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Del's class was held in the Music and Art Gallery of the Public Library today, and since it was tv day, I went with him. If I understood correctly, the pieces in the gallery were a result of a series of contests. I was particularly taken with the black ceramic grouping that was designed specifically for the table, or else the table was designed for it.
I think the tv interviews went okay. Again, if I understood correctly, the taping was for something at the University that sounds like PBS. The program is a weekly half hour show that is aimed at college students all over Lithuania. It must be a slow news week, if they had to roll out two old Americans. Our Daiva translated the questions, but did not translate our answers. I assume someone will do that later. Del was asked primarily about about his classes and his students. The reporter asked me about my English classes and also about being in Lithuania - likes, comparisons, etc. Fortunately, we are genuinely having a good time, so it was easy to be enthusuastic. I admitted to having been scared about teaching English, never having done it before, but that everyone, including the Dean of the Faculty had been so supportive. She also asked about our Lithuanian lessons.
During Del's lecture, I sat on a sofa behind a coat tree in an ante room and read. Thank you EHJ. Somewhere toward the middle, I thought I was going through a door to the hall to visit the WC, toward the back of the building, but turns out it was a different WC right beside the lecture space. That was bad enough, but I then proceeded to get myself stuck in there. I tried to be quiet about fiddling with the lock, but after a few minutes, two women from the back row of the lecture came to save me just as I managed to get it open. I had just about decided to give up and just sit on the throne until the lecture was over, cursing myself that EHJ was on the sofa instead of with me, when I finally got the door open. I found out later that Del and our friend from LCC had also gotten stuck before the lecture.
We left the lecture and walked to another library to see a presentation that included poetry, music, dance and food from one of the regions of Lithuania. There were various smoked meats and sausages, traditional Lithuanian cheeses, baked filled buns, sweet pastries and cookies and wine. There was also whisky made in the region that burned all the way down. I don't know what it was made of, and it tasted pretty good, but Del and I shared a smaller than a shot glass full. A whole shot would have taken the top of my head off. Our friend Audrone translated the label of the wine bottle. It said it was made from genuine tears from librarians. Tears because people do not care enough about books, music, poetry, etc. and because of strife in the world and so on. I thought that was pretty funny. It reminded me of the label a friend in Huntsville had made for his honey jars that said something like made from only the finest weeds.
I don't really know how to desacribe LIthuanian cheese. It is white cheese and seems sort of like farmer's cheese with every single bit of moisture out of it. It does not taste aged at all. It seems to always be shaped in a flat oval. I looked in my cook book, and it may be curd cheese. They boil sour milk, squeeze out as much moisture as possible in a cheese cloth and then press it between 2 boards with weights. It can be eaten fresh or dried. One type served tonight was plain but dusted with curry powder and the other had caraway seeds all through it.
The woman with me in the picture is Nijella. She is a library director from that region who has been studying English on her own for 2 years. I found myself standing beside her and smiled. She startd to talk to me in pretty good English, actually, After a few minutes she stopped and fanned herself and sort of exhaled. I said that it was getting a little warm, but she said that it was from trying to speak English. Even though she had been studying for 2 years, I was the first person she had ever spoken English with. I was so excited that I probably did an inappropriate thing. I probably should not have given her a big hug, but she did not seem offended. I told her that I was honored to be part of her first English conversation. We talked about her work, her region and our grandchildren, and she let us take her picture.
Tomorrow we will go to the children's library, and then I will get the bus out to the mall. I need a few things at the Hyper Maxima. We also need to get tickets for Fiddler on the Roof and the children's puppet show for Audrone and her son and us. Her husband has to work, so he can't go.
Happy St. Paddy's to all!
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