Introduction

Welcome to my blog. I suppose an introduction of sorts would be useful. I was raised on a farm in south-central Kansas, about 20 miles south southwest of Hutchinson. There was plenty of room to run around, but I did feel as if we were rather isolated. Every time I returned to school in the autumn, I felt sort of left out, as if I had missed something and needed to get reacquainted with everyone again. Ah well, life on the farm. As I grew older, I began to hate living on a farm, especially the work. But later, as I approached my late teens, I began to appreciate the experience of living in the countryside. Still, my main goal was to travel and see the world. I never really had any desire to enter any particular profession or to have a specific career, only to see the world. After graduating from Pretty Prairie High School in 1984, I left for the University of Kansas in Lawrence. What a great time! So much to do; so much to see; so much to learn. I managed to find a good mix of partying and studying and was able to finish with a bachelor's degree in linguistics in four years. After that, I followed a girlfriend to Taiwan, where we ended up spending two years teaching English. While there, we got married ... which later proved to be a mistake on both our parts. Five years after we had returned to the States, we were divorced, although things were over well before that time. While going through the end of our relationship, I again thought about my goal of seeing the world. I never had the money to just travel around, especially for an extended period of time, so again I thought about going overseas to teach English. I thought seriously about going to the Far East again, maybe Vietnam, which was just beginning to open up at that time, but I listened to the advice of a friend and decided to try Europe. I ended up going to Lithuania about a month and a half before my 30th birthday. And, except for nine months in Germany and a year in Singapore, I've been there ever since. Sooo, this blog is mostly going to be about my experiences as an American in Lithuania. As things stand right now, I'm 42, have been married for 10 years to a wonderful woman (Vaiva), and have two kids: Adomas (Adam)-8 and Meta-3.

Here's my family.


One of my main reasons for blogging is to capture my impressions of my life here and compare them as the years go by. Life in Lithuania is not easy. In fact, it seems to be filled with daily turmoil, anger and disappointment. But there are some things that make up for the problems.

So, that's the beginning. Next time: some comments from friends and fellow expats about Lithuania.