actually, I don't know how much we will eat since that's all we have been doing in Poland. What a country...if you have a taste for sausages, kraut, potatoes, beets and any type of cabbage, this is the place to come.

Finishing well...

Last night, Wednesday, was the Talent Night, a time when the students display their talents or just let it all go loose. There were 12 performances ranging from Grand piano to singing to ballet to gymnastics performances. It was great to see the students out of their elements. The Polish group did a spoof on SLI with a teacher scaring the kids to death with lessons. They ended by stripping off their shirts to spell "SLI...I'm Lovin it." [See photos]

Before supper, Jude and I jumped on a bus with about 8 others to go for supper near Old Town. Today also starts Europeade, a European song and cultural festival, this year held in Klaipeda. There are 4,000 participants in town and thousands more tourists. All the participants are staying in schools, sleeping on the floors. And they are all being fed at LCC between 4 and 10 p.m.. Our campus, chaotic enough with 235 students, now has a few more added into the mix. The city put up a giant tent in addition to the gymnasium, filled both with tables and chairs, and then serves food for all the participants. In addition, we got onto a bus in Old Town to come back to school for the talent show, not realizing the busses would be crammed, crammed, did I say crammed with people going to eat at LCC, the same stop as ours. It reminded me of broken ribs and busses in Russia. In Old Town we ran into some of Erica Bauer's students dressed in costume for the festival. [see photo].

We also introduced the word "Auction" to the students during the Talent Show. We auctioned off stuff that some of the teachers didn't want to take back home. For example, I put in the auction one of the books that my students were reading--The True Story of Hansel and Gretel. It brought in 28 litas. In all, we raised over 300 litas for the orphanage to help them buy products like shampoo, toilet paper, tooth brushes...New concepts like vocabulary words are interesting. Erwin, our teacher auctioneer, started the bidding at 10 litas for some cookies, and one Polish student then bid 15 litas...outbidding himself. And so it went...

Thursday is our last day of teaching. Jude's class and my class are having a sort of vocabulary competition. Jude's class learned the vocabulary . My class should know the words since it's Advanced. We will each have five minutes to see which class can give the most synonyms for the chosen words and get the teacher to say the word. It's a fun way to end the sessions. Then, we take pictures and say our good byes.

On Sunday, we catch a bus at 6 a.m. for Vilnius and fly to Poland to see Ewa, our exchange daughter from 1995. But, that's a whole other chapter...

Last week...

Friday after school, we went to Memelis for supper around 7 p.m. and had their famous sausage and kraut. Then, I met Jude and Erica for a sunset view of the Baltic from the 22nd story of the K building. It was great up there. They had some live music, followed by a DJ. We headed over to the Klaipeda Hotel to show Erica the "glass bathrooms." You get a bird's eye view of downtown Klaipeda while taking care of business. We celebrated Christina's birthday with desserts at 11 p.m. from the top of the Klaipeda Hotel. There was a saxoponist there as well, and it wasn't as crowded as the top of the other building.

On Saturday, we went to the orphanage. Jude and I took the bus since there wasn't room in the cars. We played softball most of the time. There was stack of baseball gloves with UWSP-PE written all over them. Jude made some bubbles, which the kids just loved again. This time, we took students from our class as well along with some of the teachers. Most of the teachers went to Vilnius for some sightseeing. Just as we got there, a group of Spanish students came to play with the orphanage kids too. So they had alot to do. It was very warm, and after two hours of hitting and fielding the ball, we had juice in the plastic mugs which Grandpa Bud bought and Kel and Sharon took back with them last fall.

Tim, one of the other teachers, and Jude and I left to go home by way of McDonalds and the beach. After eating at McDonalds, we got on a bus and ferry to go to the beach. The wind was blowing hard and the sand was everywhere. But, the water was great. We sat out on the sandbar for about 30 minutes, went back to the beach and read or slept and then repeated the process again. It was a great day to be on the beach. Then Erwin showed up walking down the beach. We swam with him for awhile, and then Tim left with Erwin and Jude and I stayed for another hour or so. On the way home, we ended up first in line for the next ferry back across the bay. But a different ferry came and we had to get into a different line because it docked at another landing. It reminded us a little of Russia... We found a pizza place on the way home. It tasted so good after a day at the beach. Once home we showered--still finding sand and then settled in to preview "Leap of Faith," the movie I'm showing for movies and chat next Tuesday/Thursday.

It rained pretty hard early Sunday morning around 4 a.m. and then the sun came out. However by noon it was raining again. We did some laundry--it seems as though if you're drying and washing at the same time, the fuse blows...so it took longer than normal. It gave me some time to blog and Jude to read "The Grapes fo Wrath." She's already plowed through "East fo Eden," "Poland," "The Last Time I Was Me." Man, it's really raining out now--thunder and lightning. The downspouts are gushing out water. It's nice to be inside...dry and relaxed...

Eating our way through Lithuania...

Tonight, we hope to see this sight from the 22nd floor of the "K" Builidning in downtown Klaipeda. We're heading there for dessert and coffee.

Speaking of food, there's nothing like the presentation of food like here in Lithuania. No matter the restaurant or cafe, it's usually beautiful. Last night for example, Jude and I ordered kababs. Jude's came with cucumbers sliced one way and mine came with them sliced another. Nothing is ever presented the same. Our cook prepared the meat over an open fire. I'm not sure she liked me taking pictures. This little Armenian restaurant is one of out favorite places for kabobs. Then, there's the boat restaurant, close to the dorms. We call it this because the patio is shaped like a ship. It's always good, there's always plenty of choices, and it's got waitresses who speak English. Tonight, we're watching "Leap of Faith" starring Steve Martin, in preparation for our movie and chat with the students next Tuesday night. Then about 7 p.m., we're headed to Memelis, a German micro brewery in town. Klaipeda used to be called Memel, when it was occupied by the Germans earlier in its history. They serve great sausage and kraut, fried after it's cooked. We might stop at the Klaipeda Hotel to let one of our friends experience the 12th floor glass bathroom overlooking the square. They'd since frosted some of the glass windows since building the 22

story structure next to it. But, it's still quite an experience.

This weekend it will be very quiet for us. Most of the teachers are going to Vilnius for the weekend. Jude and I are going to the orphanage on Saturday. It'll be fun seeing some of the kids again. Reda will be there. She was the social worker there for two years. Now she has another job, but her heart is still with the kids and she goes with Kel and Sharon monthly to visit them.

Forward....

It's been very busy since Sunday...Where to start.

Monday was a normal school day for me, but Judy is sharing the load with some of the morning teachers who each got another five extra students in their classes. At night, we had the staff potluck, always good, and then walked home.

Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday this week will be long days. Tuesdays and Thursdays are Bible studies and movie and chat nights with students and Wednesday, Sharon and Kel have asked us to talk at their church which happens to meet on the beach at 8 p.m.

Last night Jude went to the Bible study because one of her students asked to go with him. I ran the movies and chat--The Big Kahuna--with Danny DiVito and Kevin Spacey. They have been going well. We've had about 24-30 students each time. This week's theme is money. Five minutes before the movie started, one of my former students walked in and invited Jude and I to her grand opening of MaryKay products on Thursday evening. It runs into our movie and chat on Thursday and is about 25 minutes away, so it's a long walk there and back--besides doing the studies. After the movies last night, Jude and I left the dorms ad started to walk across the field by the school when a man stopped us and asked us where we were from. His name was Slava, originally from Moscow. We had a cordial conversation, and then he asked us about local churches. We tried to show him where some were, drew a map on a card for him and he thanked us and walked on. Kind of random...

We saw a couple of friends walking back to the dorms, and they wanted to stop for ice cream and cherries. After finding the first restaurant closed--even though it's still very light at 10 p.m., we found a second one open. We enjoyed apple cake, chocalate cake with ice cream, coffee, beer and sodas. That restaurant then closed so we started back to the dorms. Getting there, the front doors had been already locked and the security woman was not at her desk. We had heard Erwin , Shirley and Vytas through the second story window and yelled up for help. Erwin just wanted to throw us some blankets for the night...Nice guy. He came down and opened the door just as the security guard was getting back to her desk...

Jude's gone to the Post Office with Rita, a Lithuanian who was born in Chicago. Her grandfather used to be the Postmaster in Klaipeda. Jude's getting stamps for post cards to send to her 1st grade students. Jude also picked up some nice prescription reading glasses. [MIDDLE PHOTO] The Soul Outpost, held at noon on Tuesdays and Thursdays, is a time for students to gather and sing and hear a message about one of the week's themes--money this week. [BOTTOM PHOTO] My keyboard in case you're wondering why my spelling is sometimes out of the box...