Lithuania

Cross-posted from DaivaRepeckaite.com - you can comment there.

I found a fun questionnaire on this blog and decided to use it to ‘close’ 2011 on Wonderland. This year was exceptionally full of travelling, for which I feel grateful. I went somewhere almost every month. I visited 3 continents, 12 countries (6 of them – for the first time) and 21 cities. True, I didn’t blog on Wonderland much, as there were so many things to do and so much to share on my Lithuanian blog. The loss of the possibility to interact with my readers on Cafe Babel blogs was also very discouraging, and this is why I started cross-posting. Anyway, let’s hope the next year will be equally interesting and less busy.

Also posted on DaivaRepeckaite.com

As soon as it became warm enough, Laimikis.lt relaunched its initiative called "Bubble the City" in English (in rather unsuccessful search for an adequate term for the creative Lithuanian "Burbuliatorius"). As last year, it takes place in Lithuanian cities and towns, as well as the most popular migrant destinations. The idea is to encourage people to spend time outdoors and do something together in a non-commercial setting, using one of the green public spaces. I have noticed that Vilnius, which, although blessed with open spaces, has rather unstable climate. It drastically lacks public toilets, and many urban spaces that people like become 'overplanned' due to dubious government initiatives, such as replacing old trees, which used to provide comfortable shade, with new, specially designed trees. Being in central Vilnius in cold weather is no fun at all, to put it mildly. Like in many cities, you must buy something to enjoy a comfortable place to sit. Compared to Tokyo, Vilnius at least has benches.

December (Lt. 'gruodis') is named after harsh, dry frost ('gruodas'). After several global-warming type of winters, it's already the second which is exceptionally cold. It is -13 at the moment, and if it goes down even more, it seems that eyelids will freeze together after every blink. Like any stronger weather-related phenomenon, snow exposes the mismanagement of Vilnius' streets. Sloping, narrow streets of the old town, when frozen, are a particular torture for old people. But even young ones get injured. It's too dangerous to keep your hands in your pockets, but too cold to keep them outside.

The country is both blessed and cursed with cold winters. Whenever the pavement is safe enough to look up, Vilnius really looks like a fairytale.

One day as I was on the way to my office with my flatmate, a bus, navigating through a traffic jam, suddenly hit the brakes, having most people grab anything they could hold onto. One passenger (approx. in her 60s) did not do it in time. She flew towards the front of the bus, lost her balance and hit the glass. Someone helped her to stand up and sit on a seat. She was sitting there, holding her head, moaning, and people were watching what will happen next.

This is something I dislike most about the local culture. The "see what happens" attitude does not allow more effective handling of minor crimes that happen on public transport. People get pickpocketed, sometimes when it's crowded, but often because everyone is afraid to say something (you never know if the pickpocket has a knife, so these fears are not ungrounded). Insults often get unnoticed (here are some insults that an American student experienced in Vilnius). There have been cases of someone being stabbed to death in public transport - other passengers did not do anything while the fight was escalating.

In this case, again, the injured passenger was obviously alive, she did not lose her consciousness, so perhaps it didn't alarm other passengers too much. Me and my flatmate, after some discussion what would be the best way to call her an ambulance, went to her and I asked how she was (in Lithuanian). She responded (in Russian) that she hadn't had a blackout and was not feeling sick, so she didn't think she got a concussion, but was experiencing terrible pain. I turned to the driver and knocked on the glass separating him from the passengers. "Do you have a first aid kit?" I asked, mostly because I was stressed and worried - typically first aid kits are designed to treat wounds only. The driver made a gesture asking me to wait, and pulled over in the next stop. Then he went to the passenger area and straight to the suffering woman. "Show it to me... Oh, this is nothing." he said (there was really no wound), and then raised his voice to speak to other passengers, "You saw it themselves - I didn't stop the bus too fast. Nobody else fell down. You witnessed that, right?" "Sir, you will discuss it later, she needs help," I said, desperately. The driver repeated to me (in Russian) what he said to the passengers. "This person needs help! Can't you leave your discussions for later?" I shouted in Russian, already getting furious. Meanwhile, another passenger, who was getting off the bus, said, "You did stop the bus too fast. You don't behave with people that way!" The driver got into a discussion with her, trying to prove he was not to blame, and then.. got back to his seat.

Meanwhile the injured woman called her family and made sure they will pick her up at a bus stop. She didn't want to go to hospital. So we got off where we had to go, with an uneasy feeling. Of course, the whole story did not end as bad as it could have. I heard stories of people falling on top of each other and someone breaking their leg on a bus, and my own shoulder was dislocated when a bus stopped very suddenly in a traffic jam. I bet in countries where driving is even crazier it happens more often. But what struck me was this egoism, when the driver first hurried to gather witnesses and prove it was not his fault before even paying attention to the suffering of the passenger.

You may ask, how is it that I'm not used to nobody ever being responsible for anything?

You have read lots of funny, sad, happy and annoying stories about my expat life. But I know that there are many of you out there, reading my blog precisely because you are expats yourself, living in Lithuania, having lived here or in any of the other relevant countries. So, this time I want you to actively contribute to a debate: what are the most annoying questions you constantly hear when living in a foreign country?

There is a lot and at the same time nothing I could say. What I wanted to say to Lithuanians, I already wrote in my Lithuanian blog. It is a day full of silence and emptiness, unfortunately. Just felt like paying a silent tribute.

This is going to be a melancholic post. After all, what else if not melancholy, sweet and ripe with memories or sad and heavy, is one supposed to feel, marking the third September the 1st as an ordinary workday? No feeling of celebration anymore, and seeing kids with sword-lilies on the way to school, makes you feel somewhat nostalgic (even if you would rather spend a day in hell than a day back in middle school). This day changes Vilnius, and does so in various ways.

But beware: I'm only paying a tribute to this day today. The next post is going to be angry. Beware.

Too many stories boiling in my head, will catch up shortly, after the period of huge workload is over. However, one story I got into was kind of interesting, and hopefully you, dear readers, will enjoy it.

The other day I met a tourist who is staying in Vilnius for a few weeks, attending a summer school. We soon found out that we were both studying Hebrew at some point, and I said I really missed speaking that language. Therefore we soon agreed to meet and chat in Hebrew another day. Tired after a busy working day and prepared for a casual chat, I set of to meet him. But his idea was very unusual: "Do you mind keeping me company to go to the synagogue?" he asked. Apparently, the person is a second year convert-in-progress to Judaism. "Well, umm... My skirt is kinda short for that..." I said, not quite excited. However, assured that nobody will pay attention, I finally gave in and got to see this space on a weekday, regular evening, during a prayer that struggles to continue in the city which used to be called the Jerusalem of Lithuania.

Come to Lithuania if you doubt climate change. When I went there for winter vacations, I was greeted with a very polite "Ladies and gentlemen, the plane is landing above Vilnius. The temperature in Vilnius is -22 degrees Celsius. Have a nice stay..." In spring I heard of horrible floods, although not so destructive as in Poland or Hungary. Right before I came here in summer, my friends were complaining about unprecedented mosquito attack and more annoying then ever pollen in Vilnius. Eventually, summer came with rains, thunderstorms and barely survivable heat above 30 degrees, which is very unusual. How do people cope with it?