I am so bad with this thing....

Well, as you can all imagine, I'm back in the states and feverishly writing my thesis. I've decided to go back and shoot more footage for the documentary. It is going to be great ! I will be back with a more detailed post soon !

A day in the capital

So yesterday I got on the train from Kaunas to Lithuania's capital, Vilnius. There I met my friend Kristina who is studying opera here. She's from Detroit. We got something to eat and made our way to the KGB Archives which had apparently closed early. So with that Kristina and I hammered out the schedule for the next 2.5 weeks and I called the people I am interviewing. So far I got 2 "call me back in the mornings" and one I had to get the number for again. Once we got that settled, Kristina showed me the music department of her university which has two buildings. They have to be at least 100 years old. Literally, The stairs have indentations from use ! However, there's so much history in those walls. It's really fascinating. After that we walked around the city and visited a few historical places. It turned out to be a fun day ! Finally, Kristina and I had dinner at Cili Pica (Chili Pizza) which is this pizza place with all kinds of random pizza combos. Then my cousin Tadas picked me up and I went home ! Today I think I'll be taking the later train in so I can relax a little bit and call my interviewees back. Stay tuned folks !

Holy Jet Lag, Batman...

WOW. Sooooo the jet lag...cramping my style just a bit here...let's see, yesterday I fell asleep at 3:30 pm and woke up at 1:30 am. Today I went for a 30 minute nap at 2 pm and woke up at 8 pm. I need help. Ideas on how to fix this jet lag issue ??? Anyway, I spent the day at the flat getting schedules together and what not. Tomorrow I'm going to the archives. It's going to be awesome. I'm taking my wooooooodnerful amazingly talented opera singing friend, Kristina with me :). After that I'll be spending the day reading and hanging out with her in Vilnius and then I'll take the train home :). So my relatives have a thing for sauteed liver and onions. They've made it twice in two days. Now I love pate but I HATE liver and onions. EW. Anyway, I'll be out tomorrow so Lithuanian food is on the menu ! YAY. Tonight I walked the dogs with my family. They have a saint bernard and a german shepherd, Rex and Ama. Beautiful dogs. It was fun walking them in the snow ! Yea, and it snowed more today. It was apparently blizzarding in Vilnius and Klaipeda. After that I got to listen to my uncle tell stories about the events prior to Lithuanian independence. People are interesting creatures. The history that a memory retains alone is priceless. It was wonderful to be able to listen to a first hand experience like his. I'm excited to hear more stories soon ! Stay tuned, folks :)

Walkin in a winter wonderland

OH MY GOD SO MUCH SNOW !!! Sooo here's how the last three days have gone down. Got on my flight from Chicago to Munich, it was already taking off 30 minutes later than it was supposed to. I was also fortunate enough to have a talker for a seat mate. The airplane was also really warm so not much sleep. Landed horribly late in Munich, ran to my connecting flight which was supposed to leave ten minutes after we landed. Got held up in security because of my jewelry, and finally decided just to book it to my connecting flight to Berlin. I got there and the flight was still at the gate because it was delayed due to the weather ! Lucky me :) So I got on the connecting flight, passed out and it felt like 5 minutes later when we landed. Berlin was full of snow, I went to the Christmas Market which was HUGE and amazing. I took a ton of pictures. Those will be up soon. So I left Berlin this morning, got to Lithuania on the loudest flight ever ! The airline made me repack 3 times of it would have cost me 200 euro. LAME. Anywho, I'm now at the family condo in Vilkijos Ukis and its wonderful. More to come soon :)

2 days left !

So I'm almost off ! Friday at 8:45 pm :) I'm so excited ! I'll be in Berlin first and then its off to Vilnius :DDD. This is going to be one hell of a trip. I just bought a killer camera to take picture and video. I even bought a tripod ! Being the history nut, I will be taking PLENTY of pictures in Berlin and Lithuania. I am in love with my new camera. Packing is a nightmare but I will win !!!

Now that we got THAT straightened out...

People really need to stop winding up in the hospital in my family. And the weather needs to stop being terrible. Then again, I am going to be doing my research in the frozen tundra known as Eastern Europe. Now that Nana is ok and the brother is coming home in a week, I can leave. Also, I was called in to participate in a jewelry showcase this weekend so I figure I'll do that as well. So MONDAY I will fly out (HAPPY DANCE). Still have to shop for incidentals, thermals, very warm clothes and anti-wipeout boots. Other than that, the emails have been pouring in from important people central to my thesis in Lithuania consenting with gusto for an interview AND all the archives have written back and are thrilled that I'll be visiting. This is all very awesome and slightly overwhelming. I'm so very excited. Things are going to be just incredible. Now I just have to deal with the 3.5 day wait :D

It's always sunny...

Well it's about 1.5 days until my flight leaves for Lithuania. I am really excited to FINALLY have gotten my thesis funded for research. It only took 2 years and 4 draft proposals to get here ! So now begins the packing and the scrambling and the shopping and the panicking and God knows what esle. However, on a brighter note, my laptop was fixed and I now have a functioning laptop to work with. It's the little things, people. I've got about 3.14159 layovers in 3 different countries so that should be fun and an 18+ hour flight. I love being in transit ! I've been on a plane more times in the last 3-4 months than I have in 5 years. Gotta love MUN conferences. Anyway, more to come so stay tuned !