Stockholm

On Wednesday noon Eduardo, Linda, Martina and I started our trip to Stockholm with a cheap flight from Riga to Stockholm airport.
We left Riga with sunshine and minus 20 degrees. In Stockholm we couldn’t see anything through the plane’s window because it was snowing and foggy. But when we got out of the plane it felt like summer, at least minus 6 degrees were suddenly quite warm.
The airport was far from the city center so we had to take another bus and when we arrived in Stockholm central station it was already dark. A friend of Eduardo who hosted us took us from the station and we went, already tired, to her home.
The next day was still a bit foggy but we wanted to see the city. So we got up early and walked around the center and the old town. Stockholm is really beautiful. The water and the small islands where the city is based on create wonderful pictures. I like the colorful houses and old buildings which are mainly placed in the old town.
Also the royal palace and the guards in front of it who just move at a certain time were interesting but quite strange to me.
We had a break with great hot chocolate in a very small café in the old town. The atmosphere there was very cozy and homelike. But in general and especially in those places in the old town, Stockholm is a very expensive city.
Another highlight of the day was the Vasa -museum which tells the story of the world’s only surviving 17th-century ship. On April 24th 1961, the warship Vasa broke the surface of Stockholm´s harbour after 333 years on the sea bottom. It is very interesing to see this boat in the museum and to get to know about the disaster as well as about the people and their life on the ship centuries ago.
On Friday the fog was gone and we enjoyed the sunshine during we visited the city hall. After a little bit of shopping we visited a city district called Sofo with a great but very special vintage shop.
In general I was really surprised about all the English speaking people in Stockholm. In every shop you could get along with English and also in the strees I heard a lot of English speaking people.
I also noticed that I‘m not used to the bustle of a capital anymore even if it is the same in my hometown. In Siauliai you can get everywhere by foot so using a crowded tram, after 4 month without, was kind of strange for me.
All in all I liked the trip a lot and our friendly hosts made it also very confortable. I would recommend a visit in Sweden‘s capital for everyone and I plan to go back there in summer to see the city without snow.

10 in 1 - A special atmosphere at Didzdvario Gimnazija

On the 21st of January the Intercultural Evening took place in Didzdvario Gimnazija and it transformed the school into a place with an exciting atmosphere full of culture and interesting people.
During whole Thursday the mood of the volunteers who were responsible for the event's organization were excited and full of curiosity and nervousness. We walked around in school and finished last tasks or rehearsed performances for the evening.
Many students and teachers joined the preparation and the atmosphere got more and more lively.
Finally when all guests entered, the assembly hall got crowded quickly. Besides the program and scenes from different countrys also the audience was full of different nations. We invited other volunteers from other countries or German people we already know in Siauliai and also Eduardo's Portuguese friends joined the celebration.
When the show started the variety of movies and typical clothes made the intercultural exchange very colorful.
A very special thing about this evening was the language. Nether everybody in the hall understood Lithuanian nor everybody would have a clue after English introductions. So we had to translate all the important facts and lead the evening in two languages. Additionally many performances used the mother tongue of the country they were presenting what made the whole event multifaceted.
Especially the songs and dances showed in an interesting way how different cultures are and they transported the county's feelings.
After the performances me and Linda hold a speech and thanked all the participants for the great co-operatin and underlined the integrative way the school works.
Downstairs in the cafeteria during people enjoyed all the different food the atmosphere got easier but still interesting. People exchanged opinions, own experiences or advices related to the food.
All in all everybody was satisfied with the event and thankful that everybody worked together so well.
10 in 1 - Different nations, all combined in one event, was a great success.



Also check for more information:
http://www.lindainlithuania.blogspot.com/

http://www.martinainlithuania.blogspot.com/

Christmas was very harmonic...

…but unfortunately holidays are already over again, although I want to tell you something about it.
Every year the Christmas time for me is calm and contemplative. I was a little bit afraid this year to experience something different because it was the first year without my parents and friends.
But when I look back to December I can say it was a wonderful month.
December started with surprising news. Linda and I moved to a three-bedroom-flat.
It was really quick. We were told to pack our things one evening and the next morning we stood in our new flat. And I like it so much. It is very comfortable and also just renovated. We both have our own room now and the kitchen is big enough to spend there also some time.
After packing out all the stuff and making ourselves feel comfortable we decorated the living room with Christmas stuff.
So we had a very nice time and many meetings with friends in our new flat. Also preparing presents for Germany or creating a Christmas agenda worked very well together with Linda.
Finally Christmas arrived and we went to Vilnius to visit other volunteers there. On the 23rd Ex-EVS who live in Vilnius invited us for a traditional Lithuanian Christmas eve dinner. This was really interesting and also the atmosphere was familial and peaceful which I really enjoyed. We experienced a dinner with 12 dishes and no meet or other products from animals. Some of the food was strange to me, for example a semi-fluid juice. Also new for me were some magical traditions like looking to next year’s future or your life’s way. What I liked most were stuff like passing a piece of bread through and wishing each other something by breaking it. Or everyone had to thank for things he/she could do or see during the last year while he/she hold a candle.
The group of Ex-volunteers explained everything to us. They were really nice and hospitable.
The next day was Christmas eve and we got up early to prepare the flat for the celebration. All in all we were 22 people, volunteers from many countries of Europe and also two families of volunteers who visited their children for Christmas. Everyone cooked something which is typical for his or her Christmas, so we had a huge variety of food and also traditions. The flat was really crowded but we all together experienced a harmonic Christmas feeling. I also went to church because I usually go there with my family for Christmas. I understood almost nothing but still the atmosphere was Christmas like and I gloried it.
On the 25th Linda, Eduardo and I went to an aqua park in Vilnius. It was very funny and also relaxing.
The rest of Christmas was relaxed. Linda and me invited Eduardo for dinner on the 26th and we noticed that our cooking skills improve here quite a lot. Eduardo also told us that in Portugal the 26th is no Christmas anymore but although he liked the Dinner.
All in all I can say Christmas this year was different than at home and I also thought of my family a lot but it was a nice celebration and I am happy about my decision to stay here and experience another kind of Christmas in Lithuania.

What I also liked a lot in December was a trip to Riga together with Linda. We stayed for three days in a hostel where people were very friendly. In this hostel we met girls from Australia, Korea and many other places all over the world. Riga is a very beautiful city. We went to many touristy places like the freedom monument, the Riga cathedral or the huge market halls.
A surprise for me was that there are so many Russian people living in Riga, about 40%.
What I liked most in Riga were the two Christmas markets there. I really enjoyed this because we do not have Christmas markets in Siauliai.

On the 3rd of January a new volunteer from Italy arrived to Siauliai, a 19 year old girl called Martina. She is living in our flat and I am very happy because she is really nice. I think we will have a great time all together during the next months.

At work we are starting to work on our own radio shows about a topic we are interested in. I will do shows about dancing because it is my hobby and I like to talk about it.

In the end I want to tell you that I suddenly noticed that almost half of my time in Lithuania is already over but I feel really settled in right now. I feel that time is running and I have to take care of all the things I want to do here otherwise I will maybe miss something.

Time was running during the last weeks...

The last entry now is already 3 weeks ago. We are doing presentations and we organize an intercultural evening at Didzdvario Gimnazija. When I compare work in Lithuania to tasks I had to manage at home, I fell like doing almost nothing in here but still everything is much more difficult in a new schhol because of a new system we try to get used to and a difficult language. So time is running without being board.
One of the tasks waiting for the volunteers in the last weeks were some presentations about evs and their homecountry. Linda and me we went through classes to tell students about Germany. When I'm honest I thought more about Germany these days than in my whole life before and we found out some things that even surprised me, like a German invented the television or the fact that adidas and puma are both German soprtbrands. But I also noticed that some stereo types like Germans dirk a lot of beer or Germans are always on time etc are exactly the things you find about this country and their people in the internet. We also asked the students about their opinion and their knowledge about Germany or maybe some German things they even use in their daily life. During this I got to the point that Germany is quite present in Lithuania. There are many German products or brands you can find in the supermarket or other shops. Students know a lot of Germans especially from sports and of course they know about German beer. All in all it was a little bit annoying to tell the same things so often but although I got a little bit proud of my homecountry which is normal I think. It's the place I am born and right now abroad I feel even more the relation to this place.
After holiday the volunteers started a new project, an interculturel evening. If you count teachers, assistent teachers, volunteers and language courses etc there are 10 nations (or even more) involved in Didzdvario Gimnazija right now. We wanted to integrate all of them in one evening and we want to show the school's miscellaneousness in this way. Aditionally the three Turkish volunteers leave in the end of November, so it should be their last project for integrating in school. In the beginning it was not that easy because they do not have any experiences with things like that. But after a while all volunteers worked together on the event and it developed quite well although it was difficult to please everyone. The most difficult thing for me was not the oranizing itself because in my own school I was often involved in organizing events like that. But in my school I knew all the important people, places and possibilities. I did not have to find out who I can ask before doing it. In here it's different because we are totally new in this school and we firstly have to find out about possibilities and people with responsbility we can ask for help.
As a concluition I hope everything will work and our first own project in this school will be succesful. It would be very important for us to finally see the sense in our efforts.
Unfortunately the event just is delayed since yesterday because of epidemic flu in school. We hope it will take place next week.
The last thing I want to write about is our last weekend's visit in Kaunas. We wanted to see the city and visit some other EVS volunteers. It was a really nice trip. Kaunas is a beautiful city with its oldtown and the coalesceing rivers. We enjoyed discovering the town and in the evening we went to a party with volunteers from Kaunas. They have a really hunge and strong EVS community there, around 30 volunteers. We had a very nice place to stay at night and we had to bring nothing besides personal things which is a very confortable and practical thing about EVS network. I feel a little sad that we are not so many volunteers in Siauliai. Of course we can visit the ones in Kaunas or Vilnius anytime but it would be really nice to have an own hunge community in here.
As you can read there is a lot to do in Lithuania and we are not bored at all. But finally I hope we can start working in the radio which is opened since holiday because this is the work we originally wanted to do here.

Hill of crosses

During the last week we had a visitor from Germany. We showed him around Siauliai and tried to figure out all the important things to see for a foreinger.
One important trip was the one to the Hill of crosses near Siauliai. The Hill of crosses is a famous place for pilgrims and it is one of the national Lithuanian cultural monuments.
in the 19th century while the insurgence against russian foreign rule many people were executed on the hill. For their honesty people put crosses on the hill. This was the start of a tradition.
In Sowiet Union times the authority tried to destroy this tradition several times by taking away the crosses. But every time someone put new ones on the hill again.
So the crosses are not just a christian symbol now. They also represend the independence of the country.
For me the hill was very impressive. There are so many crosses on it and so many different ones. Some with names or wishes, big ones, small ones etc. When you pass the hill you can not stop discovering new crosses. It is not just a relogious thing now it is for everybody who wants to be connected with this place. The atmosphere is full of memories and the visitors can divine them. Aditionally the hill will not stop growing and it is always in a process of changing.
It is an interesting and also a bit mystic place and maybe we will also at a cross full of memories before leaving Siauliai next summer.

First experiences as a teacher

Last week the two German volunteers were confronted with a new task. One of the German teachers was on an exchange trip and Linda and me were supposed to do her lessons.
In the beginning it sounded really heard, 16 lessons in our forst week but while preparing we noticed that it is also a lot of fun and an interesting job. Another thing I never expected like this is that there is actually a lot of work for the teacher behind one lesson... Not a long time ago I was in the opposit position, a stundent. I remember many times, my classmades and me, we were complaning about teachers and their "slow" work refering to tests etc.
Now it is really interesting for me to figure out about the other side.
The first time standing in front of class alone was something between nervousness and curiosity. A native German speaker is not natually a good German teacher. It was really aduous to speak slowly and articulate but otherwise the students wouldn't understand at all. Sometimes there were some problems with understanding because we were told to speak just German and no English. But we tried our best and it was interesting for the stundents to be tought by native speakers. I also liked the contact to stundents from the school because we are interested in Lithuanian daily life and people from this country.
All in all the German teacher was happy about our help and I hope she can reconstruct our work. It is not possible to tach every claas on the same level and we experienced individual work with classes and students.
As a conclusion I really liked the lessons but it was also exhausting to look for everybody all the time and not to fall a sleep or to get lost in thoughts in front of class. But the best thing is the feeling when I saw that students understood our teaching and got something of my native language.

Trip to Vilnius

Last week there was a special event for us volunteers. Visiting the capital for the first time.
Together with Polish exchange students we arrived in Vilnius on Wednesday. The groups of students should take the time there for doing some polls about the relationship between Lithuanian an Polish people and they got the chance to meet students from another country.
Wednesday, our first day, we went on a short sight seeing tour with the whole group. We visited St. Anne's Church, one of the most beautiful and famous buildings in Vilnius. The church is surrounded by many legends. The most popular story is that Napoleon upon seeing St. Anne's Church, said that he would like to place it in the palm of his hand and move it to Paris.
Then we saw the Town Hall Square. It's the traditional center of trade and events in the city.
An also interesting story was told about the President's Palace. All visitors and foreigners piss in front of the building. Nobody really knows why....
The last station of the tour and maybe the most popular was the Cathedral square. There are 3 important buildings at this square. The Cathedral itself, the bell tower and the rebuild palest. It was rebuild as a symbol for the existence and independence of Lithuania.
Another point of the exchange program was cleaning graffiti in the town. We went to kalnu parkas and students could help cleaning.
On Thursday all volunteers took the change to discover Vilnius on our own. We saw the Gate of Dawn, a part of the old city wall, and looked around shopping centers for example. In the afternoon we were invited to an EVS presentation.
On Friday the students already left Vilnius again. We stayed for the weekend at other volunteers flat. The weekend was really fun. We met the whole volunteer community from Vilnius. It is very huge. We also had a great time with friends from Siauliai who came for the weekend.
Another cultural aspect was the visit of KGB museum on Saturday. It was very interesting for me to learn about Lithuanian history and the pressure of the national security agency of the USSR. In Germany we do not learn that much about Sowietunion and History of Baltic states. We were really lucky to have Evaldas a history teacher from school with us because he could tell us everything about it.
All in all I really like Vilnius especially thy old town is beautiful. For me it has a Mediterranean flair what I did not expect. I also enjoyed that Vilnius has some shops and places, Siauliai does not have. "Double coffee" and "Guesto" for example. A cafe with the best hot chocolate I've ever tasted and a restaurant full of wonderful pan cakes ;)
In addition I can say that Vilnius is a international city and I like that very much. We met many foreigners in cafes or bars and when you move through the streets you can hear a lot of English speaking people.
As a conclusion I liked the trip and I think we will visit the capital more often in the next months.