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Thanks to a young woman in my advanced English class, Del and I have had the most wonderful day. She sent us a schedule of events for today, and also for the rest of the month. Now we can go to the websites, hit the translate button and know what's going on in all of the cultural venues for the whole time we're here. If we were of a mind to, we could go to something just about every night. What will we do when we get back to the country?
We started at the main square to await the arrival of the yourth parade. The theme of the parade was "My Stone." If you look at the many pictures we took, you will see that some of the kids brought pallets of stones, others single stones and one group a chicken wire carrier of stones along the parade route to the square. People of all ages who were in the crowd also brought stones, but you could take one from a pile already placed on the square and decorate it if you wished.
After the children arrived, there were speeches and some singing and dancing and then the Light of Freedom Sculpture was unveiled. The mayor placed the ceremonial first stone inside the scu;pture and then members of the crowd began to come up and place their stones inside. Del and I thought the sculpture looked like something you might find at Don Drum. I don't know if all the parts were newly created or if some were "found" objects, but it was quite interesting. The stones are supposed to represent breaking free of anger and getting rid of tension and oppressive ideas. The sculpture will stand in the square until it is full of stones, but they don't yet know where they will put it after that.
That ceremony ended at 3:30. and we rushed to the bus stop to head to the Cultural Arts Center to see "Amber Drop My Lithuania." I figure something was lost in the translation, don't you? It was due to start at 4:00 so we were quite lucky that the bus we needed rolled up just as we got to the stop and that there was a stop right in front of the Center. It was originally a center for the fisherman and boating industry, so the music notes on the front of the building are shaped like fish, eyes and all. We were about 10 minutes late, but so were they, so it all worked out fine. At first we didn't take pictures, assuming it would not be the correct thing to do, but we soon noticed that all the parents and grandparents were snapping away with abandon, so we did too. Del got three bits of movie which were kind of fun. We were sitting in the back because the lights dimmed just as we walked into the theater and we would never have figured out where we were supposed to go in the dark, but the theater is not huge and we were able to see and hear everything.
I don't think any performers have more fun than those doing folk dances and songs. We loved it all - the costumes, the instruments, and the talented performers rangng in age from a little boy of about 3 on up to middle aged folks. I would have loved to see the instruments close up. Some were unlike anything I had seen before. One unintended piece of entertainment came from a little girl of about 3 whose parents let her go up and down the stairs to the stage. She stayed to the side at the very edge, but could have bolted any minute. She noticed that there was a slanted area from the stage to the main floor right beside the stairs, so she thoroughly enjoyed climbing up and sliding down. At least she was quiet.
After the concert, we took the bus to our stop and then had pizza and ice cream at the Yellow Submarine. As soon as I smelled the pizza, the bottom dropped out and I felt as though I could chew my own arm. Del pointed out that we hadn't eaten since breakfast, so that probably accounted for it. Thankfully, I had made weekend breakfast, or we would have fallen by the wayside. Del stayed behind to get the check and pick up the leftover pizza, and I rushed home to sign into an e-seminar for speech types.
I have not had good ice cream here, but I did discover tonight that a regular serving is 3 scoops. They weren't as big scoops as Miss Annetta would have liked, but there were 3 of them. We have had gelato twice in the mall, and it's good, but it isn't ice cream. I also bought some ice cream at the market one time, but it is not Bryers. The plastic container is really good for leftovers, though.
You may remember my saying that the Yellow Submarine is next to our church. Yesterday, when Daiva was taking me to her hair master, we went past the building, and I commented about going to church there. She told me that before the Soviet times it was a church, but during those times the Soviets had turned it into something with a not very nice reputation. I didn't ask what she meant. Let's just imagine.
The jazz club is starting to crank up.Being a holiday night, the crowd is rowdier than usual on a Friday.
Happy weekend! Maybe one day I will cull the pix so that you won;t need to spend your whole weekend looking at them.
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