Vilnius, Lithuania: a nice place to work, a great place to visit!

I thoroughly enjoyed spending time with fellow AP members while in Lithuania. I would've never visited Lithuania, but was so glad I did! The project was more disorganized than I had hoped...

Pros:
I was able to meet SO MANY great people and now life long friends from all over the United States.
Spending time in direct patient contact was fantastic (surgery was my favorite!)
Being in an educational institution made for so many extra learning opportunities; being five feet from a surgical patient was incredible. I saw so many INCREDIBLE surgeries that I would've never seen in the United States (due to differing interventional choices)
The activities and meals that were planned were a great cultural experience. It was awesome to be able to travel through the country visiting historical sites and learning Lithuania's history.

Cons:
WAY TOO EXPENSIVE for three weeks. I'd rather pay to travel Europe than this. My group had 9 members, each paying at least $3000. I'm not sure where the money went, as the hotel was less than 65 euros per night, and we were double bunked. The activities (though incredibly fun, and definitely a PRO) couldn't have been that expensive either.
**Let me say** I would've rather have paid the physicians who agreed to have us work with them. They would have been much more motivated to teach, instead of having a bunch of American college students dogging them all day.
Super disorganized staff. The project leaders couldn't equally make up their mind when it came to deciding how to "govern" their students. Occasionally unprofessional when it came to relations with AP fellows. They also had not informed hospital staff, nor arranged physicians for us to work with. Most of the time, physicians were surprised we were even there.
Most spoke English (or broken English), but otherwise it was difficult to communicate. Walking around the city was easy enough.

All in all, I don't believe I would pay for this program in hindsight. The ease and convenience of having everything planned (including transportation, most meals, staying, and activities) was great if you've never traveled abroad before. I personally would rather travel with $3000 than pay for hospital time; if there was any way to pay the physicians from our program fee, I'd much rather attend a program that way.