Dreadful!

I realised today that my right arm was hurting. I haven't been working out that much lately, so I was puzzled why my arm ached. Ah, It had completely slipped my mind that I had been dreading some one's hair for 10 hrs. on Saturday and Sunday.

It's fun to do that sort of stuff for people. It usually costs between $100-$200 to have them put in at a salon. I do it for free. :) I might start charging soon though if I get enough people asking. It could be a good summer job, even though I doubt I would want to dread for the rest of my life.

*Not* Just Surviving

I met with a professor from Azusa Pacific University yesterday who was doing some research on the experiences of college students studying abroad in a new culture. Our meeting was only supposed to be half hour, but turned into an hour long talk about different aspects in life. We talked about exercise, weather, food, depression, rules at our schools, etc. Something that we were able to share with each other was that we aren't necessarily thriving here in Lithuania, but that we are doing more than just surviving.

It would be extremely easy to write off my time here in Lithuania as a bad experience and complain about it for years to come. "No one smiles over there!" "My roommates were always too busy to spend time with me." "The weather was always yucky." Etcetera y etcetera. This isn't the first time that I've had a rough situation in a new setting. I can honestly say that the last two or three times that I have moved to the States have been quite rough. It would be unfair of me to blame the environment for all of the difficulties that I have experienced. Likewise, it would be an over-bearing weight to carry if I were to lay all of the blame on myself.

The most important lesson that I have learned over the years is that the worst thing that can come from hard times is having survived and have not learned anything. I might be bold enough to state that, "A difficulty not learned from is an experience gone to waste." Pain promotes growth, so we shouldn't deny or run from it.

Prayers are welcomed. :)

Yay Timur

Poland is Funny

Close to Kirchner, Argentina's president

Imported what?

Look at the sticker on the far right.

This is me in Poland

I enjoyed the chance to read during the long train and bus rides. I finished "1984" by George Orwell and started "Cry, The Beloved Country" by Alan Paton. Good books. :)

A Pleasant Surprise

I thought I had bought a bag of black ink cartridges, even though I secretly wanted blue. Turns out they ARE blue. :) Blue is peaceful and nice for writing in journals with...

This is Poland

I didn't take as many photos as I did in Russia. I'm still trying to figure out a few things with my camera so a few photos came out quite grainy. Manual setting seems to be doing this. When I have more time I'm going to talk to Becca (who owns the same kind of camera) to see if she has any suggestions. I'll be posting more photos soon, so check back.

I'm Back

I'm sorry I didn't let anybody know that I was not going to be updating my blog during Easter break, but I was visiting Poland with some friends.

We had a good trip. Our bus left Klaipeda on Friday and we returned on Tuesday night. It was long, but very fun. We spent Friday night in Warsaw, Saturday and Sunday in Cracow, and Monday night in Warsaw (same hostel). Saturday was spent getting to Cracow and walking around the city. It was great to be able to spend Easter service in such a Catholic city. Mila and I visited at least 4 churches celebrating mass on Saturday night. On Monday we were able (barely) to make it down to Auschwitz and spend a few hours there.

To say the least, I am extremely tired and need to sleep. I'll try to post some photos as soon as I get them onto my computer.

Smoking

The guys that I have been digging with smoke a lot. Every once in a while everyone will stop working and pull out a cigarette and light up. There are about three or four of us who don't smoke, so we didn't really have an excuse to stop working. One guy turned to me and said, "Josh, you should smoke so that you can watch those who don't, work!"

Mmh...no.

Broken

Everything seems to be broken.

• My back is broken from shoveling so much dirt. I spent another four hours in the pits today and didn't find anything. It snowed a lot so we didn't get much done. We found another culture level though, which is a good sign. It doesn't look like it has too many artifacts though.
  
• The top pocket of my North Face backpack is completely messed up. It was goofy after the trip to Moscow, and finally came entirely off.
• The left inside pocket of my black coat has a large hole in it. I found out by losing all of my change into the main part of the coat. It took a while to get every last centy out.
  
• I just found a large rip in the collar of my black coat.
• The zipper on my Columbia day-pack seems to be fighting to stay alive, not broken quite yet but getting there.
• One of the zippers of my black duffel bag is broken. It needs to be functional before I leave for the States (I'll be using TNF for my travels around Europe).
  

I don't have time to take everything in to the seamstress since I'm quite busy during the day. I'll take it all (except my back and day-pack) in as soon as I get back from Warsaw. I promise.

Joshue

I've always tried to be careful to email my supervisor Romas with my email address that has my name in English. Once though, I emailed him with my Spanish address, Josué. I've since emailed him multiple times with my Joshua email address, but he keeps calling me Joshue.

Internship

I received an email today from my supervisor saying that they were in Old Town working on an archaeological dig. It was 1 pm when I got the email, but I managed to make it to the site by 1:30. I mostly helped with the clearing of dirt from the first few levels. We didn't find much, mostly bricks, strips of leather, pieces of pipes, bones, etc. Romas told me that by the time that we get down to 1 meter we should be finding a few more objects. I'm going back tomorrow at 8 am to get as many hours in as I can. I tallied up my time and I just passed the half-way mark of my necessary hours. 40 more to go! :)

I miss her

I miss Miriam...I wonder how she's doing?

Travels

This is my year for traveling. I've been in Lithuania and Russia. Soon, Poland, Sweden, Belgium, Switzerland, Italy, Latvia, and Estonia will be on my list. At the end of my travels I will be going homes to Argentina, Bolivia, and the States (homes is where you feel the most comfortable, speak the language and have loved ones).

I've had a glimpse of the world, and I want more...

Moscow & St. Petersburg

I consider these to be my "artsy" photos taken in Moscow and St. Petersberg. The first three are from Moscow. At first I really needed to force myself to take photos, I ended up taking about about 550 pictures in total...

The Hill of Crosses

To say the least, the Hill of Crosses was an amazing experience. This is a frequently visited cite by Roman Catholics. Not only a demonstration of faith, it was also used as a sign of defiance of the rule of the Soviet Union by the Lithuanians, who were devout Catholics. The area was bulldozed several times, but the crosses would reappear the very next day.