The big decision for this year in Lithuania was whether to live in Vilnius or Kaunas. I wanted to be in Kaunas for my interview project, to work in the local archives and to be involved with my host university. I wanted to be in Vilnius because most of my friends and the national archives are in Vilnius and there is so much to do in the city. So I came up with a plan to live in both cities. I figured that for the price of renting a full apartment for myself, I could rent a room in each city and go back and forth. I knew that it might be challenging living in two locations, but it made sense.
Prior to arriving in Lithuania, I agreed to share an apartment in Vilnius with an American student. I also had a tentative offer for a room in Kaunas. However, I have now been in Lithuania for over 6 weeks and my housing situation keeps getting less settled rather than more settled.
The original room in Kaunas didn’t work out for good reasons so I found another room to rent. I was supposed to move into that room last week, but at the last minute the landlady decided to replace the windows and the furniture in the room. I greatly appreciate this, especially the new windows, but it means that I can’t move in until next week — 3 weeks later than I had planned. I’ve still had work to do in Kaunas, which meant finding places to stay for several days at a time.
In the meantime, the apartment sharing situation in Vilnius was not a good one — to the extent that I felt I needed to move out this week. Fortunately new friends immediately offered to let me stay in their guest room until I can move to Kaunas next weekend. Now I have to decide if I want to look for another shared apartment in Vilnius or just rent my own apartment. But I think I’ll wait until I am settled in Kaunas to find a new place in Vilnius.
I haven’t been overly anxious about the situation because I know that I can turn to my friends here for places to stay and help moving from apartment to apartment. But it is exhausting and distracting to still be living out of a suitcase and not be able to establish a routine. Needless to say, I haven’t gotten a lot of work done so far this month. I keep telling myself that it is all just part of the adventure!
4 sets of keys: the Vilnius apartment I'm leaving, the Vilnius apartment where I am a guest, and two Kaunas apartments where I am a guest
Amanda in Lithuania 
October 16th, 2010 at 2:41 am
On the positive side, the keys look really cool.
October 16th, 2010 at 11:16 am
They are cool. Most apartments have very heavy security doors and the old-fashioned looking keys are for those doors. But they are really expensive keys so I have to be careful not to lose or break them.