Out and About on Day 1

We slept in a little this morning, did some unpacking and then hit the streets.   First stop was the bank to get litas.  I was able to complete the transaction without difficulty, and proudly said "Aciu" pronounced "Ahchew"  (Thank you.)  Imagine my disappointment when the teller replied "Bless you."  Not only did she not understand me, she now thinks at least one American sneezes without covering her mouth.  I did not make this up, Daryl Lynn, I promise.  Seems I have a good bit of work to do, don't you think?   We then had lunch at a fun little restaurant where the server did an excellent job with English and gestures of getting us to the grocery market.   I think we will shop every couple of days, because we can only buy what we can carry. When we went in, I headed for the carts, but Del cleverly suggested that we each take one of the little hand baskets instead so I wouldn't throw in more than we could carry. Only the self check -out lines were open when we were there, but I didn't require any more assistance here than I did the one time I tried it in the US.  Which is to say that I pretty much needed hand over hand assistance from the salesperson while the line piled up behind me.

My most successful communication attempt of the day came when a deaf man came up in the restaurant and put a toy and deaf alphabet card  on the table for a donation.  He was surprised to be rejected with a combination of signs and fingerspelling, though the US alphabet is probably different from Lithuanian.

We had wet snow all day today, and it was quite gray - felt like Akron.  We enjoyed getting some fresh air, but were glad for the shoe tires and canes for extra stability when walking.  It was not a day for picture taking, I didn't think.