Our Second Day

Tuesday May 29, 2018

Day two of our wondrous adventure in the land of my ancestors!

This morning we woke up a little later than yesterday, and we had somewhere we needed to be relatively early, so it was a little more hectic than our relaxing start yesterday. I was feeling a bit stressed out about planning our travel to the other school location, which was in a different place than the one we visited yesterday.

I should mention that ASK has six locations: five near Vilnius and one in Kaunas.

After today we will have observed classes in three of the five locations in the Vilnius area. Anyway, Tim came to the rescue again by researching the location of the school we needed to be at, and the time it would take us on the bus to get there. Once I had a better idea of all that information, I was able to clam down and enjoy the morning. We went upstairs to the office to make coffee, which we discovered yesterday is always free for us to use, and ended up chatting with the manager Ligita for a while. It was lovely to chat with her about the differences between British and American English and how we used to own Sugar Gliders, while we sipped our coffee.

Eventually we did have to get a move on, however, to catch our bus. The bus trip to the school went smoothly, and we got an even better idea of the lay of the land around here.

We were especially excited to notice there is a Water Park not too far from us, so if we have a heat wave on one of our days off we decided we might try to check that out! Again, we arrived with plenty of time to spare, so the teacher gave us a tour of the facility and chatted with us about random things. This lesson was about the differences between the school system in the U.K. versus here in Lithuania, but of course we also ended up making some comparisons to the U.S. school system - astoundingly, another topic that is important to us! It is especially interesting to me, since I have always wanted to be a teacher, but my research and knowledge of the public school system has turned me off from the profession in the past. I could talk for hour about things I don't like about our education system, how I would make it better, and alternative methods of education that are available in the United States. In this speaking class, the students were a little less advanced in their English skills than the class we observed yesterday, but we were all still able to communicate really well.

After the lesson, we walked across the street to a grocery store called LIDL which Tim said he had heard about back in the States. It reminded us of an ALDI, only somewhat nicer quality. We decided to buy some items to try and make our "ketchup" sauce into something that more closely resembled pasta sauce. One onion, a clove of garlic, and a jar of oregano later we started the return journey back to our flat. Everyone here has been telling us that the weather is unusually hot for this time of year, at about 85 degrees Fahrenheit - which is not the weather we packed for! As such, we have been over-dressed since we got here, and sweating it! Thus, we both needed cool showers as soon as we got back to our flat before we could think of doing anything else.

After we got cleaned off and cooled down, we decided to have a go at fixing that sauce. Thankfully, Tim is a fabulous cook and I'm a pretty decent sous chef, so together we managed to make it into a new creation that we would actually call pasta-sauce-like! Yay us! But again, we didn't have time to eat before we had to go upstairs to observe yet another speaking class. This lessons topic was "Politically Incorrect Jokes" which was actually super fascinating for us! Being pretty dedicated to the American concept of "PC-Culture" ourselves, I was a little concerned that Tim and I would feel very uncomfortable talking to others from a different culture who might have very different views about being politically correct (AKA: kind) as a general rule. What I didn't anticipate was how much I learned about the history of Lithuania and its surrounding countries, and how that affects the types of cultural stereotypes they have versus the ones we see most commonly in the U.S. as a result of our unique history. Tim and I both enjoyed the frank and open conversation with everyone, and found that we were in a pleasantly safe and non-judgmental space. We were all willing to admit that nobody is perfect, and that societies all around the world still have a lot of work to do in improving the lives of oppressed groups, which includes being sensitive to how certain types of "jokes" can perpetuate their oppression.

I must say, though, my favorite part of the day by far was when we got to pet the three dogs that are members of the AKS family!

Today was the first day that they were here at the same time we were, and it was such a joy to be able to play with a puppy again. We miss Rhythm so much, and even though we know that she is in good hands, it's still hard to not be able to pet, snuggle and play with her any time we want. It isn't exactly the same as having our pup with us, but we are both very happy to have at least some way to get our doggy fix while we are here!

Tomorrow is the big day for us, when we get to teach a speaking class on our own! We are all prepared with a lesson plan, and feel very confident that it will go well! Wish us luck, though!

Best wishes from across the pond! <3

Checkout all of our photos in our European Adventure 2018 album:

https://www.icloud.com/sharedalbum/#B0WGrq0zwG7hjZE