Thanksgiving...Christmas...New Year's

I ended my last post by mentioning that we were headed to McDonald's to celebrate Thanksgiving with other ex-pat's. It was certainly not the most traditional Thanksgiving, but it was memorable!

 

 

 

After Thanksgiving we entered into a rather trying time. School became increasingly difficult, especially for Katie. We had a few meetings with the school and continued to have some recurring problems. We began to explore other schooling options. We did this with great reluctance, not wanting to institute another change for the kids but also wanting a school situation for the kids that would be good long term. We all decided together to have the kids visit another school in the city (a Christian private school). The lessons will still be in Lithuanian but we found the school somewhat easier to communicate with. The classes are smaller and the day is shorter. After visiting for two days we took some time as a family to process/discuss/pray and we were unanimous that a change in schools was in order. We made this decision during the last week of school prior to Christmas break. We informed their current school that we would be withdrawing and let the kids have a few more days of Christmas break (much needed rest I think). Their old school was a good school just not the best fit for us. Katie and Dylan will start at their new school on January 10. Please pray for them as they make this switch and have more new things in their future. On a positive note...they pass a yummy bakery on the way home from the new school and are excited to stop off for treats every now and then!

 

Celebrating Christmas in a new place was a challenge  for us. For most of the kids' lives we traveled over the holidays to spend it with family in PA, CA or AZ. Suddenly we were faced with a Christmas away from family and had to figure out what our traditions would be. We decided to have a nice Christmas Eve dinner (Ribs, pasta, veggies, apple crisp) and then go to a Christmas Eve Service in Klaipeda.

 

 

We are all dressed up and ready to go to church!



 

We agreed on a 6:00 wake up call for Christmas morning - but did get to sleep in until 6:15. Dylan was the first kid up (not surprising). He was very excited as you can see!

                                                     Katie got me a backgammon game.

Ken and Dylan

 

Dylan with some basketball cards and Katie with a cross, hand carved by a Lithuanian.

 

After presents we had Apple French Toast (Dylan's request). We had Christmas cookies to munch on throughout the day (Katie worked with me on the cookies and we had 5 different kinds). For lunch we used the leftover ribs for pork barbecue sandwiches and had fruit salad as well. Our Christmas dinner consisted of  potatoes that our friends here in LT taught us to make - very yummy. You put olive oil on a baking sheet. Scrub potatoes (dry them with the skin on). Cut the potatoe in half and put the cut side down. Use a brush to oil the skin and sprinkle with salt. Bake at 230 C. for 1 hour. They are YUMMY. We also had some sausages and fruit with a little leftover apple crisp. It made the Christmas cooking chores very simple for me so that we could spend the day together without me having to spend all of my time in the kitchen. We watched a movie, played some backgammon, checked out our new Christmas stuff and skyped with family. All in all it was a lovely Christmas.

 

The day after Christmas we caught a 6:50am bus for Latvia's capital, Riga.

Ken and the kids with a statue of the Bremen Musicians.

The Rabbit Kingdom

A Christmas tree in the square that has a monument noting that it was the site of the first Christmas tree...EVER!

A Church from the 1200's

Some examples of the art nouveau architecture that Riga is famous for.

The Swedish Gate.

 

We just celebrated New Year's. We were invited to spend it with another ex-pat family (the husband happens to come from my neck of the woods - went to Fairland Elem./Manheim Central...small world). We rung in the New Year with them and it was an experience. We went outside just before midnight and there were fireworks going off everywhere. Fireworks are readily available here and we were feet away from individual firework displays. Sparks were flying, kids were running around. It was chaos but fun chaos (especially since no one got injured)!

 

I can hardly believe all the changes that 2012 introduced into our lives. 2013 should certainly be interesting! Happy New Year!

 

When it rains, it pours...

Rain - I think I mentioned the abundance of rain before! We get a lot of rain here in Klaipeda and along with the rain comes gusts of wind. We had one rainy/gusty day recently and both my umbrella and Dylan's umbrella broke -they couldn't stand up to the wind. Needless to say it was back to the store to buy new umbrellas (Ken just mentioned that his is bent and needs replaced as well)!

We also had a an exciting mail day. I will say that I don't miss sale flyers, bills and other assorted junk that comes in the mailbox but at this point any mail is cause for excitement. Imagine our surprise when we recieved a package (thanks Jenny Kramer) and a letter for the kids on the same day (thanks Lena Stoltzfus). It was like Christmas at our house, the kids in particular were so excited by those reminders of home!

It has been quite a while since my last post - I find the days are going by so fast (which I suppose is a good thing). We've had an up and down couple of weeks. We had fall break (a week off of school and work for Ken and the kids). Post fall break we all fell into a bit of a slump. We had some things to work out with schooling for the kids which took some time and a lot of effort due to the language and cultural differences. Two main changes that we made are that Katie will no longer be taking Russian and we are doing some language tutoring at home instead of at school during the school day. We are only about a week into these changes but so far they seem to be positive changes.

I could continue writing and writing about all that we have done, but pictures are so much more fun!



October 12, our 16th Anniversary - We went out to dinner.

Katie getting ready to run a race through school. Her friend Ruta is to her right. The race was for kids in various schools in Klaipeda and Katie was selected as one of 5 girls from her school to attend.

 

Katie finished in 4th place in her heat but was the top finisher (girls and boys) from her school!

 

Katie has wanted to ice skate for a long time. We took the kids skating over fall break. Our local mall has an ice skating rink. Katie, who loves to roller blade, did great. Dylan had a harder time. We were very proud of him though, he didn't give up and kept trying and eventually was skating without holding on to us or the wall. He even said that he would go again sometime.

 

 




Katie having fun posing on a street near our home!

During fall break we went to the nearby town of Palanga for a few days away. Palanga is a seaside resort town. It was very quiet in the off season but we had fun exploring the town. In the above photo, Ken and the kids are posing in front of the Amber Museum. Lithuania is known for it's Baltic Amber. We enjoyed touring the museum and learning more about amber.

 

Ken and the kids in Palanga

 

We discovered a yummy treat - warm Belgian Waffles dipped in chocolate. Labai Skanus!

 

We hiked in the forest and came upon a chapel at the top of a hill. This painting was inside the chapel - the photo doesn't do it justice.

 

Ken and the kids on a hilltop, looking out to the Baltic Sea.

 

The Sea Pier in Palanga

 

An odd photo - but here's a glimpse into our life. Breakfast has been interesting to figure out. Cereal is available here but expensive in the quantities our household consumes it. We don't have time in the morning to prepare a hot breakfast, so I have started making a triple batch of pancakes on Sunday afternoon to supply our breakfast needs during the week. We had apple, apple/sausage and strawberry pancakes.

 

Ken and the kids ran a race on the Curonian Spit. Here they are doing a crazy pose with the other LCC folks who participated.

 

There is a sculpture park near our home. Katie has enjoyed looking at all of the sculptures and is pictured here with her favorite sculpture.

 

Today happens to be Thanksgiving. We are not having a traditional American Thanksgiving but will be celebrating. It is an LCC tradition to eat at McDonald's. So after school and work (feels weird to be doing those things on Thanksgiving), we will go to the most American thing in Klaipeda, McDonald's, to celebrate with other ex-pat's. So enjoy your turkey and I'll enjoy my Big Mac and fries. Don't feel too bad for us, we will be celebrating a traditional Thanksgiving with LCC faculty and staff on Saturday (complete with turkey and pumpkin pie).

 

Let me know if there are any topics you would like me to address in future posts - things you are curious about, questions that you have etc. As always, I'll try to do better at posting.

Happy Thanksgiving!

 

 

 

Death and Taxes

"but in this world nothing can be said to be certain, except death and taxes." - Benjamin Franklin

In the U.S. many are familiar with this quote from Benjamin Franklin. I'd like to modify it to reflect a bit of our life here in Lithuania:

"but in Klaipeda nothing can be said to be certain, except laundry, grocery shopping and rain."

Yes, with my European sized washing machine, one drying rack, two kids and a husband who runs every day - laundry is a daily chore. At first I was a bit dismayed with the thin sheets* that were available to us here, but come laundry day my appreciation has grown. Thin sheets drape easily and dry fast.

* I will confess to being particular about the sheets. There were lots of sheets to choose from in varying degrees of thickness. I only looked at the fitted sheets (it's the North America coming out in me I'm sure). Insisting on fitted sheets narrowed my choices. Thin but easily dried - I think that's a good compromise!

Grocery shopping - yet another daily chore. I buy what I can carry which means I shop much more frequently. The days of shopping for an entire weeks worth of groceries is but a distant memory. First- a weeks worth of groceries won't fit in my fridge or cabinets and second - there is no way that I could carry all those groceries anyway. Add to my grocery challenge the availability of certain items. I have taken to shopping at a local store called, Norfa. It is a bit further away than the other grocery store, but is a bit cheaper. Those who know me, know that I'm always after a bargain, so Norfa is my go to store for groceries. The downside to the Norfa is their selection of cereal and bread - not nearly as good as the local Icki. So I pick up those items when I go to the Icki. Unfortunately the best laid plans always have a catch. I planned a trip to Norfa and headed off with my list in hand. Too bad for me the Norfa didn't have all the things I needed, so that meant a trip to Icki the next day to pick up those missing items. The following day rolls around and I was back to the Norfa for my next round of groceries. It's a never ending cycle. On a positive note I did sign up for the Icki savings card (they even have those annoying cards here in Lithuania).

Rain - One of the student workers here told Ken about a former professor's take on the the weather here in Klaipeda; "8 months of waiting followed by 4 months of disappointment." It has also been said that if you don't like the weather, wait 5 minutes. We have had our fair share of beautiful days but we have also seen quite a bit of rain. For a country that sees a lot of rainfall we have been woefully unsuccessful in finding adequate raincoats for the kids. Is it too much to ask to have ponchos available for purchase? I'm sure that they have them, but we have yet to find them. Also, regarding the weather, I'm sad to report that we have entered that time of year when the night begins to be longer than the day. I'm grieving the leaving of the sun!

On a more uplifting note, we had the chance to take a walk in the forest last Saturday. As we left the apartment it was raining (no surprise there) but we took our chances. We had a beautiful afternoon hiking in the woods. It was peaceful and just what we needed.

We often spy Lithuanians in the forest out gathering bags/buckets of mushrooms. We are not mushroom eaters, so no wild mushrooms for us, but this is a very popular past time here.

Katie climbing on a fallen tree.

A view of the forest.

Dylan exploring a crater - there are many craters and some are attributed to bombs from WWII. We know a family that actually found an unexploded bomb in one of these craters. Dylan is hoping to find one before we leave.

We have also come across an LCC tradition that reminds us of Malone. Here's an analogy for you:
The Davenport Derby is to Malone as the Ugly Duckling Race is to LCC International University.

Those of you from Malone should get this right away. If you are confused, I'll try to explain... LCC has a tradition called the Ugly Duckling Race. Ken was invited to participate on the staff/faculty team. There were also teams from the residence halls. Each team participated in some challenges - a fashion show, physical challenges,a team cheer and building a boat and then racing it in LCC's pond (complete with a pirate who attempted to slow down the boats),

Staff/faculty team competing in a physical challenge (something like 8 heads, 10 knees, 4 elbows on the ground). Look carefully and see if you can spot Ken!

Ken in his team hat.

A few of the homemade boats out on the pond.

 

 PACKAGES! Yes, receiving packages is a definite highlight. We've received 3 so far (of course we sent one of them ourselves). And yes, we were even excited about receiving that package. There's just something thrilling about receiving mail/goodies when you are far from home. Package 1: Katie's keyboard!!!! Package 2: a journal that had a recently published article by Ken (thanks Janie, Elizabeth and Becky) Package 3: Katie's birthday present from my mom - The Hunger Games dvd.

A note about packages - we are happy to receive them:) They should be mailed to Ken or Amy Stoltzfus, LCC International University, Kretingos g. 36, LT-92307 Klaipeda Lithuania. The US Postal Service is fine but you may possibly get a better rate through Meest (a shipping company) http://www.meest.us/  We used them with success but if you aren't going to drop off at their drop off centers it can get tricky.

Katie with her Meest delivered keyboard.

We always love a good story and Katie came home from school the other day with a great story! Ruta (a girl in Katie's class who speaks good English) instructed Katie to get a cup of water and join the class for a few minutes before heading off for a private Lithuanian lesson. Katie went with her class and was given a spoon full of honey to eat and a piece of paper with the number 1 on it. When her number was called she received an envelope with a necklace in it. Katie had no idea what was going on. Later Ruta explained that a student in the class gave the teacher fresh honey. She decided to share it with the class (thus the spoonful of honey). The water was to wash it down. The necklace came from a boy in the class who told his mom that all of the girls in the class were pretty. They bought a piece of jewelry for each girl. It was an interesting day.

Please continue to keep Katie and Dylan in your prayers. They are doing exceptionally well with their immersion into Lithuanian school but still have hard days and struggle. We are praying for speed in language acquisition and patience while they are working on it.

Katie and her new necklace.
 

 This past weekend was an important one in the life of the University. LCC celebrated the inauguration of Marlene Wall as President. Marlene was an important contact for us as we made our decision to come here and has been involved with the University since its beginning. Marlene is also the first female university president in Lithuania. As part of her inauguration LCC held a 5K fun run. The kids were very excited to participate. They ran a loop from LCC to Melnrage.

Dylan and Katie pre-race.

Ken, Katie and Dylan on their way back.

This post has been exceedingly long I'm afraid. We have had a lot going on in the past weeks and it has been hard to stop and update. Hopefully you haven't been bored. Tomorrow is a big day for Katie. She completed a race in gym class and did well enough to be able to go to an all city race tomorrow. Apparently many of the schools in Klaipeda will be sending their students to compete. Katie is one of five students in her class who will be going. I'm going to try and attend but I'm not sure where it will be or what time it is. I'll keep you posted!

Klaipedos Licejus

Dylan and Katie on Sept. 1

As many of you know, we were VERY undecided on how to handle school for our time here in Lithuania. Our two options were to home school or to enroll the kids in a private school where the instruction was in Lithuanian. Katie was most interested in immersion while Dylan was advocating for home school. We decided to postpone decision making until we arrived in country and had a chance to visit the school and speak with the directors. During our second week here we visited the school.The school was named Universa Via but just got a new name Klaipedos Licejus (I understand this is due to their high standards - it's like the school got a promotion). Dylan shocked us by saying that he wanted to give school a try. We are so proud of their bravery! The kids were a bit disgruntled when they heard about what grades they would be in... Lithuanian children don't start their formal education until they are 7 years old. So their grades don't match up with our grades in the states. Additionally the directors thought that they should not push them ahead because even the math system is very different here. So Katie will be in the 5th form and Dylan in the 3rd. They are with kids who are only about 1 year younger than they are so it's not too bad. They will also have the option to advance when they have progressed with Lithuanian.                                                                                  

The Opening Celebration

School in Lithuania begins on September 1. This year September 1 fell on a Saturday so that day marked the official opening of school. It was an interesting day. Our school held their opening at the neighboring Catholic Church. All the student wear their uniform (of course only Dylan's uniform was ready-we thought he looked great but you can imagine that he didn't love it). The students also bring flowers for their teacher. Thankfully we were told of this tradition so we came prepared. The new first graders we walked in to the church by the older students, there was a short program and mass followed by a celebration at the school.

Ruta and Katie

Katie was fortunate enough to have a girl in her class, Ruta, who lived in Minnesota until she was 6. Her English is excellent and she has been great at helping Katie navigate a new environment. The first day of classes fell on Sept. 3 - this was also a special day - A day of health in the summer. Katie's class walked to a park and then went bowling. Dylan's class went to the movies.

September 4 - the first real day of classes was not such a great day for my kids. They both felt overwhelmed by all the new things, by not knowing the language etc. When I picked them up they were so tired, scared, overwhelmed. I questioned if we were doing the right thing.

September 5 - Day 2 of classes - both had a MUCH better day. They began their private Lithuanian lessons and that was helpful. They also had a bit more confidence. They were full of stories about their day and it all was good. I was so relieved (as I'm sure they were too. It's not going to be easy but having a good day was such a blessing (we came home and celebrated with some popcorn!

Apart from school we have been having some other adventures. We took a ferry to the Curonian Spit and hung out at the Baltic Sea (I can't wait for next summer to fully appreciate living on the coast).

Dylan had fun interfering with my shot of Katie in her sand fort!

Katie and her sand fort.

Our family dipping our toes in the Baltic Sea.

A beautiful sunset.

Dylan and the god of the sea.

 Without a car food shopping becomes much more of a chore. I only buy what I can carry. I make many more trips to the store than I am used to making. One day I woke up with a craving for bagels. I have become quite familiar with what I can and can't get at our local Iki (the name of the local grocery store) and bagels are certainly not available. So thanks to the Internet I made my own bagels. Everyone liked them, unfortunately the recipe only made 8. So they were gone much too quickly. I suspect that I have more bagel making in my future (I may have to find a hiding place for them if I want to have any left for me to eat).



 

I'm happy to say that things are going well so far. Ken has taught his first class and has been very busy at the University. I have been holding down the fort at home, volunteering in the library, taking a Lithuanian language class, and shopping for food/school supplies etc. Katie and Dylan are busy with school. They amaze me every day with their courage, strength and resilience. I'm a very lucky mom.

Klaipeda Lithuana - Arrival

We have been in Lithuania for a few weeks now and I finally have found some time to breathe and think about sharing about our last few weeks. We left the states on August 6, 2012 with 8 suitcases, 4 carry on bags, 4 personal items and 1 dog.


Ready to Leave
 

Ken's dad drove us to the Philadelphia airport and we began checking in. We were surprised that no one asked to see the paperwork for the dog. (We had to take him to the vet and then drive to Columbus to have the vet paperwork certified by the USDA). They did thoroughly check his crate and collar. Everything went very smooth and before long he was checked in and we were waiting for our flight. The first leg of our journey was the longest and took us to Frankfurt, Germany. We had a layover there and then boarded our final flight to the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius.

Upon arrival to Vilnius we were walking to the luggage claims and I commented to Ken, "You know, they never told us where we would pick up Dexter...surely they won't send him down the luggage carousel?" While pondering where we would find the dog, Ken went to collect our luggage - sure enough Dexter came down the luggage carousel. He was fairly traumatized and eager to be out of his crate. We collected our luggage - Dylan was very helpful by bringing the luggage to me while Ken pulled it off the belt. Katie worked on calming down the dog.

We were amazed that again no one looked at paperwork and we just walked out of the airport without having to go through any customs/security. A student worker from LCC met us at the airport and we crammed all of our luggage and bodies into a van for the 3 hour drive across the country and to Klaipeda.

As many of you know our permanent apartment was not immediately available to us and we were in a temporary apartment for the first week. It had 2 bedrooms so we were a little squished but was fine for a week.

Our Temporary Apartment -The Pink Palace 

 Our first apartment had antlers on the walls and the kids had fun posing with this unique decoration.

We have been blessed by the new friendships we have already made and by the support offered to us. We were assigned a family to serve as our "buddies" - the Millikens. Rachel and John are entering their second year at LCC. They have 2 young children - Chayah and Noah. They met us on our first day here - showed us around - took us for groceries and MANY shopping trips as we found items that we would need for our apartment (I'm most excited by the frying pans I found which have a ceramic coating on the inside!) A funny moment with the Millikens occurred when Rachel talked to Katie about a "job" as a mother's helper. She offered Katie 5 Litas an hour and Katie was very excited about the prospect of a first babysitting job. Dylan quickly did the conversion in his head and announced that this was less than minimum wage. I think Katie was a little embarrassed but it was quite funny.

Another family that we met, the Benthem's are going into their 4th year. They have 3 children - Anika (9) Lars (7) and Lottie (3ish). Katie and Dylan quickly settled into friendships (Lars loves basketball). They were kind enough to take us on our first outing to the Baltic Sea. Unfortunately the Sea was green that day (some odd occurence with algae) but the kids had a lot of fun hunting for sea glass and amber. Both Dylan and Lars thought that they found some amber but we are not sure if it is authentic.

Dylan and Lars hunting for sea glass

 

Katelynn and Anika

The green Baltic Sea

Anika and Lars both attend Universa Via - the private school that we were considering. We had a very difficult time contemplating the right choice for school as many of you know. Homeschooling was a safe option but would have the drawback of being isolating for the kids. We prayed for clarity and consensus prior to our visit to the school and were so relieved that both Katie and Dylan wanted to give going to school a try after our visit. The administrators were very kind and seeing the school seemed to help both the kids feel better. Katie and Dylan both took a math test and did well but struggled with some of the different symbols and different ways that math is taught here. There is also a difference in how grades are structured. It was a bit disconcerting to the kids to find that they would be in the 3rd and 5th form. This feels a bit like a demotion to them but they will be with kids in the same age group as they are. We just went for uniform fittings today. Dylan will wear a uniform only on days when there are special programs but Katie will have to wear one every day (a dress/skirt). She still wants to go to school despite the dress code!

Please keep the kids in your prayers as we expect the first weeks/months to be very challenging. School begins on Sept. 1 with a special ceremony and then classes begin on Sept. 3.

Following are some photos from around town.

Klaipeda

Katie at the Meridian in Old Town, Klaipeda

Amy and Katie