A Weekend in Lithuania

This weekend was the first weekend we have spent in Lithuania in three weeks. Paige and Rusty were going somewhere with their host family, and we haven’t heard from Alona since Thursday. We assumed she was still sick, so Camee, Maggie, Emily, and I were just going to have a chill weekend doing whatever. However, on Friday afternoon, Dima came into my classroom and watched me teach my elementary lesson. It was pretty nerve-wracking, but I must have done an okay job. He pulled me aside and said I was brilliant, which made me really happy. I think he finally decided he liked me. Anyways, then he invited me to go to a museum about this famous Russian author with he and family on Saturday. I didn’t really want to go with Dima somewhere by myself and none of the other girls. But I said yes, since it was a great cultural opportunity that I was probably never going to get again.

He and his family picked me up at 11:30 on Saturday, and we drove towards downtown to this huge park. I thought it was just a regular park, but it was actually a national monument dedicated to the author. His name is Alexander Pushkin, and I guess he’s the Shakespeare of Russian literature. He wrote everything from poetry, plays, children’s fairy tales, and novels. Saturday was his birthday, so there was a big show in front of the museum for the first couple hours. A bunch of Russian school children sang songs and performed some of his stories. As one of his fairy tales was being performed, I realized that I recognized it. It turns out that I had read it in my Folklore class in college. Dima was pretty excited when I told him this. I guess Russians don’t believe he’s recognized enough worldwide.

The statue of him in the park

Russian kids performing his stories

The museum 

I think this was his son's grave.

Then we got to visit the museum for free. The “museum” was actually the house that belonged to his son. As it turns out, Pushkin had never even been to Lithuania in his lifetime. He actually died in a duel at the age of 37. So it’s pretty funny to realize how many famous people have died in duels. I guess they were pretty common back then. So the museum was mostly his son’s stuff. However, one of the tables and a couple of the chairs were actually brought from Russia to sit in the museum.

So overall, I’m really glad that as an English major, I got to go to such an authentic cultural event about a famous author.  That was an experience that I’m never going to have again, so I’m really grateful that I had the opportunity to go.

Russian dolls they were teaching the kids to make

Pushkin's original table and chairs

Some of his children books

Russian costumes

More freaky Russian dolls

On Sunday, we were going to meet Maggie and her host family at this Russian festival they were having in Old Town. We were going to go to the 10:00 church so we could go to the festival in the afternoon. However, Camee and I ended up sleeping in. So we just went to the 2:00 church with Emily and skipped the festival. Actually, we were so happy we did too. Church is really fun in Lithuania. Everyone there is so laid back and sincere. Tons of women were wearing strapless dresses and this one girl had blue hair and no one even bat an eye. Everyone is so kind there. We stayed for all three hours and then we went to dinner at the senior missionaries’ apartment. They are so awesome. She makes the best stuff ever. For dinner, we had taco salads. We ate so much because we were so staving for regular food. I’m so sad that they are going to be leaving in July. But the good news is, they live in Logan! So when I go back to school, I can keep going over to their house for good food haha. After that, we watched the movie 17 Miracles. So it was a relaxing, gospel filled Sunday.

There were lots of interesting people at dinner. We talked to this 17 year old girl for a while, and she had a lot of questions about America. And the Nigerian converts there are always so funny to talk to. There are also these two really glamorous girls in their late twenties. One of the girls speaks five languages, and she translates all the general conference talks and Ensign articles into Lithuanian and Russian. She’s amazing. The other girl teaches Russian at the MTC in Madrid, Spain. She also just engaged to a man she met there from Portugal. There are so many cool members of the church in the world. I’m glad that I’ve gotten to meet so many interesting people since I’ve lived here.

Next weekend, we’re going to this really cool spa town called Druskininkai. There have this amazing health center there with all these saunas, baths, and spa treatments. They also have this adventure park where you can go ziplining and an indoor snow arena. So that should be really fun!