corileigh's Xanga

White Easter

Thu, 27 Mar 2008 16:09:25 GMT

I'm taking off for Krakow tonight, so I thought I'd write another blog before I leave, so there's less to write when I get back.

Not a terrible lot has been going on. I sprained my foot after spending too much time at the gym, and have spent the past few days lying down with an ice compress. After my friend Ben left, I had another couch surfer, Kris. He's on a challenge to visit all the E.U. capitals (that aren't on islands) without spending any money. You can check out his blog here. I did my best to feed him and keep him entertained, but with a hurt foot, I wasn't too good for going out. The weather took a turn for the worse, so there wasn't much point in going outside anyways. It started snowing on Friday or Saturday, and today (Thursday) is the first clear day. Most of the snow melted, but a couple inches did stick on the ground. It hasn't been like this since the beginning of January. This is why I hate spring: it's a very fickle season. Anyways, Kris ended up staying until Wednesday, and even then it was snowing. I felt bad, but I just couldn't host him any more, and he needed to get a move on to try and finish his travels. After a full week of guests on the couch, I was ready to have it back to myself. And sure enough, I fell asleep on my cozy sofa watching TV last night.

I did manage to make some good use of the time off from classes. I took another look at some of my Lithuanian examples that I'm studying, and came up with a couple ideas. Of course, now that I'm getting back into the swing of things, I'm going out of town. I don't really want to take my computer to the hostel, so I'll just be working by hand. Next week will be pretty busy too, and I'll fall behind a little in my language class. It hasn't been nearly as intense as last semester, so it's not a terribly big deal.

Despite the snow, I did celebrate Easter in a rather idiosyncratic way. My friend Catherine, an artist and curator, had people over to paint eggs on Sunday morning. She'd given up chocolate for Lent, and was wired on cocoa that morning. We painted a few 10s of egg (they don't do dozens here), and took them to a hill for rolling. This was a tradition I'd never heard of, but it was pretty fun. We couldn't break our eggs as they rolled, since the ground was so soft from the rain. So we had to just throw them as hard as we could into the ground, or at a tree. I really do throw like a girl, so it was a bit of a challenge. In the evening, my friend Tony had a little dinner party. It all started as a joke: let's make really ironic foods for easter. I thought of making an egg salad with eggs dyed all variety of colors, like easter eggs. Surely there would be lamb (ok, this is traditional in a lot of cultures, but it's still ironic!)... When I got there, it was clear that this had gotten bigger. I had made some carrots and deviled eggs, but some of the guests included two excellent local restaurateurs from my favorite places in town. What a treat to have them cooking! It turned out to be a really fun night.

The only other extra-curricular activity going on lately is the knitting circle, also known as the Vilnius Stitch 'n' Bitch. I finished my last sweater, and currently it's drying. It was a bit boxy, so I'm trying to block it into a longer, slimmer article. So now I'm making a hat. I have lots of yarn from old projects, so I'll have to start some more projects soon.

Anyway, please check out the pictures I posted recently! More soon from Krakow! (I really hope I can remember some Polish...)

Spring is springing

Wed, 19 Mar 2008 15:33:31 GMT

Finally, the days are getting longer. The equinox is upon us, and we're getting 12 hours of sunlight. The clouds even part in the morning, and I get lots of bright light in my room starting at 6:30. Which is when I grab my eyemask and roll over to go back to sleep. Europe turns its clocks forward one hour the week after Easter, so until then, it's a wake-up call at 6:30 for me. But at the end of the month we'll have light until nearly 8pm, which means we're that much closer to summer, outdoor cafes, and swimming in the lake. Of course, as I write this, I'm looking at a meager accumulation of snow on the red-tiled roof of my building. Most of it's melting (I knew I should have grabbed my camera last night to get some proof), but it snowed until about noon today. Yesterday was sunny, but punctuated with bursts of heavy snow and hail. I had a feeling that the mild winter wouldn't leave us early or easily this year, and so far that's been true. Last week we had weather in the 40s, and now we're getting back into the 20s overnight. Spring is just taunting us.

There are still lots of lovely traditions for this time of year though. The first weekend in March was Kaziuko Muge, or the St. Kazimieras Fair. Mostly people sell handicrafts and Easter trinkets: Palm Sunday flowers, painted eggs, candy sticks and baked goods shaped like bunnies. There were also stands selling food: sausage, peas, fried bread, and hot beer and wine. It was rather cold and rainy that weekend, and the warm beer was surprisingly nice. I still prefer hot wine.

The next week was Russian "mardi gras"/"shrovetide". I made yeasty pancakes for some friends, trying to follow the recipe we use at Princeton. They didn't turn out quite the same (very stiff batter), but the pancakes with thick and filling. I've really been on a pancake kick for a while, making crepes at all hours of the day. Now that I have a collection of leftover jams in my fridge, it's nice to have some pancakes or batter at hand. I just don't have that much of a sweet tooth, and find myself craving pickled herring and green onion instead of strawberries and powdered sugar. Or smoked salmon and cream. Or caviar. Great, now I'm hungry.

More about food... The Fulbright girls were all invited to a dinner at Ambassador Cloud's house in early March as well. Ada and I got somewhat short notice of this, and it kind of felt like our invitation was an afterthought. The ambassador's cook makes really good Tex-Mex food, so it was a real treat. The cornbread muffins were absolutely amazing, and made me realize how much I miss corn products. Sure, you can get canned corn, which is delicious, but there's something about cornbread and -muffins. And corn tortillas. You can't even get cornstarch -- they use potato starch here. (Big surprise.) In the end, it's kind of nice to have such simple foods be a treat. Like beef. I don't eat much meat, here or in the states, but here it's always pork or chicken. Pork is by far the cheapest, usually half the price of beef dishes in restaurants. But when I get the chance, it's nice to order a lovely piece of red meat. Needless to say, I had seconds of the beef fajitas at the Clouds'. Dessert was an amazing coconut flan. I couldn't stop eating it, even though I'd already had too much. Yum.

I had a chance to take a quick trip to Klaipeda with a friend there on business, so I skipped a day of class and spent the afternoon wandering around Old Town. It's a very, very small city, but it has a really interesting history. It was the only place in Lithuania that was really part of the Hanseatic League, and there's still a Germanic feel in the city. It reminded me of Latvia in some ways. Check out the pictures. It was really empty in the city, since it's much more of a summer place. There's a lagoon off the coast, beyond which is a small sliver of land known as the Curonian Spit (called Neringa in Lithuanian). You can take a ferry from Klaipeda to Neringa, where there are supposedly lovely sand dunes, secluded beaches, and probably lots of tourists in the summer. There's also a marine life museum/zoo, featuring dolphins and penguins. It's on my list of things to see next time I'm there.

The nightlife in Klaipeda was also on the small side. I had a copy of In Your Pocket as a guide, but it's only put out once a year and as such is outdated a bit. We couldn't find the middle eastern restaurant we wanted, but we did like the wine bar near the river, especially the gi-normous cheese platter. Dinner was at the "American" restaurant Skandalas (=scandal). The only scandal was the awful band that started playing halfway through our meal. We were seated way too close to the stage, which is exactly what happened when I went to Palanga in July. The food was pretty good, and the service was really amazing. There was a little promotion going on for the dark beer by Svyturis, the biggest and oldest (?) Lithuanian brewery. There should be more free sampling of this sort here! On the way back to Vilnius we stopped in Kaunas to go to the KFC and Pizza Hut in the local mall. It was worth stopping to get some of that original recipe goodness and a pizza with a decent-sized crust. But we got severely lost on the way back to Vilnius, and ended up taking a major detour.

March 11 marks Lithuania's independence from the Soviet Union. It gets kind of confusing, since February 16 marks Lithuania's independence from...Russia? Some other empire? Anyways, there are a lot of independence days in the beginning of the year. Since the 11th was on a Tuesday this year, we had two days off from class. It just so happened that over the long weekend that my friend got his shipping orders. He's one of the Marines that guards the embassy, and his tour was up here. A group of us got together to make sure we sent him off in style, visiting all our favorite places one last time. We went out for dinner on his last night at a cute little French restaurant (I got steak frites, it being a special occasion), and I think we drove the waitress crazy.

So Alex is gone now, and he didn't get to go to the basketball game with us on Saturday. (Some of my other friends had a big fight, so we almost canceled the whole thing.) We got tickets to see Lietuvos Rytas (Vilnius) play Zalgiris (Kaunas) for the last time this season. It's a huge rivalry, since the cities are only 100 km apart. I'm friends with a couple of the Vilnius players, so it was fun to see them actually in action. The arena is kind of small, but it was packed. The best part was that concession prices were not jacked up the way they are in the States: a beer and a hot dog for only $4! It was a really exciting game and Vilnius ended up winning by 9 points.

Now we have a week off from class for Easter, so I'm using the time to catch up on my writing. A friend from the UK is in town visiting before he goes up to Riga for Latvian language classes. Coming up for me is a trip to Krakow (mmm, Polish food!) and visits from Nick and my future NYC roommates. Now I'm off to my knitting circle, hoping to finish off my sweater. And I thought it was already too warm for sweaters. (Did I mention it's still snowing here!?!)

Back in the Lit-SSR

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:26:15 GMT

When Nick and I got back to Oxford, we had serious jetlag. It's a 7 hour time difference from Salt Lake to England, plus the red-eye flight, plus the stress of dealing with my dogs. So, we stayed in bed until 4 or 5 the day we arrived. And until noon about every day after. We had a couple friends over for dinner, but mostly just relaxed after our 10 day trip to the US. I made my way back to Lithuania, where I was in the jetlag trap for at least another week. It was just so dark, with sunrise around 8:45 and sunset around 4:00. Somehow I never made it out of the house until after dark, and I started to feel like a vampire. (And I haven't been this pale since I was an infant, I swear!) Also, this is a really warm winter, and there's been hardly any snow. It's been right around freezing for the past two months (aside from a cold snap here and there), and lots of rain, which makes one loathe to go outside day or night. Still, it was good to catch up with my friends back here in Vilnius. I started my much-anticipated knitting circle, since that's about all I was doing anyways. I got a really good deal on some beautiful yarn thanks to a mix-up at the register and was making a sweater. I made it to the gym a few times, but just couldn't get into a good schedule of waking up early. Finally January was over, and the daylight was up to 9 hours (8-5). It was a really rough month, and I never thought the darkness would affect me this way. It took great effort to get out of bed, and I even made a little nest on my couch that I lived in for a few days. Maybe it would have been easier if there had been classes, so I would have had something to force me out of the house.

Mardi Gras came, and my friend Cass had a bunch of people over for pancakes. I've spent the past two years making a few hundred pancakes for the Slavic department's celebration of Russian Mardi Gras, so I manned the stove for three hours. I was starting to come down with another cold, and wasn't really in the mood to meet members of the Lithuanian art community. The next day I really felt awful, and spent the next couple days in bed with a bit of a fever. I'd already planned to celebrate Chinese New Year, which was this week, and had done the shopping. I had everyone over for dumplings and noodles, which was lots of fun. I was doing a good job of just resting, instead of going out when I'm sick. Saturday I went over to my friend Ada's to help her with a translation project and we had some leftovers. I started to get nauseous and left. I couldn't even make it home before I threw up. I ran the rest of the way home, quickly changed into some comfortable clothes, and spent the next two hours in the bathroom. I was sweating ice water and getting really dizzy. I called Ada to come over and told her I had to go to the hospital. I'd been vomiting for two hours and felt like something was seriously wrong. Our friend Rona came and drove me out to the Baltic American Clinic, where they treated me really well. The thermometers are even in Fahrenheit (my temperature had dropped to about 94 degrees). I spent the next four hours with an IV drip, and then got some antibiotics. I just watched cable, and finally got some sleep. In the morning they redid my blood test (and finally gave me something to eat and drink -- I was dying of thirst). I got to go home, where I spent the day on the couch drinking gatorade and gingerly eating saltines and listening to NPR podcasts. I was tired, but felt much healthier from the moment I got the IV in me.

The next day I was feeling even better, and went to see a concert with Rona. There was a little reception afterwards, since it was an American male a capella group, and we met the singers. It turns out they're all pretty young and were really nice. We decided to join them for a late dinner and show them where to spend the last night of their European tour. We went out dancing, which was a lot of fun, although I probably shouldn't have been out so late after being so sick. I still made it to my class the next day. I'd missed most of the first week from being sick in bed, and discovered we had some new students. There's an older woman who claims to be from England, although her name is distinctly Russian, as is her appearance. She likes to talk and ask questions in class, which wastes a bit of our time, so I'm somewhat hesitant to talk to her myself. Her Lithuanian is pretty good, which makes me wonder what brings her to Vilnius and why she's taking classes. I just hope she's not a linguist who wants to talk shop with me.

Things are finally starting to feel like they're getting back to normal. I met with the two professors from my institute two weeks ago. I needed a letter for my application to extend my Fulbright, which they were happy to give me. I also got some great pointers on materials the institute has that I can use for my research. The meetings were really positive and inspiring, which is just what I needed to get back to work after all my illnesses and seasonal depression. Nick came to town that weekend, and we had a nice, relaxing time. We went out with some of my friends on Saturday, had brunch with my friend Tony on Sunday, and saw a movie on Monday. He managed to get his work done, and I was glad to have someone to cook for (I've been pretty uninspired in the kitchen since my trip to the hospital). The day he left, my good friend Ryan came to visit. He used to live here, and moved away this summer. He's now living in Kiev, so hopefully I'll get to visit down there before I leave. We went out on Friday and Saturday, and had a nice time catching up. Now it's back to business as usual for the next month, then I'll get more visitors!

Meeting with the Fulbrighters at the American Center:

A very long overdue update: how I spent my Christmas vacation

Mon, 25 Feb 2008 16:18:31 GMT

I left Vilnius in the middle of December, and came to stay with Nick in England for a week before our big trip to the States. First we were in Oxford for a couple days, where I got to catch up with some of his friends. One couple was having a Christmas party, and we drove down with a few of Nick's colleagues. The party was a lot of fun, with wonderful food and drink, plus the excitement of a Christmas quiz. While usually these things are quite Anglo-centric, there was a question about 'Black Friday' that I was able to answer confidently. Nick and I ended up winning, mostly because he's really good at general knowledge. The following day we headed off to Nick's parents' in Essex. It was just like last Christmas, except his parents had renovated the house a great deal. They built a conservatory (aka a sun room), turned a massive bathroom and hallway into a bedroom with an en suite toilet for me and Nick, redid the kitchen, and built an en suite with a shower in the master bedroom. Last time I was there they were in the middle of doing the kitchen, which meant lunch was usually prepared in the living room, where the microwave was. While we were in Essex, we did our Christmas shopping in Colchester (the closest city), which included buying tons of English Christmas goodies: quality street sweets, Christmas puddings, mince pies, etc. We made it over to see Nick's grandmother one evening, and were spoiled with early Christmas gifts. She's a very thoughtful woman, and even remembered that I'm a sudoku addict and bought me a little electronic sudoku machine. As always, we were taken care of very well by Nick's folks, and overfed.

We flew off to New York a few days before Christmas. It was a treat to get to make the seven-hour flight with Nick sitting next to me. Usually we do this alone on our way to see each other. We got in mid-afternoon, but spent an hour at JFK while I sorted out my phone. Finally I got a temporary number set up. If only we had the European system of interchangeable SIM cards: getting a new number is cheap, and so is pre-pay calling. We made our way into the city, where we stayed with my friends Bryan and Celia. They had a work party that night, so we couldn't do dinner. Nick and I walked across the park to Pio Pio (I can't set foot in Manhattan without getting some of their delicious chicken and tostones) for a nice dinner. We got a cab home (with "help" from a crazy homeless man who had a whistle), and tried to stay awake as long as we could. We passed out watching TV around 9:30 or so, which was actually good because we had a 4:30 am shuttle to catch our early flight to Salt Lake. The traveling went very, very smoothly. We were really lucky to miss the bad weather; it literally would have been impossible the next day. In Salt Lake, my dad met us at the airport. We were staying at my sister Kellie's house, along with my other sister Erin and her baby, since all the roommates were out of town and this way we wouldn't necessarily feel like we were putting anyone out. Besides, there aren't really any extra beds at my dad's house anymore.

We had a good visit, although there was the usual amount of sisterly bickering. Nick and I went skiing with Kellie one day, which was a lot of fun. For me at least; Nick spent most of the day learning how to get back up after falling. We babysat for Erin a couple mornings so that she could go climb at a rock-climbing gym with Kellie.

My friend Katie was in town for the holidays too, so we met up for dinner one night. Even though it was freezing, we went over to see the Christmas lights at the Temple. We got there too late to see the big statue of Christ, but it was still worth going for Nick to see. We also got to see my good friends the Lees. Vicki made us some amazing Chinese food (as usual), which was a wonderful treat. I made a little Christmas dinner on the 24th, and then we went to one of my step-sisters' for Christmas breakfast after opening presents at my dad and Julie's house.

Nick and I went to do some post-Christmas shopping. I'd already come down with a pretty bad cold and cough, but was suddenly hit with a pretty bad stomach bug. I was so sick I couldn't even drive all the way to my dad's house, where we were going to spend the evening. Instead I made everyone head back to Salt Lake, and had someone else do the driving. I finally felt better a few hours later, but it was pretty brutal.

We took a little trip down to Las Vegas to visit my grandma, who was really not doing well with her cancer at the time. She has since passed away, so it was really good that we got to see her one last time. On our way back from Vegas we stopped at Zion. It was cold and getting dark, but it was still worth the trouble. We were back in Salt Lake for New Year's Eve, but I was still feeling really bad from my cold. I was pretty sure it was a sinus infection, plus bronchitis, and decided to see a doctor for some antibiotics. I had to go to the emergency room because there was nothing closer. The antibiotics helped, but I'd already gotten Nick sick. Both of us were so tired and feeling so lousy, we went to sleep at 11:30. The next evening we flew back to New York and stayed with Celia & Bryan again. We took an overnight red-eye flight. We spent a couple hours at JFK (again!) waiting for traffic to die down. We rented a car because we had to go sort things out with my dogs. I'd arranged with a friend from high school in Las Vegas, but we had to pick them up from Brooklyn and then take them to the airport. After spending a day in the city running errands and doing a little last-minute shopping, we went and got the dogs and took them to a vet to get the paperwork for flying. It was pretty emotional for me and the girls: when we tried to leave for dinner later, they were crying so loud we had to turn around and order in. A neighbor had even stuck her head out to make sure no one was hurting the dogs. The next morning was a scramble to get to the post office and to JFK in time for the dogs' flight. Unfortunately, there was a big cold snap and it was below the temperature that's OK for the dogs to sit in the cargo area before the flight. So Nick and I turned around and drove back to Manhattan, and left the dogs with my friends. I'm so lucky to have such good friends who are so reliable. Celia eventually drove them to her parents' in Maryland, since she felt bad putting the dogs on a plane. I guess all's well that ends well. Nick and I even made our flight that same afternoon with time to kill!

Before Christmas

Mon, 14 Jan 2008 16:12:04 GMT

November began a really busy period for my social calendar. My friends and I decided we should partake in more cultural events (local pubs and clubs not *really* being cultural). First on our agenda was a film festival. It was supposedly for films from Northern Europe, but the two we checked out were Slovenian and Italian. Luckily they both had English subtitles, although my Lithuanian has gotten a lot better. My friend Klemen, who is from Slovenia came with us to the first one. He knew about half the audience, and lucky for him it was a really good movie. Ada and I went on a big ticket-buying binge and got tickets to see Madame Butterfly too. We bought cards that get us 20% off tickets to a lot of these cultural things, so we have to get our money's worth. Sadly, the opera wasn't as good as I've seen elsewhere (like, for instance, St. Petersburg). I'm hoping the ballet is better, but I missed my chance to get tickets to see the Nutcracker before Christmas. (I'm a sucker for all the Tchaikovsky stuff.) Anyways, the opera & ballet theater has THE BEST HOT CHOCOLATE IN THE WORLD. Here, as elsewhere where I've been in Europe, hot chocolate is not the cocoa drink we have with marshmallows, it is what it is: hot chocolate. As in thick, rich, gooey. But drinkable. Yum. With ticket prices so low, it's worth going just for this intermission treat. Especially if you see a 3 act opera with two intermissions :) Our final foray into being cultured involved going to a concert in the jazz festival. Rona got free tickets from the embassy, so Ada and I were easily convinced. However, the tickets did not have seats, which we only realized when we got there, so we had to sit on the stairs. About halfway into the first number, we all realized that we don't necessarily love jazz, even though the group was quite good. So, we ducked out really early, and planted ourselves in a bar instead.

Around this time was Thanksgiving. I'd decided in about August that I was going to make a big dinner. It ended up being 13 people, including me. Yikes. Luckily they sell frozen turkeys here, but I had to order out for stuffing mix and pumpkin pie filling. Ada let me cook and host over at her apartment, since she has the space and the table for the large crowd. Nick came to town, since he'd missed my birthday, and helped me with the shopping and cooking, and the carrying of things back and forth between my apartment and Ada's. (And, most importantly, the cleaning up on the following day.) Everyone had a really lovely time, including two Thanksgiving first-timers: Klemen and a friend from summer school Ben who had come in for the weekend. Despite the large crowd, I had leftovers for a week...mostly mashed potatoes. I can't get used to thinking of food in terms of kilograms instead of pounds. :)

The same weekend was also a big couch surfing party in Vilnius. I hosted two Poles, who got in VERY, VERY late on Thursday (or very, very early on Friday). They were really nice, although one was a bit of a chatty Cathy. Nick and I weren't really into all the partying ourselves, so just let the Poles do their own thing. Luckily for them, most of the events were literally around the corner from my house. Saturday Nick and I had tickets for a concert at the Philharmonic. We ended up being a hurry and grabbed dinner from McDonald's. For the first time since July, for the record. The concert was another cultural disappointment. The conductor was really quite entertaining to watch, but the soloist was out of tune with the orchestra. Maybe we were just too close (3rd row). Also, curiously, one of our seats had been double booked. Oops. I feel bad for making the other guys move, since we ended up leaving after intermission.

The following weekend was a charity holiday bazaar that the ambassador's wife had asked the Fulbrighters to volunteer at. Well, we actually all did volunteer willingly. They needed more Lithuanian speakers, so we were happy to help. I also volunteered to bake some chocolate chip cookies...what a treat! Lots of countries set up booths, selling traditional and holiday items (i.e. gingerbread houses in Scandinavia, candy canes at our booth, jade at China's booth, Irish coffee at the Irish booth), plus some local restaurants and shops have booths also. We set up for a couple hours the night before, stacking boxes of candy canes and making the place look like Macy's. Being in the right place at the right time, the Irish ambassador's wife asked me and Ada to help with the ribbon-cutting ceremony the following morning. We got to hold the ribbon the first lady cut. Ooh. (I checked the media the next day, but we didn't make it into any papers, although we were surrounded by photographers). The bazaar lasted all day, and we sold nearly 7000 litas (about $3000) worth of goods.

Afterwards, I had to meet another couch surfer coming into town. He was from Hungary, and really interesting. He's a cartographer! Who knew that people still have to make maps?! I took him to watch the lighting of the Christmas tree in the cathedral square. I thought it would be a little process of flipping a switch, but it was an hour-long musical extravaganza, involving trapeze moves and fire-breathing dragons. Wow. It's always pleasant to be surprised by Lithuania in these ways. Unfortunately it was really, really cold that night. One of my friends actually put her mittens on her feet (inside her boots) to keep warm. Afterwards, we ended up at an after-party for the bazaar hosted by the Irish ambassador (his wife was the organizer). I managed to get a second wind while there, and headed to Broadway to dance with some of the embassy employees after that party died down. The next day my couch surfer and I got some brunch at my favorite breakfast place. It's really small, so I called to reserve a table...using my Lithuanian skills. It was a proud moment for me. :)

So, this brings us into December, a very dark and cold month in Lithuania. The sun was rising just before 9 and setting just before 4, but the sky was constantly covered by clouds. My language teacher told us that we have to learn to see the sun even when it's not visible, and that the sun is still up, even if we can't see it. But her optimism was lost on all of us. My apartment is especially dark, since most of the windows look out into the courtyard of my building. It became really difficult to do anything aside from go to class, especially on the weekends. To make matters worse, most of the snow had melted and it only rained. At least it was a bit warmer, but the cold, wet rain isn't very pleasant. It was starting to feel a bit like Christmas though. (Helping to make decorations at my friend Catherine's apartment helped too!)

The deputy of the embassy invited the Fulbrighters to a holiday reception, which was really pleasant. His wife is really nice, and has this wonderful Long Island accent. They had all their decorations up, including a little village set like we used to have when I was a kid. I was really getting excited to go home and see my family.

The day before the reception all four of us Fulbrighters met to have tea. I hardly ever see the other two besides Ada, and when I do, they don't always give the warmest of welcomes. So, we met to talk about how things are going, etc. Afterwards, I headed home while talking on the phone, and apparently dropped my purse in the street without realizing it. I only noticed at about 10:30 that night, after the cafe where I'd been had shut. I became really frantic, since my purse had my wallet with my documents and credit cards. Luckily, I had my keys and my phone, and had left my iPod at home. My passport is never in my purse, and so is my emergency credit card. Still, it wouldn't be much fun to get a copy of my residency permit given the wait for the original. I looked around my courtyard, and found a purse, but not mine. There's a little corner in the courtyard where the homeless gather to drink. (I've never seen anyone there, but I do see the empty bottles some mornings). I told my neighbor and the video guy about it, and they hadn't seen anything. My neighbor was really nice and offered to phone around to the other places on the street the next day. Ada came over to help me look on my street, and some guy asked if we were looking for something. We didn't say anything, until he asked if we were looking for a purse. Obviously this caught our attention. He told us someone had taken it to the corner shop. We were so grateful, I gave him some bread, fruit and water, and my empty beer bottles that he can sell. So, the next morning I went to the shop. They didn't have it, but the girl who found the purse left her card. I called her and she told me she'd taken it to the police nearby. I went to where I thought the police building was, but first ended up at the office of a newspaper called "Police" and then at a branch of the police that "only protects the buildings" apparently. I called the girl back, and she clarified where she'd gone. There's a little booth outside the French embassy where a policeman is stationed. Ada and I woke him up and told him the story. He didn't know anything, and wasn't really helpful. We went to the French embassy, and they didn't know anything either. The policeman tried to call the guy who'd been on duty the day before, but no avail. So, we set off on our second mission: turn the other purse into the police. They were a little confused when we told them the story: here's a purse I found, and I lost my purse. We tried calling the branch of the police that protects the embassies to see if the cop had told his superiors about my purse, but no. And his mobile was still off. We were about to give up hope when finally someone got back to us. The cop had taken the purse to Maxima (grocery store) in a different neighborhood and left it at the lost and found. What's nice about the lost & found is that they turn things in to the police if they are unclaimed in 24 hours. The police. So, off we went, and found my purse, with everything in it. Except the cash, which was only 20 litas (not even $10). So, long story short: Vilnius is a safe city, but the homeless are more trustworthy than the police, who are lazy.

defiance

Tue, 13 Nov 2007 11:45:35 GMT

There's a rather big movie being shot in Vilnius now. It's been going on for the past couple of months, but now they're doing city shots. Yesterday on my way to the gym, I saw a building all lit up (it's so gray here now you have to use some serious lighting to get the appearance of normal daylight, apparently). On my way back, I saw a group of older men with beards wearing long wool coats. With gold stars of David. Just like 65 years ago. Kind of strange, especially since one of the actors was just standing there grinning. There were Jewish ghettos here in Vilnius, which had a very large Jewish population before WWII, but I think the film is set in neighboring Poland and Belarus. Anyways, it's called "Defiance" and is starring Daniel Craig (you know, the newest James Bond). No clue when it comes out, but when I see it, I'll let you know which scene I saw being shot.

In other news, winter has really started to set in. Or maybe this the Lithuanian version of fall. The word for November in Lithuanian means 'leaf-falling', but it should be snow-falling. We've had light snow every day for the past 4 days, which gives the city a lovely white top coat. Thank goodness I got my radiators fixed (I think I mentioned before that the heating in my kitchen and bathroom wasn't working properly). I'm trying to wait until it gets colder before bringing out the heavy-duty long underwear. After all, it's only been in the 20s, and we're bound to get below zero (Fahrenheit!) in January and February. The only part that I don't like is the lack of sun. It starts to get dark around 4 in the afternoon, and is pitch black by 5:30. Even when the sun is up, it's not out; the clouds just hang over Vilnius.

I still managed to have a nice weekend though. Friday night I went around town with one of the Fulbright scholars (a professor of Nursing, not one of the students). There "Festival of Light" as part of the 2009 cultural capital program. They're running all of the events in 2007 and 2008, I guess to work out the bugs. There were some neat things: lights shaped like squid in one of the rivers, lamps made of starched shirts with arms outstretched in one of the parks, and a giant dome with flowers and chaise lounges where you could imagine yourself sitting under the sun.

Saturday was a working day for a lot of businesses and the university, which meant that I had class. The previous Friday was taken as an extra holiday, so we had to make it up. In the evening was the Marine Ball, celebrating 232 years of Marines. There is a small group of Marines that works at the embassy to protect state secrets, and some of the guys are really nice. A group of my friends went, and we had a lot of fun. It's always nice to have something to get dressed up for!

Afterwards, we went out dancing as usual. I was so tired the next day, all I managed to do was go out for dinner. My friends Rona and Ada came with me to a Georgian restaurant I've been wanting to try out. It wasn't the best I've had, but the hachipuri (cheese-bread, literally, and soooo delicious!) was a real treat.

This week Ada and I are going to some movies for a European film festival that's showing around town. This weekend should be pretty quiet, but it's time to start shopping for Thanksgiving dinner!! Hopefully the stuffing and pumpkin pie filling I ordered will get here on time! I'm cooking for 12, with some good assistants, and I'm very excited. My Slovenian friend Klemen is coming, and he's never experienced Thanksgiving, so we have to show him how it's done.

birthday, travels, winter

Wed, 07 Nov 2007 10:46:16 GMT

The past few weeks have been packed with socializing and parties. I've been getting to know some of the embassy employees fairly well, and a whole host of them showed up for my birthday party. I put together a very 'Lithuanian' spread (I thought it was rather Russian, but the differences aren't that great), and we all had a lovely time. The door to my apartment caused a bit of trouble though. First, outside is a door with a code. You push a couple of buttons, and it unlocks. It's hung a little funny, so you have to jiggle the door back and forth and hope it opens. I'm used to it and can open it with one hand, but it's hard the first 10 or so times. Then at the apartment is a very heavy, thick 'safe' door. It's also hung a little off, and so has to be slammed shut and pushed open with the entire weight of your body. Otherwise, the locks are off-center. And, as I learned during my party, if you try to turn the lock while it's off-center, it will get stuck. Twice throughout the evening we got locked into my apartment. Luckily there were a few Marines around, although in the end it was a strong woman who got the door open. So, I lived without one of my locks (the much, much weaker of the two -- the other is a set of four deadbolts) for a few days until my neighbor could fix it. Anyways, the party was lots of fun. I left with some of the people to go out to a club, where I met some of the Americans playing for the local basketball team. I'm hoping to get some courtside seats for a home game :)

The next week we had another reception at the embassy to commemorate 15 years of Fulbright grants in independent Lithuania. There were some singers and some speeches, but not enough wine. Afterwards, a few of us went out for a drink to Woo. It's a nice little club that also serves lunch and dinner. They had some awful group performing, so we had to cut the evening short as soon as they went on stage. It was a weird night because it really hit home that I'm just not getting along with all of the Fulbrighters here. Everyone has a different idea about how they want to spend their time, and it's turning into a clash of personalities. I'm trying best to do my part and include as many people as I can, but it's hard to keep inviting people who never call you back, never show up, and never invite you when they have plans. At least I have found people who do like the things I do, and are interested in spending time with me. Ada got us tickets to go see Chekhov's 'Three Sisters', and we got discount cards for a lot of theaters so we can see the opera and ballet for even cheaper.

There was a lot going on last weekend: dance party on Friday, housewarming party for Michelle (who lived on my couch for two weeks) on Saturday, and Superbad came out. I managed to fit it all in, and then some. First was a happy hour at the Marine house. At the last one I was chatting to an embassy family who has really cute kids (and a dog and a swimming pool...how could I resist!) The son greeted me at the house and told me I was going to babysit him and his sister for a whole weekend...news to me! Turns out the plans had changed, but it would be a change to spend a weekend with kids. I bet they have a good movie collection too. :) Later we went out to the dance party. It was fun, but the music was not as good as promised (brit pop and indie rock, but really hit or miss). Everyone was a little tightly wound from a long week, and I was tired to headed home early. Saturday I had an impromptu dinner party. I got a wonderful recipe for pad thai and wanted to finish up the curried carrot soup I'd made the night before. The cooking and eating and drinking wine went on a bit long, and we all ended up late to Michelle's housewarming party. This turned out to be a bigger problem than usual because she had to leave early herself. So at 10:00 she announced we'd all have to leave because she was going to watch the baseball game at the ambassador's house. If she'd told us beforehand, maybe we would have gotten there on time. Oh well. At least I got to see the place where she's living. It's nice and roomy, but I like my cozy little apartment. Sunday a group of us met up to go see Superbad. This was the longest I'd gone without seeing a movie since the summer! Not that much has been playing: we don't get all of the US films. I'm going to have to catch up with DVDs over Christmas.

Monday I got a call from Ada asking if I'd take her place at the opera. A production of Medea was showing at the national theater, but she was too sick. Our friend Medeine came too, and she ended up crashing on my couch. She's been staying at a (poorly-managed) hotel and they overbooked. It's always nice to have company. I went out to meet Klemen for a beer while she talked to her boyfriend online. Klemen had been gone for a week to promote his new book in Poland. I invited him to Thanksgiving, so now there will be about 10 people. I hope five boxes of Stovetop are enough! Tuesday was Ada's birthday, and we went out to In Vino to celebrate. It was lots of fun, but we stayed out way too late for a weeknight. Plus Wednesday I have class at 9. Even worse, I was flying out to London the next day. Luckily my bags were all packed. I made it to class, and had time to clean the apartment before calling a cab. I hate coming back to a sink full of dirty dishes and clutter. Anyways, I missed the Halloween celebrations, plus the All Saints' Day tradition of going to the cemetery. I did want to see what that's like, but it was more important to go to Nick's graduation in Oxford. I was lucky that we had a long weekend, so I only missed one lesson.

Nick met me at Gatwick and we took a bus back to Oxford. It was already pretty late, so we just headed back to his apartment and had beans on toast. Thursday we spent the day in his office, and had lunch and dinner at the college. Because he's a fellow, he (and his guests) sit at the high table (which is, in fact, higher than the others, plus has better food). Nick had to teach his classes, which he does in his office, so I spent a few hours in the library. They actually had a grammar of Lithuanian in the library, plus some other interesting books on linguistics. Oh, and I did some of my own work too. :) Friday Nick's parents drove up from Essex and took us out to a wonderful fish dinner. Saturday we got to join them for the breakfast buffet at the hotel, and then we went into town. We wandered around a bit while Nick was having the ceremony explained, and then met up for a coffee. The actual ceremony was conducted entirely in Latin, apart from a welcoming address and a closing speech. Very different from any graduation I'd been to, and considering the last one was Celia and Bryan's (where everyone shouted and cheered for their graduand), it was remarkably somber. Afterwards we went out to dinner with a group of Nick's friends to a Thai restaurant. They brought me the wrong soup two times, and the table next to us said the pad thai tasted of ketchup. We'd gone there for New Year's last year, and I don't remember it being so bad. We also managed to squeeze in an Indian lunch before leaving, so I got my fill of ethnic food. :)

After a nice long weekend with Nick, it was hard to come back to Vilnius. Especially after I got an email from someone here mentioning snow. Wow. When we landed on Monday the captain told us it was -5 (Celsius, so 23 F). And my winter coat is still at the cleaner's. Still, it was nice to be back in my apartment (I really love this place). Tuesday I had class, and then went to lunch and the market with Ada. To practice for Thanksgiving, I bought a chicken to roast. I'm going to try my hand at making my own gravy (although without using the giblets). Ada's been using her godmother's car, so we took a little trip out to a hypermarket for other groceries. It's such a change to be able to put things in the trunk again -- I stocked up on laundry detergent and cooking oil while I had the chance!

Also, it's already winter! There was a layer of snow outside when I woke up this morning. It's beautiful, but really, really cold. Off to the gym now, where I'll be sure to warm up.

finally

Tue, 16 Oct 2007 12:21:56 GMT

I am finally done with all my paperwork and bureaucratic headaches in dealing with the Lithuanian migration office! I now have a lovely ID card, a personal number (think Social Security number), and am officially registered at my address. And it only took 4 1/2 months. Mind you, one is only allowed 90 days in Lithuania without a visa, so leaving the country for August was a good idea. In somewhat related news, I've heard that you can no longer get Russian visas outside of the country in which you hold a passport. Which means I'll have to do that over Christmas if I want to go to St. Petersburg in the spring.

The past couple of weeks have felt pretty normal. It's really starting to turn cold at night, nearly hitting freezing overnight. Of course, as I write it's a lovely golden autumn outside, warm enough to go out without a jacket even. But the heat was actually turned on yesterday: the weekend was really cold, wet and windy. (I think they have to wait until the temperature stays below 7 C for three days in a row before the city turns it on, although some places have their own boilers.) I finally got all my winter clothes (thanks Dad!!), and am having my heavy coat fixed up and dry-cleaned for the season ahead. My gym has a dry-cleaning drop-off service, so I've been getting all my sweaters cleaned too.

I've been involved a little bit with the couch surfing network. I've hosted a couple of people in the past two weeks, and gone to a few gatherings to meet other people. There were quite a few Lithuanians there, so it was nice to actually talk to some locals and test out my language skills beyond ordering soup and a beer. The people are all really friendly, and it's a neat idea for saving money while traveling. A friend of mine traveled for three months around Europe mostly staying on people's couches.

The past couple weekends have been pretty busy for me. The Marines that guard the embassy have a party every Friday, and the Fulbrighters were officially invited the first weekend in October. The guys are all really nice, and I met even more embassy employees. I can't imagine how many people work at a really major embassy, like in Moscow. Last weekend a bunch of us went to see a jazz/funk band and then went out dancing. It's unusual for me, but I'm enjoying spending time with my fellow Americans. Maybe it's because I find it difficult to make friends with Lithuanians, or maybe it's because I've just been lucky to find fun Americans. It probably has something to do with the fact that they're all used to being abroad. They're not like the "couch-surfers" who are mostly backpackers, trying to find the perfect number of days per city, and hurrying around the must-see sights before catching the next train to the next destination. I feel stuck in Vilnius, but not in a bad way. I have my 10 months ahead of me, so I don't have to hurry to see everything. I can take time to find my favorite restaurant, cafe, park, etc. So it's nice to be able to compare notes with other people who have a similar frame of mind. This is something you don't really find among people in summer courses, or at hostels.

Also, it's my birthday on Sunday!! I'm planning on having a party on Saturday night, which should be lots of fun. I haven't decided how to treat myself on my birthday -- maybe the $37 brunch buffet at the Radisson??

ill

Fri, 28 Sep 2007 09:12:33 GMT

So I've spent the past week being sick and lazy. Apparently I had some minor food-borne illness, which only just found out about. That doesn't explain the laziness fully, I suppose.

Sunday evening I went out for a stroll and ended up coming across an old acquaintance. I noticed some people cooking burgers in a courtyard near the Gates of Dawn, and remembered a similar event there last summer. I poked my head in and asked if Tony lived there. Tony's an American who's been living in Vilnius for 8 years, and knows everyone, so I was happy to cross paths with him. I was treated to a beer and a burger, and later on we went out to In Vino (the lovely wine bar), along with another American who'd recently arrived as an English teacher. I had a pretty bad headache, so I called it an early night. I was also feeling a little queasy. I ended up throwing up, and slept until 4 pm the next day. I still felt a little nauseous the next day, and just stayed in bed. (Having seen Tony again last night, I discovered he was also sick: mushrooms purchased outside the market were to blame. It's a pity -- they were delicious.)

I pulled myself together for Tuesday, going to class and running errands. Wednesday was a reception at the American Ambassador's residence for the new Deputy Chief. The Fulbrighters were invited -- yay! It was a really nice reception, and I got to meet some interesting people. For the whole month we've had some event every week, and it's always a different mix of people. It's really nice to get invited to these things, I'm just running out things to wear! People always ask about my research, so I've gotten lots of practice explaining linguistics again. I realized that when I describe my work in Lithuanian (or even Russian), I tend to just lie a little bit so I can stick to the vocabulary I have :)

The rest of the week was pretty uneventful. I've had workers in the building removing the years of trash in the attic. Apparently previous owners threw their old building materials, furniture, newspapers, etc. up in the attic rather than removing them and discarding everything in the usual manner. So now there's a two-week task of emptying the attic, followed by repairing the roof, and hopefully this will be followed by repairing the chimney. I poked my nose into the attic one day after the workers left and was amazed and the amount of stuff up there. I'll have to take a picture because it's pretty hard to describe. There are some really old things too, like old newspapers and Soviet-era greeting cards, but nothing is in good enough shape to salvage.

I did get some good news this week: the migration office wants to hear about where I'm living. This means they have done at least some processing on my residency permit. The backstory: most people (depending on your nationality) can stay in Lithuania for up to 90 days (in a 6 month period) without any visa or residency permit. Since I came in the summer, that time counts towards my 90 days, but because I left for a month, August doesn't count. Still, I need my permit by the end of October or I'll get a fine. However, the migration office can sometimes take up to 6 months to process a residency permit. So, I'm quite relieved that they've contacted me already, and hopefully I won't get fined. So now my landlady and I are going to make a notarized statement, saying that she owns the apartment and has given me permission to live there. Then I have to go stand in line for 5 hours and show this piece of paper to the migration office. Ah, bureaucracy.

The other major accomplishment of the week was the procuring of a library card for the National library. Ada and I went first to the library at Vilnius University, where she got a reader's card. We then explored the various reading rooms. The whole university is a labyrinth of sorts, with 13 courtyards. The library is no exception. We followed arrows to a new humanities section, where we found another set of arrows leading from another point. But they led to some locked door, so we backtracked through the 18 corridors. Mystifying. The National library was a little bit easier to navigate, but we had to fill out more paperwork to get in. Without the aforementioned residency permit, I don't have a personal number in Lithuania. This always throws off the poor person entering my information into a computer. Luckily, you can just make up a number. I used my driver's license number, since that was the only ID I had. Now we're both set to go sit in the library all day. They even have wireless internet! So, I've said it before and I'll say it again: Monday I'll start my project. :)

Pictures! Linguistics on the airwaves!!

Sun, 23 Sep 2007 12:30:27 GMT

Two things:

1) I posted pictures of my apartment, and a few from my time in England (Bristol Zoo, memorable trip to Wookey Hole). Pardon the mildly obscene shot of me and Nick as cavemen. Just goes to show how prudish Americans are compared to Europe: these figures are at a child-oriented park, something that would be *unthinkable* anywhere outside in the States.

2) I'm finally getting caught up on my NPR podcasts and just listened to an interesting segment from Science Friday with Steven Pinker. He's the linguist/cognitive scientist who wrote The Language Instinct, the best popular-science introduction to generative grammar. I was very excited to hear that some of the themes of his new book, The Stuff of Thought, are related to my area of research, and the theoretical questions I am exploring in my thesis, using data from Russian and Lithuanian rather than English. So, if you want to hear a good explanation of the issues, listen to the interview from last week. Pinker and the host discuss, among other things, transitive verbs and the rules restricting the shift of verbs from intransitive to transitive. This is one instance of changing the argument structure of a verb. My research is to look at such changes to see what effects this has on case marking, and vice versa. It's a really interesting interview, and Steven Pinker has a good way of explaining dull, technical aspects of linguistics. Enjoy!