“All the history books and archives combined make up only a tiny part of history. The real history hides in people’s memories, in their experiences, their testimonies and stories. <..> Collective Memory has been created to keep these stories and organize them by name, location, time period, theme and language to be made available to any person in the world.” - Collective Memory

This is a very noble project, which is making its first steps on the Internet. There are not so few stories available already and they are adding new videos daily - this is what gives this project huge potential. You can also contribute to this online history database - all you need to do is find a person, who has lived through some historical events and ask him to talk about them in front of the camera. Unfortunately almost all content is in Latvian at the moment but I hope that it will get really international soon. So guys, please spread the word about this nice website and let’s hope it gets as big in history topic as Wikipedia.

• www.collectivememory.tv

This post will come in handy for those guys and girls, who are thinking about studying outside their home countries. I will try going through some basic points that you should take into consideration before actually applying for the study programme.

In my case everything was quite simple. At the end of the first semester at my high school I had absolutely no idea about what I am going to study. I’ve always had this passion for graphics and web development and I was willing to study it but I had never thought about doing this in Lithuania. I dunno why, I know for a fact that there are programmes in my home country similar to what we have here but I never took them serious. I was going to apply for Logistics management, Culinary studies, Photography or some kind of engineering studies. But my salvation happened when Marat approached me with an offer:

- Hey. Let’s take studies in Denmark.
- What kind of?
- Multimedia.
- Ok :)

This was it. I always had a feeling that I will study my subject somewhere abroad, I just needed some kind of, I would call it, kick in the ass. What is more, I LOVE travelling. I love seeing new places, I love experiencing live there, I love meeting new people. I am just curious about how things work in different places. It’s my natural desire. Enough about me, let’s move on to what I promised in the beginning.

IS YOUR ENGLISH GOOD ENOUGH?
Its quite essential to be able to communicate in English fluently. You will have all your studies, work, almost all free time and even big part of your household in English. Are you sure you are able to handle that? If you read this blog and have no problems with understanding what I say - that’s good enough to come here. You’d probably feel quite comfortable even in England itself. When I first came here it was a bit hard for me to start talking English, but later on I got used to it and now I even dream in this language. I still know how to talk Lithuanian though.

ARE YOU ABLE TO LEAVE YOUR FAMILY/FRIENDS?
At first you are really hyped with all this “independent” & “self sufficient” stuff but later on you start regretting you didn’t spend the last days before starting studies with your family. You are likely to miss your friends, too. You can’t realise how much do your friends mean to you while you haven’t left them for at least three - four months. Then you start to understand what the real friendship is. The same goes for the family - although you always thought that they don’t understand you, you will get over that rebel period and understand how important to you these people really are.

DO YOU REALLY WANT TO STUDY THAT SUBJECT?
I know that some people would study whatever they see on a studies advertisement posters just to get away from their roots. In my opinion this isn’t a correct attitude. You should examine studie’s curriculum in and out and be sure to weight all pros and cons. Some people, who started last semester have already quit because they realised that this isn’t their area at all (programming and computer graphics work mostly) - they are in their home countries now. Another thing to know is that it’s almost impossible to get a job in a Danish company after studies, they don’t need international people.

ARE YOU AN EASY GOING PERSON?
Well, you probably are if you are actually considering studying abroad. You can’t be afraid to ask people for help or stay behind everyone’s back all the time. Don’t be afraid to start the conversation first, others will follow your example and start chatting. I am a quiet person but only if I don’t have anything to say or if the topic is not interesting. I can’t talk about the weather like most British or Danish people can. I prefer keeping things real.

DO YOU HAVE A SOURCE FOR MONEY?
Do not expect to find a job here. Aarhus is the second city in Denmark by it’s size and it’s still quite difficult to get a job here (haven’t heard about any problems finding a job in Copenhagen though). Be prepared to spend 3000+ of krones every month. International students cannot receive the Danish SU (scholarship; I believe you have to have had worked here for two years before you gain right to receive it, right? Would be grateful if some Danish guys could enlighten me about that) unless they come here by special student exchange programmes (Erasmus for example). Probably you will be using your parent’s money at the beginning, later on they’ll just keep sending it to you no matter you need it or not. It’s your choice what to do with it, I’m saving money for an HD camera and I often need to buy parts for my skateboard :)

ARE YOU ABLE TO COPE WITH BIG AMOUNT OF WORK?
Some people say it’s easy to study in Denmark, others say vice versa. The studies themselves are not difficult and you have lots of free time but during the projects things get rather tight and you have to cope with a really big amount of work. During the last project there were times when my group worked till 7 o’clock in the morning. Then 5 hours of sleep and back to work again. You even become immune to caffeine. Don’t forget that you’re likely to have your job duties during the projects. Think about it.

You should also know what do you expect from your studies. For me it was good experience, lot’s of fun, new surroundings, interesting people and unexpectidly I understood that I really know nothing about producing webpages and selling them. It was the best finding I could ever expect and I am happy I have an ability to study here. If your answer for the most of the above questions was Yes, then you could probably take studies abroad. Good luck and stay tuned!

Lip Dub - Flagpole Sitta by Harvey Danger from amandalynferri on Vimeo.

Video description says it was filmed one night after work. That’s the attitude I like. You can feel the good vibe flowing through you. I even started craving for working for an American company! Gee son

I don’t want to talk about my holidays in Lithuania, however I would like to tell you what happened when I got back home here, in Aarhus. First of all, the final semester project started in January. It were two crazy weeks when I really worked hard during that period and even stayed up till early mornings to keep up with the timeline and be ready with the report and product. My group decided to produce an online shopping website for Aarhus market, which would deliver your groceries in one hour after order, 24/7. We actually had to do a lot of research for this project and it was a hell of a lot of fun. We came up with this final design and we are really proud of it. Then a week of holiday followed. My flatmates went to Lithuania and I decided to stay here, maybe look for a job and just chill. Unfortunately I got sick during that week so I spent half of my holiday sitting at home and watching movies. One of the best was Rockers, which was really explanatory about the situation of rastafaries in Jamaica. Their love for music is fascinating and it was interesting to see what simple lives they live. I strongly recommend watching this movie.

The second semester started last week, we were introduced to our schedule and things we’re gonna be learning: JavaScript, PHP, Actionscript 3.0, and, of course, lot’s of business and communication. First week was rather tiring and it was good to spend my Friday afternoon in the Friday bar at school. I’m also planning on joining the party committee at our college and throwing some great parties during the last year I’ve got left to study MMD.

Well, that’s the end of the short overview of what has happened during the last two months. By the way, as I was not able to find any job here (I tried a lot of places, they just want Danish speaking guys) I decided to go freelance web developing. Check out my portfolio and let me know if anyone you know needs a website or an outsource programmer (PHP, Javascript, HTML). That’s it, take care folks!

Hitchhiker baby! The lucky road stone of hitchhikers in the Aarhus harbour.

Yesterday me and Marat hitchhiked from Aarhus to Copenhagen because we have our flights from there. We were lucky because the weather was really good and warm, no wind or rain. We used Hitchwiki to find the best spot for hitchhiking. So we decided to head to the harbor and try our luck there. Our decision turned out to be a good one because because of all of the cars that were passing by, the second one stopped! The guy said he can drop us off on the other side in Odde as he was heading there and we agreed. It was a nice trip, his company paid for it and we could use the business class privileges. When we got to the other side he dropped us off at the ferry and we tried hitchhiking once again. And once again we were very lucky that we sat in the right place at the right time in the ferry as the guy, who stopped saw us chatting with the first driver in the restaurant. We got to Copenhagen very quickly. Thank you very much, dear drivers, for giving us a lift!

The road we ride with our bikes to Aarhus downtown. Very nice trip with beautiful views!

This panorama was taken from moving ferry. It is in the northern side of the city where we live.

Thanks for our good mate Kostia, who agreed to help us with accommodation in Copenhagen!

Copenhagen is a very big and nice city.

I am flying home to Lithuania on Monday, and Marat with Nerius are flying there on Sunday.

Algimantas Cekuolis - the smartest person in Lithuania. He knows everything about anything. Also a heavy drinker of tea.

While living here for the past 4 months we’ve been asked lot’s of different questions about our home country Lithuania. We tried to memorize them and put them altogether. The following questions are non-fictional questions. Enjoy :)

Q: Where are you from?
A: Litauen.
Q: Aaaa, Riga (Tallinn).
A: It’s Vilnius actually. There are three small countries by the Baltic Sea: Estonia (Tallinn), Latvia (Riga) and Lithuania (Vilnius). It’s pretty common that people from western countries often confuse them, because these three countries (also known as the Baltic States) are pretty similar but at the same time very diverse.

The Flag of Lithuania. Yellow stands for the sun, green for the grass and nature and red for the blood spilt in wars.

Q: You speak Lithuanian or Russian?
A: We’ve never had to speak Russian. There was a ban on Lithuanian press between 1864 and 1904 but being rebels we still managed to secretly spread and read Lithuanian press. In 1990 03 11 Lithuania declared its independence.
“On February 4, 1991, Iceland became the first country to recognize Lithuanian independence. Sweden was the first to open an embassy in the country. The United States of America never recognized the Soviet claim to Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia. Russia currently refuses to recognize the occupation of Lithuania, claiming that Lithuanians decided to join the Soviet Union voluntarily, although Russia signed a treaty with Lithuania before the disintegration of the USSR which acknowledged Lithuania’s forced loss of sovereignty at the hands of the Soviets, thereby recognizing the occupation.” - Wikipedia.

Q: You were in Soviet Union.
A: Yeah, after declaring our independence The Red Army attacked the Vilnius TV Tower on the night of January 13, 1991, an act that resulted in the death of 13 Lithuanian civilians. The last Red Army troops left Lithuania on August 31, 1993 — even earlier than they departed from East Germany.

Time for some serious questions :)

Q: I’ve heard that in Afghanistan they teach small children at school how to use weapons. Did you have to learn how to use weapons at your school?
A: No, they don’t teach children in Lithuania how to use weapons. Children learn this by themselves. In fact, at school children are taught how to use their bare hands to tear out the heart of their foe directly from his chest. Creepy, though.

Q: I’ve heard that Russia is going to attack you again. How are you preparing for the war?
A: C’mon, we don’t need to do that as long as we know the techniques of tearing the hearts out of chests and we also pray to our pagan gods as we strongly believe that they will help us to defend ourselves.

Q: Do you have planes?
A: No, but we have monks, who use their mental powers to move/fly things around. They work as lift-operators and pilots. Also in the construction sites abroad.

Q: You do have computers, don’t you?
A: Yeah, although we don’t have any electricity. That’s why we all have laptops and import so many batteries into our country – we need to keep them running somehow, don’t we? And we don’t have any fire either. Actually, the 3 of us were selected from thousand candidates to bring home the secrets of how to light a fire and create the philosophers stone.
Oh, and by the way, we still live in caves. We use stones instead of pillows and we make ink from different kinds of plants. Actually, Lithuania is the only country to have living dinosaurs. It’s a pity scientists couldn’t find their way through those dense jungles, that’s why they say that dinosaurs have disappeared.

Q: Do you have any penguins?
A: Nah, they all migrated to Iceland after Lithuania declared its independence. They now live in cupboards and under the beds.

Q: How much wives can you have?
A: As much as you want as long as no one knows about it.

Q: What is Lithuania known for?
A: Our national basketball team, beer (you don’t know the taste of perfect beer until you try the Lithuanian one, Švyturys in Lithuanian means The Lighthouse), disc thrower Virgilijus Alekna, tennis player Ricardas Berankis and, of course, beautiful girls.

Dictionary
Hi – Labas, sveiki
Bye – Ate
See you – Iki
Thank you – Aciu
Do you have weed – Ar turi pramust?

Any sugestions for his name? Because our old spider, Arnas, who lived over our front door died from getting cold :( We really miss him because he was the first person, who welcomed us home when we got back from our trips and he was the one, who had some funny things to make while guys were smoking outside and he was a part of our family, but yeah, we just have to move on and it’s nice that we have our new pet at last :)