OK, back to Friday. After the museum people went many different directions. I went with four other students and Violet to eat lunch. My lunch was okay (see pictures). I've never been in a restaurant here for less than an hour, so by the time we finally got the bill and paid we had just under an hour of free time left. Two girls from our group went off to meet friends, so the other four of us walked around, learned a little about a new building going up in Old Town right next to the cathedral, and tried to find a place to eat dessert. We were unsuccessful in our quest to find dessert, but we enjoyed walking around and being in the sun which finally came out about 2pm.
The bus arrived promptly at 2:50pm and everyone who was supposed to be was ready and waiting (we came back with four less students 'cause they were meeting friends and staying in Vilnius for the night).
Our first stop on the way back to Panevezys was about 9km outside the city. (It took us 55 minutes to get there though 'cause there was an accident on the way out of Vilnius.) It was a sculpture garden. The sculptures were interesting to see, but my highlight of that stop was a super sweet cat that wanted a lot of attention!! It purred and purred and then when we walked down the path it stood on my shoulder and wanted more attention!! I am so glad I got a cat fix!! I really miss my little furry siblings:(
On the way to the sculpture garden I almost fell asleep. Raminta was talking to me and my eyes were barely open! I stayed awake for the rest of the bus ride though.
About 10 or 15 minutes after leaving the sculpture garden we stopped at a forest (it's much smaller than any forest I've ever seen!) where there are lots of wood carvings. All of the carvings are either from Lithuania's history or Lithuanian mythology. It was nice to walk through God's beauty enjoying the fresh air, company of friends, and the sun. While we were riding to the next place the sun disappeared under the clouds again.
The last stop was in Kernave, the former capital of Lithuania (in the middle ages). We actually stopped in two different parts of the tiny town. First at the home and gallery of an artist (no idea who), and second at a church and the "mountains" (really hills) where castles were located in the middle ages. We went to the top of three of the five hills! It was so nice to be in the countryside again and not the busyness of city life!
Throughout the day we climbed about a zillion steps!! In the University of Vilnius library, up to the observation tower, up and down stories in the museum, and half a zillion at Kernave. We were all tired by the time we piled onto the bus for the trip back to Panevezys. That is, all but the four people in the front row and the five people in the back row. All 9 of them were having a great time singing songs. I eventually went up to the front 'cause everyone in the middle of the bus was listening to music and/or trying to sleep.
About 20 minutes before we got back I found out that every Friday night it's cinema night at the school. Any students from the school can watch the movie they're showing for free. A bunch of us went and watched the last half of the movie when we got back. It was "The Man Who Wasn't There" and I wasn't very fond of it. After the movie ended five of us went to a cafe and talked, and then went to another cafe and talked. I walked back to the house a little before 10pm. At the end of the street my host family lives on I ran into my host parents who were just coming back from the grand opening of the big new stadium. The opening was about 6 hours long!! They seemed to have enjoyed it though. None of the three of us had eaten supper, so Jovita made a bunch of open faced sandwiches and we sat around the table talking about the day. I really enjoyed being busy for 15 hours straight!!
A note about meals: Here the big meal (on the weekends 'cause during the week days Jokubas and I don't get much for lunch) is lunch. I'm still used to eating the biggest meal at supper time. So we do just that, I don't eat much at lunch 'cause I'm not super hungry and they don't eat much at supper 'cause it's more like a snack for them. It works.
After way too long, there's my day on Friday. It was a GREAT day!!
Now about yesterday. I woke up around 8am, got up, got dressed, took a walk down to the mailbox (I didn't get any mail all week:(), ate breakfast, and then rode with Jovita and Tautvydas on their way to the grocery store. At 10am they dropped me off at the post office ('cause I had something to mail) and then told me to walk back to the house and they'd be back in an hour or an hour and a half. Back at the house I did a bunch of random things. They didn't get back until noon, so we didn't eat lunch 'till 1pm. After lunch we all piled in the car and went to check on the "ranch" and take care of Tautvydas' mother's grave site. It was cloudy all day yesterday with a very cold wind. I'm sure the temperature never got above 40 degrees F, but the wind chill was probably right around freezing! I stood outside for 40 minutes at the "ranch" and then had to go sit in the car 'cause even with four layers on I was frozen! Jovita joined me a couple minutes later and then Jokubas a few minutes after that. We all sat in the car waiting for Tautvydas. We were there (at the "ranch", not in the car) for an hour (instead of half an hour like I'd been told) and then we went over to the town where Tautvydas' family lived and they took care of her grave site. It's amazing how well all of the grave sites are taken care of. Even the graves that are 100 or more years old still look nice!
We got back to the house right at 6pm and then I took a shower. It helped warm me up a little, but not a whole lot. Supper was grilled cheese sandwiches and super yummy melon!! After supper I intended to update my blog, but I took my computer downstairs to do it, so I at least would be with my host family. Jovita ended up wanting to talk though, and then we looked at pictures of a bike trip they took to Norway a couple of years ago. It was nice to be interacting with part of my host family.
This morning I woke up at 7am and the house was quiet until about 8:30am. In about half an hour I'll be leaving for church!! The only other plans for today is that sometime Jovita and Tautvydas have to go vote in the second parliamentary election. I asked Jovita if there was anything planned for this afternoon (thinking that we could go see "High School Musical 3") and she said that Tautvydas has a meeting. Before I said anything, she suggested that the two of us go the the "cinema"!! So, at 4:30pm we'll be watching "High School Musical 3"!! Tonight I'll be glued to my computer watching the live video of Bethel's 100th Anniversary service! I know today is going to be another good day. The sky is cloudy right now, and there's still a strong wind, but that can't ruin my day. I'll enjoy the weather that God has given us!
Okey dokey, I'm going to get up for the last time (I ate breakfast about an hour ago and then came back to bed to finish this) and get dressed and ready for church.
I hope you all have a fabulous day:)
Love and Hugs,
Naomi
1 comment:
What fun activities! I'm so glad you could watch the service live. Brian is waiting for a report as to how it went:)
~R~
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