at the baltic sea.

Last weekend we took a little trip to the Baltic Sea on Lithuania's coast, only about 3 hrs drive away from my city.  We went to Klaipeda, Palanga and the Curonian Spit. Those are all beach places that are busy during the summer and we went one week after the season was over so it was a bit chilly and pretty deserted, which made it even better to have the place all to ourselves.  

Klaipeda wasn't my favorite city, but it did have a cool Old Town to walk around with these old style streets (cobblestone!) and amazing architecture. 

The hotel we stayed in was pretty nice as you can see.  I was pleased. And again it was basically deserted.  After we got there and checked in, they pointed us in the direction of going up those stairs to get to our room. The girls all had brought rolling suitcases so it was a bit of a commotion getting those up the stairs when the hotel was already stone cold silent.  Once we all got to the top, Stevie set her suitcase to stand up and went to do something else.  I That's when I heard this bam, bam, bam, BAM!   Her suitcase decided to tip backwards, tumble down the tile stairs, and fall off the stairs dropping right into the lobby.  Stevie was laughing so hard that it was the silent, can't beathe kinda laugh and the hotel was again, totally silent.  About a minute later of her trying to stand up from laughing so hard, I finally figured out what happened and I was like Stevie.....is your suitcase still down there?  She hurried down the stairs to see her suitcase had dropped right in front of the welcome desk with the clerks standing there stone faced, smile-less, without a word.  They were not amused with the loud Americans. Typical.

We went to Palanga, another coastal town thats close to Klaipeda.  It was so beautiful! A little too cold to swim but still fun to walk around the beach. They also have a market kinda street where I got yummy fried doughnut kinda things and other good food.  And for dinner I had a chicken caesar salad....the first greens that I've seen in weeks.  My body was oh sooooo happy for salad.  And for chicken.  I went a little crazy buying scarves and a ring.  Shopping isn't cheap here like China was, but I have no remorse.  It was worth it cause I love em.  

3 words: treat yo self. 

We watched the sunset on the pier.

And this bachelor needed 2 girls to kiss his cheek for a photo at his bachelor party.  It was a huge group of drunk wanna be sailors so we obliged so that they would leave us alone.  

We rode horses through the forest and onto the beach also in Palanga. That was definitely the highlight of the day.  The people at the "ranch" were the sweetest and made it so fun.  The second highlight of the day was getting to wear a suede riding hat cause I make that look good 

The only time I got scared was when we got out of the forest and my horse made a beeline straight into the water and starting bending down.  Pretty sure he was about to just lay down and roll around. But the other horses followed him and got a little drink and I had to actually use my riding whip to get him out of the water.  I was trying to be confident and in control like giddyup horse we're going over here now but really I was like please please dont put me in the water, k? 

And my horse had bangs. 

We went to the Curonian Spit on the last day which is this cool strip of sand dunes off the mainland.  We took a ferry to get there and then drove down the "island" to Nida, the cutest little fisherman town.  This was a sun dial at the dunes.  

Another town on the strip is Juodkrante. In that town they have this place called The Hill of Witches.  Its this little hike through the woods with about 80 huge, intricately detailed, wooden sculptures.  Some of them you could even play with like a slide and a see saw.  They would have been super creepy to look at if they weren't so impressively crafted.  I was in AWE!  So cool.  

Best Halloween ever would be walking through that hike at night with a candle to guide your way.  Creeeeep-y.  It was such a fun trip though! 

P.S.  Sorry my current trip isn't as funny as the China trip was.  I think everyone that read my China emails wanted to read my blog in Lithuania too because I always had crazy stories.  Europe just isn't as crazy as China was.  So sorry I'm not as funny.  Stay tuned...maybe something slightly funny will happen.

snack time

I got to hang out with this guy during snack time in between classes.  He's a lot of fun to talk to because he's just about fluent in English.  Pretty cool to be able to have an actual conversation with one of the students instead of the usual acting out what they want to tell me while they say "and this, and this and this, teacher and this" since they don't know the right English words yet.  And bonus, he learned English in London so his accent is the best. 

 

I love my kiddos already.

life lately.

Beet soup.  Pear juice. Rice something that tastes amazing and makes me really excited that I'm not having potatoes again.  

Yeah we have potatoes a lot.  A lot = daily. 

Fav chocolate that I've found. If anyone wants me to bring them home something yummy you better start bribing me. 

This little one was in the hallway crying for her mother because she didn't wanna go to class.  Without speaking her language, 20 minutes later I got her to this blissful state.  I'm awesome.  And yes she has short bangs in the middle because she cut them.  She's awesome, too.

Attempting to learn Russia while we're here. And Lithuania.  It's a whole big mess.

Pizza night was exciting enough to document with a photo.

They made bubbles in class and used pipe cleaners for the tool.  

People give us boxes of chocolate all the time as gifts.  I kinda like it.

china: the good, the bad, and the totally crazy

Being here in Lithuania has made me think a lot about my time in China last year while I was teaching English as well.  China brought up every emotion and situation from "this is the coolest place ever!" to "can I go back to the states yet?" to "what the hell did I just eat?"

Diapers are non existent in China.  Instead, there are strategically placed holes in children's pants so that they may just go as they need onto the street. We lovingly termed them "crapper pants".

You can buy these awesome (awesome or ....) collapsable paper hats.  Fancy.  And they have holes on both ends so you can where them upside down as well. AND they fold inside out.  So you're buying 4 hats for the price of one.  Those Chinese, man they're clever.  

I pulled out my journal and was reading back through my entries from my China days and I found one titled things I'll miss about China and things I won't.  All those old emotions came back and I was crying and laughing from missing all that is China.  That country should be on another planet. 

Things I'll Miss

Kyle's (one of my fav students) kisses

cheapest shopping ever

peanut butter and jelly for breakfast

3 men driving around on a scooter

strangers passing by saying, "hello baby" 

beautiful, green places

yummiest dinner ever for 10 yuan (about $1).  not sure what kind of meat it was but we called it sheep's meat.  i know that sounds appetizing. 

sweet and sour days in the cafeteria.  it sure beats chicken feet days. 

tucking the students in and saying goodnight

visiting the kindergarten on sundays after their naps

no traffic rules

the few times the squatters (toilets) were clean, those were good days

living with the funnest girls ever (the other teachers)

Kaden (one of the students) throwing up every day in class.  that should probably be on the things i wont miss category but i loved the excuse of taking him out of class and taking care of him one on one. he's the sweetest. 

people thinking i'm cool enough to do a choreographed dance for them. and then requesting that i do it again.  and then again.  

my super hot butt from living on the 5th floor and climbing those stairs several times a day

Things I Won't

people spitting 

knowing that the table i eat at was just mopped by the same mop that cleaned the floors and the window and my seat

a culture where nothing is planned.  like nothing. the only set plans are the ones that already happened.

a culture where you it is only acceptable to say yes or maybe.  no is not in the vocabulary.

men pulling their shirts up to their boobs to cool off from the extreme heat.  that's right, i do not miss seeing asian men stomachs

hooker atire on all the women

techno music

celebrity status and causing every person to suddenly become paparazzi as i pass by

hunger pains before sleep because i couldn't stomach the dinner.  or the lunch.  

only having hot water from 5-8pm. well....5 ish to 8 ish.  you just gotta hope you catch it at the right time

littering being the norm

clothes that still feel dirtier after washing than before

wearing 2 layers of spandex under my jeans to fight off the humid cold

White girls in Beijing. 

China is just beautiful for lack of a better word. 

Every day is China was totally nuts but I'll forever miss that place.  Even though I spent most days missing home, now that I'm home....I'd give anything to go back.  That place and those kiddos stole a huge piece of my heart.  

yep.

via here

green, green and more green

We went for the day to eastern Lithuania with Dima's family and just drove around.  There's cool churches,  Aukstaitija National Park, and green fields and trees for days.  

This was a little memorial for those who were forced to leave to Siberia during communist days that never returned back to Lithuania. 

I love that they actually plant the flowers for the grave sites rather than just bringing some on certain days of the year. They're planted earlier in the year and are there until Oct. 31st.  There's just so much care put into burial spots. 

Then on November 1st, candles are lit there instead of flowers.....can't wait for that creepy goodness! 

A not so uplifting version of Jesus.  There's lots of those around.

Me and Sophia, Dima's daughter and one of the students.  

The National Park was incredibly green and thick with trees.  It felt a little bit like home so I was loving it.  We just drove through the roads, surrounded by trees, windows down and it couldn't have been better. 

Pretty Twilight-ish.

Dima, the school coordinator and his family.  They're so good to us.  Like really good.  He'll be getting some good karma for everything that he does for us.  Such a sweet family. 

The park is packed full of Mario big world sized mushrooms and berries and there were lots of people picking em. When we first got here Dima told me not to buy mushrooms from people who pick them in the forest and sell them because some of them could accidentally be poisonous and people have died so you just gotta be careful.  Good advice yeah?  No mushrooms for me.

Ok this looks disgusting but seriously....pastry sort of thing filled with Nutella and vanilla ice cream.  Food is gooooooood up in here.

So to sum it up...I live in a gorgeous place!  Dima was saying he's lived here for something like more than 10 years and he had never been to this National Park which is just an hour or 2 away. Its so easy to take for granted what is close to us and just want to explore when we're in a new place and traveling.  But chances are that there are amazing places close to you, you just gotta get out and find them.

words to live by

via Lisa Congdon