A little Spain, a little Jana....yes please!

Leaving Italy was very hard: I didn't realize until I left how much I had fallen in love with the country, and i don't think I could have left it for anything or anyone less than Spain and my favorite girl, Jana. It was the first time in 4 months and 10 flights that some one actually met me at the airport. We embraced and then spent the next week going to classes, taking a lot of walks, trying not to die from the heat (it was about 100 degrees every day) and riding the metro into Madrid.

I had to fly out Saturday evening from Madrid, so Jana and I spent the day touring around Madrid. We saw Picasso and took a boat on the small lake in one of the major parks. It is one of my favorite memories, but unfortunately, all of the pictures were on Jana's camera, which was stolen a week ago. So the memories are we have to hold onto.

It was one of my favorite memories from Europe hanging out with Jana, because for the first time since flying abroad, I was with a friend that I was comfortable being around and we were able to relax and go crazy at the same time. We had such a fun time together...and parting was bittersweet. But I am so glad that I was able to experience her YWAM dts and meet all of the people that she has spent the past 3 months with.

The most beautiful side of Italy

Italia 058
Originally uploaded by The Enforcer.

I am so tired right now, because I ate WAY too much food. For dinner tonight, I went with my friends, the Picconis (which means pigeon in Italian, haha--yes i make fun of them for that) to Fiorellas (the mother, my moms friend) parents house. At dinner were Fiorellas mom, dad, both grandmas, one grandpa, brother and his wife, and us. Excluding us, all of them live in the same house. The idea of community is very important to them. The grandparents have their own little farm and Fiorellas mom and dad take care of them. It is such a cool concept. Anyway, dinner was everything any American could hope for of Italian food and more. The pasta I had was cooked in chicken broth from a chicken that the family raised and killed, eggs from the chicken, homemade pasta, and then homemade flatbread--which was incredible! Fiorellas mom kept pushing food at me and I ate too much of course, but that is the same pattern for the whole week. Fiorella told me that Italian women believe that "a guest has not been treated well if he/she doesnt leave their house having gained weight"!!! Haha, well I am sure I have gained, because the food is so good, there is always a lot of it, and the women "force" you to eat a lot!

This week has been an amazing experience, from the huge grandeur and amazing history of Roma to the more relaxed lifestyle of the country here in Assisi. Today, Emanuele and Fiorella didnt have work (they are both teachers) so they let their daughters, Valeria who is 9, and Martina, 11, skip school (kind of ironic since they are teachers, pretty funny) and we went to Florence (or Firenze). Yeah, its true I actually went to the county of Tuscany--more than I could have hoped for--and spent a day in Florence. The most impressive things I saw there were the tombs of Michaelangelo, Galileo, and Machiavelli, and the house of Dante. And the beauty of Florence is almost too much.

Tomorrow is my last full day here. The girls have school--oh yeah, in Italy children go to school on Saturday. I told the girls I think that it is a crime to have school on Saturday and they agreed. Anyway, they will leave after school for a small trip with girl scouts, so I will spend the day with Fiorella and Emmanuele and then Sunday afternoon I will take the train to the airport and fly to Madrid, Spain to spend a week with Jana. Too much excitement for me to handle. I must leave.

Roma, Roma, Roma!

Wow,what a long day of travelingç I cannot really believe i even made it. After all the connections and methods and forms of travel.

bus--train--bus--airplane--airplane--bus--train--metro--hostel

Walking around our hostel and getting lost did suck, and developing blisters on the feet--I guess that was good to get over. But dinner was so nice. For 8 euros each, Paj Ia and I had past and 2 glasses of white wine (vino bianco)ç we sat outside (and it was warm!) and an old Italian chef brought us each our meal. Can you get more Italian?? No, not for your first attempt in Roma!

I felt kinda tired after dinner, but I knew that Paj Ia and I should go out. So we took the metro to see the colloseum at night--BEA-UT-I-FUL! I couldn't believe it though, that we were actually standing outside the Colloseum. P. and I went crazy. we skipped around taking pictures and being complete tourists, saw some ancient sites, and just relaxed. Then we found the Trevi fountain and ate excellent gelato there. We were given some roses and took more pictures. We got hit on by 2 different men--Paj Ia said she was from Thailand and I told a man he could buy me pizza if fate brought us together again! Yeah, Italian men are too romantic ;)

Oh and a lady spit on Paj Ia for taking a picture--she was a bitter Italian woman, very unusual. After a couple of buses we made it back, exhausted but we had an amazing night.

Wow,what a long day of travelingç I cannot really believe i even made it. After all the connections and methods and forms of travel.

bus--train--bus--airplane--airplane--bus--train--metro--hostel

Walking around our hostel and getting lost did suck, and developing blisters on the feet--I guess that was good to get over. But was so nice. For 8 euros each, Paj Ia and I had past and 2 glasses of white wine (vino bianco)ç we sat outside (and it was warm!) and an old Italin chef brought us each our meal. Can you get more Italian?? No, no for your first attempt in Roma!

I felt kinda tired after dinner, but I knew that Paj Ia and I shoud go out. so we took the metro to see the colloseum at night--BEA-UT-I-FUL! I could believe it though, that we were actually stanidng outside the Colloseum. P. and I went crazy. we skipped around taing pictures and being complete tourists, saw some ancient sites, and just relaxed. Then we found the Vince fountain and ate good gelato there. We were given some roses and took more pictures. We got hit on by 2 differen men--Paj Ia said she was from Thailand and I told a man he couldy buy me pizza if fate brought us together again!

Oh and a lady spiut on Paj If for taking a picture--she was a bitter Italian woman, very unusual. After a couple of buses we made it back, exhausted but we had an amazing night

The month of May

Here is my schedule (pronounced with a British accent please: shedule) for the people that keep asking me and for anyone else that is curious.

May 5-11: Schladming, Austria with Pamela
May 11-14: Rome--meeting up with study abroad girls (Paj Ia and Pam)
May 14-22: Assisi, Italy--staying with some Italian friends of my family
May 22-28: Madrid, Spain--staying with Jana
May 28-29: London--staying with some Lithuanian friends from LCC
May 30: fly home finally!

A little crazy, I will admit. But quite a good time.

Hallstadt, a city on the lake

the city out of the mist
Originally uploaded by The Enforcer.

Saturday morning, Pamela and I left with the Tauernhof (name of her bible school here) bus to explore a city close by called Hallstadt. All I knew was that it was a very old city and suppposed to be pretty--well everything is here in the Alps. But no one told me it was on a lake in the mountains. I was in awe. Too incredible to believe.
Pamela, Raheal (one of her close friends--she's Swedish) and I went with the group to the saltmines, supposedly the oldest in the world, over 250 million years old. Then the three of us walked around the little city, the sun was shining, the mountians were in view and the whole city was out because apparently a half-marathon race had just ended. What an experience! I really enjoy Austria.

Yes, the hills really are alive

Ms. Schnake and I....LOVING the view.
Originally uploaded by The Enforcer.

With the sound of music. Honestly, I don't know how you couldn't sing when you are in the Austrian Alps--I didn't think it could be as beautiful as I had imagined, I was wrong. It is even more so...and it's been cloudy so I haven't even been able to see the whole mountain range.
But I am finally with my Pamela in the little town (well almost a village) of Schladming, Austria for the week. I arrived Thursday morning and will fly out Wednesday morning. It has been so relaxing here...being able to sleep again and take it easy. We're supposed to go for a hike today, but Pam is sick and the weather hasn't been too hot. Actually, it's sunny now, so I think I'll at least go for a long walk and find a pretty view of the area.
I cannot believe the difference in landscape here compared to Lithuania--it is a nice change. And being with an old, dear friend is also a nice change.

Straight out of London

Oh man! what a crazy but fun trip over. So many things could have gone wrong (as always with me) and yet none did. In fact, even better everything went right and better than I could have wanted. First back to Riga and leaving Eastern Europe.
[Ridiculous Riga]
I was a little nervous all day about taking my luggage on the ryanair flight. I was only allowed 15 kilos for check luggage--everything over cost $6.50 per kilo and the limit was 32 kilos total. Well my bags together equaled 31.4 kilos--ahh! The lady at the check-in desk gasped when she saw what I had. She was so kind and let me take one bag as an extra carry-on (which just doesn't happen on ryanair because it is a low-cost airline) Renald and I were amazed. So I only had to pay for 8 extra kilos, $65.00. What a deal!
Well anyway, after doing all the check-in, which of course took awhile due to me, Renalda and I went to the store, bought crossaints to share and sat down to eat and spend our last 10 minutes toegether. Right as we finished and I stood up, over the intercomm it announced that "Jennifer on ryanair" needed to go to the Info. desk. Excellent! Renalda and I just laughed. Security was waiting for me--there was something "Questionable" in my bag that they needed to check—haha, oh man.
So I had to go through customs and leave Nalda—after 5 hugs and 3 kisses and the security man laughing/nagging me, I ran off.
Apparently the “questionable thing” was my mom’s old music box which was now full of lavender. The security dude made me open my bag and search through it until we found the box. I think he felt a little foolish when he saw what it was—I just laughed and left. At this point, I had to walk straight to the boarding gate, which I made just in time.
I found Julija (Agata’s Lithuanian friend who lives in London now) and was able to sit with her and her roommate, Viktorija on board.
As if everything hadn’t already worked out, Juilija and Viktorija made my trip more amazing. Julija had already agreed to store my huge bag in her apartment (in the center of London) while I am traveling around Europe for the moth, which is so kind of her—no one else around LCC even considered helping me out!
Well as we were talking about when I would come back to London, they asked how long I would be staying and where. I told them I needed to book a hostel still and they said, “No way, you’re staying with us. We have an inflatable mattress; we need a pump, but we’ll get on e and you can stay on that.”
Then, THEN! Julija found out that I would have all of Sunday (May 29) in London and with no plans, so both she and Viktorija are going to ask for the day off of work and show me around London—I mean what the heck?! I hardly know Julija and I had just met Viktorija and here they are offering their house and their time to show me the city! Plus, they were taking my ridiculously heavy bag across London to their apartment. This was almost too much for me.
We landed safely and after an hour or so trying to figure out the best travel (it was around midnight so this was a challenge) I handed off my heavy bag (I called her Big Martha—that’s for you Ali ;)) gladly, said goodbye and let the girls go.

Now I am hanging out in the airport, listening to some men across from me speak a very weird language—I honestly think it is Icelandic (or Finnish—I know, same difference! Haha) and hoping I won’t fall asleep: it is 4 hours till my flight and no alarm clock, so I’m going for an all-nighter. I will sleep on the plane. Oh man—it is funny to look around at all of the people that are sleeping—SO many open mouths!
Tomorrow I fly to Salzburg, Austria; I will take a bus to the train station and then a train to Schladming to finally meet my beautiful Pamela. Ok, I am finally signing out for today.

The necessary (written in Latvia)

Some things in life are not necessary, but there are certain things in life that you just cannot survive without. Latvia is one of those things that without it, I am not really living. There was a time in my life, a majority of it actually, that I didn't know Latvia, but my world was so small--barely even there. Now my heart has been opened, wide open, to the Baltics--and I see life in a diffrent light: it is more massive, too much...there is too much that can be done.
Lithuania taught me nothing, that nothing can be everything...and all that makes any difference and has any meaning. Living in the Post-soviet world has been of two most difficult challenges in my life. but it is the type of difficult that you realize only in hindsight. Suvrival mode kicked in and my mind kept telling me, "you can make it through this." But now when I gaze back I see that at some point there was a change in my thinking. I didn't realize it consciencely, I don't know if I even have now (or if I can).
But something, or some one, in me caused a feeling of home, or comfort--or better yet understanding. Maybe just a flash second of understanding--but it was long enough to plant a seed of love.
With even just a small ration of water, despite the lack of nurture, the plant grew all the more stronger--it grew in the same way that determination grew in the people of this country...and now after it is all over, rather than death, this tree of love has blossomed fully. It speaks softly to me, through its beauty--whipsering loudly that, "no, this is not the end. this, my dear, is only the first blossom--as the summer comes, and goes, so must the flower fade away and yet the tree lives on." Through the winter, especially the harsh winters (like that of Lithuania) the tree learns endurance and perseverance--it learns to wait patiently through the cold and wet times, and then with greater beauty, as nothing ever before of its kind, it reveals a more glorius spring, one that cannot fade.
and so no I will wait for this spring: months, years perhaps even til Heaven and yet I do not wait in vain--for I know it will come.

Yet in Latvia I have discovered something of a different nature. Peole that are cautious to share with strangers, but when they open to you, it is with arms wide open. Here there is hope, there is life, a new energy--one that is borne from oppression, but grows and is not bitter about the past, but looks to the prsent and upward toward the future. People are alive in Latvia and there is home. In Latvia, I have found something necessary to my life. People--friends--and a kindred spirit.
"But if the sky can crack,
there must be someway back to loving all we love." U2 (electrical storm)

Leaving Lithuania: Heart Wide Open

How to act? What should I feel? Once again a semester is moving on and I have to leave people whom I have come to love.
But there is a different feeling in my heart today—leaving here hurts. It is like a piece of my heart is being ripped out: a piece goes to California, another to Latvia, some for the Midwest and yet a part stays here in Lithuania.
A bond holds all of these people to me—but what is it—why is it SO hard today? It must be, no I know it is becaue together we have endured, pushed through and overcome this challenge, this journey. In a cold, sometimes dark country that few people know (or care) about, I have found a home, and it is dear to me. My home is in the people whom I have experienced it all with. I was so afraid to open my heart for fear it would break—and break it did. But yet in the breaking comes a stronger healing and re-growth: so that as I go away, I leave a different person, changed forever by the popele I call home.

"as sorrowful, yet always rejoicing...as having nothing, yet possessing everything..we have spoken freely to you...our heart is wide open.” 2 cor. 6:10,11