A Diary of Lithuania - Part 2

August 6, 2007

Al left for work after eating some Cheerios, OJ, and coffee.  I would have fixed breakfast, but I woke up with a terrible headache.  The bed is extra firm and pillow not quite right.  But I did manage to get a good night's rest after Al let me go to bed early. 

Well, I had a lot of trouble finding lined paper at the store.  So the letter will finish out on what most work is done on...I saw a man on the plane writing on grid paper.  I thought it was very interesting.  When we went to the store, all I could find was tablets like this [grid paper]. Of course you can't write in cursive using this but it works.  I asked about lined paper and Dan's wife, who is Lithuanian, said they do have lined paper.  I guess it's not very popular. 

Well, the kids are up, fed, and rearing to go.  They ate cereal and fruit.  Cereal selections are limited, but you can find some of the same Kellogg's cereal with different names.  My intentions are to cook breakfast that sit in the tummy longer and avoid late morning snacks. 

I find lunch meats and breakfast meats very interesting here.  You find meat cases full of chunks of pork fat.  I wonder if that is how they grease pans and season dishes?  Anyway, bacon is very fatty here so I buy ham chunks and slice and fry it up.  Very delicious! Al loved the sausages I bought the first day.  I thought they were tasty too.  I do think they prepare them with vinegar. The eggs I buy are brown but the yolks very pale in comparison to what you have.  However, the flavor is really good. 

I think the milk here is very interesting.  They do not sell non-fat milk.  So needless to say, I haven't drank very much.  Leandra prefers skim as much as I.  I also find the creamy flavor is so much more different. It's more of an aftertaste, yet a different flavor as your milk.  I nearly gagged on it. 

Our shopping experiences are becoming a bit easier, but I have to learn to ask for meats, cheese, and the other types of food you find at the counters.  Yesterday, I saw the ground beef but didn't really know how to ask for the amount I wanted.  I have already learned many words for food, but saying it properly is another can of worms.  Al said I should buy a kilogram of it and divide it at home.  I will say the meat looks really good here.  I think pork and chicken are most popular.  At the meat counter, they had several piles of ground pork but only one pile of ground beef. 

Oh, the bread here smells and looks so delicious.  I could live in the bread department.  Yum!  Oh, desserts here are not overly sweet.  But, they do sell sweets in the bakery.  Yesterday I picked up three rolls for sandwiches.  Al sliced one open and found they have jelly in them.  We had to laugh.  They worked well for PBJ sandwiches.

We have rented a car from the embassy for about $95 a month.  Al has used the car and rode his bike to and from work.  Either way you go, it's dangerous.  The drivers here are crazy!  But, "when in Rome, do as the Romans do". We are working on traffic rules and find they are not too difficult.

The housing here in most places I've seen seems run down and old.  I do see some areas in which I see big, modern style, apartments, or houses. There are a lot of tall apartment complexes that make me think of the projects in Eastern US.  I thank God for the blessings he gives us daily.  I also pray I never take His gifts for granted.  I also wonder if by chance the people here are not so concerned about homes as they are making their house a home. 

I keep thinking that my letters to you would be great to keep as a diary of our trips abroad.  Hey, we could even publish them! NOT! But they would be fun to read years from now.

I bought a few puzzles yesterday that we could work together on, but I think I will need a cloth to put on the table.  Both puzzles are horse scenes and very pretty.

It feels strange to be using someone else's furniture. I am constantly reminding the kids to be careful. I told Al that it doesn't make much sense to trade it for "cheaper" furniture.  The kids need to learn to be gentle and careful.  All the furniture except the breakfast table is cherry wood.  It is very pretty.  The dining table is capable of seating 10 people with all three leaves in it.  The chairs are upholstered in ecru.  Yikes!But we have most definitely been working on manners.  I finally put a towel on Rebekah's chair.  I do think Andrew might need one too because he puts his hands down a lot. 

Each of the bedrooms has a tall dresser, chest dresser, mirror, nightstand, bed, and wardrobe. The master bedroom has 2 wardrobes, and 2 nightstands.  The bedrooms also have a nice upholstered chair.  Leandra's room did have two beds, but one was pulled into the "dress" room for Andrew [It's called the dress room on the floor plan.] The guest room/office had a desk, hide-away couch, and two book shelves.  The foyer has a phone stand with mirror. We moved that to the office between shelves and pulled the desk out.  The desk is in the foyer because there wasn't much room for the bed to fold out with the desk in there. 

Oh, the dining room also has a beautiful hutch and side board.  I plan to put my china in it.  I hope to some day buy a new set of china to feed more than six.  My sights are set on Polish [pottery], but it's extremely heavy and costly.  So I don't plan to be too picky. Right now there is also an armchair in the corner of the dining room, but I plan to pull it into the guest room.

There isn't anything in the basement except the freezer, fridge, washer, dryer, metal shelving, and a patio table/chairs which we took outside yesterday.  The basement is huge and I literally get lost in it. The main basement room is probably 30-40 by 12 feet.  There is a room next to it which is about 15x15 and has a lot of shelving.  Across that room is a room about 10x10 ft that leads to another room about 6x8.  Oh, at the end of the main room is a small room about 4x10. [Keep in mind my measure are not accurate.] All these rooms are left as you come down the stairs.  If you go right there is a very small room about 2x4ft.  Right next to that room is the laundry room which is about 12x20ft.  Every room in the basement has at least one drain in the floor and all rooms except the shelved room, tiny rooms, and the small one at the end of the main room, have windows.  It is a very nice basement.  There is so much play room.  The rooms also have heaters except a few. 

This really is a beautiful house.  The kitchen is small, but I think it may be common here in Europe.  The oven is quite small as is the dishwasher, but they work.  Large plates don't fit in the dishwasher, so I hand wash a lot.  I figure hand wash what doesn't fit.  Run it once a day.  I have already mastered the one sink hand washing dishes.  At first I stacked them all on the counter and put clean dishes back into the sink.  Now I put the rinsed dishes in the sink, wash, then put them on the drainer.  After they are all washed, I rinse and put on the rack. 

The kids drink hot tea every morning.  They think it's fun.  Drinking tea and coffee is quite the thing here.  The aisle in the store is huge.  I picked up a box of Lipton Mountain Berries last time.  I also drink my usual iced tea.  Al is in a funk because Pepsi can't be found here.  He did try a bottle of Just Cola yesterday and said it was good.  I told him I don't want soda in the house.  I just finished off the bottle of Coca-Cola that our sponsor bought a week ago.  Can you believe there was still carbonation? What gives?  Soft drinks in the U.S. don't last two days!!

There are several foods I miss and can't find here.  Popcorn for instance, isn't big.  I can find a very small amount of microwave but I prefer the kernels.  I also miss whole wheat bread.  You can't, as far as I can tell, buy it here.  At the bakery they sell plenty of bread, some nutty grain, most white or black.  I only see flour (all purpose) in the flour section.  We are going to check into ordering some items from the commissary in Helsinki.  Anything we buy would come next Wednesday.  Dan's pantry was stocked full of U.S. foods like Log Cabin syrup, refried beans, Skippy, cereal, and so on.  He offered me a jar of Skippy, but I declined.  

I don't know if I mentioned this before, but you have to buy your grocery bags.  Basically, you have the bags in front of the register and get what you think you need.  They run about 0,30 centu, which is equivalent to about 12 cents.  but you can bring in any bags you want.  I wasn't sure if you could use a Rimi bag at the Maxima, but you can.  I wonder what they would think if I pulled out a Walmart bag?  Kidding!!

Well, I wait anxiously fo our air freight to arrive.  I'm not quite sure when it will arrive, but at least we swill have a few more necessities.  I'm off to fix lunch.  I may, or may not, add more to this book later. 

~~~

In thinking back, I remember we called this house the pretty house, even before we moved there, but had seen photos.  We had the house mapped out in our heads way before we moved there.  We were all so excited to move into this home.