The First Thing I do When I Get Back to America...

I'm spending the month of July in Klaipeda, Lithuania and I will be blogging the experience. Some posts will be intentional but a lot of it will be stream of consciousness. I chalk up any terrible culturally insensitive things I may say to jetlag. Enjoy the journey with me!!

......find a decent Chinese restaurant and get order something with a heavy sauce.

I think I may be going through culture shock. Today a colleague and I went to a chinese restaurant in Klaipeda. We had been told by some locals that the food was really good, and that it was pretty authentic. While the food in LT is overall REALLY good, generally fresh ingredients, low sodium, and cheap...sometimes I still crave good old fatty and SALTY U.S. cuisine. I thought it would be cheese burgers, but lately I'v

e really desired a taco or chinese.

SO, I was extatic, but to make a long story short I was strongly disappointed. Not only was the food extremely expensive (given the regular prices) but there were pickles in the stir fry...yes...pickles. Need I say more?

All that to say that when I return to America I am going to find the nearest, slightly dodgy, greasy chinese restaurant I can find and I am going to eat an entire order of Beef w/Broccoli all on my own...with extra white rice....and a ginger ale....

...mmmmmm.

P.S. I have started using Google+ (its pretty awesome) and have created a picture album...because I somehow forgot that I have a mac, which can do just about anything involving the word media. Find the album here.

Klaipeda

I'm spending the month of July in Klaipeda, Lithuania and I will be blogging the experience. Some posts will be intentional but a lot of it will be stream of consciousness. I chalk up any terrible culturally insensitive things I may say to jetlag. Enjoy the journey with me!!

So. I have another confession. I forgot to pack the usb cable that connects my camera to my computer. This means that any lovely pictures I've taken won't be able to be seen until I get back to the states.

...I also know this may cut my readership permanently in half.

KLAIPEDA

I've now been in Klaipeda, LT 4 days. While it hasn't felt like its been that long, the speed of the days is only going to increase. Tomorrow students arrive at LCC and each and every one of them gets packed into every available bed in the hall I'm helping manage.

It's been quite a journey so far. Klaipeda is a nice town. Its deceptively large. In this area of Eastern Europe (I can't speak for everywhere) most families still live in the Soviet era tenement that their parents or grandparents were given. A town that covers the area of a 25,000 person city in the US houses over 200,000. Whats interesting is that while the outside of many of these buildings look very eroded, some of the apartments must be VERY nice. I've passed one to many Beemers and Benzes to believe that those are simply the vehicles of the people that run the place. It's an odd juxtaposition.

Mostly a port and tourist town, Klaipeda was rebuilt by the Soviets as a military base and somewhat of a tourist/vacation spot. The oldtown has some very ancient buildings, but you can tell most of them were rebuilt a few decades ago. Still the town gives off that southern florida vibe that things are busy when the tourists are in town, but are probably pretty sleepy the rest of the time.

Lithuania, and Eastern Europe in general has slowly started growing on me. I think those of us in the U.S. forget how extravagently wealthy we are. I don't mean this in the typical "we're a bunch of greedy capitalists that only care about stuff" way. The U.S. social environment is filled with businesses and market oriented enterprises designed to find every obscure and conceivable way to make the U.S. citizen part with his money. Its striking how WELL these enterprises do. While Lithuania is oriented around a market economy, that well oiled- pristinely designed undercurrent isn't there. People who only use public transportation and people who own BMWs use the same beaches and eat at the same restaurants with the chipped paint on the exterior. (The food is AMAZING here btw....seriously, its mostly cheap and very well made)

Lithuania has a surprisingly unstratified culture, which is something you CANNOT say anymore about America. I only have to go as far as Benton Harbor vs. St. Joe in MI to see how true this is. This isn't to say that it doesn't have a dark underbelly...because this country does...alcohol abuse is pervasive, homelessness is a serious issue and there are some parts of the city I've been told to stay away from entirely, but above that undercrust things don't shatter so completely...most Lithuanians have a remarkably common experience of life.

So...a few fun and interesting observations:

-Bicycles have a designated part of the sidewalk and they USE it. Bikes definitely have the right of way and I've almost been flattened a lot.

-Europeans really do like speedos...

-Waiters will only bring you a bill when you've asked for it, and your allowed to seat yourself. Seriously, you could sit there for hours and they won't do a thing until you track them down.

-Nobody speaks 1 language...we Americans are pretty helpless in this regard

-If you every come to Lithuania get the Kepta Duona...its this amazing combination of rye bread, garlic, cheese, and a deep frier...completely fatal in high doses but incredibly good

Greetings from Lithuania

I'm spending the month of July in Klaipeda, Lithuania and I will be blogging the experience. Some posts will be intentional but a lot of it will be stream of consciousness. I chalk up any terrible culturally insensitive things I may say to jetlag. Enjoy the journey with me!!

So...I don't actually have any pictures of time in Stockholm because, well, I forgot to unpack my camera. It rode comfortably in the belly of a jumbo jet.

Stockholm was a gorgeous city, but DEFINITELY a tourist trap... lots of retired british pensioners and people from other parts of Europe. Btw...Australians, they're EVERWHERE. The city is also ingenious at finding ways to pull money out of you, seriously I spent an insane amount yesterday just going through one national meusem and moving from 2 islands.

One thing I did appreciate about Stockholm was how well they blended some very old culture with very relevant modern activity. Much of the city is concentrated along three islands between a very large lake and the Baltic sea. The city has a very baroque feeling, especially when it comes to architecture, and while there were a few gaudy post-modern facades poking out of the relatively uniform skyline but overall most of the business in Stockholm found a way to meld itself into the established city. There were some very beautiful old apartment buildings that looked like they had been transformed into office buildings. Also, everything ran precisely on time…it was awesome.

BUT ON TO THE MAIN EVENT….

I arrived in Vilnius around 10, which is pretty late, but because of how far north we are the sun was only just setting. The airport is a ways out of town so we had to travel to get to the Hostel I planned to stay at for the night. The airport was also located in what I assume to be one of the seedier districts in Vilnius because it was surrounded by decaying Soviet era apartment complexes...and a few old farmhouses…with goats. There was barely anybody out on the streets and I was almost completely hazed over from having not slept in about 24 hours. When we got to “oldtown” which is where I was staying the sun was basically set and there was no street lights. I was also royally screwed over by my cab driver…I payed almost 3 times what I should have, but who can blame the guy…I was exhausted and in a very unfamiliar place with no one around, I might as well have been a calf.

That being said Vilnius is a beautiful city. I didn’t have the best first impression of Lithuanian, but then again ya gotta give em a second chance! The next morning after much rest and a shower I made a point to walk around Old Town and to visit the Hill of 3 Crosses. You can see most of the city from there and it was pretty breathtaking…once again, I forgot my camera, but don’t worry, I’ll be back there at the end of July.

The weather here is perfect and the food I’ve had so far is phenomenal. Good cheese, good sausage and some INCREDIBLE rye bread. I had these Zuchinni pancakes for lunch with sour cream, Lithuanians seem to find a way to put sour cream on everything. Everything (besides my first cab ride) has been very decently priced as well. I love how a lot of these European cities are dripping in history without seeming like they drown in it.

I’m off to Klaipeda this afternoon! I’ll be sure to take pictures this time.