100 Days in Šiauliai – Thanks to all people!

Yes it is true. I am already here for 100 Days. This means 8640000 Seconds! Impressive. :P

For me it is really nice to look back to the start - when everything was so new, interesting but of course also difficult.

The first months – all seems to be so unreal.

 
There were days when everything was fine and I said I already know a lot about the city but the next day I could have the feeling that I am completely lost and alone in this city. As we say very often when we present EVS or ourselves, the first time you should just realize that now nothing is or works as you are used to have it. There are so many cultural differences, not only between Austria in Lithuania, also of course in our Spanish-French-Austrian flat, which I had to learn to accept. (Now we call our flat the "best flat ever" :P)

But after this first time when I tried to survive day after day I suddenly realize that time went by very fast and maybe it would be better to try not just to survive and change something so that you really enjoy it. :)
This sounds very easy but of course it wasn’t with all this feelings of homesickness, anger, confusion (about language, websites, public transport,…) and so on. 

Moreover we aren’t tourist but also not locals, we are strangers but not strange and I am a girl from Austria but first of all just a girl, searching for her place in a new society. Maybe you understand what I want to say. It took some time for us to feel a bit like at home but at the moment I feel really good and look forward to a nice Christmas. A lot of people ask me “Do you go home for Christmas?” 

No I will stay here. When I say that we want to experience a real Lithuanian Christmas, many people can not understand. They think Austria must be beautiful at this time of the year. Actually that is true for me but I think Lithuania will be special too. Someone even asked me very dumbfounded whether I don’t miss my family. 

Now I really have to laugh about this because of course I miss them a lot. 

Not only them, there are so many things which I really miss; 

exactly one year ago in my home

• old friends, whose understand you without talking, 
• my unique boyfriend (I think you can imagine), 
• my one year old nephew (he grows much too fast),
• my cat, which is absolutely not normal but soooo cute, 
• the mountains!!,
• the food of my mother (I can cook but never as well as she can),
• my bicycle, my bed, our kitchen, and even our bus drivers - We experienced the bus drivers and cashier often really unfriendly. 

However here I have a different kind of live and I am so happy to can try so many interesting things, from food up to dances.
I think in this 3 months I didn’t change my personality - ohhh I really hope I didn’t, nothing can change me that fast - but I think I already learned a lot about respect, tolerance, different ways to live, trying new things, and the most important how to enjoy the little things. :)

What have I done?  What have I already seen?
ohh.. there is so much to tell you so you will find everything in the next post. :)
here you can find it :)

Thanks to all the people who supported us in this time!!

 
There are so many nice people I would like to say thank you! First of all to our friends in the “Amerikos skaitykla”, who welcomed us with open arms and made us feel like in a family. Especially thanks to Roma and Jolanta. It is priceless to know that they always have time for us and we can ask them even the most stupid questions.
Because of this to wonderful women I know a lot of helpful people, interesting places, lovely books and the best - I was never bored in Šiauliai.


Jolanta even took us to her school “Rasa progymnasium“, where we had some nice lessons and worked at the project of Anne-Sophie about Stereotypes. The whole school welcomed us as “foreigner friends of the school” and the headmaster Audronė Ispiryan invited us to a happy and lovely dance evening to celebrate the schools birthday.  Thanks!



Moreover a huge thanks to a lot of people from our school.
Danguolė Kukla

Her German lessons are always enjoyable and sometimes I even learn something new about my own language. That can be a bit embarrassing but maybe normal because you never think about your own mother tongue so much. I think also for the students it was funny to see that they already now a lot about German and I really like to work together with this nice group. Especially their “Geothe- day” with poems impressed me a lot. “Faust”, “Gefunden”, “An die Entfernte” and some other poems they present so lovely that it made me a fresh crawl.
Danguolė didn’t help me just in school; she even invited me to a delicious dinner to her homely house. You can not imagine that feeling when you see a normal kitchen and such a lovely living room again. This weekend we decorated their Christmas-tree and listen to German Christmas music - balm for the soul :)

Danguolė and Katarina made me smile several times!
Vielen Herzlichen Dank, ihr seid super!

Rasa, Sonata, Kipras, Ligita and a lot of other students – Thanks to you! They helped us especially in the first time; to find everything and showed us how things work here. Even the little advices like where is the best bus stop, the libraries, museums, and such things helped us a lot. I remember the second day in Lithuania, when Kipras le Kelpša showed us the city and even though it is a small city it was really helpful.  

Ačiū to Sonata and Rasa - without you we would not even be here. They chose us and gave us this opportunity to learn so many things. Every day they spent together with us in the radio and so it is very nice that Sonata even spend the last Saturday evening together with us. We went out for bowling and everybody knows bowling is always funny but for me this was really special. :) To see this different ways of playing - unique. :P

Besides I have to say that once we had a lake in our bathroom, which sounds funny but can become a real problem, and Sonata immediately send the caretaker to our flat. He didn't understand us and we didn't understand him and why he want to enter in our flat (in the morning!!) but we were sooo happy when everything was fixed! Thanks man! 
 
Moreover there are really wonderful students like for example Akvile Kriščiūnaitė. Once she went with me to the hairdresser and last time she even asked me whether I want to celebrate Christmas with her family!! I was speechless. Thanks! :)

Thousands of thanks goes to my flatmates: Liudvikas and Anne- Sophie! I think I don’t have to write a lot about our different characters, the crazy start, the up and downs, but also the hundred times you made my laugh till we cried. Without both of you I would have quitted and would be back in Austria without reaching my goal and enjoying this year.

EVS Volunteers from other cities! I will just say “you are fucking awesome”!!

Speziell danke Alex, mein “kleiner” Bruder, vo Weißwurst – Bier – Frühschoppen bis zum ersten Wochenende in Vilnius, mit dir hobes einfach imma lustig. Danke, dassd min Dialekt vastohsch.:P

And last but not least thanks to all of you, who say “hello”, “bonjour”, “labas”,… or just smile when you meet us in the streets and recognize us – you make us feel a bit local.  

AČIŪ Šiauliai!



Ahhh I nearly forgot:
Thanks Google translator - It makes my life here so much easier, even when Lithuanian is too difficult to translate for it but without I would be lost

Thanks Mark Zuckerberg for facebook – I would never remember all the people I meet

Thanks to all other stuff like Skype, Couchsurfing,… and coffee-inn and co. for Wifi!