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.
