Real Life
10/22/04
One of the best nights of my life. As most of you know, I love to be a "cheatee." Tonight, at Honolulu, for many many songs I danced with an extremely beautiful woman who, every other minute, had to hide out passion from her boyfriend's friends. She was point blank amazing. Kristina left, due to many smses from him, but then came back, not being able to resist me! As she finally did leave, I asked her if she remembered my name, and she said "Aras."
Friday, October 29, 2004
Thursday, October 28, 2004
An excellent response.....
Yesterday I asked my third years: "does anybody know what anarchy is?"
One of my brightest, most serious students in a 100% female class replied: "When women are in government."
One of my brightest, most serious students in a 100% female class replied: "When women are in government."
Monday, October 18, 2004
Palanga in October
Friday at work Rastenis called me up and said "pack your bags, we're going to Palanga!"
Palanga is a beach town, extremely crowded (in a good way) by young people throughout the summer, especially in July, with old people coming at the beginning and end of summer. It has gorgeous beaches, old fashioned streets (except for Basinaviciaus, now ruined by florescent yellow lamps), and 95% of the building look like they're two hundred years old.
Now it's cold, so almost nobody goes to the beach. Palanga still has visitors, but they go there mostly to relax, get away from the city, hit the saunas, or drink yourself retarded...
Friday night was too stupid to talk about...
Saturday night was ridiculously amazing. After walking around the town and beaches with Cedric, and then with Rastenis, we all took naps. I got up at 4:40 with a hottie singing sexy songs into my ear, a mate's girlfriend... I went to church (nobody believed me), and on my way back met Neringa and Rastenis on their way to a bar, told them I would catch up. Back at the house the rest of the crew was all drunk already. Shower, shave, shots with them, and I'm off to meet those two and then to drink on the beach--both they and I had brought a bottle of vodka for the occasion.
Coincidentally, Juste, Simona, and Lina were up in Palanga too, so they joined us. Drinking on the beach, and then all to a club--Fortas.
Here comes the ridiculousness:
Contest. Don't know what's going on. Four teams of six, including me, get on the dance floor and they tell us to make a rope out of our clothing. so we all start stripping, me down to my boxers, tying everything together. Our team's rope included to bras. The DJ says, "okay, now everybody who is approaching nudity get on stage." I comply without question. There are about twenty of us, have naked as I, half still with pants. Then the DJ says, "dance contest!" Music begins, and we all start dancing. I noticed that the few friends of mine up there and I were all inching towards the front of the stage. The music stopped, and the winners were, third place, a stranger, second place, a friend of mine, Zygis, and first place, a drunk, topless, still slightly chubby American--this guy. A free pass to Zemaityjos Movie Theater.
After another half hour of drinking and dancing, there was another contest. Simona didn't want to join me because of stage fright, so, acting as her psychologist-dictator, I carried her up onto the stage with me. There were eight people up there, and this time it was not a group effort, but individual performances. Each person had to put clogs onto his feet and hands, they played a song, you starting dancing and tapping out the beat, music stops, you keep going for a minute. Simona and I agreed that we would go up together, but when I told the DJ this, he just shoved her up front alone and told everybody to give the shy girl a big round of applause. She did quite well, and told me afterwards that she did, indeed, have fun. Then it was I, last, the glorious rock star I believed myself to be, now wearing cargo khakis and a wife beater, strutting my indisputably marvelous stuff. Second place goes to, a female stranger, and first place, guess who...me. The DJ says in Lithuanian, through a slightly staticky mic, "but if you're a real gentleman, you'll give the ticket to this lovely runner up." Too drunk to understand his Lugan through the mic, I bowed to the crowd and put it in my pocket, laughing all the while.
More dancing, more drinking, another contest. This time it's with a partner, so Rastenis and I go up. Here it is: one guy on one side of the stage holding his pants (and underwear) open to form a basketball hoop, and the otherguy on the otherside tossing ice cubes in. Rastenis, being an excellent basketball player, tossed, while I held my junk open to frozen bombardment. Needless to say, we won with 6/6 shots, and this time we got a gift certificate for 100 lits to a stereo equipment store in Kaunas.
The last one was only for girls. Neringa went up, and as soon as we heard what they had to do, we had to hold Rastenis back: the girls each had to do an erotic dance for a potential employer, in order to get the job. As each girl came out and started dancing, the crowd starting screaming "Nusirenk! Nusirenk! Nusirenk! (Take it off! Take it off! Take it off!)!" Half the girls got down to their bras, and Neringa totally won, with the most cheering, especially from me ;), and the sexiest dancing by far. Then they played another song for her, but she didn't want to dance for the crowd, so drunken Dalia went up to dance with her, the drunken Joncikas went up to dance with Dalia, and we started yelling "Nusirenk! Nusirenk! Nusirenk! (Take it off! Take it off! Take it off!)" to both of them. Dalia wouldn't do anything but show us here lovely, intricately pierced belly button, but Joncikas, to everybody's tremendous amusement, stripped down to his boxers and then, pressed up facing the back wall, lowered them as well.
So I was 3/3 on the contests, and Neringa won the last one. It was, by far, one of the most unbelievable things that ever happened to me.
I LOVE PALANGA!!!
Palanga is a beach town, extremely crowded (in a good way) by young people throughout the summer, especially in July, with old people coming at the beginning and end of summer. It has gorgeous beaches, old fashioned streets (except for Basinaviciaus, now ruined by florescent yellow lamps), and 95% of the building look like they're two hundred years old.
Now it's cold, so almost nobody goes to the beach. Palanga still has visitors, but they go there mostly to relax, get away from the city, hit the saunas, or drink yourself retarded...
Friday night was too stupid to talk about...
Saturday night was ridiculously amazing. After walking around the town and beaches with Cedric, and then with Rastenis, we all took naps. I got up at 4:40 with a hottie singing sexy songs into my ear, a mate's girlfriend... I went to church (nobody believed me), and on my way back met Neringa and Rastenis on their way to a bar, told them I would catch up. Back at the house the rest of the crew was all drunk already. Shower, shave, shots with them, and I'm off to meet those two and then to drink on the beach--both they and I had brought a bottle of vodka for the occasion.
Coincidentally, Juste, Simona, and Lina were up in Palanga too, so they joined us. Drinking on the beach, and then all to a club--Fortas.
Here comes the ridiculousness:
Contest. Don't know what's going on. Four teams of six, including me, get on the dance floor and they tell us to make a rope out of our clothing. so we all start stripping, me down to my boxers, tying everything together. Our team's rope included to bras. The DJ says, "okay, now everybody who is approaching nudity get on stage." I comply without question. There are about twenty of us, have naked as I, half still with pants. Then the DJ says, "dance contest!" Music begins, and we all start dancing. I noticed that the few friends of mine up there and I were all inching towards the front of the stage. The music stopped, and the winners were, third place, a stranger, second place, a friend of mine, Zygis, and first place, a drunk, topless, still slightly chubby American--this guy. A free pass to Zemaityjos Movie Theater.
After another half hour of drinking and dancing, there was another contest. Simona didn't want to join me because of stage fright, so, acting as her psychologist-dictator, I carried her up onto the stage with me. There were eight people up there, and this time it was not a group effort, but individual performances. Each person had to put clogs onto his feet and hands, they played a song, you starting dancing and tapping out the beat, music stops, you keep going for a minute. Simona and I agreed that we would go up together, but when I told the DJ this, he just shoved her up front alone and told everybody to give the shy girl a big round of applause. She did quite well, and told me afterwards that she did, indeed, have fun. Then it was I, last, the glorious rock star I believed myself to be, now wearing cargo khakis and a wife beater, strutting my indisputably marvelous stuff. Second place goes to, a female stranger, and first place, guess who...me. The DJ says in Lithuanian, through a slightly staticky mic, "but if you're a real gentleman, you'll give the ticket to this lovely runner up." Too drunk to understand his Lugan through the mic, I bowed to the crowd and put it in my pocket, laughing all the while.
More dancing, more drinking, another contest. This time it's with a partner, so Rastenis and I go up. Here it is: one guy on one side of the stage holding his pants (and underwear) open to form a basketball hoop, and the otherguy on the otherside tossing ice cubes in. Rastenis, being an excellent basketball player, tossed, while I held my junk open to frozen bombardment. Needless to say, we won with 6/6 shots, and this time we got a gift certificate for 100 lits to a stereo equipment store in Kaunas.
The last one was only for girls. Neringa went up, and as soon as we heard what they had to do, we had to hold Rastenis back: the girls each had to do an erotic dance for a potential employer, in order to get the job. As each girl came out and started dancing, the crowd starting screaming "Nusirenk! Nusirenk! Nusirenk! (Take it off! Take it off! Take it off!)!" Half the girls got down to their bras, and Neringa totally won, with the most cheering, especially from me ;), and the sexiest dancing by far. Then they played another song for her, but she didn't want to dance for the crowd, so drunken Dalia went up to dance with her, the drunken Joncikas went up to dance with Dalia, and we started yelling "Nusirenk! Nusirenk! Nusirenk! (Take it off! Take it off! Take it off!)" to both of them. Dalia wouldn't do anything but show us here lovely, intricately pierced belly button, but Joncikas, to everybody's tremendous amusement, stripped down to his boxers and then, pressed up facing the back wall, lowered them as well.
So I was 3/3 on the contests, and Neringa won the last one. It was, by far, one of the most unbelievable things that ever happened to me.
I LOVE PALANGA!!!
Wednesday, October 13, 2004
Vilnius Weekend--Part Two
Friday I had to take a bus from Riese to Centras, cause our Audi is busted. This was a little complicated, since buses only run from Riese about twelve times a day, and the schedule is busted busted off the bus stop post, cause hoodlums like to take care of such things for us. I was less than ten minutes late for my business meeting, however.
I first met with the women who is in charge of Erasmus (European exchange programs). As it turns out, the person who previously held my position fucked up more than I thought, and didn't give me much to work with. But she's super good looking (and married of course), so let bygones be bygones. And, either way, the woman and I worked out a decent way for me to take care of everything on my end with a little delay but not too much embarrassment, which is spectacular. We're supposed to have sent a few student abroad already, and we got financing for it, but didn't send anybody. That's bad. But, we can return the financing along with an explanation, and get the same money back to send double student abroad spring semester. Also, I get to send six teachers abraod to teach for a week, and one or more of them can be me! I just have to make agreement with other universities in Europe, and they'll finance any trips I have to make myself to visit the universities and make the agreements.
Then, by chance, I found out that our students are the right age to participate in Comenius, an internship program. I went over to the Comenius HQ and the the low down. The students apply not through us as a college, but directly through Comenius. They get better financing than Erasmus students, and we can give them course credit for their intership if they come back to continue their education here (graduates can also do it, as long as they haven't had paid teaching work yet). Next week i'll hold a brief assembly telling all the second years that they should do it next year.
I first met with the women who is in charge of Erasmus (European exchange programs). As it turns out, the person who previously held my position fucked up more than I thought, and didn't give me much to work with. But she's super good looking (and married of course), so let bygones be bygones. And, either way, the woman and I worked out a decent way for me to take care of everything on my end with a little delay but not too much embarrassment, which is spectacular. We're supposed to have sent a few student abroad already, and we got financing for it, but didn't send anybody. That's bad. But, we can return the financing along with an explanation, and get the same money back to send double student abroad spring semester. Also, I get to send six teachers abraod to teach for a week, and one or more of them can be me! I just have to make agreement with other universities in Europe, and they'll finance any trips I have to make myself to visit the universities and make the agreements.
Then, by chance, I found out that our students are the right age to participate in Comenius, an internship program. I went over to the Comenius HQ and the the low down. The students apply not through us as a college, but directly through Comenius. They get better financing than Erasmus students, and we can give them course credit for their intership if they come back to continue their education here (graduates can also do it, as long as they haven't had paid teaching work yet). Next week i'll hold a brief assembly telling all the second years that they should do it next year.
Saturday, October 09, 2004
Vilnius Weekend--Part One
This past weekend I was in Vilnius for a business meeting Friday, so I took a bus down Thursday night and came back Sunday (I purposely set my meeting up for Friday afternoon so I could do this).
I went to the bus station in Klaipeda in a big rush, I was afraid I would miss my bus. I'm walking through and this woman runs up to me and starts speaking in Russian. Ya negavariu paruski, I say. She just says something about Vilnius, and I say, skolka stojit? And she says forty. So, I say okay, and go get in this guy's van--a twelve seater with a flatscreen tv and a dvd player. We were off.
We watched Scary Movie 3 in Russian. I was the only person who understood less than 3% of it, and yet I was the only one laughing hysterically. It was awesome. There's probably more slapstick in that movie than dialogue.
We got to Kaunas and the driver didn't feel like going any further, so he called up a buddy and he drove the three of us who were going all the way to Vilnius in his car. No biggie.
We got to Vilnius, I met up with Neringa, Rastenis, and Gedas, and, having purchaced a bottle of vokda and no chaser, headed out to Trakai. After the three of us, minus the driver (Rastenis) drank half the vodka in the car, we decided to get some more. We did, I changed clothes (I was still in a suit from work), and we went to these guys sauna & farm house. The people were all cool and friendly. I didn't hit the sauna, however, as there was a video camera there--which was soon used by Rastenis to Video Tape his genitals. But as for me, digital video of me drunk is bad enough, digital video of me drunk and naked is something I don't even want to think about.
For some reason, Gedas and I started punching each other in the face outside on the lawn. I landed at least one jab in the jaw, and he landed at least one cross to the outside of my left eye, which knocked off my glasses, which ended the fisticuffsmanship. The nect five minutes were spend by us looking for my glasses, me with my hand between my eyes and my lighter, Gedas combing the lawn with a rake. He found my glasses.
Homeward bound. Two things happened on the way home. Gedas and I were in the back together since Neringa was driving now. First, some sort of strand of conversation led to Gedas and me laughing hysterically (literally crying our eyes out) shouting in unison "Rastenis, he knows a dick in the ass!" over and over and over again.
We needed food, and I demanded that, since Gedas and I had bought the vodka, that Rastenis buy 4kg (almost nine pounds) of koldunai (slavic raviolli) plus sour cream for four people. I was mercilessly talking out of my ass, with Gedas laughing at me, Rastenis doing the "ka tu man cia dabar,"* Neringa being beautiful, and me loving it all. The only place we could get food was a gas station, though, so he got rice and hot dogs. I cooked em all up at my place, threw hot dog slices into the rice with some home made salad dressing, and then added some raisins for good measure. I thought the raisins were great, but in this I was alone...
Neringa went to bed, and the rest of us continued drinking for a long time, experianing moderate amounts of male bonding. We were out smoking on the balcony, when Rastenis made a proclaimation (all in English):
Ratenis: Hey you know what? I can suck my own dick!
Aras: No you can't.
Ratenis: No, really, it's true--I can!
Aras: I don't believe you.
Ratenis: I'm telling you dude, I can!
Aras: Oh yeah, let's see it!
Ratenis: No.
Aras: Suck your own dick!
Ratenis: No, I don't want to!
Aras: If you can suck your own dick let's fuckin' see it!
Ratenis: Maybe I don't wanna show you....!
Aras: Let's fuckin' see you suck your own dick, or you're a fuckin' liar!
Ratenis: I don't want to!
Aras: You're fucking lying and you're a fucking liar!
Ratenis: Maybe I am a fuckin' liar, but I'll smash this beer bottle over your head, and you won't be alive anymore!!!
Aras: at this point, neither I nor gedas could say anything, cause we were both too busy rolling around on the balcony, laughing hysterically, for what seems like an hour.
*"ka tu man cia dabar" literally mean "what you me here now?"
I went to the bus station in Klaipeda in a big rush, I was afraid I would miss my bus. I'm walking through and this woman runs up to me and starts speaking in Russian. Ya negavariu paruski, I say. She just says something about Vilnius, and I say, skolka stojit? And she says forty. So, I say okay, and go get in this guy's van--a twelve seater with a flatscreen tv and a dvd player. We were off.
We watched Scary Movie 3 in Russian. I was the only person who understood less than 3% of it, and yet I was the only one laughing hysterically. It was awesome. There's probably more slapstick in that movie than dialogue.
We got to Kaunas and the driver didn't feel like going any further, so he called up a buddy and he drove the three of us who were going all the way to Vilnius in his car. No biggie.
We got to Vilnius, I met up with Neringa, Rastenis, and Gedas, and, having purchaced a bottle of vokda and no chaser, headed out to Trakai. After the three of us, minus the driver (Rastenis) drank half the vodka in the car, we decided to get some more. We did, I changed clothes (I was still in a suit from work), and we went to these guys sauna & farm house. The people were all cool and friendly. I didn't hit the sauna, however, as there was a video camera there--which was soon used by Rastenis to Video Tape his genitals. But as for me, digital video of me drunk is bad enough, digital video of me drunk and naked is something I don't even want to think about.
For some reason, Gedas and I started punching each other in the face outside on the lawn. I landed at least one jab in the jaw, and he landed at least one cross to the outside of my left eye, which knocked off my glasses, which ended the fisticuffsmanship. The nect five minutes were spend by us looking for my glasses, me with my hand between my eyes and my lighter, Gedas combing the lawn with a rake. He found my glasses.
Homeward bound. Two things happened on the way home. Gedas and I were in the back together since Neringa was driving now. First, some sort of strand of conversation led to Gedas and me laughing hysterically (literally crying our eyes out) shouting in unison "Rastenis, he knows a dick in the ass!" over and over and over again.
We needed food, and I demanded that, since Gedas and I had bought the vodka, that Rastenis buy 4kg (almost nine pounds) of koldunai (slavic raviolli) plus sour cream for four people. I was mercilessly talking out of my ass, with Gedas laughing at me, Rastenis doing the "ka tu man cia dabar,"* Neringa being beautiful, and me loving it all. The only place we could get food was a gas station, though, so he got rice and hot dogs. I cooked em all up at my place, threw hot dog slices into the rice with some home made salad dressing, and then added some raisins for good measure. I thought the raisins were great, but in this I was alone...
Neringa went to bed, and the rest of us continued drinking for a long time, experianing moderate amounts of male bonding. We were out smoking on the balcony, when Rastenis made a proclaimation (all in English):
Ratenis: Hey you know what? I can suck my own dick!
Aras: No you can't.
Ratenis: No, really, it's true--I can!
Aras: I don't believe you.
Ratenis: I'm telling you dude, I can!
Aras: Oh yeah, let's see it!
Ratenis: No.
Aras: Suck your own dick!
Ratenis: No, I don't want to!
Aras: If you can suck your own dick let's fuckin' see it!
Ratenis: Maybe I don't wanna show you....!
Aras: Let's fuckin' see you suck your own dick, or you're a fuckin' liar!
Ratenis: I don't want to!
Aras: You're fucking lying and you're a fucking liar!
Ratenis: Maybe I am a fuckin' liar, but I'll smash this beer bottle over your head, and you won't be alive anymore!!!
Aras: at this point, neither I nor gedas could say anything, cause we were both too busy rolling around on the balcony, laughing hysterically, for what seems like an hour.
*"ka tu man cia dabar" literally mean "what you me here now?"
Thursday, October 07, 2004
National Teacher's Day
Tuesday was National Teachers' Day in Lithuania. At lunch time, we all went to the great hall. I thought it might be a lighthearted occasion, but it turned out to be quite serious. There were speeches by students and teachers, and performances by students, including opera singing, achordion playing, guitar, piano duets, and a chorus performance, all by music majors. Then all the teachers when to a smaller room for champaign. After a bit, it was time to go, so the men had to finish what was left of the champaign. There were only four men, and only two of them were under 40 (maybe 50), so my roomate and I had to quickly down several glasses of champaign each. Then, we all hopped into mini-busses and drove out to Juozapas, the bewery of Hash'b'Hash beer, where all the teachers got sloshed and ate food--I had ribs, which were great, though I'm still not used to life without barbeques sauce on everything.
Then, after a stop of at a liquer store, we drove out to the Baltic Sea. In our car (all the young teachers), we had gin'n'tonics being passed around (mostely between me and Jurgita) and whiskey colas. We got to the beach, opened many a bottle of champaign, and passed around all the cocktails. Please note: there were five us in our twenties, and the average age of the rest (~20 people) was closer to 40 years old. The Director went wading in, and asked why the boys didn't go in? So, Frenchy (Cedric) and I started taking our shirts and pants off, but then she said swimming was too dangerous, cause waves were high, only wading. We started getting dressed again, and she ran over with a champaign bottle and started dumping it on Frenchy, then on me, but I grabbed it away too quickly, and chugged it. It was sea water! I spat it out and went for some cocktail.
Onwards home, and we were all going out, but Jurgita said she had class at eight a.m. the next day, and couldn't come, we tried talking her into it, and, of course, it turned out that she's engaged! What, I said, are you talking about, you're only wearing a ring on your middle finger?! I lost alot of weight, she said, and now it no longer fits on my ring finger. So, after my third ring mix up in as many weeks, we went on to drink without her.
Long story short, for the rest of the night the remaining four teachers (plus a few students) got drunk playing beirut and speed quarters and eating pickles.
Then, after a stop of at a liquer store, we drove out to the Baltic Sea. In our car (all the young teachers), we had gin'n'tonics being passed around (mostely between me and Jurgita) and whiskey colas. We got to the beach, opened many a bottle of champaign, and passed around all the cocktails. Please note: there were five us in our twenties, and the average age of the rest (~20 people) was closer to 40 years old. The Director went wading in, and asked why the boys didn't go in? So, Frenchy (Cedric) and I started taking our shirts and pants off, but then she said swimming was too dangerous, cause waves were high, only wading. We started getting dressed again, and she ran over with a champaign bottle and started dumping it on Frenchy, then on me, but I grabbed it away too quickly, and chugged it. It was sea water! I spat it out and went for some cocktail.
Onwards home, and we were all going out, but Jurgita said she had class at eight a.m. the next day, and couldn't come, we tried talking her into it, and, of course, it turned out that she's engaged! What, I said, are you talking about, you're only wearing a ring on your middle finger?! I lost alot of weight, she said, and now it no longer fits on my ring finger. So, after my third ring mix up in as many weeks, we went on to drink without her.
Long story short, for the rest of the night the remaining four teachers (plus a few students) got drunk playing beirut and speed quarters and eating pickles.
Wednesday, October 06, 2004
Saturday, October 02, 2004
October !, 2004 Newsletter
Well, I’ve been successfully pretending to be a real adult for one month now, so here’s an update. In mid-June I found out about an opening for an International Projects Director at Klaipėda College (Klaipėda is the port town of Lithuania—population about 220,000). I sent them my resume, and called a couple days later to follow up. The Director of the College said I was hired for the projects job, and could I teach English also? “Um, sure,” I said. So I enrolled in an online 40 hour course called i-to-i to get certified to teach English as a foreign language (though this was not a requirement for the job (www.onlinetefl.com). Also, I started reading some Lithuanian newspaper articles daily to brush up on my non-social Lithuanian language skills.
I flew out towards the end of August and, having spent a few days in Vilnius, took a train with all my baggage to Klaipėda (I’m still waiting for my winter clothes and bicycle, which I mailed myself before leaving the States—it’s starting to get cold already). I showed up and was greeted by the head of the English and French foreign language faculties, Virginija, and the college’s driver, Vladas, both very nice people, as is everybody I have met so far who works here. When we got to the college Virginija had Cepelinai (Zeppelins) waiting for me, which are meatballs in a zeppelin shaped mashed-potato shell with sour cream and big bacon bits on top—one of the tastiest traditional Lithuanian foods (sample photo included). After meeting the Director and formally accepting the position, they took me to the dorm, where I will live in a guest-type room until I accumulate some money and find an affordable apartment.
A few days later my suitemate arrived, Cedric. Cedric is my age, doing what I would call an internship. This is his final year before getting his teaching degree, which must be spent teaching French somewhere outside France. He has four counterparts, two of whom are very beautiful, doing the same thing in Lithuania, three throughout universities in Vilnius, and one in Alytus, where my mother’s mother was born. We have lots of fun trying to one-up each other with American vs. French cuisine, going out, and playing Buck Euchre (he finally beat me last night).
All the projects I’m working on now I’m starting myself or taking over at the beginning of a new cycle, such as student/teacher exchange programs, and qualification upgrade programs for teachers. There was one throughout September, however, that I had to take over midway through. My first Friday I met with a guy from a firm that was preparing a grant proposal for us. I thought all I had to do was gather information for them about us, such as everybody’s salary, how many courses we offer, and so on. But the guy informs me that there are fundamental flaws in the proposal, and all I could say was “um, it’s my first day…” Luckily then the woman who was in charge before me came in to give me some more material regarding the project and helped me out. Regarding new projects, I still need help from lots of people, but by now I’ve figured out how and from whom I’m supposed to get it. That project is mostly to build a new building and invite some experts to come and criticize our lesson plans and course structures.
A new project I’m working on is in partnership with six other colleges and Šiauliai University, which means I get to make business trips, which is fun. The first time the deans of the two faculties (education and medicine) came with me to help me get the hang of things. The point of this project is for thirty professors from each college/university to partake in programs to raise our qualifications and to each get a computer lab/distance learning center and computer technician that will enable us to do so.
I’m teaching four courses for a total of six classes. The courses are: English for freshman social majors, English for freshman social majors, English for freshman English majors, and British and American literature. That last one was a surprise (I’m most certainly not qualified to be teaching that!). I’ve done much of the material in high school in university (Chaucer, Mark Twain, Poe, Shakespeare, Dickens, Walt Whitman, Hemingway, Steinbeck and J. D. Salinger), but not all of it. This class does, by far, the most complaining. I have a course description with the themes of literature we have to get through this semester, so the work load is not up to me, but these students whine so much it almost makes me laugh sometimes. Also, in one of the third year groups, 30% of the students are pregnant. The first day of class I called roll and heard “here; here; she’s pregnant; here; pregnant; she just gave birth Friday…”
There’s this one very cute co-worker or mine who works in personnel and is very interested in learning English. We started chatting more often and she started winking at me. Then, one time, she said something about a “man” that was ambiguous (in Lithuanian “man” and “husband” are homonyms) because she had no ring on her left hand, but I noticed at that point that she did on her right. I emailed my mother and found out that, alas, in Lithuania people wear wedding rings on their right hands.
So, after the sad incident with the wedding ring mix up, I met another beautiful coworker from the other faculty (medicine; my office is in the faculty of pedagogy), who was not wearing a wedding ring on her right hand. We were sitting for a long time next to each other, discussing work, and other stuff, because some of my projects I am taking over from her. She suggested we get together once a week to discuss various projects. We start talking about totally other stuff, like me moving to Lithuania to work, though it is not my birthplace. She said, "I could never move in Italy, though my husband lives there." Apparently, Italians, as Americans, wear wedding bands on their lefts hands, and so do their Lithuanian wives. And immediately it started raining outside. Easy come easy go.
There are a number of good bars and clubs her, and they tend to be cheaper than Vilnius, which is great. Also, there are a number of gyms and an outdoor tennis court, which I am excited about looking into. I haven’t started exercising much here yet, but I have already lost probably ten pounds and an inch or two off my waist just by the amount of walking I do every day (7-8 miles if the weather is decent), and because there are no preservatives in the food.
I’m typing this letter on my new flat screen computer in my office, which I share with the Dean’s secretary and aide. It’s very nice, new tables and drawers and bookcases, staplers and hole-punches and folders. I sit right next to a window that opens with a tree outside. Well, I suppose that about wraps it up.
I flew out towards the end of August and, having spent a few days in Vilnius, took a train with all my baggage to Klaipėda (I’m still waiting for my winter clothes and bicycle, which I mailed myself before leaving the States—it’s starting to get cold already). I showed up and was greeted by the head of the English and French foreign language faculties, Virginija, and the college’s driver, Vladas, both very nice people, as is everybody I have met so far who works here. When we got to the college Virginija had Cepelinai (Zeppelins) waiting for me, which are meatballs in a zeppelin shaped mashed-potato shell with sour cream and big bacon bits on top—one of the tastiest traditional Lithuanian foods (sample photo included). After meeting the Director and formally accepting the position, they took me to the dorm, where I will live in a guest-type room until I accumulate some money and find an affordable apartment.
A few days later my suitemate arrived, Cedric. Cedric is my age, doing what I would call an internship. This is his final year before getting his teaching degree, which must be spent teaching French somewhere outside France. He has four counterparts, two of whom are very beautiful, doing the same thing in Lithuania, three throughout universities in Vilnius, and one in Alytus, where my mother’s mother was born. We have lots of fun trying to one-up each other with American vs. French cuisine, going out, and playing Buck Euchre (he finally beat me last night).
All the projects I’m working on now I’m starting myself or taking over at the beginning of a new cycle, such as student/teacher exchange programs, and qualification upgrade programs for teachers. There was one throughout September, however, that I had to take over midway through. My first Friday I met with a guy from a firm that was preparing a grant proposal for us. I thought all I had to do was gather information for them about us, such as everybody’s salary, how many courses we offer, and so on. But the guy informs me that there are fundamental flaws in the proposal, and all I could say was “um, it’s my first day…” Luckily then the woman who was in charge before me came in to give me some more material regarding the project and helped me out. Regarding new projects, I still need help from lots of people, but by now I’ve figured out how and from whom I’m supposed to get it. That project is mostly to build a new building and invite some experts to come and criticize our lesson plans and course structures.
A new project I’m working on is in partnership with six other colleges and Šiauliai University, which means I get to make business trips, which is fun. The first time the deans of the two faculties (education and medicine) came with me to help me get the hang of things. The point of this project is for thirty professors from each college/university to partake in programs to raise our qualifications and to each get a computer lab/distance learning center and computer technician that will enable us to do so.
I’m teaching four courses for a total of six classes. The courses are: English for freshman social majors, English for freshman social majors, English for freshman English majors, and British and American literature. That last one was a surprise (I’m most certainly not qualified to be teaching that!). I’ve done much of the material in high school in university (Chaucer, Mark Twain, Poe, Shakespeare, Dickens, Walt Whitman, Hemingway, Steinbeck and J. D. Salinger), but not all of it. This class does, by far, the most complaining. I have a course description with the themes of literature we have to get through this semester, so the work load is not up to me, but these students whine so much it almost makes me laugh sometimes. Also, in one of the third year groups, 30% of the students are pregnant. The first day of class I called roll and heard “here; here; she’s pregnant; here; pregnant; she just gave birth Friday…”
There’s this one very cute co-worker or mine who works in personnel and is very interested in learning English. We started chatting more often and she started winking at me. Then, one time, she said something about a “man” that was ambiguous (in Lithuanian “man” and “husband” are homonyms) because she had no ring on her left hand, but I noticed at that point that she did on her right. I emailed my mother and found out that, alas, in Lithuania people wear wedding rings on their right hands.
So, after the sad incident with the wedding ring mix up, I met another beautiful coworker from the other faculty (medicine; my office is in the faculty of pedagogy), who was not wearing a wedding ring on her right hand. We were sitting for a long time next to each other, discussing work, and other stuff, because some of my projects I am taking over from her. She suggested we get together once a week to discuss various projects. We start talking about totally other stuff, like me moving to Lithuania to work, though it is not my birthplace. She said, "I could never move in Italy, though my husband lives there." Apparently, Italians, as Americans, wear wedding bands on their lefts hands, and so do their Lithuanian wives. And immediately it started raining outside. Easy come easy go.
There are a number of good bars and clubs her, and they tend to be cheaper than Vilnius, which is great. Also, there are a number of gyms and an outdoor tennis court, which I am excited about looking into. I haven’t started exercising much here yet, but I have already lost probably ten pounds and an inch or two off my waist just by the amount of walking I do every day (7-8 miles if the weather is decent), and because there are no preservatives in the food.
I’m typing this letter on my new flat screen computer in my office, which I share with the Dean’s secretary and aide. It’s very nice, new tables and drawers and bookcases, staplers and hole-punches and folders. I sit right next to a window that opens with a tree outside. Well, I suppose that about wraps it up.
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