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.