A Diary of Lithuania - Part 4

Well, this is the final post on Lithuania.  I know very few of you are remotely interested, but I am glad there are some who enjoy.  Especially my older children who have told me these posts have brought back so many good memories.  

August 31, 2007

I just finished cutting lettuce, tomato, and olives for a taco salad.  I also grated cheddar.  it is still interesting to me, but lettuce here isn't near what we have in the states.  Occasionally, you can find iceberg, but the only other lettuce, called salotas, is sold in a small flower pot.  I'm not sure why.  Perhaps you plant it and eat leaves off.  Anyway, they are very skimpy heads of lettuce.  I have learned that salads here on most occasion do not include lettuce.  If they do, there isn't much of it.  At Cili Pica [pronounced Chili Pizza], they sell a delicious Greek type salad.  It has lettuce, red cabbage, tomato, cucumber, carrot, onion, feta cheese, and walnuts.  When we eat there, I get the lemon-honey dressing.  It is yummy!

Most salads here are like pic-nic salads.  If you go to the deli-counter, the salad section can be as long as 20 feet.  Ninety percent of those salads are made with mayonnaise.  They are big on mayo here.  Yes, you can get Hellmann's.  Half the salads, or more, have beets.  The top salad ingredients would be mayo, carrots, peas, beets, and cabbage.  They also use eggs and ham.  I'm not brave enough to try most, but someday perhaps.  We tried a few which were quite good when we had dinner with a friend.  When we went to Trakai, we ate at a restaurant that served a pickled dish of carrots, beets, and cabbage.  It was awesome.  I can't find it anywhere else.  I would imagine it can't be difficult to duplicate. 

The baker here is huge.  You can find so much except frankfurter rolls.  You just need to make sure the rolls you buy for salami sandwiches don't have jelly.  Yes - did that!  Speaking of salami, Rebekah loves it!  She eats salami pizza like it's going out of style. 

I have finally found "skimmed" milk.  It is actually .5% fat but I can drink it no problem.  Al drinks whole milk and the younger two drink 1%.  It is quite embarrassing to put a case of milk in your cart because it is not done here.  In fact, I would venture to say it isn't the beverage of children here.  Juice or nectars perhaps, but not milk. [I later learned from friends that children in Lithuania drank tea, mostly herbals like chamomile.] But, I don't think Lithuanians hurt for calcium.  They eat a lot of yogurt [jogurt] and cheese [suris].  They also eat a lot of cheese curds [varske].  It's the same as cottage cheese.  I used it in a recipe, but haven't eaten it with a spoon.  Oh, they also drink a lot of kefyras or sour milk. [later realized this was kefir, like we find here in the States] I know, but I think at the Rimi store there is more kefyras than pienas [milk].  Now - have you had your Lithuanian lesson?  Quiz on the next page...

What is Varske? [pronounced versh - ka]

Ok - nevermind!

The kids are very impatiently waiting for our move and our air freight.  They are also waiting for our van as well.  We have heard the van is in the middle of the Atlantic already.  Our air freight - not sure.  But we manage day to day.  The kids go out to play when it rains. then back in when it stops.  They seem to like it a lot.  Cassie has figured out it gets cold here.  It's been 40 degrees at night. So when we wake, she stares and pleads to come in.  She normally sleeps on the back steps, but recently Al has found her huddled in her crate with a blanket [I recall this blanket being mustard yellow. She was buried in it the following year.] 

I am amazed at how quickly Leandra is growing.  I noticed a few days ago her jeans are nearing the short side.  I told her the chances of her fitting into her HHE winter clothes are slim, but then again I bought a larger size.  I can get cute sweat suits for 30-40 litu, that comes to about $10-$15.  The prices here are either better or equal to U.S. prices. 

We received most of our food shipment from Netgrocer.  They forgot the brown sugar and whole wheat flour.  I am almost out of the bag Adri sent. I think I can make 1-2 more loaves, but not completely whole wheat.  i have made oat bread as well.  Leandra is practically making bread on her own now.  She is quite a capable young lady.  She and Andrew have done fairly well on the new chore schedule, too. 

Last Friday, I went to a coffee/tea at the ambassador's residence.  I enjoyed the time away.  The occasion was to welcome the Deputy Chief of Mission's wife.  She is very nice as is the ambassador's wife, Mary.  I also got to meet Japan's ambassador's wife, but unfortunately I forgot her name.  I spoke to her for a while.  She was very nice.  There was another lady, I thought she was the ambassador's wife... of hmm... can't remember.  Some European country, perhaps Hungary or Estonia.  

Sunday I had a nice time away with some other women.  We had cokes and a dessert and salad.  I was late, so didn't get to "shop", but not to worry.  Maybe next time.

Well, I guess that's all for now.  I'm not sure what will happen this weekend.  Tonight there is a potluck at the embassy.  Should be fun.  I am bringing a taco salad.

Al just called to say he bought me a cell phone.  I think the cheapest was fine, but it would be interesting to see what he has for me.  

Last Sunday, we went to Church of Christ in Vilnius again.  It was all translated and the sermon was beautiful.  I was touched.  The kids were well behaved.  The church does have a children's class, but I need to learn more about it.  I don't know that it is very planned out.  Also, most of the kids are older.  The minister's wife spoke near perfect English and said she would be more than happy to teach a class for Rebekah and Tija, her daughter.

There were a few other people who spoke English.  One guy, Chris, has been here for ten years.  he has learned the language.  He is from Canada.  I told him I spent time in Edmonton, which he lived for a long time.  He knows Cold Lake.  I found it interesting. [My family lived in Edmonton, Alberta for about 6 months when I was in the fourth grade.]

Anyway, it's nearing lunch time, Rebekah is playing in a tray of cornmeal, and I need to get lunch made.  

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I've enjoyed writing about the first month in Lithuania.  In this last post, I mentioned that the kids were excited about our move.  We ended up moving to another house just up the road because the basement had mold which made me really sick.  The new landlords were super sweet and loved the kids.  They would bring gifts to the kids off and on.  They lived just up on the next street, and we could see their home from the back porch.  

The photos at the top of the page were taken at Trakai, a castle outside of Vilnius.  Al's brother came along with us, and if my memory is correct, so were a few people from church.