Blogs from Kaunas, Lithuania, Europe - page 4

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Europe » Lithuania » Kaunas October 6th 2008

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 weren’t many ‘rules’ given to me/us, but there was one very clear one that we all knew from a very early age: never pick mushrooms. Don’t pick them, and certainly don’t eat them, because they are almost all poisonous and many of them deadly. So just stay away from them, and NEVER put them in your mouth. In fact this is the only rule I remember from childhood when playing in the woods, ... read more
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Viktorija

Europe » Lithuania » Kaunas September 29th 2008

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 except us. We stuck out like a sore thumb, the police tagged us, and we eventually and reluctantly forked up a small bribe so that they would let us go (I wrote about this experience in an earlier blog entry if u are interested). My second experience with policemen was in Rouen, France, when we were pulled over because of speeding. ... read more

Europe » Lithuania » Kaunas September 28th 2008

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 Viktorija’s 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 train in the wintertime. We decided that, since I now speak Lithuanian fairly well, I would be the one to do the talking about the baseball program in Kaunas and how we would like to have the kids come out and try baseball. I was a bit nervous, but it actually went quite well. Once I had finished doing one class, I felt ... read more

Europe » Lithuania » Kaunas August 27th 2008

I finished work at 11pm on the 26 Aug, got home around 1130pm took a shower and I find my housemate Allan watching TV saying he cannot sleep. I had cooked some mushrooms the previous day so I finished the remainder with some bread and finished the yogurt that was remaining too. It amazes me how lazy the people in my house are. The bin was full and overflowing the previous day; but somehow people have managed to shove more stuff into it despite it full. I put a new garbage bag had a chat with Allan and went back to my room to finish the rest of my packing. Charged my phone and the camera battery and tried to sleep. The time was 1am and I have to wake up at 0145am so that i ... read more
Butterfly
Drunk man
Wedding padlocks

Europe » Lithuania » Kaunas August 14th 2008

Kaunas, Lithuania: This is not the capital of Lithuania, nor a beautiful place or one with many attractions. I am here for sentimental reasons only. My grandfather was born here. My mother's father, who helped raise me and my brothers, and who was probably the best human being I ever knew. Fortunately, when he was 2 years old, his family moved to the U.S. I say fortunately, because during World War 2, when he was a young man, Kaunas, also known as Kovno, was occupied by the Nazis, who, together with the Lithuanians, proceeded to kill almost the entire Jewish population. Kovno was once a major Jewish center, with about 1/4 of this city's pre-war population being Jewish. Fewer than 1 in 10 survived the war. Today, we visited the Jewish ghetto, or what remains of ... read more
Desicrated gravestone
Headstone
Jewish Cemetary in ruins

Europe » Lithuania » Kaunas May 26th 2008

**First: i want to mention for those of you who may have missed the transition.....and you probably missed it because i made no transition in my writing........between dance and baseball. I arrived here in Kaunas two weeks ago to play three weeks with the team. For the moment we have finished with rehearsals, and do not pick up the work until september when we rehearse and then premier in the US. So for several months you will be hearing mostly about baseball, about me and my ponderings on life, and about South Africa (where Viktorija and I will be in one week!!)........... Saturday: first game of the weekend series. We left for the game on this rainy and coldy day. Arriving at the stadium in Vilnius, we see that the stadium is completely wet. Underwater, in ... read more
a view of third base from home plate
first base line
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Europe » Lithuania » Kaunas May 23rd 2008

While standing in the outfield during a game two weekends ago in Bois-Guillaume, a sacrifice bunt was laid down that moved the runner over to third base. It was one of those plays that, given the situation, (it was late in the game and we were ahead by several runs), we were happy with the play because we got an out (and at this point in the game our goal is to get outs and finish the game), and they were happy because one of their weaker players was at the plate and had done something productive--moved a runner from second to third. And it occurred to me that there really is no other sport/athletic game (in team sports) where an event can happen on the field/court, and both teams/players are satisfied with the result. This ... read more

Europe » Lithuania » Kaunas May 22nd 2008

So I'm back in Kaunas!! My fourth season playing for Kaunas Lituanica. Man I am getting old..... I arrived at the field at around 1:30 PM. I was the second to arrive, just after Gedas and Sigitas. Gedas was wearing nice street clothes, and Sigitas was dressed already in his uniform having worn it for the previous game (the younger team played earlier in the day). I immediately took out a trash bag and began picking up trash, remnants from the previous evening’s festivities. Gintaras Stadium, our stadium, has no fully-enclosed fence around it. We do not own the field. Thus the stands are a popular hangout place for teenagers looking for a place to party cheaply. Even during our game today, for example, there were three separate groups of teenagers hanging out in the bleachers ... read more
Aivaras
Intentional walk
Vytautas the Great

Europe » Lithuania » Kaunas May 22nd 2008

Yesterday I was out at Kaunas Stadium mowing the grass. I really enjoy mowing grass. It gives me time to think, time to be with myself, it is this repetitive yet artistic activity. Back in North Carolina this is the way that I made spending money during the summers—I mowed lawns. I loved it. I remember the summer before my senior year in high school and first year in college I really got into mowing. It was a particularly wet summer, which meant that the grass was growing and so was the lawn-mowing business. I began with two lawns and by the end of the summer I had 15 or 16 different lawns I was taking care of. I was mowing them each almost every week. It was almost like a full-time job. I made more ... read more
Still not found....
Mantas

Europe » Lithuania » Kaunas April 7th 2008

Bueno aquí de nuevo con más historias y lugares que mostrar, el anterior fin de semana estuve en un evento llamado Synergy o sinergia en español en que consistía este evento? Bueno fue un evento donde se reunieron personas de todos los países bálticos que son Polonia, Lituania, Latvia y Estonia y se trataba de integrar esos 4 países que son casi como hermanos y vivieron la invasión de Rusia!!!, este evento se realizo en Kaunas la segunda ciudad mas grande en Lituania, estuvo súper interesante se conoció gente nueva y lo mas importante fue conocer otras culturas y nuevos amigos de todas partes del mundo bueno como anécdota grata y el cual me siento muy orgulloso es que me encontré con un colombiano Iván López presidente internacional de Aiesec!!! Un bacán y sencillo para los ... read more
El comite de Aiesec Vilnius!!
Mis amigas polacas
Nuevos amigos en el evento!!




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