Dental work, Lithuanian style

Going to the dentist in Lithuania is not something to be taken lightly, but I had a tooth that was misbehaving so I decided that making an appointment to get it checked before it started to really ruin my life was a good idea.  I went to an office by the university to a Dr. Mindaugas something-or-other.  When I got there, they handed me a card to fill out with my information and shown to the coat closet.  So far, so good.  Very much like any other dentist I have been to.

It was when I got upstairs to the office that things started to seem a little strange.  I got in the green, worn chair and the dental assistant put a pillow under my head.  I have never had a dental pillow before and it seemed polite, but maybe not the most sanitary thing in the world.  I remembered the office cleaning process from my introduction to dental hygiene class, and there was  a lot of alcohol and saran wrap and no pillows.  Since I had checked the certifications behind the receptionist and they looked pretty legitimate, I decided to trust their methods and not worry so much about the back of my head being on an unsterile surface.  I expected a cleaning at this point, where the hygienist marks off all of the previous work done on my teeth on the chart.  What I got was a short examination by the doctor himself, the word “plomba” and numbers featuring prominently in the discussion.  Probably marking my fillings?  He was very concerned about my comfort, and kept asking me if I was okay.

Once he was satisfied that I was in some pretty serious need of a crown on my last molar, we went to get x-rays done.  Walking behind him, I tried really hard to avoid laughing because the doctor was wearing house slippers.  White house slippers, but still not shoes by any stretch of the imagination. In the x-ray room I had to put my feet one and a half feet out in front of my body, bite down on a stick while somehow remaining standing completely still and waiting for the machine to circle my head.  Not only was it hard to stand, but it made me think of Walter’s machines from Fringe, which made it a little terrifying.  (primary thoughts:  If I fall I am going to have to do this again and If I run into a radiation-eating Soviet shadow monster now I am FUCKED)  The latter thought must have registered on my face, because he asked me if I was scared when we were all done.  Maybe he watches Fringe too?

Once I was settled back into the chair with the pillow firmly under my head, I thought “okay, NOW there will be the cleaning”.  He surprised me by putting some sort of numbing agent on my gums, but I thought maybe that was just what they do in these parts.  Then he came at me with his GIANT SYRINGE and I realized that there was going to be no cleaning this day, he was headed straight for the main event.  And he drilled in my head for an hour or so, stuck some tiny sticks in there, drilled some more, put some more tiny sticks in there and it was time for another x-ray.  So I got to walk through the office with a giant dental dam in my mouth so that they could make sure all the tiny sticks were doing their job.  Apparently they were, because when we got back, he took them out, put some stuff that tasted like swimming pools smell in the holes in my tooth, then put some more sticks in and some sort of white substance that the assistant rolled between her thumb and forefinger.  (Apparently, that is how you make a temporary crown?)  After all of that, we looked over my x-ray, I supplied him with some key words (numbness, temporary, receding bone, bone graft, extra root) and I got to sign off fifteen times that I had gotten treatment plan and that I would pay for my services.  He was surprisingly low-key about it, he didn’t try to talk me into anything; at one point he actually said “I don’t care if you get this done here, somewhere else, back home or wherever, I just want you to know that this is what I think you should do”.  Then he told me that I have to take my x-ray when my treatment is finished, which will make for an interesting souvenir for sure.

All in all, it was an efficient, low-pressure visit that only went for 1.5 hours from start to finish and only cost $150.  Maybe that’s what you get when you let the doctor wear slippers to work….

and then I took myself to the mall…

I went to Europa (small shopping mall) with the intent of getting some gifts for my family from the book store (did it) and some running shoes.  The only store that I thought would sell running shoes was called CitySport.  Little did I know that “city sport” means horrible clothes  manufactured by Nike for people that are not actually sporty, but want to give the city that impression.   I spent fifteen seconds in there, noticed that all of the shoes were high tops and promptly got the hell out.  Pretty sure that the person wearing the hoodie and arranging the clothes on the rack would not have been the person to talk to about my oversupination…

So I went to a few fancy shoe stores, fell in love with some Camper boots (not 459 LTL in love, though) and went into the silly girl store to see if they had any more shirts for cheap.  They did, I bought them.  Then did the same in Vero Moda.  Then, clearly feeling the effects of a shopping high, I found myself in L’Occitane buying perfume.  In my defense, it was on sale and it’s lavender, so naturally I love it.

So much for buying local.  I suck.  But I suck in new t-shirts, with perfume that I love.  I guess that’s alright.

learning Russian and buying local in Lithuania

I am watching Fringe, and in the episode that is playing a girl woke up from a coma while they were harvesting her kidney for transplantation and I swear to God I was jealous of her.  Why?  Because she woke up speaking fluent Russian.  I want to go to sleep for a couple of weeks and then wake up with a new language mysteriously implanted in my brain, it would be so much easier than spending hours per day memorizing a language and practicing fake conversations in my head.  (although I think I will take studying over the being possessed by a homicidal maniac from beyond the grave thing.  Maybe.)

We found a coffee shop that makes studying a tiny bit more palatable, because it’s awesome.  It’s called Mint Vinetu, and they specialize in “pre-loved books”.  The lady that runs it is super nice, their coffee is the same price as it is at Coffee Inn (my old favorite) and there are tons of used books for sale, even some in English.  It reminds me a lot of Tony’s back home, but with nicer furniture.  M. and I have designs on becoming regulars there, which is virtually guaranteed once I am on campus four times a week with big holes in my schedule.  I am hoping that it will remain undiscovered by the hordes of teenagers that take over Coffee Inn every afternoon, making it impossible to find a seat or have a cup of coffee in peace. I am assuming that they are there for the manufactured “atmosphere”, so old books probably won’t be a huge draw for them.  One can hope.

I have been trying really hard to buy locally whenever I can.  There are lots of options for buying locally here, although there are still shops all over the place that sell the same things that you can find all over the world.  I have only found one local grocery here, and it is less a grocery and more a cheese and baked goods shop, but the supermarkets are really good about labeling where the produce comes from.  There are tons of street vendors who sell souvenirs and other stuff (mittens!) and I find myself buying a lot of stuff from them.  There are also small shops that sell things made by local artists (like Aukso Avis where I bought my purse and pin), but they tend to be a little on the expensive side.  On the whole, it’s a lot like the options that I have in Pocatello, although I have to be much more careful here because the brands/regions/countries are not what I am used to buying from, so there is a whole different set of rules to play by.  I think it’s worth it, though, because the economy here is struggling and it’s important that at least a little of my money remains here rather than being sucked out by the richer countries who simply view it as a place to make a cheap investment.

So tomorrow I will go buy a pair of mittens from someone local and a pair of running shoes from some absurd sporty chain store and hope that the two purchases somehow even each other out….

ach, financial aid time.

In the past few days, I have been trying my best to be productive.  I spent one day (more like night, thanks 9 hour time difference) trying to figure out why my financial aid hadn’t been cleared even though I sent my form in on December 9th like a good kid.  I spoke to two very nice ladies on the phone, the international office twice, one lady who couldn’t have been bitchier (must be related to that lady at the cashier’s desk), a clueless person at the IF desk and finally the person that took one look at my account and cleared the hold for me so that I could get my financial aid.  If I weren’t 5000 miles away, I might have hugged her.  Still might, if I find myself in Idaho Falls after I return home.

So, I am financially stable.  I paid off all of my credit cards.  I paid my rent and utilities.  I bought an external hard drive (that I am pretty sure I paid a little too much for, but I wanted to support Old Town business) and set it up so that my computer will stop taking forever to do anything. It was effective.  I bought a computer case/purse and a pin.  I know that I shouldn’t have bought a purse, but I couldn’t resist.  It’s handmade felt and I can wear it like a messenger.  I got it at a local shop that specializes in handmade goods, so at least the money I spent was ethical, right?  Oh, to hell with it, I am just going to come out and say that I totally didn’t need it and I bought it anyway because I wanted to.  I also bought a medium-sized bottle of vodka and had a celebratory drink last night because I have money again, and this afternoon because Monika isn’t being deported.  I finalized my schedule for the coming semester.  I bought my tickets to France.

All this, and I still managed to find time to fall down on the ice and get called a motherfucker by some small Lithuanian boys.

God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.

I am making plans.  I am making budgets.  I am vowing that this time I will get organized.  What does this all mean?  It’s the start of a new semester here in Vilnius!

I am taking two Russian courses, one Lithuanian, Islam in Europe (probably) and Lithuanian Literature.  I feel like I should take another class, so I will see what I can fit in (and afford) when the schedule is a little more complete. If I can fit in the ultra Russian class that is worth 9 credits, I will do that, but I think I will have to email people about that one, so it’s waiting until Monday.

I am trying to do two big trips and a few little ones before I fly to the far-off wilds of Idaho once more.  I want to go to France and Germany in February, then St. Petersburg in March/April, and I would like to do a trip to Warsaw, one to Kraków, one to Riga, and maybe Vienna if I can make it happen.  I have been looking up tickets online, and even flying it is going to be super cheap to do all of the travel.  I think my tickets to France will be around $200 and to Petersburg will be $300 (with the visa!), and trains into Poland are really cheap, as are the busses and trains to Latvia.

Oh!  Speaking of Latvia, I met up with two Israeli people who were stranded in Lithuania because they lost their money and the nearest embassy is in Riga.  (I am aware that I might have been ripped off, but I prefer to think of myself as goodhearted, not gullible)  I was walking home from Rimi with a sandwich and a “salad” when someone ran up behind me asking breathlessly if I speak Russian.  I said no, but I speak English and I thought that he was going to hug me!  He talked at me for a while about his predicament, and I gave his girlfriend 15 Litas.  Then I invited them home to the apartment (I know, not the safest idea) so that they could warm up and get something to eat.  They seemed really intent on continuing to try and make bus fare so that they could get home, so I gave them my sandwich, salad, and phone number.  The dude was really surprised when I asked him if they kept kosher, especially because I am not Jewish, which made me think that even if they were ripping me off, at least they were maybe really from Israel?

Pretty much I am an easy mark for anyone that wants money.  Need to get a beer?  Have a sad story about your life/small sister?  Just walk up to the gullible American and get your Litas!  I feel really guilty when I don’t give them money, though, so giving in is actually selfish on my part because I do it to prevent myself from feeling like a really bad person for the next few hours.  I am getting better about not just giving money to everyone.  I can’t resist old people, though, or people with a sad story.  I have read that giving to beggars on the street really isn’t helping anyone, but I can’t really get behind that kind of logic.  Yeah, maybe it would be better to be able to help in a more concrete way, donating to shelters or something, but how can I walk by people who are obviously so poor in my fancy coat and my $100 shoes and not give them a Lita or two (80 cents)?  How can I justify that to myself?  I just can’t.  So I have struck a bargain with myself.  I will give money to all of the poor old ladies and the people with sad stories, and the ones that can’t look me in the eye, but I won’t give it to everyone, and then I will give a small donation to a charity every month so that I know that the money is being spent responsibly on people who need it.  (this month was Doctors Without Borders because Haiti is in such a bad place and they need doctors like crazy and loveharder.org because a woman asked only for prayers and a bunch of super awesome people decided that prayers weren’t enough and decided to raise money for a cure too.  Pretty cool stuff!)

I am really bummed about the Massachusetts vote and its implications for the health care bill.  I wish that more people could see that, in a country as rich as the U.S. health care should be a right and not a privilege.  I still have enough Idaho in me to think that there is a chance that health care reform could end up just screwing us all in the end (like most government operations) but I also think that it is worth a try.  A Grand Experiment, if you will.  (although I feel a little silly calling something an experiment that is currently practiced by every economically developed nation in the world except us and most of the developing nations) One that could really help a whole lot of people who could really use the help.

Here is where someone should pipe up and tell me I am too liberal.  I know. I can’t help it, I was just drawn that way.   I also believe that there is no reason people should learn English just because they live in the United States, that mothers and fathers should be paid for childcare leave, that the Mexico wall and the Israel-Palestine wall should just come down already, that funds would be better spent on education (and health care!) rather than throwing billions of dollars into the bottomless coffers of the war ministry…

Oh man, I am making myself all weepy barfy with all this talk about helping people and saving the world.

I will end with one of my favorite quotes about life by Vonnegut:

“Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It’s hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It’s round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you’ve got about a hundred years here. There’s only one rule that I know of, babies—God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”

This insomnia has got to stop.

Seriously.  This is the second time in a week that I haven’t been able to sleep at all, and now I am writing a paper on music during the Holocaust and instead of focusing on the task at hand I am alternately thinking about sandwiches and a Yiddish version of the House of the Rising Sun. (wouldn’t that be AWESOME?!) Also, I am forced to ogle the waiter’s butt every time he is at the computer in front of me because lack of sleep makes me even less inhibited than usual and there is something about a man in cheap dress pants that has always gotten to me. (I know, I know, I am a classy bitch).

I can’t remember the term for something that is present in all cultures, so that is driving me crazy, and further ruining my ability to focus because remembering what that is will make one of my paragraphs kick ass, but until I remember it is just a disjointed mess (much like this blog post).

There is a table of Americans across the cafe, and I am fighting the urge to hug them.

On the walk down here I was writing a really nice narrative on culture shock and my first days in Lithuania, but I have no idea what the hell I was talking about… only that it involved a Maxima that I am pretty sure I created entirely in my head.  Maybe not, though, the search for the fictional Maxima where I made my first Lithuanian purchases continues unabated, even though I am pretty sure that I made it up and that it is some mental composite of the one on Gedimino pr.

Not sleeping also heightens my sense of smell, and the pasta that the people are eating at the table next to me smells like unwashed people and it’s making me want to vomit.

Iki!

2009. It was a year, alright.

I feel like I need a better way of summing up 2009 than “hey guys, I moved to Europe” (although that will factor heavily in my discussions about the year.  Of that you can be sure)

January: well, let’s just assume I did some homework and watched some cable.  Because I can’t remember January.

February:  It was cold.  I think.  Also having a hard time with February.  I started blogging too late, kids, and my “feelings journal” (ha!) only goes back to May.

March/April:  more cable, more studying, baby Adeline was born. Perennial argument with my ovaries about whether or not I want to have kids escalated (ovaries want them NOW, brain thinks ovaries are insane and should really shut the hell up)  Got to spend time with Jen and the kids.

Scooter began to run again, did not try to kill me on the first ride.  Did refuse to run properly, but I am willing to bet that this is due to my incompetence as a mechanic/ its drive to make my life as much of a hell as possible.  Why won’t you return my love, dear Vespa.  Pretty sure this is also the month where I thought I was starting a relationship with a cool guy, and then he took it upon himself to bang one of my friends right after she separated from her husband and then swear her to secrecy WHILE HE WAS STILL IN BED WITH HER because he “still wanted to see what would happen with me.  May or may not have spent a week talking mad shit to everyone I know.  (I feel bad about this now, but I also still relate with the Charissa that was so pissed she could have punched the whole universe in its face.  Life is complicated.  I sort of hope he has moved away before I get back home).

Lesson: I have a knack for picking men who seem to be perfect and then turn out to be total assholes (brought to my attention by A, so I know it’s true)

I should have learned this with the last Secret Asshole (AKA the guy who got angry because I laughed at him for pissing on his own dresser and then held my glasses hostage so I had to send someone across enemy lines to get them), but it takes me a while to learn my lesson.  Also, I was drinking a lot when he came on the scene.

Oh yeah, got so drunk at an official function that I fell off of a bench while I was talking to the King of All Secret Assholes.  Note to self: calm down on the liquid courage a little.  (this I have achieved, more or less.  Can I pretend like it was a New Year’s Resolution and I kept it?)**

May: moved back in with my parents.  Enjoyed this much more than I thought I would, my family is pretty rad.  I also found that I like spending my evenings quietly surfing the internet in an air-conditioned basement watching man TV with Little Bro.

Went to my baby sister’s graduation party, “I love being surrounded by nerds” being the quote from that party that sums up my family pretty much perfectly.

June: went to Chicago to get my visa, met two Irish girls in the hostel that showed me how much fun staying in a hostel can be.  Navigated the transit system of Chicago, only once taking a bus in entirely the wrong direction.  Visited the Lithuanian Museum.  Spent so much on that trip that I very nearly didn’t have train fare to get to the airport.  Survived.

July:  Something, something, something.  It was hot.  I probably made a fool of myself.  Worked as much as I could and then spent the rest of my time being unrepentantly lazy under the guise of “preparing to move overseas”.

August: quit my favorite job ever (at the library).  but only because I MOVED TO EUROPE.  Met Lena and Helene at the hostel.  The former took me on my first real (daytime) tours around Vilnius, and Helene remains one of my best friends here so far.  My first day, I bought an umbrella, a phone card, and an apple.  It was at this point I knew I would survive.

September: Classes started at Vilnius University.  The registration process was a clusterfuck of epic proportion, but after two weeks of trying, it was mostly sorted.  Learned to do laundry by hand.  Took some classes, saw the Little Prince in Lithuanian (this might have been another month)

October: went to Kaunas and saw a real live chess tournament, didn’t get to see the Chess Champion play, but got to see a fair amount of the city.

Went to Klaipeda, then to Nida.  Saw some sand dunes, posed by a threatening sign near the Russian border.  Maritime museum.  Realized that interpersonal conflict of any kind around me makes me want to crawl in a hole.  Got through it.  Hope to see the Baltic one day when it’s warmer.  Walk back to the hostel declared “best party in Klaipeda” by the Chess Champion.

November: Birthday in Vilnius.  Wonderful celebration with wonderful people, even though I had to be physically dragged to parts of it.  and I was a whiny bitch for at least half of it.

Thanksgiving 1.0: dinner with Monika’s family.  Loved being around Americans, especially precocious American children, and eating a dinner that was TO DIE FOR.  I mean, seriously, that family knows how to put together a meal!  The decorations in the house were very Americana, made me miss home.

Thanksgiving 2.0: fight with the administrator, cried for an entire day.  Realized that homesickness is not something that only happens the first few weeks, sometimes it sneaks up on you months later and lays you out for a day or two.

Thanksgiving 3.0: made a turkey (after going to every supermarket in Old Town before I finally admitted defeat and went to Akropolis) with stuffing, potatoes with (not fabulous) gravy, rolls.  Nicholas brought wine and pizza.  Monika brought beer. Thomas helped me with the dinner and Helene was there for moral support. It really made me feel like I had a piece of home here.

December: moved into the flat on Putino g.  Love these girls!  It’s cockroach-free, and there is a real sense of community here.

Christmas: got drunk on Buffalo Grass vodka by myself and had skype conversations with people back home.

NYE: Same as above, but with FIREWORKS.

**edited to add the following epiphany: all of the members of the illustrious Secret Asshole club are hopeless alcoholics.  Duh.  I guess I should add “stop dating alcoholics” to my list of resolutions this year.

Bright Orthodox Christmas to you!

Today is Orthodox Christmas in Lithuania (and, I suppose, in all of the other places where there are lots of Eastern Orthodox people).  I totally forgot about it until I saw an old friend from the dorm at the University and she wished me a “bright christmas” (not merry, mind you).  Then I forgot again until I was standing at the light at the Cathedral waiting to go onto Gedemino and Santa  grabbed my elbow, scaring the shit out of me, and ruining any chance of me being able to talk to him in Lithuanian.  He was a chatty Santa, too, but the young man next to me saved me by striking up a conversation about (I think) where Santa lives in his off time?

I have spent the last few days hiding in my room evaluating the past year and trying to come up with some goals for the coming year.  Other than the ever-present get healthy, eat better, lose weight ones.  Because they are perpetually on the list, so pretending that the new year is going to make me strike out anew in search of those elusive goals is pretty silly.  (I have been doing the Shred, though, and I can say with all seriousness that Jillian Michaels is a tough bitch.)  So!  I have been working on different goals, and I am pretty hopeful that I can achieve these ones, or at least make some headway:

1. Learn Russian to the point that it’s not totally embarrassing to try to talk to people.  Be able to talk about things with native speakers without looking like a total jackass.

2. Work on my French, because it has been ten years (oh, god) since I have studied it and I am still better at it than Russian. Goddamn language crystallisation!

3.  Visit Paris, St. Petersburg, Moscow, and Kraków.  Why those cities? Well, I have always wanted to see Paris, Kraków is a place that I feel that I have to see, and seeing it has been a lifetime goal, and the Russian cities because it is really fun to be able to relate to what you are studying.

4. Graduate from ISU.  That English degree is in the BAG provided that all my credits from here actually transfer.  Think of the career prospects that await me when I achieve this goal!

5.  Pay off all my debts besides my student loans, because graduate school will let me put those off for a few more years.

6.  Read books FOR FUN, even when school is in session.

That’s it.  I think that will make for a year that is much more interesting than the ones that have come before.

Oh, is NOT going to your ten year high school reunion considered a goal? Because if it is, I will put that one on the list as pretty much done already even though it doesn’t take place until July right around the time that I come home from Vilnius.  I was so hoping that it would take place while I was in Vilnius, but alas, my convenient excuse is not going to be effective.  So, I will do what I have done with the entire high school experience since I last made a fool of myself walking across the stage to get my diploma, and pretend like it’s not happening.

2009 in Retrospect

This is hard, because leaving Idaho to come to Lithuania in August is such a break with the life that I knew before that it feels like the rest of 2009 just didn’t happen.  I have scattered memories, classes, drunken shenanigans, walking the dog, but I can’t really put my finger on any of them.

2009 is the year I left my home and survived.  That’s it.  Okay, that’s not it, but I will have to think a little more about 2009 before I can post on it without just barfing a bunch of disconnected memories out onto the page.

(damn wordpress grammar checker keeps telling me my expressions are too complex.  DO NOT try and reduce my “achieve” to “do” or “make”.  I am an English major, dammit, complex expressions are what I DO!)

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Originally uploaded by Nick DeWolf Photo Archive

This is how the snow makes me feel.

Merry Merry, Everybody!

It’s Christmas, and I am all alone in this giant apartment (flat, if you are from Europe.  I have caught myself switching back and forth).  I am all moved into my giant room.  It is huge.  Bigger than my dorm room, and it has these awesome high ceilings and tall doors.  This is the kind of apartment I would live in forever, if given the chance.  There is even an honest-t0-God grown up bed for me to sleep on.  It shocked the hell out of me this morning when I went to roll out of bed, and rolled onto more bed.

My birthday finally came yesterday, it only took 7 weeks or so to get here.  I got some awesome Smartwool socks and a scarf set, which came at a perfect time because it is COLD here. Like most of the systems here, the Lithuanian postal system is ridiculous.  I feel like there is some behind the scenes mastermind just pointing at packages to decide which ones get sent and which ones languish in a warehouse somewhere until the recipient finally gives up on ever seeing them again and then BAM! there they are.  It might be better if I could complain, but there isn’t a lesson on convincing the post office to give you your package in the Lithuanian text books.

I was able to ask a woman who had fallen down if she was okay in Lithuanian yesterday on the way home from the big Maxima (titled Maxima XXX, ha!).  (Maxima is the Lithuanian equivalent to Wal-Mart, except I don’t feel bad for shopping there because they are pretty much the only option.  and they had taco seasoning for my Christmas Eve dinner!)

Christmas Eve dinner was awesome!  Manuela and Christiane came over, and we ate tacos and chocolate mousse and talked about everything under the sun over some wine and buffalo grass vodka and lemon water cocktails (seriously my favorite drink, for the moment).  It was really low-key and nice to spend time with such awesome girls.  I bought a Christmas tree, too, and then promptly broke it in half.  Ieva (one of my flatmates) decorated it and helped me to put it back together with yarn, and now it is festively sitting in the kitchen window).  It makes me very happy, and it feels a little like Christmas here with it around.  I will post a picture when I get things uploaded again.

I bought the 30 Day Shred video today.  I feel a little silly buying a workout video, but I am really sick of feeling weak all the time, and I have heard that it is an excellent video.  We shall see if I can make it through the whole 30 days…  I think it will be like Pilates with Carole, but more intense.  and every day.  I think I will start working on my yoga again, because I really feel like my flexibility has gone to hell since I have been here.

I love winter vacation!