Spark plugs... um, for a car?

This morning, I got up and went for a run. Woohoo!! There is a very lovely HUGE park located directly next to the hotel and I spent an hour or so a few times during my stay here getting lost in the mazes of the forests and off-beaten paths. I never was a runner (and I can’t say that I ran the whole time)… but I did start to understand the pleasure of running – it does make you feel liberated. While running, it crossed my mind that 3 weeks ago I was doing this along the Mediterranean shore of Israel, and now I am in the forests of Lithuania. How cool is that??? Life can be good, in this job, sometimes :)

Today a cab stopped for me and I didn’t even have my hand raised. Amazing. Eventually, I found one that I ended up using a lot. Really nice guy and reliable too, but unfortunately does not speak much English which doesn’t help. Also, he frequently did the Lithuanian “talk to my friend on the cell phone who speaks english” bit so that he could understand me better. I had used the regular hotel taxi a couple times (there is only one guy who works directly for the hotel) but I didn’t really like him too much. He was not personable, got lost once, dropped me off at the wrong place another time, and didn’t leave once (from the parking lot) because he was talking on the phone. Grr… frustrating.

I went to a car shop to look for spark plugs. The man that I spoke with couldn’t understand what I was asking for, so he puts me on the phone with a girl who does (which is the same thing that everyone does! I don’t speak English but I’ll call a friend who does). I tell her I am there looking for a spark plug, which I’m pretty sure she probably never learned the translation for spark plug. I repeat the question and she say well, we do sell those but not at that shop; we sell them at another shop that we have – an erotic shop. I am speechless for a second and feeling awkard, and then I say “…. For a car?” and she says no, not for a car. She thinks I am at a car shop surrounded by men looking for a BUTT PLUG!!! Well, I think anyways. I crack up and she does too and I give the phone back to the man. Meanwhile, they figured out what it was I was looking for but the girl told the story to the man and he told the whole rest of the shop in my presence. Still laughing, I quickly said thank you and left the office as soon as I could!

Survey life is SO much better with no permission issues!! I decided to invest some time into traveling to the head office to see if I could get permission. I made it there at the right time and spoke with the marketing director who was super nice and I was able to get permission in about 20 minutes. Amazing! Then, I decided to get right into the survey. I went to the store and NO ONE said a WORD to me. I wanted so badly to throw the permission letter in their faces and say “what about this, b*****s! I tried extra-hard to be noticed and asked to stop but no dice.
But then, later…. I have basically finished the whole grocery-store part of my survey. I am golden. I go back in to get one or two more prices I have missed, and someone actually dares to tell me that I cannot take prices. WHAT??? Oh she did. She messed with me. But I reach in to pull out the letter and, IT’S NOT THERE. I left it in the hotel room this morning! I COMPLETELY blew my chance! I am so disappointed in myself. But worse, I needed to prove to this lady that I actually did have permission. Luckily, I still had the ladies’ card in my pocket and this got me by with no problem.

Here in Lithuania, I don’t stop hearing surprised expressions when I tell people I am from the US. I keep getting “that’s so far away!” from just about everyone. It’s quite amusing, I think.