(no subject)
so. thursday was drinking party night. we went to some local brewery. they had a whole page of "beer cocktails" which were like, beer with flavored syrup in them... yeah. i was glad i just got regular beer, because the syrupy ones were kinda gross. then we went to some bar where we had to walk through these velvet curtain things, and i was the only one who got carded to get in. haha. i was probably one of the oldest people in the group. just like the states!
yeah, and right before we left, clare went and got a tray of vodka shots. ahh i should have stayed away from those. i was only drinking water at the second bar because i was like, oh, don't want to be hung over tomorrow. but then i did the vodka shot anyway. (yes mom, i know, i know. i know better than that. haha.)
so then when we were waiting for the taxis (if you just flag one down instead of calling, it's like triple the rate) shari and i ran over to a coffee inn and checked email, and got two bad pieces of news.
then isaac, who had been making dumb comments all night (along with jacob, and i completely snapped at him at the first bar and then felt sortof dumb but everyone told me it was fine because he had been on everyone's nerves all night/week/month.) said something dumb and i got all pissed and whatever. but so then back at the dorms miriam and clare and rachel all came in to the laundry room where i was "doing homework" but actually just stressing out and were like hey we're thinking of skipping first class and getting breakfast with us if you want to join us, so i didn't do my homework.
"sorry i'm all having a drunk freak out scene making time."
"don't worry about it. we're your friends and we like you. if we didn't, we'd have gone to bed."
then i went to breakfast with miriam and rachel and clare the next morning and it was delicious and they bought it for me to cheer me up and i was throwing paper balls (from the bus tickets) at miriam because they were getting stuck in her hair and i thought it was funny and she was throwing them back at me and clare and rachel were giving us disapproving looks for acting like small children.
then clare and rachel left to go to second class but the omelette miriam had ordered hadn't come yet so we hung out there longer and then ended up walking back to the dorm and i actually showered because it was so hot out and i was covered in sweat and then we went back into town and i checked my email and sent off a few and then we went back to the dorms and finished packing up and then we met up with rachel and clare and shari and nathan and matt and got on a 6 hour train to the beach. yay beach! well not actually the beach, we went to klaipeda. the train was hot and the ac was broken for most of it but i made miriam listen to my music with me and tried to nap.
so then in klaipeda we found the hostel and decided to check out the "night life." ... yeah. not much, even on a friday night. for a while i was hypothesizing that possibly everyone had died of some horrible plague mere hours before our arrival, but then miriam pointed out that people were alive in the hostel, so there went that theory. damn logic. we eventually stumbled upon a bar by the river and they brought us food menus then told us they weren't serving food, and had shitty drinks that were expensive and took a long time to get. then we went to another restaurant and i got potato pancakes (!!!) which are delicious and i think every restaurant ever should always have them, and then ended up taking a cab back to the hostel because it started POURING rain, but of course by the time the second cab came, it had pretty much stopped. whatever. it was like 1 lita per person, which is like.... 37.692043 cents.
um. yeah. it was a good night. heh.
i have to wonder how many of them saw it coming before we did.
then the next day we had to walk across the entire effing city to get to the ferry to get to the bus to get to the beach on some island. annnnnd then beach. the baltic sea was super calm... i was a little disappointed. i wanted it to be like a giant wave pool! also, it was super hot in the air, and then the water was cold. also, we are all really short compared to lithuanians. we kept thinking there were sand bars, and we'd try to walk over to find them, and eventually we decided that they are all just freakishly tall, or we are all freakishly short, or some combination of the two. anyway. i managed to not get horribly sunburned! hurray! (major accomplishment.)
then we found a wine bar with a view of the dunes, and of course the only vegan thing on the menu was green beans with mustard, so miriam got a duck salad with the duck on the side and then i ate the duck and it was delicious. also i had delicious bread coated in pesto and melted mozzarella. and wine.
then we went and took the bus back to the ferry back to klaipeda and then took a cab to the other bus stop and waited around for the bus but nothing was open and the gas station wouldn't let us in so we were all changing into pajamas in the parking lot and then waiting around and then i was sad because miriam and i were supposed to sit next to each other but people were in our seats and i got stuck next to this dude who smelled like rotting cabbage and had a duffle bag which took up the space at my feet too so not only did i not have any leg room but i had to sit for 6 hours on a night bus with my backpack on my lap. LAME!
then back to the dorms then napping then back into town then bus into a shtetl and then a tour of the shtetl and more "there were some important jewish things here once upon a time" including an old jewish cemetery that is now a KINDERGARTEN PLAYGROUND WHAT THE FUCK.
then we went to a castle on a lake and they didn't tell anyone there would be swimming (except that i knew because christa told me because she did the program last year but then i still didn't bring anything to swim in because i don't really like swimming) so we just had to hang out for a really long time in the hot hot sun but it was still fun. actually it was lots of fun. and also lithuanians kept giving us weird disturbed looks and i'm pretty sure this woman was like giving us a lecture about not being queer or something but of course we don't know any lithuanian and she didn't seem to understand that we didn't understand her so we just walked away. in retrospect i think we should have said "aciu" (achoo, the only lithuanian i know. "thank you.") first just because i think it would have been funny and confusing and i enjoy that.
anyway. since then i have pretty much been ignoring (almost) everyone and everything. heh. and wishing this were like a 6 or 8 or 20 week program instead of 4. anyway.
my obligatory update. now i shall return to ignoring everyone. (until saturday, when i shall commence upon incessant lamenting regarding the unfairness of life, the universe, and everything. 42.)
ALSO:
from today:
"all i know about the ukraine has to do with Chernobyl. also ukrainian easter eggs. which may or may not actually be ukrainian."
"what?"
"you know..." *explains ukrainian easter eggs* "or like! you know how you get that stupid clear-wax crayon in your easter egg dye so you can write on the eggs. it's like that."
"um... ok."
"didn't you ever have those?"
"i've never dyed easter eggs."
"what?!" *pause* "oh. right. wow, i feel silly. i suppose you never believed in santa, either?"
"no. not so much. i always laughed at the christian children who did."
ahh the privilege of the majority. obliviousness.
yeah, and right before we left, clare went and got a tray of vodka shots. ahh i should have stayed away from those. i was only drinking water at the second bar because i was like, oh, don't want to be hung over tomorrow. but then i did the vodka shot anyway. (yes mom, i know, i know. i know better than that. haha.)
so then when we were waiting for the taxis (if you just flag one down instead of calling, it's like triple the rate) shari and i ran over to a coffee inn and checked email, and got two bad pieces of news.
then isaac, who had been making dumb comments all night (along with jacob, and i completely snapped at him at the first bar and then felt sortof dumb but everyone told me it was fine because he had been on everyone's nerves all night/week/month.) said something dumb and i got all pissed and whatever. but so then back at the dorms miriam and clare and rachel all came in to the laundry room where i was "doing homework" but actually just stressing out and were like hey we're thinking of skipping first class and getting breakfast with us if you want to join us, so i didn't do my homework.
"sorry i'm all having a drunk freak out scene making time."
"don't worry about it. we're your friends and we like you. if we didn't, we'd have gone to bed."
then i went to breakfast with miriam and rachel and clare the next morning and it was delicious and they bought it for me to cheer me up and i was throwing paper balls (from the bus tickets) at miriam because they were getting stuck in her hair and i thought it was funny and she was throwing them back at me and clare and rachel were giving us disapproving looks for acting like small children.
then clare and rachel left to go to second class but the omelette miriam had ordered hadn't come yet so we hung out there longer and then ended up walking back to the dorm and i actually showered because it was so hot out and i was covered in sweat and then we went back into town and i checked my email and sent off a few and then we went back to the dorms and finished packing up and then we met up with rachel and clare and shari and nathan and matt and got on a 6 hour train to the beach. yay beach! well not actually the beach, we went to klaipeda. the train was hot and the ac was broken for most of it but i made miriam listen to my music with me and tried to nap.
so then in klaipeda we found the hostel and decided to check out the "night life." ... yeah. not much, even on a friday night. for a while i was hypothesizing that possibly everyone had died of some horrible plague mere hours before our arrival, but then miriam pointed out that people were alive in the hostel, so there went that theory. damn logic. we eventually stumbled upon a bar by the river and they brought us food menus then told us they weren't serving food, and had shitty drinks that were expensive and took a long time to get. then we went to another restaurant and i got potato pancakes (!!!) which are delicious and i think every restaurant ever should always have them, and then ended up taking a cab back to the hostel because it started POURING rain, but of course by the time the second cab came, it had pretty much stopped. whatever. it was like 1 lita per person, which is like.... 37.692043 cents.
um. yeah. it was a good night. heh.
i have to wonder how many of them saw it coming before we did.
then the next day we had to walk across the entire effing city to get to the ferry to get to the bus to get to the beach on some island. annnnnd then beach. the baltic sea was super calm... i was a little disappointed. i wanted it to be like a giant wave pool! also, it was super hot in the air, and then the water was cold. also, we are all really short compared to lithuanians. we kept thinking there were sand bars, and we'd try to walk over to find them, and eventually we decided that they are all just freakishly tall, or we are all freakishly short, or some combination of the two. anyway. i managed to not get horribly sunburned! hurray! (major accomplishment.)
then we found a wine bar with a view of the dunes, and of course the only vegan thing on the menu was green beans with mustard, so miriam got a duck salad with the duck on the side and then i ate the duck and it was delicious. also i had delicious bread coated in pesto and melted mozzarella. and wine.
then we went and took the bus back to the ferry back to klaipeda and then took a cab to the other bus stop and waited around for the bus but nothing was open and the gas station wouldn't let us in so we were all changing into pajamas in the parking lot and then waiting around and then i was sad because miriam and i were supposed to sit next to each other but people were in our seats and i got stuck next to this dude who smelled like rotting cabbage and had a duffle bag which took up the space at my feet too so not only did i not have any leg room but i had to sit for 6 hours on a night bus with my backpack on my lap. LAME!
then back to the dorms then napping then back into town then bus into a shtetl and then a tour of the shtetl and more "there were some important jewish things here once upon a time" including an old jewish cemetery that is now a KINDERGARTEN PLAYGROUND WHAT THE FUCK.
then we went to a castle on a lake and they didn't tell anyone there would be swimming (except that i knew because christa told me because she did the program last year but then i still didn't bring anything to swim in because i don't really like swimming) so we just had to hang out for a really long time in the hot hot sun but it was still fun. actually it was lots of fun. and also lithuanians kept giving us weird disturbed looks and i'm pretty sure this woman was like giving us a lecture about not being queer or something but of course we don't know any lithuanian and she didn't seem to understand that we didn't understand her so we just walked away. in retrospect i think we should have said "aciu" (achoo, the only lithuanian i know. "thank you.") first just because i think it would have been funny and confusing and i enjoy that.
anyway. since then i have pretty much been ignoring (almost) everyone and everything. heh. and wishing this were like a 6 or 8 or 20 week program instead of 4. anyway.
my obligatory update. now i shall return to ignoring everyone. (until saturday, when i shall commence upon incessant lamenting regarding the unfairness of life, the universe, and everything. 42.)
ALSO:
from today:
"all i know about the ukraine has to do with Chernobyl. also ukrainian easter eggs. which may or may not actually be ukrainian."
"what?"
"you know..." *explains ukrainian easter eggs* "or like! you know how you get that stupid clear-wax crayon in your easter egg dye so you can write on the eggs. it's like that."
"um... ok."
"didn't you ever have those?"
"i've never dyed easter eggs."
"what?!" *pause* "oh. right. wow, i feel silly. i suppose you never believed in santa, either?"
"no. not so much. i always laughed at the christian children who did."
ahh the privilege of the majority. obliviousness.