Blog 11

Dear everyone,

Like I said the coming 2 months would be very busy. But it felt like I didn’t really finish or complete it. What I did not understand? After 2 weeks in The Netherlands I finally understood, I had to write my last blog about Lithuania. My last blog will not only be about Lithuania but also New York, The Netherlands and Germany (Berlin).

After blog 11 there happened a lot of goodbye things and I went to a lot of happenings. For example to Neringa the ‘island’ which is near Klaipeda, to a boat festival, the last time eating sushi, I watched some live basketball games, kind of sport festival, the last day of school because after I would come back from New York there won’t be any school anymore. Also Jasmin and Alyssa were going to leave Klaipeda because there families went on holiday. So Jasmin moved to Vilnius and Alyssa went to Kaunas. Jasmin brought me to the airport because I definitely needed some help with my luggage. I stayed 2 days in The Netherlands, the first day I went to a restaurant with the family for my grandma’s birthday. After that I went to party crash a party in Tilburg. On the second day (26 May) I did some shopping and played a tournament at my old club High Five in Tilburg. We ended with a barbecue. Sunday morning Hannah and me went together from Amsterdam to New York.

In New York Emilija and Scott came to pick us up, we went to a shopping mall were we eat something. After that we went to the place were we would stay: NYMA (New York Military Academy). Sometimes it is good to know where you don’t want to go. I definitely could handle it, as I thought it was kind of funny. Hannah didn’t think it was funny. In New York we played a tournament and trained with New York City Rocks International. They invite international players to come over. We were there at the same time with some Latvian girls: Kecija, Elina and Elza. What we did these two weeks: Rumble in the Bronx, a tournament in Manhattan, a scrimmage, a carwash, 2 times a barbecue at the family Lofaro, learned to play Cornhole, went to Walmart, 3x time to New York City, petted a snake and turtles and went to a graduation etc. But to be honest to describe New York is easier in photos so look fast at my new photo albums!

After New York I went back to The Netherlands, where I trained with Attacus in Veghel. Furthermore I tried to survive my jetlag and there came an exchange student from Iran for my sister. After a few days I went back to Lithuania because the weekend of 15/16/17 June I would have YFU end year seminar in Antaliepte. So Friday 15 June it started lovely with my plane, which was delayed. As a result of that I had to take a later bus from Kaunas airport to Antaliepte, it took me around 1,5 hour by bus. At the seminar I mentioned that we were with way to many students. It turned out that also the Lithuanian students that will go at the end of this summer on exchange were also there. I shared a room with Lucia, Indre, Jasmin and Alyssa. This weekend we looked a lot back how we experienced our year in Lithuania. What it brought us and how it changed us. Also we made some group photos and we did a hike that was way to hard with a blouse and on sneakers. We had to go over rivers and through bushes. Now I will confess something that YFU doesn’t know. The night from Saturday on Sunday we sneaked out of a window. We spend the night outside talking about life and watching the stars with some students. Sorry YFU Lithuania, but if you say to us that we won’t get warning letters anymore then you will get these kind of things.

Sunday I went with 2 Lithuanian girls back to Klaipeda and to be honest I think I slept all 5 hours during the trip. When I came home it was very relaxed, because my family has been on a bike/at the beach for the whole day. The last week in Klaipeda I celebrated my moms birthday with family from Estonia, I said goodbye to a lot people, packed my baggage (which was pretty much even though I already dropped 27 kilogram in The Netherlands after New York), played some games with the family etc. Friday 22 June I was going to Kaunas for an exchange student party from Lucia. This was with exchange students from Lithuania that will go in the summer abroad and all the international exchange students that have been this year in Lithuania. This was a pretty well party until someone broke a mirror. So the next day we bought one and I stayed over at Lucia’s to help cleaning. It was pretty hard to get the mirror to her house because we did not fit in the bus. I helped to clean and helped Lucia to pack. Sunday morning we went to Vilnius with Lucia and Lucas. Indre and her friend picked us up and supported us to the hotel ‘Air Inn’. After that we wanted to eat something and went to eat at Ikea because Lucia never did that before. In the evening we met with Lucas and Mykolas (Lithuanian boy which will go this summer to Italy) to watch some football/soccer. I didn’t felt that well so Lucia and I went to the hotel.

The following morning we started pretty early to go for a new adventure: YES in Berlin. At 3:30 we were at the breakfast and I felt already a lot better that day which was good because it would become a very long day. At 4:30 we would meet up at the airport in Vilnius with Jasmin, Umut and Ieva (a YFU volunteer). Our hotel was next to the hotel but we still managed to be 10 minutes late. Our first flight was Vilnius-Riga and there we met with the students that stayed in Estonia and we continued our trip together. Our second flight was Riga-Berlin. In Berlin we went with a bus to a place 1 and a half hours from Berlin. In the bus we just listened to some music and got a little bit more sleep. In Berlin I slept with all Dutch people on a room except Jochem. This was very “gezellig” with a soft g. A resume from Berlin: Boring tracks (Mine diversity), “gezelligheid” with the Dutch people, swimming, lovely cheese if you were on time for food, party’s, energizers en just meeting new people and cultures. We were with people from 40 different countries, 500 students and 100 volunteers. At Friday our bus left at 7:30 to The Netherlands with the Dutchies en the people from Belgium. Famke and my mother picked me up at Amersfoort and we went straight to Jelle’s graduation.

My last blog kind of ended with a cliff-hanger. Meanwhile I have an answer on the question: “Lotte what are you going to do next year?” Well I still have to go on a visa conversation but the chance that I am going to the USA is like 99%. For the people who didn’t know that yet: surprise!! I will go to Iowa in the centre of The USA. I will go for 2 year to Marshalltown Community College and become a Tiger!

For the Lithuanians, exchange students, in general all the people I met this year etc. and for all the people who made my year abroad better then I ever could expect. Lithuania made me a stronger person, a more independent person and I hope I had such a good influence on Lithuania as Lithuania had on me. Maybe hard to understand, but I fell in love for your beautiful country. For your beautiful, but complicated language. For the interesting but tasty food. For everything what happened in Lithuania. I promise I definitely will come back to Lithuania, although I cannot say exactly when. But I am already missing sour cream and to be honest I also miss surelis. Aciu labai!!