Palanga.

Today Chelsea, Jordan and I went to Palanga, a seaside town about a 20 minute minibus ride from Klaipeda. It was quite chilly, but we had a fun time exploring. We ate at a local cafe and I had banana crepes and coffee.

I can not believe that I am into my third week at school and that next week we take our weekend trip to Tallinn and Riga. If it has already flown by so quickly in the beginning I am expecting it will do the same all the way through.

Tea time is one of my favorite times of the day. There is no specific time, but it always involves my roommates and I sitting down, drinking tea and either laughing about the things we say differently or the serious topics of our world. Tonight we exchanged how we would say what animals say. It was hilarious. They also like learning my expressions, like when something goes wrong I say, "Oh no!" and they usually Oye (if you can imagine how to say it...). They love it when I say Oye, because I say it so softly and I love it when they teach me new Russian words.
It has been so wonderful getting to know them better and the Lord has blessed me with some awesome times with them already. I look forward to even more.

There is a bakery on the way to school that makes AMAZING pastries and most of the pastries are only one lita. On our way back from school we usually stop and get one, and they are always straight from the oven and still warm. It is wonderful!

These are all random stories, but all that I have for now.

Jordan, Chelsea and I on the boardwalk to the beach at Palanga.
a changing station at the beach...
My roommates and I.
Until next time.

Klaipeda

Labas rytas! (good morning)

For most of you it is morning... and for me it is almost dinner time. I kept my clock on my computer to the time for Indiana so that I had an idea of what people were up to.

Classes started. They are going to keep me busy, quite a few papers for Philosophy of Religion, homework each night for Micro Econ, Hebrew Prophets is going to switch around so I will keep you posted about that, Theology has been so interesting, and Lithuanian has in all honesty been really fun to learn. The professor of Lithuanian is so energetic and really desires for us to learn which makes the class 100x better.

For anyone who wants to know my address here it is:

Karklu 5
Klaipeda, Lithuania
92243

Every day it gets a little bit better and I am really looking forward to feeling comfortable here... just not exactly there yet.

Emily and I went to a restaurant last night for some friendship time. It was a blessing to talk with her and just hear each other's perspective on where we are at at the present time. We had tiramisu AND the restaurant we went to was on the top floor of the Klaipeda hotel with windows all around so you can see all of Klaipeda. It was a great time.

A group of us went to the beach today after church. Can you believe it? I swam in the Baltic Sea... and yes, I actually got all the way in (except for my hair) It was a fun time and there were tons of people there.

Please continue to pray for me as I continue to adjust to a new life for 4 months. It will fly by and before I know it I will wish I had it all back again.

I praise Jesus that He is with me through this time I couldn't be here without Him.

And now. Some more pictures to tide you over.

Karklu... my home for 4 months.

Emily, Chelsea, Zane and I at the Jazz Club.
At the Baltic Sea for a day
Until next time.

Viso Gero (all the best)

First weeks of Lithuania.

Well. I have arrived. I have been in Lithuania for a whole week now.

Started out in Vilnius (the capital) sightseeing with the 30 other Study Abroad students and our Study Abroad interns working with us throughout the semester. It has been great to have people here who you can go to when you need some understanding.

We spent time in a KGB musuem, which was literally where the KGB ran their office and prison at, so we saw where people were executed and the likes. It was eye opening.
We took a walking tour of Vilnius and saw 4 magnificent cathedrals and heard about their history's as well.
We also went to Trakai where there is a 13th century castle still standing; Nida which is on the Kuronian Spit, and it is such a cute little resort town with cafes and sand dunes. Lithuania's history is rich and alive. The people of this country take pride in their language and culture.

Classes started yesterday and I couldn't have been more ready for them to begin. I have Micro Economics, Intro into Lithuanian, Intro into Theology, Hebrew Prophets, A Cross Cultural class developed for the Study Abroad students, and Macro Economics. Thankfully it will keep me busy and my mind constantly working.


My roommates are all from Ukraine. There are actually a lot of students from the Ukraine and Belarus. They are sweet and accomodating.

It has been a struggle for me to get used to being here. I am never a fan of change in my life, but it is the one thing that makes me a better person. I am looking forward to the next few weeks as this place starts becoming more comfortable to me and I can find my niche. Please pray for me during this time.

And now. A few pictures for you to see from my eyes.


This is my favorite cathedral we went to in Vilnius. All the bricks come from all over the world and it was one of the only buildings that didn't get destroyed during WWII.



my first granola bar in Lithuania. Corny big... hah!

the dunes of Nida.
Emily and I on the dunes looking over Nida.
Iki. (which means "until we meet again) and it is also the name of the major grocery store here in Lithuania.

So.

Iki.

Venice.Florence.Rome.

There and back.

Venice.

This was both Emily and my favorite place in Italy. Our hostel was tucked away in a neighborhood and kind of away from the touristy places. We took a water bus around the second day and loved people watching more than touring places. We went to San Marco Square, Rialto Bridge and Accademia Bridge too. Sometimes we would be riding down the Grand Canal and it would just hit me that I was actually in Venice, Italy. This trip has been such a wonderful thing.

The food is amazing and each dinner has been great. It has been pasta heaven for me
This was my first meal in Venice.

Gelato in Venice was the best too. We found a cheap place that had gelato for 1.10 euro and ended up eating it twice a day there. Tiramisu, lemon, and watermelon have been my favorites so far.

We just really felt at home in Venice, it was smaller and easier to navigate, people were also much more willing to help us get around. We were trying to find the Giovanni Evangelista church our first day there, ran into two cute old ladies and they walked us to it even though we couldn't understand one another's languages. It was so sweet of them.

Florence.

Because we had such a wonderful time in Venice, Emily and I were skeptical of what Florence would be for us. Our hostel was pretty sketchy. Once arriving there after about a 15 minute walk from the train station we arrived to find young Italian men running the hostel. The guy behind the desk explained to us that he could get us a great room and that they loved American girls. I was just praying that this wasn't some hoax. After paying we were actually sent to another location and had a great experience there, with our own room and bathroom. cool!

We went to the Accademia (literally next door to our hostel) and saw David, and then walked to the Duomo and Ponte Vecchio. If I could pick one landmark that I loved it was the Duomo. The church was enormous and absolutely spectacular. Dinner was fun that night and we found a great place hidden away. I had orchiette and Emily had ravioli with pears and cheese. It was delicious :)

Our friday morning was spent at the Uffizi gallery which had mostly paintings with religious meanings or statues. We were quite overwhelmed. Bartered for different souveneirs for gifts and then took a nap back at our room. That evening we tried to save dinner for much later and walked around to different shops. We found a great store called Signum that had journals and posters. It was a great find. Dinner was spent in one of the Piazzas at an outdoor cafe.
We had cappuchino around 9 o'clock which was an absolutely awful decision. We had to be at the train station around 8:30 that next morning and didn't fall asleep until around 2:30 the night before because of the caffeine in the cappuchino. All in all Florence was beautiful and there was a lot to see, but it wasn't my favorite of the trip.

Rome.

Rome has been overwhelming. It is a huge city with tons to do. This past Saturday after getting back from Florence, Emily and I actually laid low and took a break from sightseeing. But, after dinner that night, Debbie (who we are staying with in Rome) took us to get gelato near the Pantheon and then we walked to the Trevi fountain. It was a lot of fun. Today Emily and I went to the Colosseum, took a guided tour which was well worth it and then walked to the Roman Forum and Palatino. The ruins are amazing to see and it is crazy to believe they have been around for so long. Then we took the metro to Vatican city and walked around for awhile. We took Debbie out to dinner and had bruschetta, pizza, and tiramisu. yum!
One more day left in Italy and then headed to Lithuania. I am not really ready to go, so prayer that I would get adjusted to Lithuania easily would be much appreciated. I am so thankful that Emily and I had this time to travel and see a part of the world. The Lord truly blessed us with this opportunity.

Until next time.

Ciao.

Emily and I have been up for 31 hours so bear with me.

Our flight over was great, not much sleep, but fine nonetheless.
So, on the screens that they show movies on for the flight they also show where we are in our flight over, what time it is from our depature and the time until our destination. Emily and I didn't realize that they were showing us the time until our destination, and actually thought it was the time over in Poland where we were headed. Then we noticed the time was counting down and at the exact same moment realized it was counting down until we landed not the actual time. We felt pretty dumb at that point.

Breakfast before landing in Poland was hilarious to us both. We had woken up from minimal sleep to find a tray of the most interesting foods for breakfast. It consisted of a slice of deli ham, lettuce, 2 small cucumbers, 1/2 of a cherry tomato, dollop of cottage cheese and a dinner roll. Now, I wasn't expecting pancakes and eggs, but seriously they could have given us a heads up on what was going to served ;)

After landing in Poland we had our passports stamped and went through another set of security. Emily and I didn't think we would go through security again and had actually filled our water bottles up for the next flight. Thankfully the Poles are very generous people and allowed us to just dump it out and go on to our gate. Phew!

The train ride from the airport in Rome to Debbie's apartment was really fun and it was so neat to see the countryside leading into Rome. A Swedish guy sat with us and told us he had just moved to Rome to work for the World Food Organization (i think) for the UN. He travels all over, such as, he is going to Afghanistan next and Africa soon after that. It was sad though, because we could tell that his job meant squat to him.

All in all it has been such a great time. We head to Venice tomorrow :)

Until next time.

Ciao.

Leaving tomorrow.

The voyage, which is what Patrick calls it, starts in Rome.

I don't know what to expect so I am not truly looking forward to it, but once
I arrive I know that it will all mean so much more to me.

So. Goodbye to America.

and

Hello Europe!

(don't worry, once I get there my posts will be much longer)

thank you to all who will be praying for me. i appreciate it greatly.

In 17 days I leave for Italy and in 26 days I will be in Lithuania for 4 and 1/2 months.

This will be quite the adventure. Pray for Emily and I as we jump out of our comfort
zones and into a whole new way of life for awhile.

I am excited and scared all at the same time. Thankfully I am not alone... and I don't
just mean Emily.

Packing is intersting as well as remembering everything that needs to be taken.

This is going to be fun