Day 3.
Happy Halloween! I'm missing trick-or-treating, and regretting that, even if I were home, my brothers aren't young enough to go along with them as an excuse to still get candy.
If you haven't been on google today, check it out.
I forgot to mention last night that we went to the circus!! So great.
Today we toured St Basil's Cathedral -- that is where this post's title comes in. Its inside is cavernous and mysterious. More on that later?
Also today was souvenier day! I simply cannot wait to go home to give everyone their gifts :)
Stay tuned for more photos soon!
Monday, October 31, 2011
Sunday, October 30, 2011
MOCKOB
Day 1.
Travel. We got up and out by 8,20, but then after ten minutes I realized I didn't see my frined Paige, and she was no where on the bus, so we turned around to wake her up... THEN we were really on the road. We took the bus to The Hill of Crosses which is in Siauliai, which is where Aurelija lives.
Then we finished the bus ride to Riga where we had about half an hour before our train left. We took the night train. It was a stark contrast to my previous night train experience which was from Italy to Paris. That had been really restfull except when a suitcase fell on my head. This time, there was no suitcase fiasco, but it was by no means restful. Yet, the mystery I felt towards being in Russia each time I woke up made me hardly care about how uncomfortable I was!
Anyway,
Day 2.
We got to Moscow around 10am. We checked into the hostel, and went to... Red Square! How beautiful.
I wasn't going to use my own money to do this, but my friend Drew (We call him Andresha in Russia -- I actually call him Drushka -- which means salt in lithuanian) kindly gave me a 5-rouble piece to throw at the spot where Moscow was founded! And with my long-standing basketball prowess, I made it right in the center! Can you believe it? I cannot. Well, I guess Moscow is my lucky city.
We went on a tour of Kremlin. The official tour was kind of boring, but the palace was beautiful. I cannot even believe real people could stand to live in such an exquisite place. It made me grateful to grow up in a house where, if I broke a plate, I wasn't breaking a fortune.
Day 3.
Who knows what it will hold?!
Travel. We got up and out by 8,20, but then after ten minutes I realized I didn't see my frined Paige, and she was no where on the bus, so we turned around to wake her up... THEN we were really on the road. We took the bus to The Hill of Crosses which is in Siauliai, which is where Aurelija lives.
Then we finished the bus ride to Riga where we had about half an hour before our train left. We took the night train. It was a stark contrast to my previous night train experience which was from Italy to Paris. That had been really restfull except when a suitcase fell on my head. This time, there was no suitcase fiasco, but it was by no means restful. Yet, the mystery I felt towards being in Russia each time I woke up made me hardly care about how uncomfortable I was!
Anyway,
Day 2.
We got to Moscow around 10am. We checked into the hostel, and went to... Red Square! How beautiful.
I wasn't going to use my own money to do this, but my friend Drew (We call him Andresha in Russia -- I actually call him Drushka -- which means salt in lithuanian) kindly gave me a 5-rouble piece to throw at the spot where Moscow was founded! And with my long-standing basketball prowess, I made it right in the center! Can you believe it? I cannot. Well, I guess Moscow is my lucky city.
We went on a tour of Kremlin. The official tour was kind of boring, but the palace was beautiful. I cannot even believe real people could stand to live in such an exquisite place. It made me grateful to grow up in a house where, if I broke a plate, I wasn't breaking a fortune.
Day 3.
Who knows what it will hold?!
Thursday, October 27, 2011
WARNING: THIS POST MAY CAUSE POST-TRAUMATIC SHOCK SYDROME
"She doesn't know what's comin'
But she knows what she's leavin' behind"
- The Great Billy Joel
These few days before I head off to Russia have caused me to do a little bit of self-reflection. I remember iin my Russian Literature class, a theme that for some reason or other came up was "self-awareness." While I would reject the idea that we should spend all our time on thinking about ourselves and even about how we can improve ourselves (because I think if we focus our energies on others with the right attitudes and motivation, self-improvement will come naturally), I think it is so valuable to acknowlege:
1. where and who you were
2. where and who you are now
3. that you have no idea where and who you will be next week, and no cotrol over it, and that is OK -- even more than OK. It is good.
So, today I've been thinking a lot about these three things.
I am trying to decide if it is better to talk about in terms of what I am now or what I am not anymore. I guess we'll go for a fussion. Or, we'll just jump in and see what it looks like at the end.
I am a little more punctual than I was before.
I have not turned in any assignment late this whole semester.
I wake up to my alarm every morning, rarely hitting snooze. At 7am -- an hour and a half before my first class.
I read for class and for pleasure every day.
I am learning how to be creative with cooking, and make things without measuring cups, and without a written recipe.
I know how to catch a train. And a bus. And a plane. All on my own. In fact, in a group, I am often the calm one who can figure out how to read the signs, even if they are in Lithuanian.
I hate when I have to take naps. I still do nap when I absolutely have to, but I absolutely hate it.
I try some new food almost every day.
I would rather buy more veggies at the shop than anything else.
I don't crave pizza every day.
I DO STILL LOVE CHOCOLATE!
I hate when I come to the realization that I haven't talked to my mom in a week, and my dad in two weeks.
I don't get offended by bad grammar and curious wordings.
I'm not AS afraid to ask directions from strangers. Especially if I know they would speak English!
I am more nervous to speak other languages than I ever knew I was. -- My favorite phrase is : Ar jus kalbate angliskai? [Can you speak English?]
I still love Billy Joel.
I am confused about my identity -- I go by Diana here, and I get weirded out when people call me Audrey, but I will call myself Audrey to myself, and I always have to think twice, or even three times before I sign an e-mail. Often, to people I love back home, I will sign "Audrey Diana," because I have some attatchment to both names.
Going by Diana has actually brought about some interesting insights. In my Teaching English textbook, it talks about one person's definition of the "Four Stages of Acculturation" -- in other words, the process, or the levels of homesickness. The third stage is called anomie. Basically, it's where you are not attatched to either home or the place that you are. Having a new name for this new place has given me another tangible way to understand how I am adjusting to where I am. I think not knowing which name to sign was a symptom of anomie -- I didn't know how to fit in here, or how I would slip back into home. But I am feeling attatched here now, and know who I am as Diana, but I have never ceased to be Audrey.
So, I am Audrey Diana.
But she knows what she's leavin' behind"
- The Great Billy Joel
These few days before I head off to Russia have caused me to do a little bit of self-reflection. I remember iin my Russian Literature class, a theme that for some reason or other came up was "self-awareness." While I would reject the idea that we should spend all our time on thinking about ourselves and even about how we can improve ourselves (because I think if we focus our energies on others with the right attitudes and motivation, self-improvement will come naturally), I think it is so valuable to acknowlege:
1. where and who you were
2. where and who you are now
3. that you have no idea where and who you will be next week, and no cotrol over it, and that is OK -- even more than OK. It is good.
So, today I've been thinking a lot about these three things.
I am trying to decide if it is better to talk about in terms of what I am now or what I am not anymore. I guess we'll go for a fussion. Or, we'll just jump in and see what it looks like at the end.
I am a little more punctual than I was before.
I have not turned in any assignment late this whole semester.
I wake up to my alarm every morning, rarely hitting snooze. At 7am -- an hour and a half before my first class.
I read for class and for pleasure every day.
I am learning how to be creative with cooking, and make things without measuring cups, and without a written recipe.
I know how to catch a train. And a bus. And a plane. All on my own. In fact, in a group, I am often the calm one who can figure out how to read the signs, even if they are in Lithuanian.
I hate when I have to take naps. I still do nap when I absolutely have to, but I absolutely hate it.
I try some new food almost every day.
I would rather buy more veggies at the shop than anything else.
I don't crave pizza every day.
I DO STILL LOVE CHOCOLATE!
I hate when I come to the realization that I haven't talked to my mom in a week, and my dad in two weeks.
I don't get offended by bad grammar and curious wordings.
I'm not AS afraid to ask directions from strangers. Especially if I know they would speak English!
I am more nervous to speak other languages than I ever knew I was. -- My favorite phrase is : Ar jus kalbate angliskai? [Can you speak English?]
I still love Billy Joel.
I am confused about my identity -- I go by Diana here, and I get weirded out when people call me Audrey, but I will call myself Audrey to myself, and I always have to think twice, or even three times before I sign an e-mail. Often, to people I love back home, I will sign "Audrey Diana," because I have some attatchment to both names.
Going by Diana has actually brought about some interesting insights. In my Teaching English textbook, it talks about one person's definition of the "Four Stages of Acculturation" -- in other words, the process, or the levels of homesickness. The third stage is called anomie. Basically, it's where you are not attatched to either home or the place that you are. Having a new name for this new place has given me another tangible way to understand how I am adjusting to where I am. I think not knowing which name to sign was a symptom of anomie -- I didn't know how to fit in here, or how I would slip back into home. But I am feeling attatched here now, and know who I am as Diana, but I have never ceased to be Audrey.
So, I am Audrey Diana.
Tuesday, October 25, 2011
La, la, la
I have been severly missing playing the piano. I am not even very good at it, but the past few days, I have really wanted to get my fingers on set of ivories.
Sunday, October 23, 2011
A breakdown
If you know me at all, or knew me at all, you know that I have over-active tear glands. I will cry at anything and everything. But surprisingly while I've been here, I have cried I think only twice. Perhaps it is because my eyes are too busy taking in so many new things to let any old things come out. But anyway, today I had a good cry, and it was appropriately over a book.
If you like people, don't read Into the Wild. Though I haven't finished, I do believe that the point, at least that I can see, is that human relationships are not possible to and are not worth severing. But it goes about it on an agonizing trail. It is the story of a boy who, after graduating from university gave all his savings to a charity and abandoned his family without a word and went on his merry way to the northwest and west and north. He eventually wound up in Alaska, where he took decidedly insufficient supplies to survive as long as he hoped to, and he died there.
In the months, perhaps years that followed, the author of this book, who wrote the original article on the story in an outdoors-y magazine, tracked down several people who had spent time with the boy, picked him up while he was hitch hiking, let him stay with them, gave him a job or met him.
Today I took a trip to Vilnius with some girls for my friend Hannah's birthday, so we had a long bus drive on which I could sit and read. I made a bit dent in the novel. So on the way back, I was reading chapter thirteen, which is recounting the boy's family's reactions to his death, both in the immediate after effects, and upon months of time to contemplate. At the beginning of the chapter, I started to cry, and then I just didn't stop after that. I was so upset that he would be so selfish.
It reminded me slightly of my trip here, and I became frightened that I was running away from something. I know this is not true, and I always appreciate that my parents know where I am, and that they are always willing to listen and help when they can. This chapter made me desperate to tell them that I am anxious to come see them again, and I always want to keep building our relationship. I am perplexed and upset by this boy's drive to detatch from all human connection; and the fact that his family mourned his death, though he left them in the dust (or snow, so to speak), just goes to prove that you cannot sever those ties completely, because you need a two-man saw.
So, all this to say, I love my family, and I am coming home after my adventure!
If you like people, don't read Into the Wild. Though I haven't finished, I do believe that the point, at least that I can see, is that human relationships are not possible to and are not worth severing. But it goes about it on an agonizing trail. It is the story of a boy who, after graduating from university gave all his savings to a charity and abandoned his family without a word and went on his merry way to the northwest and west and north. He eventually wound up in Alaska, where he took decidedly insufficient supplies to survive as long as he hoped to, and he died there.
In the months, perhaps years that followed, the author of this book, who wrote the original article on the story in an outdoors-y magazine, tracked down several people who had spent time with the boy, picked him up while he was hitch hiking, let him stay with them, gave him a job or met him.
Today I took a trip to Vilnius with some girls for my friend Hannah's birthday, so we had a long bus drive on which I could sit and read. I made a bit dent in the novel. So on the way back, I was reading chapter thirteen, which is recounting the boy's family's reactions to his death, both in the immediate after effects, and upon months of time to contemplate. At the beginning of the chapter, I started to cry, and then I just didn't stop after that. I was so upset that he would be so selfish.
It reminded me slightly of my trip here, and I became frightened that I was running away from something. I know this is not true, and I always appreciate that my parents know where I am, and that they are always willing to listen and help when they can. This chapter made me desperate to tell them that I am anxious to come see them again, and I always want to keep building our relationship. I am perplexed and upset by this boy's drive to detatch from all human connection; and the fact that his family mourned his death, though he left them in the dust (or snow, so to speak), just goes to prove that you cannot sever those ties completely, because you need a two-man saw.
So, all this to say, I love my family, and I am coming home after my adventure!
Wednesday, October 19, 2011
Delayed Scraps
Well, I must confess. I am officially not consistant at blogging. But I will try to whip up a few interesting facts and anecdotes about my past few weeks, as well as try to explain why there were Australian words for things in my last post.
Three weekends ago the study abroad group took a trip to Tallin, the capital of Estonia, and Riga, Lativia's capital. It was a great weekend. It was eventful and yet relaxing, and was the perfect get away to recoup from the first month of school and Lithuanian Life. In Tallin, my friends Hannah and Hannah (both adorable, short brunettes from Gordon college who are both English majors and both like to cook -- have fun telling them apart!) and Paige (from Azusa Pacific in CA, who is an art major, emphasizing on ceramics) and I rented bikes and rode around the city. We were trying to get to the Singing Grounds where they hold their anual singing festival, and that is the token sight of what is now called the "Singing Revolution." We didn't get that far, though, because we found a beautiful park and also, the Google/Mapquest "A"!! How bizarre!
In Riga, we went to lots of cafes, parks, and a famous monument which was guarded. We went to some street vendors. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. We went to the most beautiful Italian restaurant which gave fresh bread with olive oil and butter. I had the most divine tomato soup. (Ironically, I am making tomato soup for dinner tonight!)
Then two weekends ago, I went to Stockholm with my roommate. A few other study abroad students went as well, but I spent most of my time with Aurelija, and a lady named Michelle, who we met at our hostel, who was from... Australia! (Hence, the Australian vocabulary.) It was really neat to get to know her and spend time with her around the city. She had these little Australia pins that she had to give to people she met on her travels, so now I have a pin on my jacket! The city was beautiful, and I loved how water is an inescapable part of getting from one place to another. We visited this hotel that used to be a prison. It was really neat. Mostly, we walked a lot. It's a big city, and the public transportation was not an option because it was so expensive. Luckily, we brought our own food with us so we didn't have to buy any while we were there. Although the supermarket had half-priced daily bread after 9pm! We definitely did partake of that :)
And last weekend, I recouped by not traveling anywhere! This Sunday, I am going to Vilnius for the day to celebrate my friend Hannah's birthday!
I will try to post again soon about the more minute things of my life.
Three weekends ago the study abroad group took a trip to Tallin, the capital of Estonia, and Riga, Lativia's capital. It was a great weekend. It was eventful and yet relaxing, and was the perfect get away to recoup from the first month of school and Lithuanian Life. In Tallin, my friends Hannah and Hannah (both adorable, short brunettes from Gordon college who are both English majors and both like to cook -- have fun telling them apart!) and Paige (from Azusa Pacific in CA, who is an art major, emphasizing on ceramics) and I rented bikes and rode around the city. We were trying to get to the Singing Grounds where they hold their anual singing festival, and that is the token sight of what is now called the "Singing Revolution." We didn't get that far, though, because we found a beautiful park and also, the Google/Mapquest "A"!! How bizarre!
In Riga, we went to lots of cafes, parks, and a famous monument which was guarded. We went to some street vendors. A little bit of this, a little bit of that. We went to the most beautiful Italian restaurant which gave fresh bread with olive oil and butter. I had the most divine tomato soup. (Ironically, I am making tomato soup for dinner tonight!)
Then two weekends ago, I went to Stockholm with my roommate. A few other study abroad students went as well, but I spent most of my time with Aurelija, and a lady named Michelle, who we met at our hostel, who was from... Australia! (Hence, the Australian vocabulary.) It was really neat to get to know her and spend time with her around the city. She had these little Australia pins that she had to give to people she met on her travels, so now I have a pin on my jacket! The city was beautiful, and I loved how water is an inescapable part of getting from one place to another. We visited this hotel that used to be a prison. It was really neat. Mostly, we walked a lot. It's a big city, and the public transportation was not an option because it was so expensive. Luckily, we brought our own food with us so we didn't have to buy any while we were there. Although the supermarket had half-priced daily bread after 9pm! We definitely did partake of that :)
And last weekend, I recouped by not traveling anywhere! This Sunday, I am going to Vilnius for the day to celebrate my friend Hannah's birthday!
I will try to post again soon about the more minute things of my life.
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Thursday, October 6, 2011
Hello and Sweden
Number 1: hello!
Number 2: I am in Sweden!I haven't written for a while, so when I get back to LCC and have more time, I will write more about my Riga-Tallin trip, but I just thought I'd drop a thought while having a surreal travel experience in Scandenavia! People are much happier in Sweden than in Lithuania. It's definitely still European, but It's definitely Western Europe, not Eastern. I can see and feel such a difference, it's unbelievable!
Also, this keyboard I'm using has some swedish characters so I can do this: ö and this:ä and this: £ with ease, and as always, I can do this: :)
Number 2: I am in Sweden!I haven't written for a while, so when I get back to LCC and have more time, I will write more about my Riga-Tallin trip, but I just thought I'd drop a thought while having a surreal travel experience in Scandenavia! People are much happier in Sweden than in Lithuania. It's definitely still European, but It's definitely Western Europe, not Eastern. I can see and feel such a difference, it's unbelievable!
Also, this keyboard I'm using has some swedish characters so I can do this: ö and this:ä and this: £ with ease, and as always, I can do this: :)
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