Becoming Oriented

It turns out I'm living in the dorm that's twenty minutes away from campus and on the fifth floor which should make things interesting. Although it looks like I'm not going to have any classes before noon which should hopefully make things less interesting. I love my room. It's at least four times the size of my room at Taylor and has it's own bathroom, refrigerator, and kitchen table. The only downside is that the bed is narrower than I am used to, and as I'm on the top bunk, this had already proved to be somewhat precarious. My three roommates, Lidiya, Oksana, and Tetyana are all from Ukraine and since my Ukrainian is a bit rusty we communicate as best we can in English. Lidiya is an RA and loves literature. She has read all the Harry Potter books in Russian, Ukrainian, and English and says that they are very different, having been changed to reflect different cultural values. Tetyana reminds me a lot of my cousin Lindsay which is very good thing as Lindsay can turn even the most mundane occurrence into a laughable anecdote. All three of them seem very nice and I look forward to getting to know them more.

Today was more orientation. We perfected our schedules, learned some Lithuanian words, and listened to several speeches. They told us not to stress out, but not to forget that we're representing our schools...our country...and Christendom itself. Okay then.

We went on a walking tour of Klaipeda and saw many interesting restaurants, shops, and markets. The weather was very volatile, sunny one moment and pouring sheets of horizontal rain the next. "Is this typical?" I asked one of the interns. "Oh yes, they even call Lithuania 'the Land of Rain." Funny, that wasn't in the brochure. Looks like I"ll just have to buy some cute rain boots. Oh darn...