I don't wanna be tough. Man šalta.

(Vija writing...)

This morning, we actually had to wake up when the 7 o'clock church bells rang - we had to get ready for our field trip! :) Like we mentioned before, our host dad Bronius took us with his 8th graders to Plateliu Lake and an abandoned soviet military base nearby.

We ate our meager breakfast of bread with butter (we're not very confident cooks...even though Emilija supposedly watches the food network, and promises some sauteed veggies for dinner sometime...) and then quickly left for the school with Ruta, our host sister. The four of us, not having looked at today's forecast and only depending on how the weather looked at the moment, wore capris and t-shirts. Turned out that we were the ONLY people not prepared for the cold, rainy, and windy weather. I swear it was sunny and warm this morning!!

As we crossed the street to the mini bus, we saw about 15 pairs of eyes staring at us...examining us foreigners. I guess we're still not used to being "new." :) We first drove to the Zemaitija National Park where we were lead through some museums, and then we saw the old military base, which apparently, when it was still armed (with four atomic bombs), could blow up almost any major city in Europe. (Oh, and our guides ALL spoke in the local dialect, which, again, we have a lot of trouble understanding.)

The entire time, we were freezing. We had come completely unprepared - without long pants, umbrellas, or shoes that repel water (Emilija even decided not to wear socks because she thought they'd look tacky....I guess socks with capris just don't go. The best part is that she had socks AND and umbrella in her purse the whole time.) Every time we thought we were done being outside in the bitter weather, it turned out that we were going on another "mini" hike to see another "amazing" lake. We'll admit that the views were amazing, but seriously, we had perpetual goosebumps, our teeth were chattering the whole time, and I'm amazed none of us lost a toe to frostbite. The bus driver (who was actually really nice) mentioned that he had gone the day before, and the weather had been gorgeous. Thanks a lot. At one point, some of the 8th grade girls kept pushing their teacher to take them on MORE hikes to see MORE things...and basically just torture us more. At that point, Andryte mentioned that she thought that they were trying to look tough, to which Emilija responded (through chattering, but gritted teeth), "I don't wanna be tough. Man šalta. (I'm cold.)" What she said basically sums up the entire field trip. Oh, and before actually ending up at home, we made three more stops (when we had been told we were going straight back).

The school is right next to the children's center, so we quickly ran inside after we had been dropped off, to let the kids know that we were going home to eat lunch and change into some warm, dry clothes. We were told that Ruta's aunt was preparing lunch for us at home, but it turned out that the soup was only going to be ready in the next couple of hours...sooo...we drank some tea, and took some bread to go.

As soon as we walked into the kids' main room upstairs, all of their faces lit up and they ran to greet us. Did we mention that we're absolutely in love with them? Lucky for us, we ended up eating a small, warm lunch with the kids. Straight after eating, someone suggested we play a game of soccer, er, I mean futball, at the school's field. With half of us never really having played futball before (me and Andryte included), the game was really interesting, to say the least. Although, to their credit, a couple of the smaller girls, Aušra and Marija, really got into the game and played the entire time. :) The game lasted over an hour (no breaks)...and the kids still wanted to keep playing! I couldn't believe it, because we really had played an intense game.

I then suggested that we play STOK (SPUD, but in Lithuanian). The kids loved it, and we played that game for a good hour, too, until the sky really looked like it was going to rain. When we came back to the center, the kids were still really riled up, so we promised them a new game if they promised us to relax for 5 minutes. (I guess it's pretty obvious who really needed a break at that point...those kids never run out of energy.) After they all sat down and calmly listened as Aurimas played around on his guitar, we brought out a homemade game that some Lithuanian 7th and 8th grade girls had made especially for them in Chicago. Because there are no such things as "jelly beans" in Europe, the girls had decided to make the game one in which the point was to guess the flavors of the candies. The kids had a BLAST. I've never seen kids have so much fun with a board game!

After everyone decided that they didn't want to finish the game today so that they'd have enough jelly beans to play another round another day, Twister was brought out (again). By this time, the kids somehow had gotten really rowdy, and the room we were in really echoed...and I was teaching Aurimas how to play piano. It was pure chaos. Jonas hit his brother Remigijus, who hit him back, and then decided to tease poor little Aušra. The Twister spinner fell apart and needed to be fixed (again). Vygantas was running around with one of our cameras and the flash was blinding everyone. It was getting pretty close to time to go home, but all of the kids were still in "play mode."

I swear, these kids have the most energy in the world. After spending the whole afternoon with us, they still wanted us to come play a game of basketball with them - so we promised them an extra half-hour with us...which easily turned into an hour and a half, but we didn't mind. Like I said, we're in love with these kids.

The local kids walked us home, as usual, and we reluctantly said goodbye - it was kind of a sad goodbye, because we're only going to see them on Monday! (Two whole days are going to feel like an eternity! Hopefully, we'll see some of the kids at church this Sunday.) Speaking of church, we really don't have any other plans this weekend besides going to mass. We're kind of in the middle of nowhere... :) (We don't mind, though.)

Oh, and some people were wondering how we get internet access in such a rural area. Actually, Zemaiciu Kalvarija is pretty developed - especially the school. But to tell you the truth, I found some wireless internet that didn't require a password here at home (sweet!!) ...but it looks like something happened to it around 12 am, so I wrote this blog on a word document, and I'm using our host family's computer to post this right now. (It doesn't look like that free internet is going to come back...)