A Nida weekend

After the staff/student barbecue on Friday night, Jude and I went to Nida for the weekend. Nida is a quaint artist village about 60 km from Klaipeda, located on the spit.

On Saturday morning, David went to the market to get spinach while Jude finished the laundry. Then at about 10 a.m., we walked to the ferry to take us across to the spit, the thin strip of land where the beach on the Baltic sits. We drove in a pocket rocket [minivan] waiting at the bus stop until we had enough passengers to head to Nida.

Upon arrival at the bus station, we started to look for our lodgings. Ieva, one of the girls at LCC's reception desk, arranged the room for us. We found it with little trouble. Walking in the door, Indira, the girl behind the desk asked me, "Are you David." I guess she knew we were coming or that we just looked out of place. We spent the afternoon looking for amber at the shops, walked to the top of the sand dunes, and then proceded to the beach for the rest of the day. It was delightful, relaxing and peaceful. Jude was reading "Poland," a history by James Michener while I read 19 minutes by Jodi Picoult--testing out the Kindle 2 that I borrowed from school. The Kindle works pretty well, but we haven't been able to download any books while in Europe.

After the beach, we walked back, showered, slept for a bit and then went out for a bite to eat. We settled at a seaside cafe after strolling though the village of Nida. The next morning, we found the seaside cottage Thomas Mann, the German author of Dr. Faustus, who lived in Nida during the summers. We also visited a Lutheran church, know for its unique footstone designs [see photo]. We, then, caught another pocket rocket back to the other end of the spit and decided to walk to the beach before heading back to the dorm. The clouds started to come in, so we called it a day and walked back to the ferry, where we met Erika, Eric and Erwin, who had just finished walking 25 km from Joadkrante, another small fishing village on the spit. Since we were hungry, Erwin suggest a real Lithuanian spot on the way home. It was delicious like most of the food in Lithuania. One really can't order wrong. Even in the little out of the way restaurant, we noticed the menus were in English. Times are a changing. Jude had potato pancakes and I had the same only with meat inside. Then, it was off to the dorms to get ready for lessons on Monday. When we got back to the dorms, Jude had a note from Robin. One of the teachers was still sick, and Jude, along with a couple of other afternoon teachers, were tapped to teach in the mornings too.

Thought you might enjoy the photo of this little boy on the beach. He reminded us of our grandson, Grayson.

"Once" upon a time...

We showed ther movie "Once" on Tuesday night and will finsih it on Thursday with a chat afterwards. Over 40 students showed up. You must undstand that the room was 20 by 20 with two smallllllll windows and couches. Oh, did it get hot...We got home around 10 pm...still daylight by Lithuanian time standards. This movie event is part of the spiritual life program for the summer. Each week is themed. Week one is on relationships, week two is about money, and week three is God. We meet twice a week in the evenings. Students have a choice of three different venues each time. They can choose the movie, a discussion group, or a Bible study.

On Wednesday, Jude and I both showed YouTube videos of the Brewers' Sausage Races--David to inspire and inform his classes about Wisconsin lore and Jude to visually show the difference between brat [the sausage] and brat [a bad kid]. Our classrooms are each equipped with projectors, computer, and sound. I wonder when my classroom at home will catch up. Who would have thunk it..Now all my students want to go to the ball game.

It rained all day today, ending around 4 pm--just in time for the walk home.

Last night before we went to the movies, we ran into Emas, a friend of Becka's who worked at the camp during her first year here. We knew he was here because we spotted his car in the parking lot. It's an oddly shaped green vehicle. It kind of looks like a green pepper. He's now working at LCC, his sister Valita, is having a baby in England in the next two weeks, and his parents have retired from their jobs at a restaurant. We will meet up with him later this week for either coffee or lunch and catch up.

One of my students is desparate for more homework so I met with her after classess and the two of us will be reading short articles and then meeting to discuss them. This is another incident that doesn't happen often for me at home!

When I left the dorm this morning it was raining so I hopped on a bus. It is nice to have the option. The bus now costs 1 lita 80 centas. That's about 70 cents. I personally like to ride the mini busses that cost 2 litas 50 centas ($1.00) because you can flag them down wherever you are on their route and they will stop whenever you would like them to stop along the route, that is if you can say it well enough for them to understand. I can usually do it, but the one time that we rode the mini bus so far this year, we disagreed upon where to get off. The poor driver didn't know what to do. David won, and we had to retrace our steps to get back to the dorm, oh well.

We are leaving the office soon to meet friends from BC, Canada for dinner. We first met Lily and Erv several years ago here in Lituania. We love them dearly and are looking forward to spending time with them.

All is well.

What can $4 buy you...

Last Saturday when we were out traveling in northern Lithuanian countryside, Kel and Sharon, our long time friends from New Zealand who live in Klaipeda, aksed if we wanted to be adventurous or safe supper tonight. In other words, should we go to an known restaurant or to a little village cafe. We chose the little village even though our host was afraid to do it--he had gotten slapped in them before... With this choice, you get what you get, an we got lucky. By the weay, the menu was handwritten. The meal pictured at the left--ribs, fries, cole slaw, beats, carrots and horse radish--was $4. Jude ordered a bowl of chicken soup. It came with real chunks of chicken, some so big she had to cut them with a knife...all for 75 cents. Of course I drank my favorite beer--Svyturys for $1.25. We enjoyed our meal and the company. After we finished eating, our waitress, probably the owner, came and asked if we wanted dessert. She said she would go to the bakery across the street. We chuckled a bit and said no thanks. After we paid, she brought out some cookies for us. What a pleasant place.

Earlier that afternoon, Kel drove us by a tank...hence the photo.

On Monday, we opened SLI by greeting all the students in the school's gym and then headed off to classes. The first day is always a little anxious--for both students and teachers. No matter how many times we've done this, it's always tenuous. This year, the school is equiped with computers, overhead projectors and sound systems in each classroom. Jude can hook her ipod to the system and just leave it there all the time. I can hop onto the network to project my lessons. It's made life easier. Jude took another teacher's class Tuesday morning because he was singing at the International Song Fest in Vilnius. Then in the afternoon, she taught her classes, went to the staff pot luck at 6 pm and then helped me with the "movie and chat" from 8 - 9:30 pm. At the movie and chats, we watched the movie "Once" and then talked about relationships. Kel has focused the studies this year on three themes--relationships, money and God--Students can choose from "movie and chats," "crossroads," a discussion group which focuses on the theme and the students' cultures and a traditional Bible study, which also focuses on the three themes. Therefore, students can switch back and forth while still sticking to the central themes. All take place in the students' dorm. Then, it's a 30 minute walk to our dorm...for a good night's sleep--one long day.

Our first day of school was cloudy and overcast with a few sprinkles. Tuesday was cold walking to school, but the sun came out mid morning and warmed the place to 75 degrees--pleasant and very workable. We tested two more students from Belarus, who had troubles with their transportation to Lithiuania. Total numbers are around 240 students. That's a good number, especially since two teachers could not make it at the last minute.

More to Lithuania than we have seen in 6 years!

Labas,

Friday we (just David and Jude) went to the beach for the day. A beach day entails walking 15 minutes to the ferry, purchasing tickets (prices are way up from last summer 2lt 90 centa each -just a little over a buck, but double from last year). The ferry ride takes about 10 minutes then we walk on a beautiful path through woods for another 20 minutes and are greeting by wide expanses of beach and surf. It was beautiful. We played in the waves, ate a picnic lunch, read (tried out the kindle that AHS lent me this summer, works very well, easy to read and very portable), and slept on and off. At about 6:00 we came back to the city in search of dinner, but instead we ran into some full time staff out for a beer and joined them. They have been here for a year and intend to stay for another. They have 4 children. Luke is 16, Hannah 14, Andrew 12, and Sophie 6 who was adopted while they were living in Bulgaria. We had a little grocery shopping to do so after that we went back to the dorm for cheese sandwiches and went to bed. David took this picture at 11:00 pm as we were tucking in.

Saturday we got up and did the laundry that collects after a week. We washed it all in the machines here in the dorm and then hung it all up to dry. Then we walked to Old Town, about a 25 minute walk, for coffee and cinnamon rolls. Then we went to the outdoor market and bought knit socks and fresh produce - tomatoes, strawberries, spinach, arugala, green onions, carrots, and snap peas. We have plenty for lunches for the week. One of the women here to teach has been down with flu like symptoms and we did a little shopping for her, she neede milk and bread. When I got back to the dorm I made her a spinach salad with strawberries and walnuts and took her groceries to her. She was delighted.

At noon Kel and Sharon, friends from New Zealand now living in Klaipeda, picked us up and took us to places we have never been before. First we headed north to the town of Krentinga and toured a beautifully refurbished church. We watched one wedding and noticed several more wedding parties lined up for their turn. Then we found a spot for a picnic lunch. We spread out a blanket and had drumsticks, bread and a spinach/stawberry salad. Then we drove to the town of Platelia. This is the town that Becka spent her time in at a YWam camp our first year here. We have never seen the town, lake, school, before and it was nice to see. From there we went to Sentaji to an old, abandoned since 1978 Soviet missile installation. Amazing! We were allowed to scramble around underground into the tunnels, fuel stores, control rooms and the actual missile silo. Thank God it never fired. The missles at this site were, however, were transferred to Cuba

by truck, train, and then commericial ships in 1962 and trainned on the US. Once again, thank God they were never fired. New missiles were installed in Sentaji at that point. Well, after that we rode through countryside and found a darling little cafe in the darling little town of Salantai. The menus were handwritten. David and Kel had racks and racks of ribs, Sharon had a huge plate of french fries and veggies, I had a huge bowl of great chicken soup. The owner was delighted to have us, and we were delighed to be there. At the end she asked if there was anything else we wanted and we asked her if she had any dessert. She said no, but she would go to the store and get some cake if we waited a moment. We told her no, it was fine. Well, after we paid ($4.00 for the plateful of ribs, about 80 cents for the soup) she returned with a plate of cookies. On our way now to the beach. We drove east to the Baltic to see a famous and beautiful sculpture of 3 very happy dancing ladies. We also saw many storkes and a fox as we drove around all day. Back to the dorms by 10:00 after a very busy, fun day.

So now it is Sunday and we are at school getting ready for students tomorrow. My class lists are smaller than usual. I have between 14 and 16 students per class. Here are some of their first names: Aiste, Kararzxna, Asta, Ricard, Gintare, Andreta, Edita, Darja, Andris, ViltareRaimonda, Sviatlana, Ugne, Ruta, Giedre, Mindaugas. There is a strong belief that since Monday is a national holiday, that some of our students may not show up until Tuesday so maybe I'll get more. Can't wait to meet them. Bible studies start with the students on Tuesday.

Well, Viso Gero (all is well, good-bye) and Sudiovu (God is with us),

Jude and David (who added all the photos) too!

Sights...Having world vision

We had some time to stroll downtown today. Things change in one year, and buildings, like floweres, are springing up everywhere. It's nice to revisit with old friends. I ran into four students from years ago in different places along the way home from the university. Small world getting even smaller.

Jude and I were so tired yesterday that we fell asleep at 3:30 and awoke at 8:30 p.m. For supper, we had cheese sandwiches. At the dorms, we make it a practice to keep the doors open--an open door policy--and whoever walks by usually comes in. We talked with one of our long time friends about her travels. Listen to this. She and her husband, along with five children, have taught in Nigera [8 years], Liberia [1 year], Japan [10 years], Costa Rica [5 years], Canada [5 years] and now teach in LA. We are very blessed to be among people with a real world vision. As we finished our discussion, it started to rain, cooling teperatures a bit.

Tonight, we're celebrating the conclusion to orientation with a service on the beach at 8 p.m. That's always a great time to get together to pray, to sing, and to celebrate. Some of us also like to get wet. Then tomorrow, most of the staff will take a walking tour of Old Town. On Saturday, students register for classes and takes entrance tests.

We've met many new people again this year. It's fascinating how so many divergent people can focus on the same goal after only three days. But in hindsight, that's the way it works here.

The vision is clear.

Orientation

Labas,

We have settled into our dorm room and our office. The mornings this week are all about orientation. We spend the time in an "upper room" with the rest of the staff. The summer staff comes from 6 different countries this year. Canada, Poland, Lithuania, Czech Republic, New Zeeland, and the US. Amazingly, this staff has taught in the following countries: Japan, China, Germany, Greece, Russia, Tanzania, Poland, Egypt, Czech Republic, US, Canada, Korea, and I'm sure I missed a few. A little less than half of the staff is new. The rest of us have been here at least once before. 4 of the staffers work with elementary students at home, 8 with high school or university students, 4 are English Language Learner Teachers, and at least 3 have never taught anything anywhere besides here at the summer langage intsitute. Not sure what the other 20 or so of the staff was doing when Robin took this informal poll. I guess we are all suffering from a little jet lag. Our afternoons this week are spent setting up our classrooms and writing lessons here at the university. The evenings are for wandering around town and noticing huge changes and of course a nice dinner out on a veranda surrounded by flowering baskets.

The students arrive on Saturday. The students come from at least 6 different countries too. They come from Lituania, Latvia, Belarus, Italy, Russia and Poland. The students range in age from 16 to over 40, with the largest population (70%) between the ages of 16 and 19. That sounds like a lot of late nights to me! However, all of the students are assigned the dorm on campus this year with only a few staff members. The rest of us are walking the 25 minute walk to and from everyday. 75% of the students are female.

One "daze" travel

After checking into the airport in Milwaukee [where we ran into Stephanie and Gregg Wieczorek], we actually thought we would be getting on a plane there. This year it was going to work...Our plane came in, people got off and then an anouncement..."There's some sort of a mechanical problem with the plane [ya, the one that just landed] and we'll be taking you to Chicago on a bus." Two years in a row. So they ordered a bus...we had to go get our luggage from where we jsut checked in, take it to the bus and...wait there was only one bus and not enough room for the last 9 people. Jude and I were 8 and 9. So we got to go in a stretch limo to Chicago. That was not so bad, but with 9 people and all their luggage, it was quite crammed. We were the only ones who made their flights out of the 9.

At the LOT counter, the attendant told us there would be a two hour departure delay from Chicago. I did some quick math in my head...let's see a two hour delay and a one hour 45 minutes layover in Warsaw...Yah, we were not going to make our connections from Warsaw to Vilnius. However, the attendant [in Chicago] told me that there would no problems in Warsaw making the connection...easy for her to say. Additionally, our plane seats were changed from row 11 to 32...8 seats from the rear.

One good thing though, we sat in the middle section of the plane and the middle seat was vacant...so we did stretch out to sleep...nice...................

We arrived in Warsaw at 11:35. Out plane to Vilnius left at 11:45. Wwwwwwwwwith 10 minutes and alot of prayers, we dashed off to our gate. We had to go through customs first, where the officer in the booth ran out of ink on his stamp pad as Jude went through, rushed to the security area where Jude had water in her water bottle...she proceded to chug it down in front of the security guard who was telling her in Polish not to bring water through the security check, and then off to our gate where...they were making the final calls...yes, we made our flight. As we got onto the bus to take us to our plane, we had no hopes of seeing our luggage for a few days. Sitting on the plane, the captain announced that there would be a slight delay in departure because some luggage was being brought to the plane from a late arriving plane. Jude and I looked at each other...but didn't really shout for joy because everyone else in the plane wanted to leave. Then, we saw it...our luggage being loaded onto the plane. All of us made it that day.

Thank you all who were praying. It didn't go on deaf ears.

It was warm and sunny in Vilnius...most of the teachers had already arrived. Some weren't coming because their flights had either been canceled or missed. So, we departed. We got on the bus for the four hour trip...We got to the Karklu dorms arounf 8:30 pm, unloaded our stuff and went for ice cream...it had been a long "daze" travel...