Del has given up on his daily battle with our alarm clock. It will coo coo, play a can can or any number of other themes while announcing the time and inside temperature in English on the hour, but it refuses to speak to us only at the time we thought we set. So, we are relying on our alarm phones. Being the belt and suspenders sort of person that I am, I set both of them, five minutes apart and this morning, turned them both off and went back to sleep. Strange since I went to bed early last night. I have some vague recollection of doing it, but getting up at 6:35 instead of 5 did not make for a good hair day. I rushed through a shower like a child running through a lawn sprinkler, but went to school with limp, flat, day old hair. When I took off my hat at school and took a look, I felt pretty sure I could predict what my nursing home hair do will look like.
One good thing about being late, was that I met a new taxi driver. He listened to my broken attempt to tell him where to drop me off and started talking English to me. He said he had seen me walking around in the Old Town with "one man" and a camera, taking pictures. Again, I wonder how it is people seem to remember us. By the time we got to campus I had learned that he had spent his first 23 years in Russia and served in the Russian sea service (?) and the last 23 in Lithuania. His ship had docked in Alabama one time. He also asked about how long I had been married, our family, why we were here, etc. He is also the first person here who has asked whether I like Obama. I replied that I did and that I also like Hillary Clinton. He agreed that he liked her as well. He did not comment on Obama, and I didn't ask.
Fairy godmother, Daiva, picked us up about 3 and drove us out to Palanga, the sea side city where she lives and where we went to the stenta festival right after we got here. We walked down to the sea and then walked in the wooded park that is right along the beach. It seemed strange to be walking in the woods listening to the sound of birds while also hearing the sound of the waves. We saw pussy willows beginning to open and a few other trees and bushes beginning to blossom.
After our walk, we had wonderful coffee in a place noted for its good vibrations or vortexes. It is attached to a nice hotel. It was a lovely shop and the sun felt awfully good coming through the glass ceiling, but I'm not sure I felt anything else. By the time we finished our coffee, Artyvus had finished his last client of the day. He is a famous healer, known all over, as well as a musician and writer. We went to their flat to get him to go to dinner. Daiva has the most beautiful plants, and they have a wonderful view of a modern Russian church.
After a short visit, we went to an interesting compound that has restaurants for up to 1200, playground, shooting range, souvenir shop, paint ball, basketball and handball, horseback riding, swinging bridge and other things that looked like something you would see in a wilderness survival training place. It also had an exhibit of old cars and motorcycles, a guest house, camping places, spa and a brewery. I think that's all It was built out in the country from Palanga by the drummer of a famous Lithuanian group after the band broke up and has been a big hit. Daiva said that on Sunday, it was so full you could not even get into the parking lot.
The food was good. We had fried bread with cheese and garlic to start, and I had zepelins filled with cottage cheese. Del had potato sausage with what looked like corn beef hash, but tasted like bacon. The sausage just looked like mashed potatoes in a skin. I had learned my lesson and also felt that I had previouusly proved I like Lithuanian food, so I took the liberty of eating only a half of a zepelin. The other one and a half are in the fridge for another day. No one seemed insulted.
My next few days need to be spent preparing a lecture, as they call it here, for the local preschool SLP group. Daiva had called to see if I could visit a school and told me today that they asked for this instead. Until after Soviet Times, 1991, there was not education for the more seriously challenged students, so they want to know what sort of things we do in the States. I guess I will have to learn to make a power point. Rosa could do it when she was seven, so maybe I can learn. I didn't bring materials here, of course, so Swag Bucks and Google will be my friends.
https://picasaweb.google.com/118279613107347865536/Palanga02?authkey=Gv1sRgCJbgn9fluc3ITQ
No comments:
Post a Comment