A Klaipeda winter

Today, My friends left for NZ. It was a beautiful sunrise as they drove to Riga, bound for Hong Kong and then NZ. Then winter hit with harsh winds and driving snow. Kinda reminded me of Russia--snow covered black ice. With my bus pass in hand, I caught the bus to downtown Klaipeda. Loads of changes for those who know it. Many new coffee houses near the river. The Klaipea Hotel has a new name. Walked past a dark Karklu. Then I met Simonas at the IDeal store, Robin, Kim and Marlene at LCC. Had dinner and a wonderful reunion with Robin for supper before meeting up with Ieva for English lessons at Rytas Orphanage. Ieva is a third year college student who takes time teaching English to students there and after spending time with her, I know why her students appreciate her. It is people like her that make this cold, harsh climate warm.

I tried cooking today. I made burritos with beans and even found Mexican cheese advertised with the phrase "the cheese that bites you back." I even found jalepenos...they kept me warm. Tomorrow, I will meet my new students and prepare for the adult fellowship.

Three of my students were SLI students last summer--two were in Jude's class and one in Erwin's class and two others came from yhe Kazakhstan class. Wow...this class has a unique diversity from Albania, Latvia, Lithuania, Belarussia, Ukraine, Moldavia and Kalingrad. The book I am teaching is Between Shades of Gray, an historical fiction surrounding the deportation of Baltic people to Siberia. The author, Ruta Sepetys, spoke at the university and answered questions from the students. It was very exciting and I can't wait to hear the students' perceptions about it and the book.

Arrived and settled

It seems that every time I fly LOT I have lots of trouble. One of these days will learn. Jude dropped me off at the airport in Milwaukee. Got my flight to Chicago earlier than expected since my original flight was overbooked. In Chicago, I had to get new boarding passes. LOT would not accept UA boarding passes. But this happened once before...I left Chicago a little late which always worries me because I had a tight schedule in Warsaw for my next flight. But the pilot said he would make up the time and get to Warsaw at the schedule time do 9:50 am. Ah...time to lay back and relax...During the middle of the night (about 7 hours into flight) the captain announced we would have to land in Glasgow, some sort of medical emergency. Again, since I was flying LOT, most of the messages were in Polish, so my understanding of the situation was mostly second hand. Once on the ground, police cars surrounded the plane, officers came in and took a Polish passenger off in handcuffs and we were ready to take off. Later I learned that this passenger had beaten up his neighbor to the point that he had to be hospitalized. Meanwhile, the pilot announced that since we were on the ground, we would refuel the plane. That did not sound too comforting. I must say the Glasgow area was beautiful with all the rolling hills and lakes. I was waiting for William Wallace to come riding over the crest...The rest of that flight was uneventful, which was good. I landed in Warsaw two hours late which meant that I missed my flight to Riga. So off on another adventurous LOT adventure. When I landed before going through security, I noticed a flight to Riga leaving at 2:55, plenty of time to stand in line, rebook, find luggage, check in again, go through security again and catch my air Baltic flight to Riga...well, my luggage did not come off the conveyor belt, so off to LOT lost and found. Once there, a very nice man helped me by personally going to get my baggage. An hour later, I found the airBaltic counter in the older section of the airport terminal. Thank God, Jude and I had traveled through that airport a number of times. At least I knew where to go. I checked in, caught my flight, landed in Riga only to find at my luggage did not come off the conveyor belt with all the other passengers' bags. But they eventually came 20 minutes later with the next planes bags. I found Kel, who had patiently waited for me. He checked with LOT when I didn't arrive at the original time...he then spend two hours in the mall, where a lady tried to sell him Dead Sea salt to make his hands smoother. I remember going through that at Mayfair Mall...We drove back to Klaipeda, arriving at 11:30 pm...I arrived, safe and sound.

For the next three days, Kel and Sharon debriefed me about the next 6 weeks. I got a bus pass for March, tutored on a new cell phone and the ins and outs of their apartment, my new home. Kel showed me where the needle exchange was, introduced me to the orphanage director, wrote out some scripts for cell messages in Lithuanian to use as reminders. Then on Sunday, I met everyone at the church service at his flat. It was great to see all. Om Monday night, Kel and I met with his expat friends, Andrew and Marius, at Memelis for some beer. I will meet itch these guys on Thusday nights. Then Kel and I bussed home to watch rugby, a relaxing nit before he left. Kel and Sharon left Tuesday morning for Riga to begin their trip to NZ.

As their journey begins, so does mine...