My New Home: LCC International University

 

After exploring the castle and surrounding town at Traiki, we completed our journey to campus. LCC University is located in Klaipeda, a city of 200,000 people. We settled into the dorms and relaxed a little for the night (Thursday). We had more orientation activities on Friday (campus and city tour and lots of meetings about academics and life in Lithuania), Saturday (trip to Nida), and Sunday (Traditional church in Kretinga and traditional meal at restaurant) Pictured above is my home for the next few months. Neumann Hall, home to aprox 200 students and faculty. Built in 2007, the facility is modern and accommodating. You can also see Enns hall in the background in the right, a similar dorm. Look for a blog post later about my room and pod on the 5th floor!

 

Here is the heart and soul of the University. This building serves as the academic building/library/offices/student services/business office/registrar/chapel/student lounge/mailroom/EVERYTHING. It is only a 2 minute walk from my dorm. It may look small, but it packs a lot in. I am still getting lost in it almost every day. It's like a maze or stairs, hallways, and rooms.

 

 This is the 4th and last building on campus (Talk about tiny campus! Yeah, I thought the same thing.) This is the gymnasium/fitness center/cafeteria/study abroad offices. The gym is the best in the county and Team Lithuania practiced here for the Olympic basketball games! The fitness center is quite small, but has everything necessary. I have yet to use it though :p The cafeteria is more like a salad bar looking thing with lunch type food. I haven't eaten there yet, so I don't know exactly what sort of food they have. There is no "meal plan" here, but you can pay a small price to eat lunch. They are not open for dinner unless you go at like 4:30pm. I'm sure I will check it out sometime. I have been enjoying making some of my own meals, eating out, or eating ethic food make by other students from various countries.

 So where is Klaipeda? Oh, you know...just on the BALTIC SEA! No big deal. Our first night on campus we walked 30 minutes to the shore line for dinner on the beach to watch the sunset. It was absolutely perfect. It was like an ocean beach. The waves were a little bit calmer and it was probably only 55 degrees out, but hey, it was still a beach. I usually go to a beach on the East Coast in America at least once a year, but this summer I didn't go at all, so this was a treat! I mean, how many people can say they went to school by the Baltic Sea?

Downtown Klaipeda is a 30 minute walk from campus, or a 5 minute bus ride. While it is still nice out, I have been walking most of the time. I'm sure as it gets colder I will be riding the bus more and more. The bus only costs 1 Lita each time you ride, which is about 27 cents when converted to USD. Downtown has one main street that contains lots of shopping and restaurants. If you keep walking along the main street it will turn into Old Town, which has the cobblestone and older looking German style buildings. A little past that you have the harbor and piers where you can watch ships going in and out. Even further on the road is a big mall called Acropolis. This is your typical indoor mall minus all the American stores. The shops are mostly clothes, shoes, bags, coats etc. There is also a giant grocery store called Maxima in the center (basically a Walmart) and an electronic store than reminds me of Best Buy. In addition to the shops there is also themed restaurants, ice skating, a cinema, and bowling! So far I have been to downtown for shopping, thrifting, coffee, dinner, dancing, jazz music, and taking pictures.