http://www.travelblog.org/Bloggers/Vilius/ Travel adventures in journals and photos from Vilius en-us Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:31:48 +0000 Thu, 12 Nov 2009 09:31:48 +0000 DOVYDAS NEVERAUSKAS SIGNS WITH THE PITTSBURGH PIRATES FIRST LITHUANIAN IN HISTORY TO SIGN A CONTRACT WITH MLB TEAM7132009For the first time in the history of Lithuanian Baseball one of its own has signed a professional contract with an MLB squad. On July 9th Dovydas Neverauskas a 16 year old pitcher from Vilnius Lithuania agreed to terms of a professional contract offered by the Pittsburgh http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Lithuania/Kaunas/blog-429410.html I returned to Lithuania after a long and restful yet somehow also hectic and very busy two months being home with family grandparents friends. It was a really great visit and also special because Viktorija traveled with me and it was her first visit to the U.S. It was fun and exciting to see her experience my home for the first time and especially to notice the lsquofirstsrsquo that s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Lithuania/Kaunas/blog-429407.html Sveiki Life and baseball in Kaunas Lithuania rolls on. Kaunas is still undefeated in both Lithuanian and Interleague games but all of this might change as our US Tour approaches and the competition stiffens. Not to forget also that we have two tough games to close close out the first half of the season against Vilnius Logipolija. It has been two busy weeks of hosting MLB Envoy Coaches and http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Lithuania/Kaunas/blog-405546.html I have been in Lithuania for probably its most crippling economic period since their postoccupation economic growth began just after the fall of the Soviet Union in the early lsquo90rsquos. Teaching English at a small English school in the center of town on lsquoFreedom Avenuersquo a pedestrian street that stretches the length of the whole downtown of Kaunas I have seen shop after sho http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Lithuania/Kaunas/blog-400781.html As summer arrives time seems to be moving faster and faster. A week flies by seeming like just a few days. A few interesting events regarding Lithuanian Baseball May 28June 5 Sam Dempster a Major League Baseball Envoy Coach will be giving baseball clinics to youth ages 1318 in Vilnius Kaunas and Utena Lithuania. This is an exciting 'first' for Lithuanian Baseball to host an MLB coac http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Lithuania/Kaunas/blog-400780.html A few highlights from the first few weeks of games LITHUANIAN CHAMPIONSHIP WEEK 2 LITUANICA KAUNAS AND VIKINGAS VILNIUS TAKE TWO FROM LOGIPOLIJA AND VETRAKaunas Lituanica extended their record to 40 in rsquo09 Championship Play with two wins over Vilnius Logipolija this weekend beating Logipolija 137 165 in two games. In game 1 Will Gordon and Marijus Dargis s http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Lithuania/Kaunas/blog-398594.html Hi everybody I am back and there is much to write about. I want to let you know that for the moment atleast my blog will take a slight twist. It will once again become a bit more baseballoriented. This is because yet again my life has become more baseballoriented as well. I have been here in Lithuania since January I arrived in the bittery cold winter nearzero temperatures heading d http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Lithuania/Kaunas/blog-398587.html Here are some photos from our last days in South Africa. After baseball in Durban and and saying goodbye to Thanda we rented a car and drove north to Hluhluwe National Park a game reserve several hours north of Durban. We spent a day there two nights and then headed back to Durban to catch our flight back to Europe. Don't forget to check page 2 of this blog for the crocodile pictures http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/KwaZulu-Natal/Durban/blog-332325.html Before we left South Africa it was imperative to make one more trip to Port St. Johns.....and I know I already wrote about the place but I just wanted to share some more shots of this beautiful place. Keep in mind that all of these photos were taken on the same day http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Eastern-Cape/Port-St-Johns/blog-304764.html As sort of a culmination of our work teaching the baseball and on our final weekend in South Africa we traveled to Durban to take part in the school youth baseball league. The league supported and organized by KwazuluNatal Baseball Association begins in July and runs for 8 weeks. It is sort of a preseason to the Club league that starts up after the completion of the school leaguemdashthe http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/KwaZulu-Natal/Durban/blog-331943.html Growing up in North Carolina living just outside Durham in a house in the woods surrounded by lots of woods and plants and space to roam and explore I felt like I was pretty in touch with nature. I spent hours upon end building forts hiking and exploring looking for spiders and other insects doing all sorts of things in the forest. There werenrsquot many lsquorulesrsquo given to meus http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Lithuania/Kaunas/blog-331565.html Some photos from our time with Thanda Afterschool. http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/blog-331585.html Here are some pictures from Thanda Basketball's first ever game against a 'real' opponent Below is a short review of the game I wrote for Thanda Thanda Afterschool vs. Genesis Afterschool Our First GameSaturday August 17th will be a day etched in the minds of Thanda Basketball students for a long time. After weeks and weeks of practices of teaching the kids about dribbling and pass http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/KwaZulu-Natal/Umzumbe/blog-330214.html The final week before the beginning of the school holiday at Thanda the last of the longawaited baseball gear arrived. Up until this point the extent of the baseball program at Thanda involved me making several baseballs a day out of plastic bread bags and cleaning out several 5gallon peanut butter buckets to use as ball buckets. So the day the equipment arrived was a BIG DAY for Thanda bas http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/KwaZulu-Natal/Umzumbe/blog-329811.html I am a bit nervous about this dance performance that will take place here in New York City in two weeks but the fact that we have already performed it once in Poland takes the edge off a bit. And the fact that the experience and the final performance in Poland was so crazy and unpredictable makes me feel that if it worked out in Poland then it will surely work out in New York. I got one commen http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Western-Cape/Cape-Town/blog-329380.html In all of my travels in Europe I have been stopped by the police twice. The first time was in Moscow in the Red Square when I was standing outside with some friends having a beer and we were ticketed for having an open container in public. The irony of the situation was that everyone in the Red Square or so it seemed was drinking beer and everyone or so it seemed was speaking Russian exce http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Lithuania/Kaunas/blog-329037.html Wednesday September 3 2008 Today was the first day of the new season of baseball players. At 9 AM this morning Sigitas picked me up from Viktorijarsquos place and we headed to the schools to go class to class speaking about baseball and inviting them to come and try it out. We were going to two primary schools where we have been before one of the schools being the school where our teams tr http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Lithuania/Kaunas/blog-328665.html Hi everybody who is still reading this blog. 9786 In the last several months since my last blog entry I have received a steady stream of comments from all sorts of folks asking how I am doing. It is always so cool to get comments. All of these comments also had in common one phrase ldquoI see it has been a long time since you have wrote.rdquo And that it has. A long time. I am back in http://www.travelblog.org/North-America/United-States/New-York/New-York/Brooklyn/blog-327218.html Friday was the final day of the term at Thanda and the beginning of a twoweek school holiday. Viktorija myself Jeff and Amy planned a three day trip to Port St. John a small town about three hoursrsquo drive down the coast from Hibberdene. The ride through the mountainous region along the southeastern coast of South Africa was really beautiful and exactly what I had been wanting to see her http://www.travelblog.org/Africa/South-Africa/Eastern-Cape/Port-St-Johns/blog-295788.html Boarding the plane i was asking myself am I really flying to Poland right now Right now I am in the Southernmost part of Africa and in several hours I will be touching down in Krakow Poland. It felt unbelieveable and somehow also just the 'next step' on this journey that is in one sense so planned out and in another so unpredictable and spontaneous. And like so many other moments over the http://www.travelblog.org/Europe/Poland/Silesian/Katowice/blog-296440.html