Now I am in the capital of Lithuania. It is chilly outside but sunny, and soon the snow will arrive.   This is the land of my mother and all of her ancestors. I am sure that her parents never would have thought that I would be working here as a visiting scientist. Unfortunately, they died before Lithuania regained independence. But my mom is overjoyed.

I first visited Vilnius in 1989. It was the time of great movement towards freedom. I participated in the Baltijos kelias on August 23^rd, 1989, when people made a human chain across the 3 Baltic countries. In those days, there was little to buy in the shops, or to eat in the restaurants. And everything was extremely cheap. I bought a lot of piano music (Polish editions) and had it shipped to the USA.

Then when I first visited the Institute of Ecology of Vilnius in the winter of 2001, it was obvious that there was not much money for research. The laboratory didn’t even have heat in the rooms. But the scientists have since then become leaders in the field of avian parasitology. Funding for science is tight, but no different than in the USA or Sweden.

Now it is a completely different world. It is not much different than being in Germany or anyplace else in Europe. There are new skyscrapers going up every day, and huge shopping malls, where you can buy anything from all over the world. There is an IKEA, and cars choking the roads. Actually, it seems that traffic is the biggest problem in Vilnius these days. I certainly see a lot of expensive cars. On January 1^st, the whole country will switch their currency to Euros.

I am staying at my mother’s apartment in the center of the old town. There is so much history, and with every step you can see buildings that are older than the USA. Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, Jews, and Germans: they all lived in and fought for this city. Yesterday I arrived at the airport, and was immediately whisked away by my very good friend to his sister’s birthday party. This was on a lake near Trakai, not far from the famous castle. There was music, nice food, and instant immersion into Lithuanian language. Today, I bought my favorite black bread from the ecological store, and I took the new fast bus, 1G to the Institute. This is my chance to catch up on writing manuscripts, and to learn how to rear mosquitoes and biting midges in my lab in San Francisco.   It actually seems very long ago that I was in San Francisco, but it has actually only been 3 weeks. Time slows down when traveling because each experience is so memorable.