Multi-Lingual Dreams

I'm sorry it's been so long since my last post. I actually have a few things to talk about too. There's no excuses. I'm just lazy.

A few weeks ago, there was an exchange student 'gathering' I'd call it. With there only being four exchange students in the country, we don't have conferences. We just have some meetings. Our last one was organized by the Rotary Interact Club in Vilnius. Interact is a Rotary club for members under 18 years of age if I'm not mistaken. It was fun. The exchange students met up and Natalie and Yu-Shan, who live in Vilnius, were to show us, John and I, around the city. It was actually freezing out so we didn't spend much time outside. We found a Mexican restaurant which made me extremely happy. The menu was in Lithuanian, English, and Spanish! I annoyed the others reading in Spanish. I love how the language sounds, but they didn't like how I sounded. But I got a beef burrito which was amazing. It had been over six months (!) since I've had Mexican food. Then we went to a mall called Ozas and walked around, then to another mall, Akropolis, and then met up with some members of Interact. After meeting with them, we went ice skating! That was really fun. The rink where we were wasn't crowded so we didn't have to worry much about other people. I'm not extremely good at ice skating, but I love it. After, we took a bus into the center of the city (I think, I don't know Vilnius well at all) and went to a SkyBar. It's in the Radisson. It was dark by that point so we could look out over the city and see all the lights. It was beautiful! We ordered some (non-alcoholic) drinks and talked for awhile. Then the best part of the night: We went to a club and saw the Red Hot Chili Peppers Project. You might have guessed they are a cover band for the Red Hot Chili Peppers. You are correct. And they were good! The next day us exchange students went to see a movie and then hung out in the food court of Ozas. That is the only food court I've seen since being here! They aren't common in malls. In the Akropolis in Kaunas, there is only sit-down restaurants which I suppose is better, but it's different.

And now on to my multi-lingual dreams. I've heard that the sign you really know a language is when you start dreaming and thinking in that language. I'm definitely not there. I almost always speak in English, but I can actually communicate in Lithuanian fairly well. I actually have been told I have good Lithuanian twice. I still have my American accent, but it's a little less of my Michigander accent. I say 'for' instead of the northern Michigan 'fir' now. But I'm best with one-on-one conversations, but still not great. In my dreams, it depends on who I'm talking to or where I am which language is being spoken. If a random person comes up to me, the dream is in Lithuanian. If I'm talking with someone I know, it's in English unless I only talk to that person in Lithuanian. And then the random Spanish is thrown in. I thing I might be being redundant since I keep talking about Spanish, but just ignore it if it bothers you. Not my fault.

Tomorrow I'm moving to my third host family. I have mixed feelings about it. I feel extremely comfortable with this family and I don't want to leave them but I've heard my next family is great and something new is always nice. Right now, I can't sleep so I'm blogging. I'm stalling with my packing too. I have so much stuff now. I have two suitcases, a backpack, a (Northern Lumber) duffle bag, and my purse. I have to magically fit all my clothes, school books, shoes, non-consumable Christmas presents, and loads more. I cannot remember how I got it here. Right now, all my clothes are on my floor, folded, but not in the suitcases. My cupboards and drawers are empty but most things aren't in my suitcase. I'm doing one of the things I do best: Procrastinating and waiting until the last minute. It works for me though. So I'm just blogging, listening to XM Radio online switching between Alternative Nation (my personal favourite) and Spectrum for those of you who know the XM/Sirius Radio stations.

Also, my return date is now finalized. I have my itinerary and everything. It's crazy how fast time is going now. I've been here over six months! If everything goes smoothly, I'll be in the Detroit airport at 11:27 PM on June 14th. But there's Murphy's Law to contend with, and the TSA and customs, so we'll see.

Now I have to get back to attempting to pack but I'll probably just lay on my bed with my big headphones on and listen to Oasis. So now I bid you farewell and stay classy San Diego.

All the Small Things

Sorry I haven't blogged in awhile. I'm not sure what all to write about, but I figured I could make a semi-interesting post about the little things!
So a few weekends ago, I went to visit with Giedre, she was the exchange student who stayed in Kalkaska, MI last year. It was nice. We didn't do much, we went bowling, watched movies, and talked. We also saw a little bit of a badminton tournament. Now I didn't like that sport in gym class, but it gets extremely competitive! That birdie or whatever you call it doesn't just go any-which-way. I can tell you need a lot of practice! I have respect for people that have taken the time to get good at their sport of choice. Until you get to the NBA, that's just an entertainment industry. I won't go into it now, but feel free to ask me about it! It could pass quite a few minutes.
Last weekend, Natalie (the other exchange student) came to spend the weekend with me. Now that was fun. We walked around Akropolis and talked. Got some coffee at a cafe, went to another mall and ate pizza (or pica in Lithuanian), then came back to my house and hung out. It had been a very, very long time since I've done something like that. We watched Edward Scissorhands, crept on our friends (and other people) from home on Facebook, talked (in English!), stayed up late. It was normal. Being an exchange student, I haven't had anything like that in a very long time.
A few days ago at my school was a speech competition. Now that may sound boring, especially since every other class is boring, but here's the catch: The speeches were in English! It's something that the English Speaking Union does each year. There were only three contestants and they were all good. I'm throughly impressed with everyone's English here. I'd say my Spanish is good, but then I talk to people here and I could only carry on half the conversation in Spanish which is my second language (not fully...). Most people are taking at least two other languages in high school. Normally English then Russian or German. They stress language much more here. Most of my English class is conducted in English, and they're working on grammar that I've never heard of. Not everyone knows English though or is very good at it, but I'm impressed. But back to the speeches! The topic was something to do with the future world or bettering the world or something. I can't remember, but one speech was about how the educational system is bogus (my word, not the speaker's, but the same point), another was about global warming, and the last was about ending negative thinking. Everyone had great points and interesting speeches. Now I don't know if I could have entered in the competition, being a native English speaker and I found out only the day before, but it doesn't matter.
Overall, everything is pretty good. I'm well over halfway through my year which is crazy to think about. Just over one year ago, I found out I was going to Lithuania (February 11th, 2010 to be exact). It's crazy. I can still remember that like it was last week. I'm working on my return dates. I'll be back around June 16th I think since my residence permit expires the 17th. It's so weird to think about. I know what my 'last hurrah' will be here though. Euro Tour! I'm officially signed up for it! For those of you who don't know what it is, it's a trip Rotary provides for exchange students at the end of their year around where they're staying. In the States, it's either an East or West Coast trip, in Brasil they just travel around the country, but in Europe, we travel Europe! It depends on the district, but I share a district with part of Denmark so that's where I'll start. I'll be on a charter bus with a ton of other exchange students and travel from Denmark, to Germany, to the Czech Republic, to Austria, to Italy, to Monaco, to France, to Belgium, to the Netherlands, then back to Denmark. The whole thing will take about 20 days. I am extremely excited for it! It will start in mid-May, then I'll come back to Lithuania when it's over for roughly a week, then fly home. I'll be sure to take pictures and blog about it. Not many people get this opportunity. One of the many reasons why I love Rotary!
Thanks for reading!

Skiing, New Year's, and Rest

Unless you happen to be in the Southern Hemisphere, you're back in school after Christmas break. Then you're just on summer vacation. But my break ended Thursday. Why school resumed on a Thursday? I have no idea. But I had a good break. After Christmas, I went to Latvia to stay with my host dad's parents for a few days. We ended up skiing for four straight days. While my knees and the rest of the muscles in my body didn't like me after that, I had fun. There are no mountains in Lithuania or Latvia though, so we went to some hills. I have grown up skiing at the Homestead in northern Michigan. It's a tiny place that doesn't have very good hills, but it's decent and fun. Now these hills didn't compare to the Homestead! The first hill I went to was called Cat's Hill (in Latvian though). There was a bunny hill and an extremely steep one. Now I haven't been skiing since our class trip to Boyne Mountains almost two years ago, but I skied every weekend during the winter at the Homestead for five or six years when I was younger. It took me about two runs on the bunny hill to get back into skiing. Muscle memory. But when I attempted to tackle the cliff, I rolled part-way down. Needless to say, I chilled in the cafe for the rest of the day. We were there two more days, but I didn't ever feel like venturing to the big hill again. What matters was I had fun. The third day, we went to another hill. This was only one hill, but a nice one. Maybe a blue hill? I don't really know. But I liked that day the best. I got a few pictures of the town I stayed in and to see them on Facebook, click here
Now the rest of my break was pretty good. I didn't do much, I just hung out at my house, watched movies, wrote, read, and that good stuff. I did go to the movies once to see Little Fockers. It was OK, not as funny as I thought it would be. I also went to get some amazing sushi with my host mom! And while out with my host mom, we went into a store to look and see if they had any magazines in English. They did but they were only business magazines so we didn't get them. But what else was in this store? Silly Bandz. Yes, Silly Bandz. They took over every person under the age of 25 (and my mom) this past summer in America and now they're here. The infestation is spreading!