Our last days in Lithuania

My last day in Lithuania is already 2 months ago. However, in this blog entry I want to recapitulate the last days of our European Voluntary Service.

Saying goodbye to our students

The end of our school year at the Panevezio "Sviesos" Specialiojo Ugdymo Centras began with the "Last Bell" ("Paskutinis skambutis") on May 29th, a Lithuanian tradition to celebrate the high school graduation of those students who finished the 10th grade. Our school had prepared a diverse program with poems, songs, dances, and speeches which was shown in a theater near our school. It was a very emotional event, especially when Laia and Emily said thank you and goodbye to their classes and teachers for who the school year ended already one week earlier as they belonged to the younger classes of the school. 

The same day we completed our volunteer passports, the Savanoriu Pasai (maybe you remember them from our first days in Panevezys). This time we went through all the steps again and checked what had changed during the past 10 months: our weight, height, hair length and color, how far we can jump, etc. Some of the tasks, like recalling the names of a dozen students, didn't seem as challenging as at the beginning of our EVS. ;-) Many of the students had prepared drawings and cards for us to say thank you and goodbye and some of them were very sad that we would leave soon. For me, the completion of the Savanoriu Pasas was a good reminder of how the year had begun, how close we had become with all the students throughout the year, and an all in all more joyful than sad afternoon we could spent with the children and youth. 

Our official goodbye took place one day later. All the students, teachers, and other kollegues gathered in the school yard and the principal handed us over certificates. Afterwards, every class and volunteer drew or painted a film strip about their highlight of the year. The strips were all bound together and are now decorating the hallway of the dormitory building. At the end, we took a picture together with every class, holding frames, funny glasses and mustaches that we had prepared before, which was a lot of fun for everyone! 

 

Polish-Lithuanian Youth Exchange Project "Creative Passions"

From June 5th-11th the project team had organized an exchange between our school and a Polish special school. A group of Polish students came to Panevezys and with the same number of our students we spend 6 amazing days. Every volunteer, project team member, and a few more educators organized different art and sport activities, a short daily language course to learn the most important words in both languages, games, trips to Kaunas, Vilnius, Trakai and Kernave, disco and international evenings, where the Lithuanian and Polish group and every volunteer introduced their home country. From soap-bubble making, over glass painting and rugby playing, to orientation game - there was an activity for everybody's liking. I was amazed how close the students of both groups had become despite the language barrier at the end of the exchange and being able to spent all day with the students for a whole week was a lot of fun. 

 The Last Projects 

The outcome of the eco-club (Ekologijos Veikla) that I organized for the students: 

Crafting out of old magazines

An experiment about the degradation of waste

Creating a trash can out of a cardboard box, newspaper, paper rolls and plastic lids

 

The very last week of our voluntary year we created 16 different postcards to advertise the EVS. In order to do so we e.g. took and searched for photos and made up appealing sentences.

Additionally, we painted a "volunteers' tree" on the wall infront of the school's canteen, in whose circled leaves the photos of every year's volunteers can be put as a memory. 

Fine

Taekwondo, Origami and calligraphy : Emily's activity

Labas visiems :)

Today I am writing about my initiative (activities) which takes place on Tuesday and Wednesday afternoons.
My initiatives are :
- Taekwondo (Tuesday) : it is a martial art from Korea. I practiced for 3 years in France and I am blue belt, so I am able to teach some punchs and kicks, we also do some poomsee (series of punches and kicks combinaison), the same as 'kata' for karate (more informations : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6ELApKxX3qk).
We also recently practice with targets where children can punch and put into practice the kicks that they just learned.

- Origami (Wednesday, every two weeks) : I prepared the origami at home and we do in the same time : I show them and they imitate the foldings). I tried to do logical series : one week would be flowers, the other how to make envelops,...

- Calligraphy (every other weeks) : I also try to do the lesson according to the level and the language families, for example about the seasons "spring 春, summer 夏, autumn 秋, winter 冬", the family "mother 母, father 父, man 男, woman 女, children 子, house 家", the colors "red 赤, white 白, blue 青"
I also showed shits of paper where I wrote the letter in one side Japanese and the other in Lithuanian and they reproduced, then adding their names at the end.



Recently I tried to do with the tactil board of Artūras and it is much more easier to show them the order of the outlines. In Japanese calligraphy it is essential to respect the order of the outlines :)





Have a great day,

Emily

Pristatymas Moterių Kalėjime

Last Thursday, on May 7th, we went to the women prison in Panevėžys. As Laia has worked in a prison in Spain before she was very interested in getting to know the prison here as well, whereupon Kristina organized an appointment for us.

 

Our presentation, for about 30 women, took place in the class room in one of the prison buildings. At the beginning we introduced ourselves in Lithuanian and showed a movie that Laia had created about her EVS experience. We also had baked cake for the women because we thought it would be a nice gesture and wanted to create a comfortable atmosphere for everybody. Afterwards, we showed a quiz and a presentation about our countries. I think the women liked both very much as many of them discussed the answers to the quiz questions and told us that  they found it very interesting. They also asked about women prisons in our countries, so Laia explained them what the prison she volunteered at was like. At the end, we could also ask questions to the women. All the four of us felt very comfortable while presenting and to meet the women and see the prison from inside was very interesting for  us.

 

After our presentation, the prison‘s director showed us around: We could see some rooms where the women live (one woman even invited us to see her room), the library room, the church room, the factory where the women work from outside, and the building with yard for the women who live there with their babies.

All in all, we are very glad to have gained the experience to meet with the women and to give them an insight into the life in our home countries and our work in Panevėžys. The prison‘s director is thinking about applying as a host organization for EVS volunteers in the future. In our opinion, that would be a great idea.

Fine

šokti, dance, balla

Every day we need communicate, express what we feel, if we are happy or we are sad…we have a lot of forms for do it but I find with the dance the perfect form! And maybe this is the reason why all my live I have danced and now I am doing a class with the children.

Here I can create , I can teach things that I learned when I was a child, I can be crazy with the funny music , I can feel the rhythm of the music and I can  let out all that I have inside.

I find in the dance the universal language, I don’t know a lot of Lithuanian language, but doesn’t matter when the music sounds we speak the same and we can communicate and do beautiful things.

Every day we try to make a piece of dance for finally one day dress up with the best costumes, make up and go on the stage for show the work that during this year we did but if this is not possible don’t worry we can dance for life!

DANCE FOR LIFE AND BE HAPPY!

A hug

Laia:)

Francophonie's celebration in Gymnasium

Hello everybody!

Today I would like to write about the "Francophonie", a huge festival in France but mostly in Francophone countries.

This festival promote French culture, it means to promote the language, the music, youth development and ideas, but also the democracy, the education, the sustainable development.

It takes place on 20th March, for this occasion, Leslie (one of the 2 other French volunteers) were invited in a Gymnasuim who diffrent schools join to celebrate the Francophonie together.
There were 4 classes from different gymnasium and everybody were learning French with different classes level.

Leslie and me were the firstto open the celebration by singing. For this event, she brings her guitar and we sung"Kyo - "Derniere danse" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aU_TQcyGkvY)

Afterwards, the different schools had some presentation about France. The older sung "Aux Champs Elysees" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9V-zUlrhEE) and a couple were dancing in the middle of the stage.
The 2nd group sung a nursery rythm with choregraphy of "1,2,3 nous irons au bois" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MpUNmriaiz4).

The 3rd group recite a poem of Jacques Prevert, "La familiale", about the 2nd world war (http://www.bacfrancais.com/commentaire/24-prevert-familiale-commentaire.php).
The last group, I didn't understand why but they dance on Gangnam stylefrench version). It was quite weird because it is a Korean pop music, but anyway...

After those different show we sung a 2nd time with Leslie : "Il est libre Max from Hervé Christiani" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8dx3rktr4Ls).

Then, with Regina, the French teacher of the gymnasuim, we read a passage of "Le petit prince", I read first in French and then she read in Lithuanian.
The children had a work relating with "Le petit prince'", they watched a short film "Le Petit Prince et la Planete du temps" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxKP9smSLP4), according to this short movie, they had to paint something related to Le Petit Prince. We were the jury and we chose 3 paintings and the pupils who painted them received a diploma. There were some really interesting paints, and some were more vague, abstract...

We took a Picture all together :

We finally eat (cantine food, not French food XD) and we came back!


It was a good day, I was afraid to sing in front such a lot of pupils, but it was okay... :)


Ačiū for reading :)

Have a good day, iki!


Emily

Monika’s and Fine’s Midterm-Training – Halftime

From the 10^th to the 14^th of March, Monika and me had our midterm training together with 16 other volunteers (many of whom I hadn’t talked to a lot before, so it was great to get to know them more) near Vilnius, this time at Bebrūsų Dvaras. The natural surroundings were enchanting: a lake, a forest, and the next town quite some ways away. 

View onto the lake

The midterm training is -similar to the on-arrival training- mandatory for all long-term EVS volunteers and takes place at about half of the time spent in the host country. During our 5 days there we dealt with topics as

• Review of the time since our arrival, creating a graph of our feelings during the EVS
• Dreaming about and planning our future (after EVS and up to a time span of 7 years), also creating a collage
• Lithuanian mentalities, through talking about topics as “role of men and women in society” or “working habits” from our own experiences
•  “Pushing our borders”: exercises as running blindfolded into a wall of people or letting us fall from a table and catch by other people, to help us to deal with situations in which we are outside of our “comfort zone”. (During the EVS every volunteer most likely faces situations in which he or she does not feel comfortable e.g. while being confronted with different traditions and habits, a new field of work and responsibilities, etc. During the year one might learn to deal with or get used to those situations and in that can expand his/her comfort zone.)

Even though our midterm training was calmer than the on-arrival training –probably because we knew each other and already lived in Lithuania for a while- we did a lot of fun activities besides the “project-related” tasks: sauna evening with jumping into the still half-frozen lake, bike riding, setting up a "Lithuanian flag" (it was actually a casual scarf) for the Independence Day on March 11th (independence of 1990), making candles, shooting with bows and arrows, playing board games and dancing in the evenings, and –one of the highlights- having an international dinner for which almost every represented country cooked a dish. As you can guess, there was a lot of delicious food and a lot of new tastes. The countries represented were Romania, Austria, Ukraine, Macedonia, Serbia, Spain, Bulgaria, Latvia, France, and Germany. We also visited the only etnocosmological museum in Lithuania.

Setting up the Lithuanian flag

For me it was good to make a stop, take time to think about the time that passed, and get new ideas for the time that’s left. For many of us it is hard to believe that half of our EVS is already over. The past 6 months went by so fast, a lot of things have happened, we met many new people, went on trips and gained a huge range of new experiences already. For Monika, Laia, Emily, and me three months are left till the end of our project. That doesn’t sound like a lot but I’m sure they will be as eventful as our EVS has been so far.

Fine

all about bocce

Labas visiems,

It‘s early in the morning and I feel how my brain is still taking some more time to work than usual. The rainy weather also doesn‘t really help to make me feel more awake. But well, nevertheless it‘s finally time to tell you a bit about my afternoon initiative, as I had already promised you ages ago. So, let‘s get this started.

I had decided to organize frequent Bocce trainings in the afternoon after being to the Lithuanian championship in autumn in Vilnius. Remember, our team had won there. I told you that I had been working as a Bocce referee from time to time before at home in Austria, which was why I got so excited about getting in touch with it here too. Seeing that competition in Vilnius really got me motivated to work with this sport again and I could not wait to get started. Since December, I am now organizing two trainings per week, on Wednesdays and Thursdays.  In the first group, there are all children and youths from developmental classes, since the competitions around can only be attended by these kids. The second date I left open for whoever wants to come and it happened that it’s now only attended by youths from the special classes. The days are of course quite different from each other, and both of them have their difficulties and challenges to learn from.

team and trainer at the competition :)

I realized quickly that there is quite some difference between being a referee and being a trainer and that this new role was more difficult to fulfil than I had thought in the beginning. I got quite nervous because of the language too, since despite all preparation by learning certain sentences and expressions there kept appearing things that I just could not explain when I wanted it so badly. It was quite exhausting for me to just speak Lithuanian for a whole lesson, and It cost me a lot of concentration to try to do so. You see, the start was quite a challenge. But if there is one thing that I learned from my EVS time so far then it is that it’s the challenges from which you learn the most. By the time I got more relaxed and accepted the circumstances I have to work in, with all their ups and downs. And it made me feel a lot better. Now I can really focus on the fun parts of the trainings and there is actually quite a lot of them. I like watching the excitement of some of the players about each well-thrown ball and cheering with them when they won a round. Of course, losing on the other hand isn’t always easy for them but I even see there a bit of progress in them. I mean, you can’t always win, that’s normal, and I feel like they also start to accept that. The best feeling as a trainer of course is to watch how some of the players get better by the time and to get simply amazed by some really smart moves they can make. It’s great to see the joy they can have whilst playing and in the end it was this joy that I had seen first at this competition in Vilnius that got me into the idea of doing the trainings and it is this joy that keeps me motivated.

Last week we also got the chance to test the results of our trainings in a competition. The road led again to Vilnius where the Vilnius Open Tournament took place, in which we could take part because our school is friends with the organizing school. It was less teams taking part in the competition than that first time in autumn but nevertheless going there caused a lot of excitement amongst my players. I had decided to give some players the chance of making the experience of the competition who had not been at one before. It was already quite a big deal to make this long journey to Vilnius and I guess the atmosphere in the sports hall with all the other competing teams was also quite impressive. Our team played once against each single other team and I found that watching these matches was a completely different feeling for me than at that first time in autumn. Of course I had also been fevering with the team back then, but this time I felt clearly more under suspense. In the end it was now my team that was playing. So I was clearly more affected by my players’ emotions, I shared their excitement about each win and suffered with them through each loss. In the end we did not win the competition but that was no matter of importance. It was about sharing this experience together, for my players being at such a tournament for the first time and for me the feeling of taking part in it as a trainer. It was a good day and I enjoyed it a lot. As well as I will keep enjoying our weekly trainings.

Iki pasimatymo,

Monika

mes gaminam!

Labas visiems,

I think you all know already about our initiatives we‘re organizing in the afternoon and sure you‘ve read Fine‘s article about her ecological activity with the kids. I know I‘ve also promised you quite some time ago an article about my Bocce training which at this point I still have to delay. You know, tomorrow I will go again to a competition with some of my players and I will take my impressions from there as an opportunity to also tell you about the frequent practices. So, stay patient with me a little longer. Today I‘d like to tell you about another activity of mine. You know, since a while all four of us also organize some lessons with our school classes. How many, how often and which activities these include are of course again different from each of us. In my case, I started to cook once a week with my class.

My interest in cooking or actually mainly baking is something that just happened since I‘m here in Lithuania. I‘ve been cooking before of course but definitely not as much as I do here now and also I didn‘t enjoy it as much as I do now. It‘s amongst other things a result of a kind of new sense of initiative that I‘ve developed since I am doing my EVS here in Lithuania. I‘ve often been thinking ‚oh, it would be so cool to do that or to know how to do this‘ and so on, but it had always stayed a thought. Here by the time I found myself taking those thoughts finally in action, so ‚it would be so cool to have this dish now‘ got into me actually starting to cook this dish. And I love it, I really really love it.

So, long story short, it was quite naturally for me that I wanted to share this love with my kids to maybe make them enjoy it as much as I do. Since a few weeks every Friday we spend two lessons in the school‘s kitchen together to prepare the most different things. I started by introducing them to one of the best things the Austrian cuisine has to offer: Kaiserschmarrn. Seriously, whenever you come to Austria, get sure that you’ll try some of it. You’ll love it. I can tell you that I was quite nervous in the beginning, as much as I wanted to share my joy for cooking with my class I also knew that it might not be the easiest task to interest a bunch of youths on top of puberty in preparing meals and deserts. But it soon turned out that all my doubts were for nought. They all like taking part in the work and show a lot of interest in the ways of preparation. It’s a very natural and relaxed atmosphere in those lessons in which we also talk a lot with each other and of course also joke around a little. I really love spending this time with my class. 

 

Although I am basically the teacher in those lessons I also learn a lot myself. I started planning the meals we want to prepare together with the youths of my class and asked them, what they would like to do. They proposed A LOT of Lithuanian dishes that I couldn’t even write down correctly and of course I had no idea how to prepare them either. It’s interesting for me to get to know those things and get the chance to try them myself also. And I think for my youths it’s also a great experience to be able to show me something they know more about than me. The last time indeed we pretty much changed the roles and I ended up as the student with a group of teachers. I enjoyed it a lot.

skruzdelynas

So, these lessons are now part of my weekly routine and definitely a part of the schedule that I’m always looking forward to. I love the work with my class and I hope to be able to show them something that’s at least a little useful for them. Being able to prepare some meals themselves is a piece of autonomy to me that I want to give them. I’m looking forward to all the lessons yet to come a lot and I am really thankful that I got this chance to realize my own imaginations. You see, I keep learning a lot here :)

a happy 'teacher' :)

Iki pasimatymo,

Monika

P.S.: my youths all don't like it too much to find photos of them spread on the internet so please excuse the lack of pictures showing them fully

FLASHBACK!!!

BASKETBALL COMPETITION 

The competitiveness transcends barriers, this is what I feel in this activity. Nowadays everyone has one role, maybe teacher, maybe student, maybe volunteer... This role helps us to describe our work. But all of this changes when you start a competition, because everyone has a team and all want to win.

Is in this moment, when your role changes, we aren’t teachers, students, and volunteers, now we are part of a team  and we need to cooperate to play the best and win. The others possibly are our friends but at that time also the opponents.

It is in these moments when teamwork, cooperation, the competitiveness, know how to lose but also to win, are required because if not the activity does not make sense.

Educate leisure is an important part of education and it’s this which has been promoted in the basketball competitions, because all of us can participate and learn new things.

The activity consisted in first place of different individual competitions in which every one, alone, had to do different tasks with a basketball. And in the second time, we competed against each other with 4 different teams.

Of course we wanted to win but the important part is that finally all of us spent a very good evening and have a good memory of this activity.

A hug

CHRISTMAS  IS COMING 

When Christmas comes all of us prepare to have magic days, in every corner there is something that reminds us that these days are special.

Here I could experience different but exciting Christmas, the children convey the fantasy that made you feel that Christmas is wonderful.

All started to make Christmas decoration, we shared different evenings that helped to create a perfect Christmas atmosphere, also we  made  a Christmas dinner and others events that made me feel at home.

But the most important moment for me came when we celebrated the different Christmas parties with my class and friends. I could go to differents  parties and feel the illusion that children have, surrounded by tables full of candy, I could see the traditions  and experience perfect moments with teachers, parents, children and friends. 

A hug

 

RIGA

Travel is maybe one of the best things. As a volunteer you can discover a lot of new things in your work place but also enjoy the free time, and to travel is one thing that  we usually do.

With some volunteers we went to Riga, the Capital of the neighboring country, Latvia. During the trip we could get to know us better and discover wonderful places.

We went  on Saturday morning, early in the morning we took the bus to go to the outskirts of Panevėžys where our trip started. For almost all of us it was the first time that we were hitchhiking. Maybe this is the reason why we were quite excited :) After 10 minutes  the first car stopped, that would take us to Bauska, a village 60 kilometres from Riga. During the trip we spent a great time because the man told us a lot of things about Lithuania.

In Bauska, we continued to hitchhike, this time we also were lucky because another man stopped and would take us to Riga.

We arrived in Riga at 11:00 a.m. Trip price: 0 Litas. Experience: wonderful and unique.

After we arrived in a welcoming hostel, we started to visit the old town. We discovered many beautiful places, in the city you can find spectacular buildings, cozy corners, big parks and a lot of different activities to do.  In the city you can walk with the sound of music, because almost in every street there are musicians singing and playing their instruments.

We spent all day visiting the city and crossing multiple markets that there are on the streets.

The most special part maybe arrived at the night because we visited different pubs where we danced thanks a live music and tried the traditional drinks. Also we could sing Karaoke and feel a little bit as rock stars.

We can say that it was a trip full of new sensations and although the weather was not very good  it was a nice experience.

A hug

LAIA :) 

the kaziuko mugė

Labas visiems,

Easter is not far away anymore and with that also the traditions for that event slowly get started. Last week the so called ‘Kaziuko Mugė’ took place, a market that is traditionally happening this few weeks before Easter in Lithuania. Our ‘Panevėžio Šviesos Specialioji Ugdymo Centras’ organized its own Kaziuko Mugė in the school’s hallways. That meant a very special and lovely day for all the children and youths. Preparations started already in the first lesson when every class set up their tables for selling the crafts they did the last few weeks and months in their lessons and afternoon activities. You could find the most different things on those tables, from Easter cards over ceramic bowls to bookmarks, all self-made by the kids. How those things were sold depended on the classes themselves. Some things could be bought with paper money that every pupil got before the market really started. Some things you had to buy for real money that would be saved for the classes. The market itself got really lively when it started. Everybody was looking at what the other classes had to sell and a lot of kids were proudly showing the things they had bought. Still while the market was going on my favourite part of the event happened: the cake competition :) From every class one child brought a cake or something similar from home as a contribution for the competition, Laia and me had also baked one the day before. I think I’ve never before in my life eaten so much different cake. But I can tell you, it was all SO good :p In the end the cakes got nominations in different categories about its looks, taste and so on. Laia’s and mine got nominated for the best taste, the certificate for that is now decorating our kitchen ;)

After the cake competition the market ended pretty much. At that time two quizzes happened, one time with competitors from developmental classes and one time for the pupils from the special classes. I did not understand all the questions but I think they were pretty much all about the time around Easter and all the traditions happening then. The winners got awarded of course with a certificate and small prizes. 

 some of the proud sellers at the school's market

Laia's and my cake :p

 

Besides our school also the youth day care centre in which Leslie, Olivia, Marie and Javi work, did their own Kaziuko Mugė. We got the chance to look at it for a short time and I can tell you I was very impressed. It was the very first time that I had been to the youth day care centre so it was quite exciting for me. I met a lot of the people working there, some of them already knew my name to my surprise and some were very excited to finally meet me. I got the impression that they’re all very happy there and that they enjoy the time they spend at the day care centre. Of course we also looked at all the things they had to sell and I could have bought all of it. The people there had made so many pretty and creative things, from ceramics over decorative glasses to jewellery. In the end I could not leave without buying some things because I liked them so much. I think the youth day care centre also has to be a really good place to spend an EVS, as comfortable as I felt there immediately I can imagine that the others are really having a good time working there.

Together with Fine, Javi from the youth day care centre and Anthony, a volunteer from France who had just recently come to Panevėžys, I also went to Vilnius to look at the real Kaziuko Mugė happening there. We had been to markets in Lithuania before and I had won the impression that they’re a quite usual thing here. But the Kaziuko Mugė still sort of impressed me. It was for sure the biggest market I had seen so far in Lithuania and we ended up spending hours of time there. You could find the things that I think are pretty typical for those markets like woollen clothes, wooden cutlery and plates or homemade honey, meat, cheese and other food. But besides that there were also single stands that sold really nice and special things and again I found myself in need of buying all of it. Which I could not of course. Nevertheless we all got some nice things as presents for friends and family or simply for ourselves :) Besides the market there was also a parade happening at the Kaziuko Mugė in which a lot of traditional Lithuanian groups took part. We got to see some really impressive costumes and wagons those groups had prepared which were really nice to look at. 

at the Kaziuko Mugė in Vilnius :)

 

I really enjoyed my time at the market and also I liked experiencing this part of Lithuanian tradition. I’m curious what’ll furthermore happen around Easter here and I’m already looking forward to getting to know more of those traditions. For now I wish you all the best and a great week, I will have one, so much I can tell you. Tomorrow Fine and me will start in our Mid Term Training and I’m sure we will have A LOT to tell you about it as soon as we are back :)

Iki pasimatymo,

Monika

Independance day (16th of February) in Vilnius

Independance day (16th of February) in Vilnius

Laba dienaaaaaaa, I came back from Vilnius where I stayed for all the week-end with some other volunteers, but it was not like every week-end, it was a longer week-end because we celebrate the Independant Day on Monday (16th February).

For this day, there were a lot of events. Here is the program :

8.30 Tribute to Signatories of the Independence Act of 16 February 1918 in Rasos Cemetery

12.00 The three Baltic States flag hoisting ceremony in Daukantas Square, Vilnius. Speech of the President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė

12.30 St. Mass at the Vilnius Cathedral Basilica

14.00 Commemoration of 16 February by the House of the Signatories of the Lithuanian independence

15.00 Premiere and presentation of the documentary "Give what you must to the Motherland" reminding of the circumstances of signing of the Declaration of the Lithuanian Liberation Movement of 16 February 1949 in cinema Pasaka

18.00 - 22.00 In Gedimino Avenue - 16 symbolic bonfires (from Cathedral Square to Vincas Kudirka Square)

19.00 Gala concert of the 16th of February at the Lithuanian National Philharmonic Hall (concert charges apply). Patroness of the concert - President of the Republic of Lithuania Dalia Grybauskaitė

19.00 Civic concert The Brothers of the group Skylė at the Concert Hall Compensa, Kernavės St. 84 (concert charges apply)

20.30 Celebratory civic event Yellow. Green. Red in the Cathedral Square

Unfortunately we couldn‘t see the speech of the President at 12 ;_; However, we went to the Signatarų Namai to see the exposition of the different signatures appened for Lithuania Independance.

In the end we participated to the lighting up of the 16 bonfires with the actual Mayor of Vilnius, Artūras Zuokas (French people know very well this man for his famous way to get out people in Vilnius who don‘t respect the parking time XD).

The 16 bombas the Mayor lighting up was those sort of wood/camp fire in Gedimino gatvė.

 

 

That was really interesting because we went to the last one before the Mayor reached it but someone else was already starting to make a fire, who was he? One of the candidate for the new Mayor election next month and a lot of the supporters were there to claim the future Mayor

There is also a new Mayor election in Panevėžys in March when we are invite to go to vote as we are in the Lithuanian register, but we don't understand the different Mayor programs haha ._. 

I was a bit disappinted because we couldn't see as much as I expected to see about the Independant Day events... Anyway it was a long great week-end :)



Emily





 

Su Valentino Diena!

A little late but still I wish you all a happy Valentine‘s Day! To be honest, that‘s quite an odd thing to do for me. I never thought I would end up writing about Valentine‘s Day. And that I would enjoy doing so.

See, I never gave a lot about Valentine‘s Day. I just dislike how exaggerated that whole thing is and how much it is in the end just about consuming and business. So it was a little peculiar for me when I experienced that Valentine‘s Day would be quite a thing at our „Panevėžio ‚Šviesos‘ Specialiojo Ugdymo Centras“. Last week it all started with the decoration of the school hall – a lot of hearts, cut out and coloured by the school‘s students – flashing from every direction. The absolute heart (what a pun...) of the whole event turned out to be the post box set up right after the school‘s entrance – of course for love letters to be put inside. For the whole week absolutely everybody amongst the children and youths was totally excited about writing letters and wondering how many they might get themselves in the end. Of course I won’t tell any names but somebody really wrote over 30 letters… But you see, those letters were not all about confessing love to somebody. The idea behind the letters was more to tell someone you like a few nice words, a small sign of appreciation for your friends, your teachers or your awesome volunteers (:D). And that was an idea that got me caught into it. I liked taking the chance of this day to show a little appreciation for all the people you like, in this small sweet way, and celebrate this occasion together.

After the first two lessons the whole school came together for some dancing and some games and talking about the meaning of love. There was a lower grade class from another school showing some dances for our kids and one of our school’s teachers moderated the whole event. In the end everybody danced together until the final and most important part of the celebration came: The delivery of the letters. And, oh my god, it was A LOT of letters The children and youths all helped together to deliver the letters to their owners but it turned out to be so much that they didn’t even get finished until the end of the celebration. Nevertheless, throughout the rest of the day everybody got theirs.

I really liked the experience of this day. I liked the atmosphere at the celebration and the calm, lovely mood all the children and youths were in. And of course I also liked the letters I got J Finally I also ended up writing some small notes, so you see, Valentine’s Day really caught me this time. In which way ever you spent it, I hope it was a nice day for you and if you’re also as objective to the day as I’ve been, maybe the story of our Valentine’s Day gave you a new view to the whole thing.

 

Iki pasimatymo,

Monika