Stories from around the town

A few little stories that really have nothing in common except Lithuanian and the people who we teach with.

First, one of the teachers, Laura Enns, went to Palanga with Erwin as her driver to pick up her husband from the airport. Palanga is about 25k from here. Erwin got to about 3k from Palanga and the road was blocked off..no one could get through. Luckily, Erwin spoke Lithuanina, so he went to the man standing by the blockaid
and asked why no one could get through. The man replied, "There's a road race here for cars and the road is closed." Erwin asked when it would be reopened again. The man replied, "Three days." A little surprised, Erwin noted that they had to pick someone up at the Palanga Airport and asked what roads should they take. The man replied. "If you want to know that, you should ask a local person. I'm not from around here."
The finally did get to the airport and Ed, Laura's husband did get back to the dorms...
On our way to Venta Sunday, we noticed a field of wind turbines--maybe twenty of them. I asked Kel, our friend who lives in Lithuania, why they were not working. He replied that they had not been properly commissioned yet. He also noted that they all have to bebuilt and working before one of them can be turned on...

On Saturdays, we see many weddings. The tradition here is that the groom must carry his bride across seven bridges. This is very interesting to watch. A newer tradition is that the bride and groom attach a padlock to the bridge and then throw the key into the water, so it can never be taken off. Last week, the city officicals cut off all the locks, so new ones could be added. Lucky for the bride pictured above there was room...

And an oldy but goodie that some of you may remember...Erwin went to the flea market to get some things. He noticed some cool shorts and he wanted to try them on to see if they fit. He asked the lady where he could try them on. She placed a one meter square of cardbord on the floor of the open tent and said, "Stand on here." He said, "You want me to change my pants in front of all these people walking by." Then she grabbed a towel and held it in front of Erwin's face. She said to him, " Now people will not recognise you. He then replied, " Well, I don't know anyone here." She said, "Then you won't need this towel."

And finally...Jude and I were changing sheets one day and we wiped up some water in our bathroom with one of the sheets before placing it in the laundry. The next day there was a sign which read, "Please do not place wet sheets in the laundry."

Cows are tetherd in the fields so they is no need for fencing. We saw a sing along a gravel road in the middle of no where that said "Cafe is open." For miles around, all you could see was fields and water...And would't you know it...four mile up ahead on this gravel road, there indeed was a cafe and it was open...


We met the St. Peter clan for breakfast this morning at 10 am. They have twin 3 year olds, Emma, a 10 year old and then Heather and Tim. We ordered our food and it started to pour--so hard that we spent the next two and one half hours waiting for the rain to stop. Heather said the twins walked over eight miles the day before. Their stroller doesn't fit into the busses, so when they go places, they need to walk. She did say they sleep well at night, though.

Once back at home after going to the square, Courtney came to our room looking for a can opener. We said we had one in our freezer. "It's in your freezer," she retorted. "Yes, we use it to break apart our ice cubes, " Jude replied.