Cleansing the Palate

After the fairly depressing note from this morning, I thought that maybe something more upbeat might be in order.  The last few days have been a roller-coaster of emotion.  I started IBI feeling really overwhelmed (see first post).  Everything was incredibly new and I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to forge relationships on this trip.  I am the only person this year that is single--that is, the single from his or her college.  Everyone else has at least one other person that they know.  Things have, naturally, gotten better.  Everyone on the program is super friendly, and some people have gone out of their way to make sure that I'm included.  At first I kind of felt like the outsider looking in, but I've begun to start to feel like a legit part of the group.  Its a good feeling. 

Last night, myself and a couple of other IBI-ers celebrated my birthday at an Armenian restaurant in Klaipeda.  It was one of the best meals I've ever had.  The weather, the company, and the food all joined forces to create a beautiful evening.  Then this morning I had my first exam of the program after only one day of class, and then we toured a Lithuanian shipping and export/import company which, I found to be really interesting.  Finally we went to what can only be described as Lithuania's version of Chucky Cheese.

After dinner, we had a chance to visit Polega, a resort town on the Baltic sea.  They had a beautiful board walk and pier and on the end, there were tons of Baltic fishermen catching some kind of swordfish-esque fish.  The whole experience was really relaxing and kind of reminded me of why I'm here.  Its not just about academics... we get to see freaking cool stuff too :).

 Tomorrow we bid farewell to Lithuania and take an overnight train to Moscow.  The trip is 17 hours but I think I'll be able to sleep.  If not... I turn to drugs.