A lazy Sunday afternoon

We finished our first week of teaching. Getting into the swing of it took some time, especially putting names to faces. At the end of the week, we held the traditional SLI barbeque with sausages grilled over an open grill, chips and water. Tim and I grilled over 350 "dogs". Everyone seemed to enjoy the festivities since the students hung around till about 9 pm dancing and listening to music. Linda introduced the students to line dancing. Even though I've been here for 10 summers now, I still am enamored by the amount of sliced cucumbers these students put on their sausages. It tok the morning teachers about 2 hours to peel off the plastic wrappings on each individual sausage.


On Saturday, Jude and I, along with a couple from Oregon, went downtown by bus to the open market, had some coffee and rolls, and then visited the music festival booths for the rest of the morning. After that, we met Kel and Sharon, our friends from New Zealand, for lunch. We had hamburgers, with cucumbers, and fish and chips. Later that afternoon, Jude and I walked back to the dorms in a light rain. The weather this summer has been cool, around 65-70 degrees, a big difference from the 106 degree temperatures in Kazakhstan. Jude even bought a sweater at the market since she only brought sleeveless shirts with her.

On Sunday, we went to Kel's flat, where I gave the message I was supposed to give Wednesday night at the Vineyard service at the beach. The message was "interrupted" by a torrential downpour. It lasted 45 minutes. Maybe God was sending me a message about my message. There was a Lithuanian woman with a little dog at the beach, who warned us of the impending storm. We could see the lightening, but still didn't seek shelter until the wind and driving rain came. Maybe she was a messenger from God telling us to get out of there.




As I write this sitting near the pond in front of the dorm, I'm watching a man fishing. He was here last night too, in the middle of the rain storm, fishing in the reeds. It's the same pass time all over the world. Jude's working with another teacher this afternoon, helping her sort out her reading lessons for the week, introducing her to the Daily Cafe, a reading system Jude likes from her teaching days.

Tomorrow, it starts all over again.


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The students...

On the first day of class, we welcomed the students to SLI 2012 with an Olympic theme and a parade of flags, representing each of the students' countries. They hail from Lithuania, Russia, Belorussia, Latvia, Norway, Poland, Ukraine and Moldavia.



Our total numbers are 273 with 172 from Lithuania, 69 from Russia, 12 from Poland, 10 from Latvia, 3 from Belorussia, 2 from Norway, and 1 from Moldavia and Ukraine. There are 21 students ages 32-49, 13 students ages 22-31, 16 students ages 19-21 and 222 students age 16. Kind of a young crowd, especially in the dorms...




There is a good mixture of teachers this year--young and old, elementary to university and returnees and first timers. We even have one teacher who lives in Brazil and a couple Lithuanian teachers who live in Denmark. We work well as a team. Our director, Robin, does a wonderful job getting us to collaborate so that we gel as a team. Tomorrow, Jude and I will have supper with a couple from Virginia, who are here to see how an ESL program is run in a foreign country, because they want to go to Botswana to work with the Chinese population there. They are a retired couple. So there's a lot of energy in this group.




Today marked the beginning of this 15 day cycle. Anastasia seems to be the most popular name this year with 15 girls. My students include some more interesting names, some of which I have never had in the past 10 summers. They include Anto, Astia, Sigita, Nikita, Silverijus, Darija, Patrycia, Austeja, Urte, Zane, Rimnydas, Vladislav, and a handful of Grete's, Olga's and Ona's. One of the classes this year in the Advanced level is called Academic Skill--teaching students how to use APA in their writing so that when they enter an English speaking international university, they will have some knowledge of citation and bibliography styles. Most high schools in eastern Europe have no knowledge or use for this. So this is truly "foreign" for all the students.



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Location:Kretingos gatvė,Klaipėda,Lithuania

Back in Lithuania

After a week of orientation and getting to know the town and bus transportation, we readied the classrooms for the onslaught of new students entering SLI 2012. Since Friday was King Mindaugaus Day, a national holiday I Lithuania where no onw works, we registered students on Saturday. They came in large bunches, starting as early as 8:30 am. That's about the time the computers went out. So, registration by pen and ink took a little longer, but it worked.

Most of the teachers took turns helping out with registration. The students had to pay and they take an initial exam which helps to place them into classes. About 300 students went through this process. While Jude was working, I walked down to the farmer's market with two new teachers. The smallest bill I had with me was 50 Lisa's ($20). To break it down, I bought some bus tickets for 20 litas. At the market items do not cost much at all, so therefore, I do not want big bills. For example, I bought four tomatoes for 1 lita (.50), 6 potatoes for another lita, two summer squash and one zucchini for another lita, a whole bunch of garlic cloves for yet another lita, and finally five yellow onions for another lita. I did not need the big bills. In fact, many of the booths would not even be able to change a larger bill. So I left the market with my 200, and my 50 lita bills still intact, ready to be broken at the Iki store, where we by groceries when the market is closed. Then we lugged it all home, about a 45 minute walk.



Last night, Jude and I walked over to get some pizza, watched Lithuania beat Puerto Rico in the Olympic pre games, bought some groceries for a Sunday night dinner and came home. When we got to the dorm, our class lists were done, and all the students were gathered in the other dorm on the first floor, listening to the "new rules" they were to suffer through for the next three weeks. Meanwhile, across the sidewalk the teachers were planning an inaugural party for Enns Hall, our dorm.





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Location:Pakruojo gatvė,Klaipėda,Lithuania