When I was 24 - it was a very good year!

I've been waiting too long to write my last entry on this blog. It's not easy to put a full stop. Especially for something that has been so great!

It's unimaginable what a wonderful year it has been!!! I had a chance to travel half the world (I can't forgive myself for not having any frequent flyer cards:)), meet people that changed my attitude and inspired to be better... I had a chance to change my life! I'm not sure I used it to the fullest, but now I can say that I at least tried.

Too many "I"s in this posting:)

Actually I wanted to put pictures to show who, what and how made me so happy, but unfortunately for the 5th time my computer died, half of the pics died with him. Kinda symbolic, I guess - I've never had that many problems (challenges, sorry Saulius:)) with my computer as I did last year and now it's dead and silent again:) So, no pictures. Just a short message saying THANK YOU for making my life extraordinary!

In one of my favorite songs it says "at what point did you realize, that everybody loves your life but you?"... I think it happens to a lot of people, me including, but when I was 24 - it was a very good year and I loved every second of it. (Too emotional again:) Mindazai - I didn't improve in this sphere:D)

Africa dream is over. Rise and shine for a lovely day at home

There is life after AIESEC... they say

Yes and I believe them!:) It’s the moment I’ve been waiting for for quite a while and dreading the same. And now I find it quite hard to describe this incredible experience. AIESEC did make me a better person, a more confident, more skillful, more caring person… in some cases more cinical as well, but it’s only because my standards have always been much higher than those of the other people. Anyway, it’s been a joyfull ride and I’m extremely grateful to AIESEC people who did change my life. Thank you!

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The last official event of the year and my active AIESEC career – Annual stakeholder’s dinner – with around 100 important and nicely dressed people:) One of those times that makes me feel proud of AIESEC, AIESEC Ghana and that I’m part of it. We’re far from perfect, but we did a good job. And we’re SOOO getting the UBS award at IC this year!;) Some pictures from the event:

Christian and Bernard - crazy PWC trainees:)

My lovely LC people:)
With Maryna and Mr. President;)

With Julius - the most fun and one of the most progressive AIESEC ppl in Ghana;)
I told you it was a fancy event:)

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Lately it’s much easier to express myself with songs. For this special occasion, I think this is the most appropriate song I have:

Empty spaces - what are we living for?

Abandoned places - I guess we know the score..

On and on!

Does anybody know what we are looking for?

Another hero - another mindless crime.

Behind the curtain, in the pantomime.

Hold the line!

Does anybody want to take it anymore?

The Show must go on!

The Show must go on!

Inside my heart is breaking,

My make-up may be flaking,

But my smile, still, stays on!

Whatever happens,

I'll leave it all to chance.

Another heartache - another failed romance.

On and on!

Does anybody know what we are living for?

I guess i'm learningI must be warmer now..

I'll soon be turning round the corner now.

Outside the dawn is breaking,

But inside in the dark I'm aching to be free!

The Show must go on!

The Show must go on!

Yeah!Ooh!

Inside my heart is breaking!

My make-up may be flaking!

But my smile, still, stays on!

My soul is painted like the wings of butterflies,

Fairy tales of yesterday,

will grow but never die,

I can fly, my friends!

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And just in case I don't get to write anything more here before I leave and in case you are in Lithuania, let's catch up;) I'm comming HOME this saturday 21:05, flight from London. I hope you didn't delete my old mobile number from your phones;)

Finally some generalizations

After a year spent in Ghana, I think, I already have the right to make some generalizations about this nation and believe them to be true. Some things I find particularly interesting (not as in bad, as in different) and I want to remember:

• They don’t know how to swim, though live close to the water. Mainly it’s not their “fault”, more of the fact that the sea has great waves all the time. Though people, we met at Nzulezu (the village on stilts) knew how to swim quite well.
• They don’t know how to blow bubbles from the bubble gum:) It was funny see Charles learning how to do that:)
• 95% of population could live happily eating only fufu or banku every meal, all day, every day. They eat it with hands. Sometimes it’s interesting to observe adult people in suits dipping hands in the soup…
• All people are born with the feel of the rhythm and dance whenever there’s a chance. Everybody dances, young and old, boys and girls… Most ways of dancing are too physically close for my taste, but they do enjoy it none the less.
• They don’t take alcohol, instead the most popular is sache water:) though when you go out somewhere you’re most likely drink coke, sprite, fanta (orange, lemon or cocktail) or pineapple juice (more rarely orange or mango juice).
• Ghanaians are selling nation:) you can buy almost anything on the streets while standing in the traffic jam. Most likely you are to hear: “Pure water!” (selling sache water), “Yes plaintain!” (plantain chips that can be salty or sweet), “Coco coco” (cold coconut and chocolate drink), “Yes pawpaw” (papaya). But also you can buy stuff for your car or house like 10 rolls of toilet paper for example.
• Generally Ghanaians are not a cheating nation by its sense. For example if you buy coke or beer in glass bottles you are expected to take the bottle back and everybody trusts you that you will do that. Though they don’t mind getting paid more than they should – bargaining is a very important to skill to master.
• Maryna observed an interesting fashion trick – often girls wear shoes that are two sizes too small and guys – the ones two sizes too big. I haven’t found a logical backing for this fact.
• Every Sunday (more rarely Saturday) they go to church looking their very best and spend a lot of time there. They read bible and other spiritual books every day. Whatever the book is about, either it’s relationships or managing your finances, you may find a version with tips how good Christians do it.
• I believe Ghanaians are quite nationalistic people: Friday’s are traditional wear day (not jeans;)); they love their music – the hip life (new popular songs) and the high life (old songs that are always popular); they really don’t like it when you say anything bad about their country, even as a joke (don’t let me comment on this one).
• One thing that is lacking in this country is the long term thinking and planning. That’s one of the reasons we’re facing a huge energy crisis these days. It’s not that bad for households (individuals can adjust quite easily), but I can’t imagine how hard it should be for the business. I heard when there’s “lights off” the production costs raise almost 5 times due to usage of generators. Just amazing…
• ...it can go on and on and on...
  

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I'm very much into one type of songs these days (Keistuoliu teatras;)). This one seems to be appropriate here:

Atsigrezkite, skrendantys,
Iskeliaujantys, stokit,
Pamojuokite verkiantiems,
Visiems pamojuokite:
Pavelavusiems, liudintiems,
Stotyse susiguzusiems…

Pamojuokite snaudziantiems
Issiilgusiems, laukiantiems…

Pamojuokite tolstantiem,
Nepaliaujamai krentantiem
Nelabai apsirengusiem
Pamojuokite krentantiem
Atsiliekantiem, tylintiem
Uzmirstiem, nusivylusiems…

Pamojuokite kylantiem
Nemyletiem, o mylintiem…

Bet tiktai tu nebaidyk
Ryto strazdo giesmininko
Tu tiktai paklausyk
Ne siandien, tai rytoj jisai uzgiedos
Tik lauki...

It's the end of the world as I know it

I realized recently that my life became like that of a death row prisoner. Everything around seems to be only about the fact that I have only a month left in Ghana. People ask when exactly I’m leaving more often, I started looking through my clothes what I can leave here and what I should take home, I started making lists of people I want to bring something from here and started thinking what to buy them, as well as counting the money I have left and am able to spend…

I started thinking in more detail what to do when I get back: there’s a wedding I’m going to on 7th of July and bachelorret’s party week before that, my parents bought tickets to the opera on the 5th and there are plenty new movies I want to enjoy at the cinema, as well as meeting friends, telling same and new stories all over again and taking pleasures of a “normal” life like hot shower, TV, Double coffee, nice food and people talking Lithuanian… Yes, I do think about it too much. From one side it makes me quite happy, though as always there’s a thought somewhere deep that all those “happy moments” mean that this will be it. THE END. The end of a movie “Dalia’s crazy adventures in Africa”…

Some say the world will end in fire;

Some say in ice.

From what I've tasted of desire

I hold with those who favor fire.

But if it had to perish twice,

I think I know enough of hate

To know that for destruction ice

Is also great

And would suffice.

BUT I still have a month!!! For some people it’s all they get, I mean, they come to Ghana just for a month and they have to fit everything in those four weeks. I should focus more on enjoying my last days.

Anyway it’s not the same anymore… My friends start leaving, new people take trips I’ve already taken and there’s no more pizza Tuesdays. Honestly, I hate change:) Though this is a positive change as we had pancake Tuesday instead. I’m all for that;)

This weekend we have the LAST AIESEC conference, planning for next year... then it's the annual stakeholder's dinner and transition. And that's it! AIESEC ends there. The active part of it that is...

Looking forward to see what future has in mind for me;)

Remembering China...

Got some nice pictures I'd like to share with you... Some of very cool people I've met:

Daniel from Bangladesh, who keeps forgetting to send me pictures from our trip to the Great China Wall.

Susan - the sweetest Chinese girl:) She explained me the secret of the pictures taken with the "victory" signs is that it makes you look cuter:)

The last day spent with Asia at the summer palace was really lot's of fun:) And I convinced her to come to Ghana for a traineeship when she's done with China!!!

As you know Beijing will be hosting the next year's Olympics. That's one of the stadiums they are building. It looks like a nest of a bird:) Looking to impress;)

Each continent has a different talisman for olympics - of course this one is of Africa:) The cutest one;)

Asia called this a porno picture:) No comment...

And a couple of fun facts:

Chinese think that number 4 is a bad number, so in some places there's no 4th floor, or 14th for that matter... AND 13th... So when you're going up to 15th floor it's actually just the 12th:) no comment...

Have a magical day!

That's what they tell you when you enter Disneyland. It was my first day in Hong Kong and it was pretty magical ever since...
They have great public transportation system in HK, though a bit expensive as well... The fastest way to get somewhere is with a subway and there's a special line that goes to Disneyland. That's me in that subway, by the way. Even the windows are in the shape of Mickey Mouse:)

Tickets again are quite expensive, but it's not like in Ghana, here you just pay once and do whatever you want - everything is inclusive, you don't have to pay every single time for a ride or for a show. A DAY OF CHILDISH FUN!!!:)

The fountains of course also have to have something to do with Mickey. He's everywhere:)

Disneyland HK is the smallest of it's kind, but there's a lot to be done. It's divided into three parts - adventureland, fantasyland and tomorrowland. That's me at the entrence of the adventureland - the place where the pirates, tarzan and Lion king live. (don't ask me what I'm doing in the picture:p Mantas said, I cannot just stand at the gate with the pirates, so I tried something...)

Mantas being friendly with a local sceleton.
Tarzan has a tree house in the island, to get to which you take a two minute swim on the raft. And there you can see the whole story of Tarzan. I was amazed by the details of the place. This picture is taken where Tarzan's parents were attacked by tigers. You can see crashed picture frames, dusty books etc.

The view from the top of Tarzan's tree. We took one of those river safaries;) It was really fun!

The whole idea of the river safari is to get wet and laugh a bit. You can see plenty of animals, "ruins" and pirates of course;)

Now that was one of the most fun events:) It's a short story of the lion king with the original songs and a huge show of course with a bunch of "special effects";)
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Fantasyland is where all the pincess' (that's the castle of the sleeping beauty - the symbol of Disney), Dumbo elephant, Alice from wonderland and Winnie the pooh live. As well as Eyore of course - my favorite sad donkey:)

We tried all kinds of rides. Unfortunately most of them are for smaller kids. It was fun anyway:p Me in Dumbo and Mantas in cups:p Pretending to be scared. Though actually it was quite fun to spin round and round...

At three o'clock every day there's a huge parade:

We watched the best 3D (or should I say 4D as there was also water splashing and wind and stuff). The two fingers by your face is supposed to make you look cutter. No comment there.
I don't have much pictures from the tomorrowland, but it had the best roller-coaster (sp?), when you go up up in the dark and then the stars start to appear and then you go down and down to the sides with horrible speed. Quite an adrenalin!

That's all the Disneyland in the evening... A sweet place...

Even wafles are in shape of Mickey mouse:)
The main street at night. Like from a fairy tale.
And everything ends up with huge fireworks with music... Ech... What a magical day!!!

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Lithuanians of HK!!! Andrius - the guy in the middle - lives here already six years. Mantas and Egle - people on the sides are on internship here for a couple of months, and me and Lina were just visiting. Later on we also met two more lithuanians - Sigute, who's a model here, and Giedrius, who happens to be the DJ at the club we went to!!! A club on 28th floor!!! Quite impressive;) Though the music is almost the same as in Tantra:p

There's one area where people gather in the evenings of the weekend. Stevan's dream:p
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HK is made up of a bunch of islands. The one you can see in the background is called - HK:p that's supposedly the capital:) That's also where I lived. And this island is something like Kowloon or something similar. And along the coast there's the star's avenue, like in Hollywood:)

The only HK star that I know of:(
HK island at night. Every night there's a light and laser show according to the music. Brought to you by the tourism board. They're doing quite a good job I'd say;)

Some interesting structures:
All sky skrapers are in weird and different shapes. Some are according to feng shui, some are just big, some are just made to look good:)

A park surrounded by cement. Quite a sight!
A very simple, but fun thing - a massage for your feet:)

While Mantas was trying to be in a ballet, my feet were hurting quite a bit:) They say it means that you're sick:(

By the waterfall and inside it:

And just happy Mantas:p
We took a tram up the peek. At some places we were really more than 45 degrees. This picture was taken with the camera standing still on the window:
Ain't that just the way the tram goes down down down down...

And that's HK at night. A very nice view!!!

A lot of lights... and a smog... or just a fog...
Me with the small lion:)

Of course this is not all... but it's a start. I have to go back. It's not easy to fit everything in my small suitcase. I was prepared for 10 degrees as it said it was supposed to be in China... the minimum I experienced though was like 25...

The magic is over.

There's 9 million bicycles in Beijing

At least that's how the song goes, though my experience tells me it might be even more:) We have considered writing to the government to ban this song for misinformation。 There are also 1000 new cars in China every day, what causes great problems with traffic and polution. But these are just random facts.

Honestly I didn't ever think of going to China. Don't know why, but it hasn't been on my "need to visit" list, but now I'm quite happy that I did:) Some of the great things that I've seen:
Tian'men - the gate of purity - is one of those places that you'd associate with China right away. And it's quite an impresive place, with the square near it spreading for more than a couple of hectars. It managed to fit 1 million people during one demonstration. This place has a very sad history. Though it started as a grand place of declaring independence and other important announcements, it has seen also some horrible fights where thousands of people were killed during various demonstrations. The most recent being in 1989 when the students and workers protested against the regime and were surpresed by tanks...

Comming back to the gate. After this gate an amazing palace starts - it's called the forbiden city, because for centuries it has been the palace of the emperor and the common people were not allowed even to come close to it. It's a HUGE area of more than 100 hectars and they say it takes 3 days to see everything. It took us 3 hours just to go from one side to the other and back.
As you can see the palace has plenty squares and gates and rooms and museums etc. Each place has a name and served some different purpose.
And of course everything is extreemly beautiful and detailed:

That's the nicest carved ceiling
One of the side streets. The girl with me is Kamila, she'll be in norvegian MC next year - a very nice and fun girl;)

One of the bedrooms. As you may imagine the emperor had plenty of wives and even more incubines. Which would lead to even more children, as you may presume. Also to assure that the children born inside the walls of the forbiden city are royal, all workers here were eunuchs (or how are they called in English?). And the fun part was that they wanted to be buried with all their parts, so they would carry their testicles near their belt.
For the general feeling I tried something new - filming:

After this quite exhausting (though of course extreemly beautiful) walk, we found a restaurant that serves the real Peking DUCK (I'm not sure you can see, but the thing between the legs of the duck it's actually it's head:)) And you're not eating this kind of duck just as meat, but on the right you can see the small pancakes made from flour and water, so you put some meat on them, then put cucumber and onion (in front) and some soya souce. Then you wrap it and eat:)

And of course. I CLIMBED THＥ　ＧＲＥＡＴ WALL!!!!!!!!!!! though it's the stupid picture, it's the only one I have:( Because right after this moment my camera's battery died. And then I realized that I left the charger in Ghana. Oh well... But we baught the disposable camera, so now Daniel - eMCP of Bangladesh is in charge of making the pictures, scanning them and sending them to me. Then I can show you more beautiful sites;)

My one week long stay in China is comming to an end. And I have to say that I really enjoyed it much more than Ｉ　ｔｈｏｕｇｈｔ. But it's not really my place. Ｉ　ｄｏｎ＇ｔｋｎｏｗ　ｗｈａｔ　Ｉ　ｅｘｐｅｃｔｅｄ，　ｂｕｔ　Ｂｅｉｊｉｎｇ　ａｐｅａｒｓ　ｔｏ　ｂｅ　ｔｏｏ　ｎｏｒｍａｌ．　Ｏｒ　ｍａｙｂｅ　ｅｖｅｒｙｗｈｅｒｅ　ｉｔ　ｗｏｕｌｄ　ｂｅ　ｎｏｒｍａｌ　ｎｏｗ　ｆｏｒ　ｍｅ？：ｐ　Ｙｅｓｔｅｒｄａｙ　Ｉ　ｔｏｏｋ　ｔｈｅ　ｓｕｂｗａｙ　ｂｙ　ｍｙｓｅｌｆ　ｔｏ　ｔｈｅ　ｃｅｎｔｅｒ　ｏｆ　ｔｈｅ　ｃｉｔｙ，　ｄｉｄ　ｓｏｍｅ　ｓｈｏｐｐｉｎｇ　ａｎｄ　ｒｅｔｕｒｎｅｄ　ｔｏ　ｔｈｅ　ＭＣ　ｈｏｕｓｅ．　Ｆｅｌｔ　ｑｕｉｔｅ　ｐｒｏｕｄ．Ｉｆ　Ｉ　ｍａｎａｇｅ　ｔｏ　ｆｉｎｄ　ｍｙ　ｗａｙ　ｉｎ　ｔｈｅ　ｃｉｔｙ　ｔｈａｔ＇ｓ　ｈｏｍｅ　to 15 　million people, from which only 500 000 speak English (really, have you seen McDonnalds, where the girl or a boy at the counter doesn't understand you when you ask for a milkshake?), I can do many things more! Yeah, go Dalia!:D

Ｉ　ｇｕｅｓｓ　Ｉ　ｍｉｓｓ　Ｇｈａｎａ：）Ｏｒ　ａｓ　ｏｎｅ　ｐｅｒｓｏｎ　ｔｏｌｄ　ｍｅ，　ｍａｙｂｅ　ｏｎｌｙ　ｍｙ　ｔｒａｉｎｅｅｓ:)

Back to Hong Kong tomorrow. Another adventure back to the future.