I listened to this song on the plane.

"Wide Open Spaces"

Who doesn't know what I'm talking about
Who's never left home, who's never struck out
To find a dream and a life of their own
A place in the clouds, a foundation of stone

Many precede and many will follow
A young girl's dream no longer hollow
It takes the shape of a place out west (OR FAR EAST)
But what it holds for her, she hasn't yet guessed

She needs wide open spaces
Room to make her big mistakes
She needs new faces
She knows the high stakes

She traveled this road as a child
Wide eyed and grinning, she never tired
But now she won't be coming back with the rest
If these are life's lessons, she'll take this test

As her folks drive away, her dad yells, "Check the oil!"
Mom stares out the window and says, "I'm leaving my girl"
She said, "It didn't seem like that long ago"
When she stood there and let her own folks know



Now I'm coming home. I saw my Wide Open Spaces :).

Closing Time

Well here I am with less than 2 weeks left. I've been doing well. I have finals this week, then a few days left in Klaipeda with friends, and then its coming home time. Man. Unbelievable.

Recent Updates

Hello all,
I've finally replied to all emails.... I'm sorry I've been behind. I started working at the Radisson Hotel for my practicum and I'm working 20 hours a week. So my energy level is much less. Last night I slept 14 hours. Haha. I love working there. I'm meeting more Lithuanians and learning a lot about placing silverware and the service industry.

ONLY 29 days left!! Woo, I'm ready to come home. I miss American food and a whole bunch of stuff. The other day Clayton and I spent an hour listing all thing were excited for. For example, drive thrus, cars, cell phones lol. We've seen some amazing things but I'm tired and ready for American conveniences.

Last weekend we went to Riga, Latvia and Tallinn, Estonia. That was a fun experience, very relaxed and we had mostly free time to explore the city and see what we wanted. We went to the Occupation museum where we learned about the Stalin/Hitler Pact that divided this area. Very interesting and sad. They had a replica of the Siberian concentration camps and it was so small and 60 people stayed in one bunker. Unbelievable. So many people focus on the horrors of the Holocaust, but forget what happened in the area that I'm living in right now. Tallinn was really cool with 16th century cobblestones as streets and lots of architecture from that era. Riga is a fun city with tons of nightlife. We had a good time there. Also it was nice to see the other study abroads, some of which I haven't seen since Russia.

I want to thank you all for your words of encouragement and emails again. It's been great motivator and a blessing for my spirit.
Keep in touch and much love

Pictures from Riga/Tallinn
http://picasaweb.google.com/hannahsink/RigaTallinnTrip

Russia part 2

Alright *sigh* second half. Where did we leave off. St. Petersburg... (I'm following my itinerary, because I'm lazy haha). The next day we went to the Hermitage, which was so beautiful, you can see the amazing photos in my web albums and Yuspov Palace, which is a renovated palace with original furniture. It was beautiful and interesting, although common with many of those old
houses, you can only enter half of the rooms. That night we saw the opera, "The Magic Flute" in Russian, which was boring the 1st half, and amazing the second half. It was a little weird because we saw opening night, so it was not quite perfect, but still amazing nevertheless.

The next day we went to the Museum of Political History and the battle ship Aurora. Those were boring. Moving on.... That afternoon we relaxed at the hostel and got coffee at a local cafe. That evening we went to a very modern ballet called the "The Glass Heart," it was beautiful and all the pictures from the ballet you can see how the Mariinsky Theater, where the most famous ballerinas of all time dance (and the Swan Lake was debuted) contributed to the atmosphere. That night we went back to Fidel with a big group and had an equally good time. The last day we packed up our things, explored St. Petersburg a little more and then got on the train.

Overall impressions of St. Petersburg: The culture in St. Petersburg was absolutely wonderful. Seeing a ballet and an opera in some of the most famous halls in the world by itself was such a unique experience that I am very grateful for. We saw so much on this trip I had a hard time truly enjoying everything, but looking back at all the pictures I took I'm so glad we saw so much. The Hermitage was amazing and I loved every part of it. They told us that if we spent 1 minute at every painting at the Hermitage, it would take 2 years to see every single painting. It was so huge and had so many paintings in a room that sometimes you'd be standing in front of a picture and you'd realize you're looking at a Monet, Picasso, Degas etc. I would love to go back to St. Petersburg and spend weeks there.


A few more pics: http://picasaweb.google.com/hannahsink/Russia2008Part2

Finally...Russia update

So I've gotten a few emails asking about how Russia/life has been lately. Well to be honest, it's almost busy :)

The Russia trip was amazing. It was jam-packed full of activities, touring, and walking (almost 5 miles a day of walking!). So we took a bus to Riga and that was relaxing. As a break we stopped at the Hill of Crosses, which as you can see from pictures was breathtaking. Thousands and thousands of crosses put on a hill as a response to the Soviets trying to remove religious symbols. It started with one cross that the Soviets kept burning down, and overnight the villagers would put it back. Eventually, people started bring tons of crosses and now it something of a religious monument.
After the bus to Riga, we took an amazing overnight train to Moscow. It was hilarious to fill an entire sleeper car with our group, that was the beginning of the bonding. See pictures of the adorable cabins. I slept like a baby due to the constant motion of the train and the cozy beds.
We arrived in Moscow around 10 in the morning and got to experience our first subway. In Moscow, they are ornately decorated, but it is illegal to take pictures and you can get arrested if you try, so you're gonna have to trust me on that one. I have a few pictures of the escalators I'll add to the photo album. Some of the stations are so large, that at their deepest point they are 90 meters or about 300 feet underground. That first day we we went first to the Red Square. It was so overwhelming, but not as big as I imagined. I thought I would be very impressed with its grandeur (considering it hosts a very complicated history), but it was just okay for me. We also visited the mall in the Red Square, a very boring (in my opinion) 3-hour walking tour of Kremlin, and the CIRCUS! So the walking tour would have been interesting if it was soooo long. Literally, standing for 3 hours straight listening to this burly Russian woman talk history, was not my cup o' tea.
The circus was a highlight of many people's trip. It was definitely geared at little kids, but there were some amazing tightrope walkers and acrobats. I had more fun watching the little girl next to me enjoy herself so much then the actual show. Every time the lions roared she would squeal or giggle.
The next day we went to St. Basil's Cathedral and Christ the Savior cathedral, both were absolutely beautiful. Especially Christ the Savior, which is the one with the world famous domes. We got to go to the Russian souvenir market, but I didn't buy anything because I didn't have a Russian speaker with me, so I would of had to pay tourist prices which were kinna outrageous. Then we we one a sightseeing tour of Moscow in air, both by Ferris wheel and monorail. I'll be honest. Not very pretty. Smoggy, and stretched for miles. After all of that and dinner, we went to Red Square at night, which was so beautiful (see photos).
The final day in Moscow we were supposed to visit Lenin's tomb, but he was getting a wardrobe change and was closed that day. Besides the fact that he is stuffed, he gets his outfit changed once a week. Nuts.
Overall impressions of Moscow: The city was depressing and enormous. It was so big I felt like we spent more time underground on the subways to get from place to place then actually seeing things. Everyone was very stern, our interns were very careful of how loud we were, how much playing around we did, and since political elections had taken place only a week before we came, we were watching constantly for political riots/unrest. The police (as you may know) are allowed to check your documents whenever they like, so we had to be aware of our passports and visas at all times. And on top of that on the lookout for gypsy kids, which are notorious for surrounding tourists and pickpocketing them. This, despite the cool tourist sights we saw, put a damper on my overall impression.
That night we took an evening train to St. Petersburg. For some reason they added an extra first class sleeper train and we got such lush accommodations, including two meals, TV and movies etc. It was very nice to kick back and relax since we had be going from 8-11pm every day in Moscow. In St. Petersburg, on the first day, we did a 5 hour walking tour of the city. It sounds horrible, but it was great. Our tour guide spoke perfect, no accent English, and was the owner of these "alternative" group tours. He asked us what we wanted to see, could answer every history/geography question we could think of, and we got lunch at a cafe. We visited the Split Blood Church that day as well, which is a modern version of the domed cathedrals. We visited Nikolayevsky's palace and went to the "Feel Yourself Russian" folk show.
The "Feel Yourself Russian" show was hilarious. It was a very expensive tourist trap, but hilarious. It was full of Russian folk dancing and singing, set in a 19th century palace. We we entered this concert hall, we were greeted with caroler-type singers with shots of Russian vodka. It was hilarious to see everyone try the awful stuff. After going to our seats they brought out more shots and our trip coordinators enjoyed themselves (Lithuanians like vodka). The show was so funny with audience members getting pulled up on stage to dance. After the "Feel Yourself Russian" folk show, the interns went four different places and Vlad took a bunch of us to to this local dive-bar called "Fidel." They were playing cheesy American dance music (like "I love Rock and Roll") and we had so much fun.

Okay I can only do these updates in stints. So I'll be back for the other half.

Much love

russia pics!

http://picasaweb.google.com/hannahsink/Russia2008

sengal, career fairs, and chili

So as to this was one of the best nights I've had so far in Lithuania it deserves an update. Last week I received an email from a Westmont graduate who is working here at LCC. He's the intercultural director here and is in charge of many events, since LCC is a international university. He asked that each country that is represented in LCC cook a dish for the upcoming career fair. Normally, this would not be my thing. When I receive group emails from school I usually just delete them, but owing to my extreme boredom at times I actually responded saying I would make chili. Alright not very "American," but still part of the California cuisine.

I enlisted the help of Shala and Clayton and we cooked yesterday. So the career fair, designed like most, are so that employers from the big cities in Lithuania can meet upcoming graduates and offer them jobs and the food we were cooking was for the reception to follow. I realized after I signed up I was cooking for the two people who have truly reached out to me while I've been here, Ruta, the person who has been in contact with my since last semester about my practicum, and Craig, the guy from Westmont. Anyways, so then I felt good about doing something nice for them in return for all the encouragement they've given me.

So we yesterday afternoon went and cooked chili, in a country where we don't know the ingredients' names or even really how to make chili. And since I make a pretty good pico de gallo, I thought I'd make that too. So off I go to Iki, the grocery store, with my 50 lita budget. I found a variety of "chili" looking things. Such as a chipotle spaghetti sauce, bbq sauce, chili-flavored beans, and a generic "mexikan" spice mix. Clayton bought some meat. And we just started with tomato sauce... too sweet....then some "Mexikan" spices... just takes like spicy spaghetti sauce....onions?...garlic? And so on and so forth. And for some unknown reason, we made the best chili I had ever had. It was perfectly smokey spicy and meaty. And all the business executives loved it. Everyone wanted our "recipe" which made us laugh. The pico de gallo was good and we found some tortilla chips to go with and that was gone before all the other dishes were gone.

Another reason the chili went so fast was the basketball players from Senegal loved it so much. Haha, alright so something you should know. Lithuania is very racist so they are maybe a total of 5 black guys (not counting the ones from LCC) in all of Klaipeda. LCC recruited these 5 guys all from the same town in Senegal to come play basketball and study at the university. They are not allowed to leave campus because they might be attacked by Neo-Nazi gangs. Americans are supposed to be very careful when talking with them on the streets, because they might get beat up. So the point is these guys are from Senegal and have very few friends, cannot leave campus often, and play a lot of basketball. Let me also note, the shortest of the 5 is maybe 6'3, the tallest being like 6'11. They are huge. So since they loved chili so much and we had extra chili ingredients we offered to come back and cook for them again and play/teach them how to play poker. It was hilarious and a bunch of fun. Almost the entire basketball team stopped by for a bowl of chili and to watch us play.

This is why I came to Lithuania. I played poker with 5 guys from Senegal and 2 guys from Klaipeda. Funny how no matter what culture you come from a game of cards and food is the only thing needed to bring people together.

Much love,
Hannah

Pictures and a note

So here are some pictures from Milan and Venice, as promised.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hannahsink/MilanoVeneziaYMia

As well I would like to note. Coming back from Milan has been a "downgrade" for me so I'm trying to keep my spirits high. I would love to hear from all of you, especially with a little package or a letter. The mail here is slow, but getting a letter would make my day. Emails are great too!

Hope everyone is doing well.

Back from Milan

Hello all,
I know that posts have been lack as of late, however have no fear. I have much to say. :) Along with literally a thousand pictures from Italy.

So on Thursday morning around 9:00 AM my 5 friends and I (the kids from Westmont [Shala, Stephanie, and Clayton], Andrew, and Laura) all jumped onto a tour bus headed for Riga, Latvia. After a 5 and 1/2 hour bus ride to Riga, we arrived in the Riga airport 6 hours before our flight. Lucky for us hungry travelers there was a TGIF's and we all had a burger (or two).

Our flight to Milan was through Ryan Air, which if you don't know is a Irish budget airline, and we have heard some awful stories about this airline losing luggage or changing flights, but ours was completely uneventful. The funny thing about Ryan Air is that there are no set seat assignments, so unless you bought a 5 euro priority boarding pass, it's literally a free-for-all to get a seat. Fortunately, Shala had accidentally bought priority boarding so she ran onto the plane and dumped her stuff in two rows so that all six of us could be next to each other. We ended taking 3 rows for more room and the flight was great.

We arrived in Milan's 40-minute away airport, around midnight and then we grabbed another bus to city centre. We finally got to our hotel, after some more walking and a cab ride, 3 of us stayed outside the Holiday Inn Express, because we only booked a room for 3. Travelocity guaranteed us 2 double beds and a pull-out couch, so we assumed we had at least 5 beds. We the 3 that checked into the hotel saw the room it was 2 twins and a roll-away. The other three came up stairs and then we had a dilemma. Do we push the issue even though we're already cheating the hotel? We thought, yes. We're cheap. :) haha So we called travelocity, but unfortunately there were no rooms available and we let it drop. We finally figured out that Andrew, by far the largest, and would barely would fit into a twin bed, would sleep in the one sleeping bag we brought. Clayton can sleep on the roll away and then we'll push the two twins together and the girls will share that big bed. It worked alright, except for the few times we would wake up in...awkward positions.

Our first day in Milan, we woke up early and we to the continental breakfast that was provided. It ended up being amazing. It usually consisted of fresh orange juice or grapefruit juice, cappuccino's made by the barista, cook-to-order eggs and sausage, and then the best variety of cakes and pastries I have ever witnessed. Compared to the food that we have to buy and make ourselves in Lithuania, all of our eyes went buggy. Let me just leave it at that, it was more than fantastic. Breakfast puddings, chocolate croissants, etc. :)

We saw the Duomo the first day in Milan, which if you don't know is the 3rd largest church in the world. It was pretty impressive. We had only see a very industrialized part of Milan, and all were kind of thinking, "Italy's not as beautiful as everyone says." However, we used the subway to get around our entire vacation, and we we got off at the Duomo stop we started walking up the stairs and the moment we arrived in daylight all of us stopped. It took our breath away. It is so enormous and gorgeous, we had to pause for a second to process this. (I think there is a picture of it as soon as we realized we should capture this moment, but it doesn't do the feeling justice).

The Duomo pictures are beautiful, and please do go see it someday in your lifetime. The church reminded me that whether or not you believe in a God, imagine the hundreds of thousands of people that have worshiped here; the time it took to carve on cherub or to paint one face of Jesus. You have to appreciated that. For me personally, it was nothing least than an encouragement to my faith. It was almost for a second I could literally picture the others that have put there trust in Jesus, or became a Christian in this church. It was a beautiful moment.

We saw the roof of the Duomo, which by the way was over 200 steps, and I had the funniest asthma attack I ever had. (I wanted to keep climbing since I wanted to see the top, but because of vertigo and asthma I kept wheezing and had to let the hundreds of people behind me pass. Anyways, no harm done. I made it all the way up, eventually).

We went shopping the first and last days in Milano at the mall by the Duomo (pictures) and saw the original Armani store, complete with models shopping without paying for fashion week. The mall was beautiful. We also saw a variety of markets and fruit stands.

Probably the craziest part of our whole adventure was the trip to Venice. We had researched before we left how far away Venice was from Milan and had decided that if we could do it for cheap we would all go. We found a rental agency that let us rent a mini-van for 210 euros, which is about $60 each. We left early Saturday morning and Andrew was the only one who was allowed to drive (Westmont strictly forbid us) and could drive stick well. Haha. If only you could imagine. Try driving stick, with the touchiest clutch, during rush-hour, in a city (Milan) that you've never been too, with directions translated with and online translator.... it was hilarious and terrifying all at the same time. For the first 20 minutes, any time we got to a stop we stalled out. Making the locals pissed at us. We also for the first hour didn't know how to reverse. *See pictures of Clayton pushing the car* The locals honked and screamed, but we just kept encouraging Andrew. Long story short, it took us an hour to get out of Milan. After asking a man who was for sure on some sort of drugs for directions, we finally made it out of Milan onto the Autostrada. *See pictures* The Northern Italian countryside is absolutely beautiful and ever 2 miles or so an old winery or mansion would be tucked up in the hills. The drive to Venice was about 3 and half hours, maybe more, but our director (And designated Mom) Shala got us to Venice.

Then comes the next funny part. We drove onto Venice, making jokes about how gross the water was or how hilarious was that fact that we blindly drove to Venice the first time we got to Italy. We all were excited, with bated breath for the sites of Venice so often shown in the romantic pictures. And next thing we know.... we're on the highway headed off the Island back to Milan. With no where to turn around. We all laughed and found the way to back on the highway headed back to Venice. Then we did it again. Even after taking a different way right after we got off. Oh my goodness. It was ridiculous. So after the 3rd time of driving onto Venice getting lost and then driving back on it, Andrew was done with driving. He was so angry (understandably) so we all just payed 30 euros to park in this tourist parking lot. Then we took a ferry onto Venice. It really is an amazing city. It was so picturesque and beautiful and everything the pictures look like that it's almost too much to handle. Every where you look is something worth remembering forever. Fantastic. *See pictures*

Alright. Now I understand that if you made it this far, you're probably tired of reading, so I'll let the pictures/captions do the talking. Give me a day or so to collect them all, weed out the bad ones, and then I'll post them.

Love and blessings to all of you.

In Christ,
Hannah

I'M GOING TO MILAN WHEN IT'S FASHION WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!

MORE DETAILS LATER....

Send me things

Hannah Sink
Karklu 5
Klaipeda, Lithuania

Finished the first week!!

Alrighty so I finished my first week of classes at LCC. I only had two so it wasn't that difficult. :) My internship is still in the works, according to the Career Development lady at LCC. Seems like the language barrier is difficult to overcome so she's still looking. My other class is online so it will not start until next week. So as of now I am taking two classes: Development Economics and Business Ethics. Development Econ is supposedly the hardest class at LCC with the hardest professor, and only seniors are in the class with Clayton and I. However, it seems like a normal Westmont class [from what we've heard LCC classes are really easy compared to American schools] with loads of reading. Business Ethics is very interesting. Our professor is very animated and she is from the states and was very welcoming the first class. I'm going to be doing an ethical study on Starbucks corporation, which is very appropriate I think. :)

My roommates are wonderful. For the first time I am able to have fun, goof off, and still have my peace and quiet with all of them. Their names are Iryna, Elya, and Nastya and are all from the Ukraine. They all speak a combo of Lithuania, Russian, and Ukrainian to each other which is funny because I have no idea what they're saying. They are all Business majors and sophomores like me. They are really silly and we all get along great. Last night a couple of Study Abroaders and their roommates along with two of my roommates and I all went out to the local dance club called Global. It was an absolute blast. After a lot people from our group went home, Clayton, my two roommates, a study abroad kid from Equador, and I stayed out dancing until 4. Haha. It has only been the first week and already I'm diving into the local culture.

The food here is still kind of an issue. I found an American restaurant I can eat at when I'm desperately hungry, but it is pricey by Lithuanian standards. I eat a lot of bread and cheese. Diet Coke here is way better than American regular coke, so I'm starting to get addicted. Oh yeah and coffee is beyond amazing. If you've been to Europe you know that drip coffee in the states does not compare to European lattes!

Thank you all for your prayers and emails of encouragement. I decided to post pictures in a easier format so you don't have to scroll through them everytime you read my blog. Here are the latest albums with pictures from my dorm, the city I am in, and a couple of shindigs with the Study Abroad group.

I'm off to get ready for dinner. Much love to all you.

http://picasaweb.google.com/hannahsink/KretingaAndHBH
http://picasaweb.google.com/hannahsink/Klaipeda
http://picasaweb.google.com/hannahsink/Vilnius

The beautiful ceilings
The organ newly refurbished
The catacombs in the church.

Church in classical style in Vilnius
Grave of a former duke of Lithuania. His body was preserved for over 400 years
Fresca in the Church

Clayton and I in the airport
Starbucks for $7, holy smokes, but it was sure good. Actually on the weird side
In Vilnius, Clock tower in the main square

Our airline
Copenhagen airport
Airport celing
Weird "smoking cabins" that are a new Danish invention

Hi I'm in the dorms now.
I've seen so much in three days. We went to a castle today along with our three hour drive from Vilnius and Klaipeda, where the dorms are. I'm going to post some pictures of the castle, museum, and snow from the last few days.


I miss you all very very very much. The dorms are not very nice, but very close to the downtown. The people from all the different schools are a bit weird, but seem nice. I need to force myself to be a little more outgoing. I've been spending a lot of time with the kids from westmont. Three of the four of us are on the same floor and we're all in the same dorm. I can't wait to get to know my roommates, but they haven't moved in.

Labas!

Hi everyone.

First post of the Lithuanian journey. So I’m writing this on Word, because we don’t have personal internet yet, but I don’t want to forget anything, so here’s my first post… to be posted later. :)

Well my flight from Seattle to Chicago was uneventful. Four hours and we watched uh… oh yea some football movie with the “Rock,” where he’s a pro-football player and he finds out he has a daughter from his ex-wife. It was rated PG and even the critics who gave the review before the movie started hated it. “Two thumbs down.” It was entertaining, nevertheless.

My flight to Chicago was a little delayed, but I still had about an hour and a half before my next flight left at 10 pm. I still had to change terminals and meet Clayton (my friend from Westmont and travel partner) at the gate. I moved quickly, following all logical airport signs leading to Terminal 5, but no could do. I kept asking people for directions, but they all were leading me in circles. Finally, I met this guy from Seattle moving to Norway for a professor job there and both had to make this flight. We were getting pressed for time and finally someone offered to take us. We got to the gate just as they were about to give our tickets away. Clayton was worried, but we made it fine. The plane ride was cramped with our long legs and tight quarters, but I slept and rested most of the flight, and I forgot to watch movies. Haha. Food was edible, uneventful flight.

Copenhagen airport is beautiful. It looks like Ikea furniture in this crazy architectural building. We had starbucks and then got on our next flight to Vilnius.

More later Love you.