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June 9, 2000
We flew into Vilnius; Lithuania at around 10 a.m., June 9th. Most of us
were completely exhausted having not slept in 24 hours, some I heard never
went to bed the night before our 8:15 a.m. flight out of SeaTac which would
put them at not having slept in nearly 40 hours! I was one of the lucky
ones who managed to sneak in about two hours of sleep on the plane somewhere
between Greenland and Norway, or at least that was where the plane
follow-along-flight-path-television put us. We flew into Helsinki, Finland
to catch our connecting flight to Lithuania. It was an absolutely
beautiful, bright sunny morning and I was halfway across the world for the
very first time. I was ecstatic about the different cultures that I was
about to experience. I couldn't believe that we had finally made it to
Eastern Europe after months of planning, we were all there (approximately 36
students and 7 chaperones).
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Vilnius was just as sunny and beautiful as Helsinki! As we drove through
the town in our tour bus we were all very excited to see this place which
had only gained its freedom from the Soviet Union in 1991. Many of the
buildings were what they call "ugly buildings," the remnants of the Soviet
communist style housing. The tall, drab, boxy cement Soviet buildings stuck
out like a sore thumb throughout this beautiful city with such
awe-inspiring, yet amazingly dilapidated architecture.
We made our way to the hotel, "Lietuva," to wash up and get settled in
before our first scheduled event, a tour of Vilnius University. As we
arrived at the hotel, some of the excitement started to ware off, and all I
wanted to do was sleep, but I knew that if I gave in now my internal clock
would be messed up the rest of the trip, I had to stay strong.
By 2 p.m. we arrived at Vilnius University for our tour of the campus.
Many of the buildings were as much as 4 hundred years old and were being
renovated. My camera wasn't working the entire first day while we were in
Vilnius; I missed out on so many great pictures. After touring the campus
we were greeted by the Vilnius U folklore singers. They had prepared a
literal feast for us! As we walked into this room surrounding a courtyard,
a long table was packed with Lithuanian delicacies, pastries, meats,
cheeses, breads, and cookies. It was impressive! After we ate and drank,
the two choirs began singing for one another. We'd sung, then they'd sing,
and it went on like that for about an hour. There we were all crowded in
this room; us exhausted to the point of being delirious with laughter! I
was having the time of my life; we weren't just singing songs that we sang
in choir, we were singing songs that were from our American culture. We
taught them The Hokie Pokie!
Later we moved the party out to the courtyard, where we continued the songs
and were taught Lithuanian folksongs and dances. We also played games; one
in particular was probably the Lithuanian equivalent to Spin-the-bottle, it
was hilarious! We all danced around in a big circle and celebrated all
night long, well, I went back to the hotel at around 11 p.m. to get some
much needed sleep.
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June 10, 2000
I woke up at 4:30 in the morning and the sun was shinning as if it were 9
a.m.! I couldn't believe my eyes when I looked out the window and then
glanced at my alarm clock, I thought I had overslept. No body had warned me
of the "land of the midnight sun." Apparently the Baltic states are at the
same latitude as Alaska, and every year around the summer solstice the sun
stays out later and later and comes up earlier and earlier to my surprise.
I went back to sleep because I had a big day ahead of me.
A group of us decided to go on a tour of a cemetery we had seen on the
drive to the hotel the day before. The cemetery was like none I'd ever seen
in the U.S. The majority of it was established in a ravine, not on a huge
leveled field of grass. It was over grown and jam packed, as if there were
no rhyme or reason for the plots. It was a sea of stone crosses. In
Lithuania it is the family's duty of the deceased to care for the plots, so
some would be nicely kept up with fresh flowers adorning and a mowed lawn,
while others had been neglected and were over grown and falling apart. It
was a beautiful sight, I think we spent somewhere around two hours there
just looking around and taking pictures.
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Next, we headed off to the "Old Town" for some more sight seeing and some
shopping! We were told that this was the place to find street vendors and
to see the beautiful part of Vilnius which is centuries old and has been
preserved from the Soviet destruction. I'd never seen so much amber in my
life, and cheap! I'd hit the jackpot; I got tons of jewelry, for myself and
as gifts for my friends and family back home in Seattle.
Later that night we gave a concert at Vilnius's St. John's Cathedral. Most
of are repertoire is American popular songs, but we had learned of few
Lithuanian tunes as well. At the end of our concert we sang the Lithuanian
national anthem and everybody in the audience started to sing along and gave
us a standing ovation, some were even brought to tears by our gesture!
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