Come on over in the summer by Vernon

I wanted to tell you about Palanga just as an example of all that there is to do! We spent one whole day in Palanga on a Saturday. First you hop a puddle jumper van for the 30 minute drive, maybe shorter. You hoot and holler as you bump along because it's so much fun. The bus drops you off and you suddenly realize you are in a vacation paradise by the huge Baltic Sea. The sea seems as large as an ocean, and the public beaches extend as far as the eye can see for miles! The sand is pristine white unlike the sand in Japan! The three blocks that occur just before you view the sea and the wharf will be lined with entertainers, performers of all kinds. There will be small bands of people singing and playing the music of Lithuania, or of any foreign country that happens to have a spot. There were four Indian people from Montana playing those mystic wind flutes, all sizes of them, just delightful. The Indians were dressed in heavy hides, sweating like you cannot believe, but they were in war paint, and oh the music was sweet! You may pass a little Lithuanian girl dressed in her native costume, playing a violin quite well, I might add. You may see farther on a military  band in the band shell, maybe 70 pieces just blowing their brains out! Or it may be an orchestra playing either classical or national music. There may be a rock band, definitely a country western band, and they have juggling acts, the circus things you know! They have those huge carnival cables that haul you up in the air and drop you. There are all kinds of food everywhere, lots of little restaurants where you eat outside! We have NEVER had the pleasure of being there in the summer! Warning: the girls don't wear much on the beach, and they often are just gorgeous, amazingly beautiful.

The number of Catholic Cathedrals is amazing, and my favorite near here is in Kreginga about 15 minutes drive away. Some of the time we might be able to have the school van(s) for only the gas money we have to pay! At that Cathedral you will notice it's standing room only. The aisles are full of little children or parents holding them! Up front (not seen from the back) are 30 or so children of grade school age who sing like angels with one lady who is the choir director. The sing through much of the service! The cathedral is laden with all kinds of Bible art, wooden, steel, and paintings. Oh, it's great! Outside are the huge graveyards, and the people have placed large pictures of the person, some still living in a large format larger than life, a younger face of course from an earlier time. There is a trail that leads through a water way, lots of ducks, geese and other birds making some chatter. There is a tomb of Christ you can walk into, bridges, and lots of neat litle buildings. One houses the bodies of priests that have served and passed on over the years. If it is open you can even see the little wooden caskets covered by spider webs and dust! Then maybe it's off to Palanga, or one of the two best restaurants that have all the outdoor park zip lines, things to challenge you to play on them! They are in the forest! Oh, yes, the shores are lined by trees! It's the forest where the resistance forest people hid while the Soviets were deporting everyone to Siberia or the Ural Mountains. I mean the train station has 17 tracks, many of which were used to load up and transfer the Lithuanians and Jews to miserable camps to die. Oh, it was awful. But now I love to watch the trains and think about the past history.

There are all kinds of museums, historical building, and great places to enjoy. The Spit is my favorite. You can rent a bike, take the ferry across to the Spit, and you can ride for hours on bike paths along the road ways! Oh, it great. When you get to one of the two little cities you might find festivals outdoors, dancing, and lots of Lithuanian music.

Well, I got to go! Vernon

What's different about life here

Starlog January 15, 2011

Klaipeda, LT

Medziotoju 10-2

Freezing rain can be a bit daunting even when traveling on foot. The journey across the LCC parking lot after church this morning took us about 10 minutes rather than the usual 1 minute. Snow and ice were covered with a veneer of slick ice. Any curve or rise in elevation of the slightest nature presented an almost in surmountable task. But surmount we did and then did what any American girl would do --- we went to the mall.

The Akropolis serves as a sanctuary in difficult weather hot or cold. Lights are bright, service friendly, and happy faces appear often. Today our mission was to find Vernon a pair of in-house shoes. Apparently he did not care for the tongue lashing he received before church about putting sand all over my newly cleaned floors. First, of course, came our after-church repast in the form of a shared meal salad, pizza, and hot fudge sundae! Vern did most of the sharing.

To our delight we found a movie “The Tourist” about to begin. Tickets were purchased and a mad dash was made to the closest store with shoes. Crocs were a quick and perfect find. Not cheap but just what was needed. Back to the movie to catch the previews. One slight problem presented itself --- however, the plot was not too complicated so the problem was minor--- when French or Italian was spoken, sub-titles appeared in Lithuanian. You have to smile at times like those.

What shall I tell you about? Perhaps, you would be interested in knowing what I see that you might not see. Each time I walk downtown, I see a number of ladies of various ages wearing full-length fur coats and exquisite hats. The sight is stunning. I see small children 2 and under with about 5 layers of clothes on. I now see why there are wool patterns for children and babies. The wool is the outermost layer and is not near the skin at all. I see expensive shoe stores by the dozens, as well as pizza shops, and Chinese restaurants. In my class are girls with very short skirts over long pants, over long johns, over knee high wool socks. (I know this because one of them endeavored to show me her wounds from falling on the ice against the stair edges and gashing her legs just below the knee.) Actually icy side walks in front of stores, and totally icy steps and stairs at public buildings would not be seen in American --- here you don’t see many lawyers. Students check out their textbooks instead of buying them. 8.5 X 11 paper does not exist nor do spiral notebooks with lined paper. Paper is A4 (whatever that means), and notebooks have graph paper. Mothers firmly believe that babies should have 3-4 hours of fresh air each day. Thus, today Vern noticed a baby outside the church in its buggy. The mother would go out to check on it regularly! If you order coffee with milk, you get expresso with a pitcher of hot frothy milk on the side. J Eat your heart out.

Although, the college is once again between presidents, life seems to be going along as usual --- from my outsider’s vantage point.

“Home” is getting homier thanks to Jysk – a cheap, cheap store with tons of inventory. Marietta browsed and advised while I filled my cart: large blanket (200x220cm—whatever that is), an extra clothes drying rack so I can get most the laundry done on the weekends, a mesh bag to serve as a laundry basket, a couple of wicker box things for holding stuff on the kitchen counter, colorful kitchen towels, bath towels for me (Vern insists these old ones suit him fine.), and a hanging organizer for the closet. The landlord agreed to reimburse us for an article of furniture to put in the bathroom. We needed somewhere to put towels, laundry detergent, make-up etc etc etc. Found something that might work. It is one of those take-it-home-in-the-box-and-try-to-read-directions-in-a-foreign-language things. You might be able to see a blue cloud of smoke all the way over the ocean.

Marietta and I may have come to an agreement. I will buy a crock pot for us to share, and she will share her other baking and cooking equipment. I feel good about this as buying all my stuff over again was not making me happy. A crock pot I can do. Unfortunately, they are only available in Vilnius at this time. Train ride anyone?