Long weekend- Halloween!

This week we have a long weekend, so we are off from school both today and tomorrow. Since 1st of November is a holiday, today became a free day as well. =)

The weather has been warmer now, just in time when they put on the heaters in the house. I have been sick, so I haven't done a lot this week. We were supposed to have lessons until 18.30 on Monday and Tuesday, but the Lithuanian teacher had gone home on Monday, so she needed to come back, and then she let us go earlier. On Tuesday we went to a seminary about how dogs react in stressful situations. The one who held the seminary was from UK, and it was wonderful to hear real English again, with the right grammar and without hearing "how to say this in English.." My English grammar is getting a lot worse, since I hear a lot of (read only) mistakes in the grammar from the people living here. After the dog seminary we went to the medicine academy to listen to a seminary about culture shock. It was nice, and the woman who held it is quite young and really wanted to do it good. Afterwords we got hot chocolate. It WAS hot chocolate, real chocolate that was melted and you ate it with a spoon. It was VERY good. =)

We had Lithuanian test on Wednesday, so I was supposed to study but I was so tired from being sick that I fell asleep instead. I got a 10 on the test anyway, so it was good. I don't know how the teachers grade the test, because I had a couple of mistakes and still got a 10, but I will not complain about that.

We also had a meeting with our coordinator about one of the subjects that doesn't work really good, and we will hopefully have a solution for that this or next week.

More than that I don't have so much more to say. Linneas sister and dad are here visiting, and I have Saras room because she went home over the weekend. We also have 3 skulls at home for practicing for the test next week. We have test in Botany, Latin and Anatomy this week, and then probably cell biology, chemistry and Lithuanian next week. No time to be bored...

At least it's Halloween today, and KIMSU (the student union) is organizing a Halloween party that I will go to. I went and bought a costume today, so if the dress up looks nice, I may upload a picture later.

I will try to get some studying done now! Try to write comments, so I can see if it works for people without a google account!

First month here

Now it's exactly 4 weeks since i came here, and I can really feel it! The first days I thought it was scary to be here alone, to walk around in the neighborhood and things seemed to be so different from home. Now I know what a lot of the things in the store actually are, I understand some words I hear people use, I know the way to the park and the city and Kaunas has turned to be my new hometown.

The first week was slow, the second fast, and this week as flown away. We got a new schedule for next week, and I will have Lithuanian four days a week, instead of two really long lessons. That is good, but the bad side is that the lessons end at 18.30 on two days, so that will be hard. But hopefully, I will learn the language quicker. This week it was also better with the Lithuanian teacher, she nearly came in time, and didn't stress AS MUCH to get home again. She also told us a week before that we will have a test again. It's crazy, we have two lessons (and two chapters!), then one lesson (maybe) of repetition and then we have a test. If it continues in this speed, we will be done with our textbook before Christmas.

If we don't understand, we can always use the other Linnea's favorite sentence; Atsiprašau, aš nesuprantu. It means; Excuse me, I don't understand. Very, very useful sometimes. Unfortunately, she has stopped listening to that, she only says NEXT! and we are supposed to continue. But she actually smiled yesterday, so we are making progress.

Botany is good, the teacher has put in some Swedish words for strange plants, if we don't know all the names of the plats in English. IT is ok, and chemistry and Latin is good. Cell biology and Zoology could be worse. Anatomy is fun, we are done with the spine now, and had our first colloquium this Monday. I got an ox atlas, a pigs thoracic, a horses lumbar and the pigs sacrum, and I got most things right, only some small things that wasn't correct. So that turned out good. This week, and the next one, we are working with the skull. I didn't know it had so many parts, I thought it would be easy.. Stupid of me. But at least we got to take two skulls home, one from a pig, and one from a horse. I will try to upload pictures of them.

Otherwise than that, it takes a lot of energy to live with 3 other people, and to only be 5 people in a class. The four of us that live together are together for 24/7, and it's a little bit to interesting. I will try to look for an apartment after Christmas, when my schedule settles down a little.

Today we had homemade falafel for dinner, and then we will have brownies soon. I have started running again, so it's ok. =) The weekend will be spent studying, mostly anatomy and lithuanian.

PLEASE! Write a comment to me, so I know what you are up to as well!

Viso gero,

Linnéa

Inauguration w.m

So, the second week in school is over, and I'm still alive. Our contact person from Study international in Sweden was here on a visit, and hopefully she fixed so that we can switch Lithuanian teacher. Some of the subjects are really good, like Anatomy. We are done with the spin now, and we will have the test on it before we study the cranium next 2 weeks. I think it must be easier to study Anatomy on humans, because they are only one kind... We don't have all animals yet, only pig, horse, ruminants and carnivores, but that is enough.

We need to know witch kind of bone it is and to witch animal it belongs, and why (and size doesn't count as an answer to why...) Then we need to know all the parts of it, and how many of that bone every animal have. But it feels good that the teachers know what we need to do, and when, to have time for everything.

We had out first test this week, in Lithuanian. Except for using the wrong word for the conjugation, I only got two spelling mistakes, so I got a 10. =) That feels good.

Yesterday there was an inauguration ceremony for the first year students, and after that a party that KIMSU was in charge of. KIMSU is a student union, very similar to those in Sweden. It was fun. =)

Today it has been very nice weather, so after sleeping in very long, I went to Maxima and did some shopping, and then cleaned the apartment. =) After that I went for a walk in the park, by the water. I love the park, it's so nice, and the river is remarkably clean. I will attach a photo one day of our park, the picture that is already up here was from another park.

Soon we will have a 3 course dinner, chevré chaud for starter, salmon and potatoes for main course, and then meringue with chocolate and strawberries for desert. =) Hopefully it will turn out very nice!

Pictures

Here comes the pictures from yesterdays text.

The park close to Kaunas Castle

The strange statue

Our dog, any good names for it?

The things we spend half our lives with...

Market and Erasmus

So, the weekend is over!

On Saturday, is was very nice weather, so after cleaning the apartment, Linnea, Arianna and I took a walk to the city, and investigated the Kaunas castle and the park there on the way. It was nice, and it's so many people fishing in the rivers here! We found a tree sculpture that nearly looks like a spine, so we needed to take a picture of that as well.

And then we walked passed the town hall, and saw two wedding couples! It was nice. We also walked through the Old town, and went to look at the store where they sell traditional handcraft. When we came to the main street, we discovered there was a market there! It was full of market stalls with a lot of nice things!

After walking passed all the stalls, we bought a vacuum cleaner! So now we don't need to swipe the floor all the time. =) Very nice.

We got Russian tortillini for dinner, it was good, but not something I will eat all the time. After dinner, the others prepared for going out, and I didn't. They didn't go out until 11, and then I went to bed. I read my book and fixed my old pyjamas pants I got from Sharon, so now I don't need to freeze at night. =)

Sunday we went to the market again, and then to Maxima to shop. This week I will make risotto with mushrooms and then pasta with bell pepper and broccoli sauce.

At Sunday evening, after some studying, we decided to make cinnamon buns. When we had done dalf, the Spanish Erasmus students came and wondered what we did. They stayed for a while, and got to try out the first buns. They looked very skeptical, but lied nicely and said they were good. The buns we took out after they had left were a lot better, I don't understand this..?

Today we had Anatomy again, and IT. IT is good, but not very exiting. Anatomy is still fun. We are finished with the lumbar vertebrae and next Monday we will have a test on the whole spine. We may miss the Anatomy on Friday, because we have inauguration at that time, but we don't really know yet. Only to wait and see. We also went to the library today, and got books for cell biology!

I will try to upload some photos as well!

The first week

Now, the first weeks is over!

Wow! When I went to the states for my au pair year, they told us at introduction that life could, and would be a roller coaster, and it wasn't that bad, but here! It feels like it was a long, long time ago I was in Sweden, and I came here only two weeks ago. The days are long, and the teachers don't speak perfect (read: hardly any...) English... But somehow it will work out somehow. The second lessons of all subjects were better than the first ones, so maybe at the end, it will be good. We have some really good teachers, and some that don't speak English but that try so it works most of the times. It's really fun to study anatomy, even that I think I may don't like it the whole time. But at least the teachers connect all the things we learn to why and when we will need it, so that feels good.

But if anyone is interested, the subjects I read right now is Lithuanian, Latin, Analytical chemistry, cell biology, anatomy, IT, applied biology and laboratory animals.

They have a thing here with how to grade the students. They have both tests in the end and from one to four in the middle, so that is different from at home, in a good way!

I don't know what plans we have for the weekend, I only want to sleep, it's hard to try to understand what the teachers mean.

If you like, please write comments to me so I know what you are up to at home!

Now we have been looking at bones the whole afternoon and then we had soup for dinner, very good. =)

Here are some pictures!

Some of my new books...

A cute house in Vilnius

Me in short hair...

The view over Kaunas from "our" bridge

The Vilnius Cathedral

The view over Vilnius

Weekend and the first lessons

So, now the school has started for real!

On Friday we had our own introduction, and they answered all our stupid questions. One of them was how the post system works here, because it took us 4 days of searching before we found a mailbox... It's right outside the main school building...

We also got a mentor, a girl named Dovile. She is very nice, and explained a lot of stuff for us.

We got a guided tour of the school and then we went to eat in a school restaurant. Pancakes with bacon sauce! Yummy! =)

Then we went for a walk and discovered a nice park by the river.

We went to Vilnius, the capital, on Saturday. We took the bus there, and then we walked through the Old town. We saw a lot of churches, a food marked and went up to a castle on a hill where we had a view over the whole town.

Then we to a minibus home.

In the evening we went out looking for a nightclub, and we found one at last. It was nice!

We woke up late un Sunday, and then we cleaned the apartment because the last girl was coming. Then we went shopping for the week and it took a long time! Things here are not the same as in Sweden, and not the same as in the states. I was looking for 30 min for bread crumbs, and then I gave up. Not a lot of people here speak good english, and I don't speak Lithuanian yet. But the new girl speaks Russian, and a lot of the old people here do as well, so that is REALLY good. It's wonderful to be able to communicate with the people living here.

We also went for a run in the evening, so now I'm of course soar...

We started school today, the first lesson of Anatomy and Information technology. We have one more lesson today, with Anatomy, and we got all our books, a big, heavy pile.

I will try to upload some pictures tonight!