Talent galore

Last night we celebrated with a talent night, highlighting the talent of our students and staff. This night is completely voluntary, but last night held many surprise performances. There were two acts that stood out in my mind...one was a girl from Kaliningrad, who performed hoop tricks with the circus there. She usually twirls 26 Hulu hoops, but last night she could only find four, but she was entertaining. Ten, the crowd was literally wowed by one of the girls singing opera...simply amazing. There was one girl who had been making a film. Se showed some of the clips which were entertaining and highly creative. Some of last year's students came back for the show. Then a few of us went to Old Town to eat burgers--sometimes cold and wet in the outdoor cafe. We topped the evening off with cakes from the 12 floor of the old Klaipeda Hotel. The view of the clouds from that vantage point was simple breath-taking.



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Location:Pakruojo gatvė,Klaipėda,Lithuania

Our two hour tour

Our harbor tour was glitch less, without a glitch, or glitch free. Really. We boarded at 10 am with most teachers sitting on the main deck while others climbed to the top deck. Our skipper sailed out of the inlet and into the harbor channel. The tour guide, whose voice echoed her Lithuanian and Klaipedian pride, told us stories of old Klaipeda-- there was Neringa, the goddess who watched over the harbor waters, the lumber merchants who felled the pines to sell to England, causing the sand dunes to swallow the treeless villages, the Soviet monies which built up the port only to be turned over to Lithuania when it took back its country, and the hundreds of business that line the harbor sides. Since I went topside, I did not hear the entire spiel. There was a speaker system below deck, but the speaker topside was either not working, turned off, or not included as part of the package. So, Rita, one of the teachers, sat near the stairs and interpreted the lecture for the rest of us. So, my harbor stories are all second hand. All in all, it was quite interesting.

After deboarding, we all wandered down to the Old Town for lunch. With our two Lithuanian-Kiwi friends, Jude and I meandered over to an outdoor cafe on the square, ate a delicious meal and visited. Later we parted. Jude and I walked past a couple of chess players who seemed in their zones even with the cameras and onlookers.




On Friday night, we held our annual BBQ-- peeled sausages, cucumbers and ketchup...before and after eating, the students played games...



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Location:Pakruojo gatvė,Klaipėda,Lithuania

Lithuanian negotiations

My friend Vytas asked me if it would be a good idea to hire a boat and tour the Klaipeda harbor some weekend. I thought it would be a great idea, especially since we were staying in the harbor. Last trip about 6 years ago, we rented a tall ship for a three hour trip into the Baltic. Sounds charming if the water is calm, but our luck brought 10 m waves, so it turned out to be a toss your cookie trip. Not many of the teachers are presently at SLI...therefore, this trip sounded like fun.

So Vytus entered into negotiations. It went something like this.

Vytas...do you have a boat and a guide for rent?
Tour company...no. We are all full for the summer.
Vytas...That's too bad. We have 50 teachers at LCC that would like to tour the harbor.
Tour company...oh...that is easy. All you need is a boat and a guide.
Vytas...but we don't have a boat and a guide.
Tour company...we do. What kind of a boat would you like?
Vytas...well, we have a out 50 people.
Tour company...your can hire a boat for about 200 litas per hour depending on the boat.
Vytas...Laughingly, Vytas replied...as long as it floats.
Tour company...well, then it will be more like 400 litas per hour.
Vytas...Hmm...a little reluctantly, does that include the tour guide?
Tour company...yes
Vytas...will the guide have a microphone ,so everyone can hear?
Tour company...oh yes, but it doesn't work now.
Vytas...can it be fixed by Saturday....?
Tour company...well of course....

So we are off to the harbor on Saturday morning for a two hour tour of the harbor. If it's any longer, we may sink. It was only guaranteed to float for two hours...and we forgot to ask about life preservers. But Vytas did tell those who wanted to go to wear a swimming suit...

Oh the fun of living abroad...


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Location:Pakruojo gatvė,Klaipėda,Lithuania

A day at the beach

Today, was just another day at the beach...literally, I walked to the ferry with about 15 of my friends, loaded onto a bus which dropped us 10 kilometers down the spit, and then we hiked through the woods and over the dunes to the Baltic and started our walk back to Klaipeda. At times, we were strung out down the beach. It was a great time to bond with our fellow colleagues. We talked about how people found out about Lithuania, jobs back home, countries visited...and along the way, we picked up shells ( no amber to be found this trip) and took many photos. Lithuanian skies have the most beautiful cloud formations.








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While some of the teachers were beach walking, others were busy getting their lessons ready. The RAs were doing mixers with the 280 students, quite a fete in itself. From the pictures of human knots posted on Facebook, it looked like fun. Tomorrow, we all meet each other, together in the gym, for the first time. Then, it's off to class. Jude and I will help with late registration and then get ready for our afternoon classes.
The breakdown of our students is fascinating.
13 students--32-56 years old
27 students--23-31 years old
84 students--18-22 years old
97 students--17 years old
64 students--15-16 years old
There are 202 females and 98 males.
Countries represented...
Kazakhstan-1
Germany-2
Azerbaijan-2
Moldovia-4
Georgia-4
Ukraine-5
Latvia-6
Belarus-9
Poland-19
Russia-80
Lithuania-140
At our school ( LCC International University) there are six non- negotiables:
1. Christian
2. Liberal,Arts
3. International
4. North American style (teaching)
5. Relational
6. Philanthropic
We 're off to celebrate all July birthdays...then off to bed...
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Location:Pakruojo gatvė,Klaipėda,Lithuania

A day on the bus

Today, we travelled to the Hill of Crosses and Rundale Palace in Latvia. We loaded onto the bus around 7:30 am and someone exploded out in song with "wheels on the bus go round and round..." Then, we drifted into counting storcks. Thankfully, they stopped at 100. A little later we unloaded in Siauliai to walk the streets and get a bite to eat before heading out to the Hill of Crosses. While there, it poured. Some folks ran for cover. Jude and I hid behind a tree and were spared briefly before we got soaked. It even hailed. Then, the sun came out and dried us off. Of course, our umbrellas were in the bus...
The Hill of Crosses...a little history lesson
The Hill of Crosses (Lithuanian: Kryžių kalnas (help·info)) is a site of pilgrimage about 12 km north of the city of Šiauliai, in northern Lithuania. The precise origin of the practice of leaving crosses on the hill is uncertain, but it is believed that the first crosses were placed on the former Jurgaičiai or Domantai hill fort after the 1831 Uprising.[1] Over the centuries, not only crosses, but giant crucifixes, carvings of Lithuanian patriots, statues of the Virgin Mary and thousands of tiny effigies and rosaries have been brought here by Catholic pilgrims. The exact number of crosses is unknown, but estimates put it at about 55,000 in 1990[2] and 100,000 in 2006.[3]








Rundāle Palace...
Gate of the palace
It was constructed in the 1730s to a design by Bartolomeo Rastrelli as a summer residence of Ernst Johann von Biron, the Duke of Courland. Following Biron's fall from grace--he got sent to Siberia for 22 years--the palace stood empty until the 1760s, when Rastrelli returned to complete its interior decoration.
After Duchy of Courland and Semigallia was absorbed by the Russian Empire in 1795, Catherine the Great presented the palace to Count Valerian Zubov, the youngest brother of her lover, Prince Platon Zubov. He spent his declining years there after the death of Valerian Zubov in 1804. His young widow, Thekla Walentinowicz, a local landowner's daughter, remarried Count Shuvalov, thus bringing the palace to the Shuvalov family, with whom it remained until the German occupation in World War I when the German army established a hospital and a commandant's office there.
The palace suffered serious damage in 1919 during the Latvian War of Independence. In 1920, part of the premises were occupied by the local school. In 1933, Rundāle Palace was taken over by the State History Museum of Latvia. It was dealt a serious blow after World War II, when the grain storehouse was set up in the premises and later, the former duke's dining room was transformed into the school's gymnasium. Only in 1972 was a permanent Rundāle Palace Museum established.[1]
The palace is one of the major tourist destinations in Latvia.
This place was built by the same architect that built Peterhof, Catherine's Palace and the Hermitage, so they are all rather similar. This one is a rather nice summer home...








And it rained here too. We must have caught the same storm on our trip north into Latvia. Earlier in the morning, we stopped for a "stretch break" at this Baron's house. Nice pad, but it's still in the restoration process and not open to the public.




Tomorrow, the students come to take entrance tests.
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Location:Pakruojo gatvė,Klaipėda,Lithuania

SLI 2013-- the first week

We arrived safe and sound on our Finnair flight from Chicago-Helsinki-Vilnius. The bus rides at both ends were long but good with no problems. It still never ceases to amaze me how small the world is...I mean within 30 hours door-to-door, I was sleeping in my new bed, living in a different country, listening to a different language. eating foods with no preservatives added, seeing old friends and meeting new ones. Ah...my Lithuanian summer.
There's a large influx of new teachers this year--around two-thirds are new. However, this staff is the most global one--teachers who live in Oman, Romania, university professors from various places Canada and the US. I don't know how Robin, our director does it , but she gathers us all together to teach ESL for four weeks. And this year, there we only two lost teachers, left in airports because flights were either cancelled or missed.
After daily teaching orientations to the academic side of out time here, we help the new teachers get orientated to living in a new country. Last night, Jude took a group of teachers on a walking tour of restaurants while also showing them how to buy bus tickets. And I did notice one woman buying her .80 cent bus ticket with MasterCard. Jude then took them all to dinner while I met Kel, our pastor friend, for a few beverages down by the river in the Old Town.
Jude and I took a bus to one of the beaches near school for the weekly Wednesday service for the Vineyard community. Tonight, one of the girls spoke about human trafficking. She spoke passionately about this topic. We got reacquainted with many of our old friends. And, then we caught the last bus home, forgetting that it's still very light at 10 pm.




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Location:Pakruojo gatvė,Klaipėda,Lithuania