Modestas & Jolanta Pay a Visit

So it is at this point of the trip – still the very beginning – that we have been up for roughly 30 hours – give or take the hour or two that we slept on the plane and napped after the ladies left the apartment.

As I mentioned in the earlier post – one of the reasons that we are here is to attend the wedding of Modestas and Jolanta – because they feel so honored that we have done this – Modestas wanted to stop by to introduce his future wife and invite us over to dinner.

So now we are finally meeting Jolanta – a vibrant young woman – shorter than Modesats she fits nicely into the crook of his arm. Thin, but no too thin, her bright blue eyes sparkle from a frame of light brown hair. They are a handsome couple and you immediately can see that they care for each other quite a bit. It is a good partnership as Jolanta is not afraid to speak or show her personality – a nice compliment to Modestas’ shyness.

Jolanata speaks English and is trying to get Modestas to do the same – so when ever he falls into Lithuanian talking to Lisa’s father – she gently pokes him and tells him to speak English! It is very amusing! She works for a retail outlet that is along the lines of Home Depot or Lowes for us called “Sneukai” (Cen Nuke A) – in personnel (HR). There is an interesting story behind Sneukai – besides being a huge chain – located all through Lithuania, and most of the Baltic, it’s owner spent ten years in jail and was heavily involved in the mafia – but once released he went straight, started the company with very little money and is now a huge success. Working for Sneukai is a good job as they take good care of their employees.

So we visit for an hour or so when Jolanta notices that we are getting very sleepy – I know my head bobs up and down a few times and I think Lisa’s is as well. Taking the cue – she politely rises and tells Modestas that it is time to go to allow us to rest – by this time it is nearly 11:00 PM.

So with Jolanta and Modestas now departed we begin the ritual of preparing the pull-out couch for bed – an interesting ritual as we take the cushions and place them under the mattress to create some resemblance of comfort. We toy with the idea of sorting through some of the suitcases – another ritual as I mentioned before – and decided to leave it for the time being and just go to bed. 36 hours later!