Endings and Beginnings

It's June 6 and we are at the end and also at the beginning. We are at the end of another semester and of our first year here. We survived! We are at the end of our year of immersion in Lithuanian school for Katie and Dylan. The kids ended their year with some fun activities. Dylan's class went to Palanga to the Amber Museum. They also went to a zoo and a military place where they learned about dogs that are trained to sniff out drugs. They also got to hold a grenade. Katie's class went to a new ropes course that was installed in the city. She had a great time climbing around the tree tops.

As I reflect back on this year it has been a challenge, but also a year of growth. The kids have gained confidence- they have learned to navigate around a foreign city by foot and by bike. They have no difficulties ordering and paying for their favorite treats at local shops (independent of parents).

We are also at the beginning of some new adventures. We are beginning homeschooling. This was not an easy decision for our family to make. Katie has really enjoyed the social aspect of school and has a nice group of girls in her class. Both kids have worked hard on language acquisition and have had some success. After a lot of discussion we felt that we needed to homeschool to keep them up to date on US curriculum standards for our eventual return to the US. While they both are making strides in understanding Lithuanian they are not quite there with academic language acquisition. I have recently purchased our homeschool curriculum and am hopeful that we can have a fun year. We are working on soccer or other extra curricular activities to promote friendships with other kids their age.

We are also at the beginning of our visit to the US. We will be in Lititz June 11-17. June 17-21 we will be visiting with some of Ken's family. We will be in Canton June 21-24. After visiting some friends we will return to Lititz from June 26-July 9. We hope to see many of our friends and family while we are in town. Feel free to give us a call.

We are also beginning a search for a new apartment. Our current apartment is big and spacious and meets our needs in many ways but it is terribly expensive to heat in the winter. We are hoping to find something closer to LCC that is more economical. We have a lead on an apartment, so keep your fingers crossed for us!

In my last post I was lamenting our long winter. I'm happy to announce that spring did arrive. The city has been beautiful with spring flowers and budding trees.

 

 

 

 

There was a celebration in Old Town on Armed Forces Day, we didn't realize it was armed forces day until we got downtown and saw the ships and military paraphenilia. We didn't stay long but it was interesting.

 

We had a nice day and headed to the beach - we weren't planning on swimming, we thought the water would be too cold, but Katie couldn't resist a swim in the Baltic

 

We had a visit from Flat Stanley, Katie took him to school one day!

 

The week after school let out Katie invited the girls in her class over. They made cupcakes, shrinky dinks and bagel pizzas.

 

 

The 157th day of February

It is April 29th, it's rainy and gray outside, the central heat has been turned off for over a week so it's cold inside and we are desperately waiting for spring. We are in spring jackets but only because we can't bear to wear those winter coats. Gloves and scarves are still a necessity, most days. We do have hints of spring - the trees are showing buds, crocuses are peeking up from the ground and bits of green grass are making an appearance. Our long dark winter days are rapidly disappearing. The sun rose at 5:57 this morning and will set at 9:10, which would be fantastic if only the clouds would shift and let the sun shine through.

April has been a busy month - we celebrated Easter and my birthday (OK - that was the end of March)... 



 Dylan and Katie on Easter morning with their Easter baskets, which were literally, baskets...

Katie and Dylan made meatball sandwiches for my birthday meal. Here they are with their meatball hands!

 

 

 My sandwich was delicious.

 

 

They also made me a red velvet cake, YUM!

 

...we had guests from the states visit for a week in early April...

Our friends, Elizabeth Patterson and David Cecil

 

...and during that time we went to Vilnius... 

Katie in Vilnius

A bohemian community in Vilnius

Uzupis in Vilnius

A break for lunch, David tried Šaltibarščiai, cold beet soup

Gediminas Castle from the 14th century

At the top of the tower

 

and Hill of Crosses...

Dylan was inspired after our first visit to Hill of Crosses and made his own cross to place there when we went again. This is where he placed his cross.

Dylan also made a cross for me and this is where I left mine.

I chose to place my cross by this carving of a "Pensive Christ" or "Man of Sorrows." This is a traditional Lithuanian carving. I have been drawn to these carvings - Ken gave me one as a birthday gift.

...and finally, we had an outing to the beach to visit an old German fort (from WWII).



The entrance to the bunker. Katie and I found it to be a little creepy but Dylan was fascinated.

Climbing on the top of the fort's remains



The end of the semester has brought varying emotions. Ken has been energized by the connections he has made with students and he's excited to help to continue the growth of the Social Science department. We are also feeling a lot of sadness - some of the faculty/staff that we have gotten to know are ending their years at LCC and moving on. We are grieving their impending departure and pondering what next year will be like. We have been abundantly blessed with "things" as our friends have been packing - I'm now the happy owner of a crock pot, hand mixer, bookshelf, waffle maker etc. but as I have said many times, I would rather have the people here than the stuff. So as we say goodbye we know that we will think of the Millikens (Rachel, John, Chayah and Noah) whenever we make a meal in the crockpot or have waffles for breakfast, Suzi will come to mind when we light a candle, drink out of coke glasses and reach for that unusual spice and the Benthem's come to mind when we mix up a batch of cookies!

Rachel and Suzi, who not only blessed me with their "stuff" also blessed me this year with their friendship. This photo was taken the day before my birthday, they took me out for breakfast.

We will miss you!

 

 

In other news this month, we have visited the orthodontist and acquired a retainer for Dylan. He had a top front tooth that was behind his bottom teeth when he bit down. When we visited the orthodontist I immediately liked her because she said I was a "clever lady" for bringing Dylan in to have his teeth looked at. She also shared that Dylan's teeth/jaw looked European, she wondered if we were from Great Britain. When I told her we were from the USA she was surprised because his jaw didn't look American. She took a mold of his teeth and a week later we picked up a crazy retainer. It's mostly normal but has a wire loop that hangs down to help pull in a bottom tooth that was being pushed forward. Dylan has been fantastic at wearing the retainer (it only comes out when he eats and plays sports) and we can already see that his teeth are shifting.
 
We also had our first visit to the vet. Dexter has been slowly losing his vision for the past few years due to cataracts. We suspected that his vision was almost all gone due to his tendency to walk into walls and fall over curbs. One morning, just as we were heading off to school, Katie noticed that the bottom half of his left iris was red. By mid-afternoon the entire eye was red. Ken and I decided that a visit to the vet was in order, so Ken rearranged his schedule so that he could help carry Dexter to the vet (he can't walk that far anymore). Upon arrival the vet took one look at Dexter and commented that he was old. We told him that he was 14.5 and he commented that he never saw a shih-tzu that old before! He checked out his eye and shared that in addition to the cataracts he had glaucoma. The pressure from the glaucoma burst a blood vessel causing the redness in the eye. The exam and some medicine for his eye cost 50 L. which is about $20 - the cheapest vet visit we've ever had. 

We took a death picture - we thought Dexter might have to be put to sleep but he's still with us!

One of the fun things that we've been involved in this semester was a Tri-S group. We met 3 times this semester with a group of study abroad students from the US. Our group had students from Cedarville, Messiah, Waynesburg, APU,  and Taylor. Each meeting had goals. Our first meeting was a time to get to know each other, talk about cultural adjustments, and prepare the students for the highs and lows that are usually experienced when adjusting to another culture. Our second meeting was a time to share about their trip to Russia. During that meeting we introduced our group to the game of Things- good times. Our final meeting was devoted to talking about re-entry -what it's like to return to your home after living abroad. While talking about these things we ate a home-cooked meal that I prepared. We enjoyed our group of students and had a lot fun hearing about their experiences and entering into their lives in a small way.

Our Tri-S group - Spring 2013

 

Random Picture of this Post: While getting some hot chocolate in Šiauliai I came across this picture and it made me think back to my days at Big Brothers Big Sisters of Stark County! Glad that BBBS is making a difference in Lithuania as well!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exploring Lithuania

We are glad to say that the sun is shining! The dark days of winter are quickly disappearing. The sun wakes us up in the morning and we are feeling a bit more energetic. In mid-February we joined a bunch of other folks from LCC and traveled to the nearby city of Šiauliai to visit a pilgrimage site known as the Hill of Crosses. The history of this site is fascinating. Crosses were thought to have been placed here as early as the thirteenth century in defiance of invading forces and has been a place of peaceful resistance of oppression towards Catholicism in Lithuania.

Eventually Lithuania became incorporated into the Soviet Union. Three times the Soviets destroyed the hill and the crosses on it. After each destruction the Lithuanians replaced the crosses in defiance of the Soviets. Visiting Hill of Crosses was amazing - and hard to put into words, so I'll let the photos speak... (of course I'd like to let the photos speak in a larger view but I'm fighting with the blog software and it seems that a larger view is not possible today!)

 

 



 

 

 

 

 

Behind the Hill of Crosses is a Franciscan Monastery. After Pope John Paul's visit to the Hill he encouraged the building of this monastery. The chapel looks out onto the hill...

 

 

The picture is not too clear but the stained glass shows the history of the Franciscan's. Really I made the picture unclear on purpose to encourge folks to come for a visit and see it themselves (hint, hint).

As part of our trip to the Hill of crosses we spent the night in the nearby town of Uzventis. The family of two LCC students own and run this mill converted to a guesthouse. We had a wonderful meal, relaxed in the sauna and cooled off in the pool.

Our hosts at the mill took us to their local Regional Museum. Here you can see Dylan with one of our hosts (a glimpse of what Dylan will be like as a middle aged man I think!)

And, of course, Dylan as himself...

As the sun has returned we have been inspired to get out of the house. So we hopped on a bus, the bus got on a ferry and we headed over to the Curonian Spit. We traveled several kilometers to the quaint town of Juodkrante. We heard about some carvings there called Witch's Hill. We had a fun afternoon exploring.

The slide was lots of fun until Dylan hit the big patch of ice at the bottom - OUCH!

 

His push-ups are paying off...

 

Still in love...

 

 

So, that's a bit of what we have been up to. We are looking forward to the weather improving and spending more time outside exploring Klaipeda and the surrounding towns and villages.

 

For now, we are eagerly looking forward to Easter, my birthday and the arrival of friends from the states. My birthday falls on Easter this year and the kids are planning on making lunch (meatball sandwiches) and cake. I can't believe that they are old enough to make me a birthday lunch. It should be special. On April 1, our friends David and Elizabeth are visiting from their home universities to speak at a conference at LCC. We are so excited to have some company and look forward to a week with them. We have plans to travel to the capital of Lithuania, Vilnius (we had quite the time tracking down a rental car for that trip) and we will be going back to the Hill of Crosses (looking forward to seeing it without all of the snow).

 

We can hardly believe that our first academic year is almost complete. Classes finish at the end of April followed by finals. Our time here has flown by - we have been blessed, challenged, frustrated, inspired, tired, and energized in the past year.

 

We do have plans for a visit back to the states. We leave Klaipeda on June 11 and return on July 9. We will spend most of our time in PA visiting friends and family but do plan a quick trip to OH in June to visit our church and friends there.

 

Happy Easter... The Lord is Risen. The Lord is Risen, Indeed!

 

 

 

New School, New Birthday Celebrations, & New Hair

2013 came in with a bang - literally (see previous post on New Year's Eve fireworks in Lithuania). The kids enjoyed a nice long winter break. School resumed for them on January 10. Most kids dread the end of winter vacation but our kids definitely had the blues as they were facing another new thing - a new school. We all agreed on the move to the new school but that didn't make the transition any less intimidating. Thankfully it has been a smooth transition. The school has been very welcoming, very concerned for the welfare of the kids and easy to communicate with. Katie is one of 5 girls in her class and has enjoyed getting to know the other girls. The most challenging piece for the kids has been the temperature of the school. They are in an old building while they raise funds to renovate a new building. Their current building is hard to heat and thus the classrooms have been very cold. They wear a lot of layers!

 

The walk to school is a little bit shorter and that has been a nice change. The kids have not enjoyed the funky smell in the air as they get close to the school. The best that we can figure is that is is fumes from the local beer brewery Svyturys - you can check them out here -  http://www.svyturysusa.com/ . We've enjoyed noting the return of the sun as we walk to school. We used to go in the pitch dark and today at about 8:10 we noticed the sunrise. We are rejoicing at the return of the sun!

 



Dylan & Katie on the first day at Vaivorykstes Takes

 



For my observant readers - you'll notice that Katie is in a uniform but Dylan is not. Dylan has to wear a checked vest (same color as Katie's blazer with some black) every day. He is not a fan of the vest and has requested no pictures - so you'll have to imagine him wearing a vest. If you would like to learn more about the school you can check out their website at http://www.vaivorykstestakas.lt/ They share a bit about their school project along with ways to donate to help with the new school. As far as I know this is the only private Christian school in Klaipeda. We have been impressed with their outreach to families who have low incomes as well as to the local orphanage. The school subsidizes the cost of the schooling for low income families and has several students from the orphanage on scholarship. We are so pleased to have found this school.

 

Another new thing in 2013 was our first Lithuanian birthday celebration. Dylan had the honor of celebrating the first birthday from our family in Klaipeda. He was bummed that his birthday fell on a school day but I think he ended up with a special birthday. The day began with some french toast topped by real maple syrup (courtesy of my dad and his wife - loved that package!!) We sent a birthday treat along with Dylan (snickerdoodles) to share with his class. I had checked with his teacher a few days before to make sure that it was ok to send a treat. She must have shared with the kids that Dylan's birthday was coming because several students had gifts for Dylan (some gum, candy and homemade cards). The class sang happy birthday in English and Lithuanian and then did the birthday chair lift. Dylan sat in a chair and the students lifted the chair up 11 times counting for each lift...Vienas, Du, Trys, Keturi, Penki, Sesi, Septyni, Astuoni, Devyni, Desimt, Vienuolika. He was lifted up on each number. I'm fairly certain that would never happen in a school in America (an accident waiting to happen) but I think Dylan loved it. Then each student gave Dylan a birthday wish - I wish you health, I wish you a good year... It was fun hearing how birthdays are celebrated here and fun for Dylan to participate.

 

In the evening we had Dylan's birthday dinner, he requested ribs and then of course presents!

 

 



Chocolate Cake with Peanut Butter Icing!

 We decorated with balloons outside of his room while he was sleeping.

 

Our final new adventure was a trip to the hair salon (kirpykla) for me and Katie. Katie's hair was getting LONG and she was tired of all the brushing, knots and static. I was due for a haircut and thought we would have a girls afternoon together. I found a hairstylist who has cut hair for LCC staff/faculty before (she spoke a little bit of English). I made the mistake of showing up without pictures but we managed to explain to her what we wanted.

 

 

Before...

 

 



After...

 

 



Katie went short...I noticed on this photo that she has a stray hair but I think that's from her hat messing up the new do.

          I opted for layers. It was quite a surprise to discover the crazy things my hair did when the length went away. Ken and the kids agree that I look a little like Medusa! I'm ok with that as long as I can turn them to stone. The hairstylist did make a point of noting my many gray hairs and encouraged me to dye my hair red. I declined but felt better when she thought Katie was my sister and that I was in my 20's!

 

In other news, Ken and I have been asked to serve as leaders for a group of U.S. study abroad students. We will meet with them 3 times during the semester. We will share a meal and talk about culture shock, their trip to Russia (they go over spring break) and finally we will talk about re-entry to the U.S. We are looking forward to these meetings - our first one will be sometime this upcoming week. Still thinking about what I will make... any suggestions for a good meal to serve 10?