A Ginger Perspective : Lost in Lithuania

This weekend we spent a good deal of time on buses... Trying to get around the city and seriously struggling. I had fun though and I feel a little more confident about my sense of direction in Vilnius.

Lindsay, Emma, and Michaela sitting and waiting for the bus. We spent a good few hours this weekend sitting on bus stop benches and watching as all the wrong buses drove by.

Michaela and Emma, so excited to finally get on a bus. For Emma and me, this was our first time riding the bus in Lithuania. A pretty big step if I do say so myself.

Lindsay and me. Lindsay is our head teacher and she is marvelous. This is her fourth trip with ILP! She's pro!

We saw this on our way into the city. I got really excited because I knew what it meant. Labá diená means good day or hello. Already I know like six Lithuanian words. My favorite word so far would definitely have to be ačiū (pronounced like a-choo) meaning thank you. All you have to do is sneeze and you're saying thank you! Who knows, maybe I´ll be fluent by the time I leave.

We found this sign after we had already gone the opposite direction of Old Town, our desired destination.

We love Vilnius!

There are so many old churches in Vilnius, I want to explore them all!

Our first group picture! We're officially a group, as Lindsay would say :)

This bridge that we crossed if full of locks all the way across. It's tradition in Lithuania to "lock your love" as a newly wed and toss the key into the water below. So romantic!

We have yet to and hope to never run into any thieves!

From what I've seen the men and women here are very European. They are always dressed to the nines and I feel under dressed wherever I go. Sometimes however... you run into some interesting people... This creeper picture I took is of a guy with not only a mullet, but dreds! Classy.

That was the last of my pictures from our Saturday adventures. However, our day did not end there. We headed to Dima's house for dinner after exploring the city and ended up being an hour and a half late because we took the wrong bus... Oops! Once we got there though we had a blast. Dima is so funny and is family is just the greatest! His daughter gave us a really wonderful performance and then we watched an old Russian cartoon "The Hedgehog in the Fog." It was definitely different and if you want to watch it I believe it's on YouTube. We ate dinner and Dima entertained us with his stories, teaching us a little Russian, and making us laugh. It was the perfect way to end the night!

Today we headed to church and found it! For the first time since I've been to Lithuania we were actually early for something. We had such a great time at church. There were three sets of missionaries and all of the members were incredibly friendly. About everyone we met gave us a hug and instantly asked if we were the English teachers.

When Emma and I got home we ate dinner and took a walk with our host family out to a little lake and then to their sisters house for cacao (hot chocolate). We had such a great time! They feel like our family already.