Blogs from Montpellier, Languedoc-Roussillon, France, Europe - page 9

One of the great perks of being here in Montpellier was connecting with the great Barracudas of Montpellier. Having crossed paths with them in the European Cup in Amsterdam, I briefly met the coach and several of the guys; they mentioned to me that if I were ever in the area that I should stop in for a practice. Now I was here in Montpellier, was in need of baseball practice to stay in shape until I get back to Lithuania for the season, and so on the Thursday before Easter I waited at the tram station for a car to pick me up and take me to practice. My ride to the stadium was with Jean-Michel. Jean-Michel is the catcher for the Barracudas, in his mid to late twenties; in his younger days he played ... read more

My travels from Lithuania to Paris, France, took me first to Dublin, Ireland. Our departure from Lithuania really felt like a 'big' departure, given that Viktorija would not return until after our trip to South Africa, and I would be back only for a few weeks to play baseball, only to leave again for three months in South Africa. We flew from Lithuania on Wednesday but not before a quick visit to the vaccination clinic for Viktorija to get her final Hepatitis vaccination before heading for the airport. Viktorija does not like getting shots; the first time we went to the clinic for her to have her shot, I went into the nurses' office with her. She was nervous. But this time she bravely went in by herself, got the shot, and came out unscathed. On ... read more

In my family tradition, it is Thanksgiving that generally attracts the most number of family members to come together and celebrate. For as long as I can remember the whole family would meet at the mountain house in the Blue Ridge Mountains of Virginia and spend several days and nights together eating, hiking, and sitting by the fire. Some years as many as 25 people would cram into one house to stay the night and celebrate Thanksgiving. In Viktorija's family tradition, it is her grandfather's birthday that draws the big crowd. My second weekend in Kaunas we travelled to Prienei, a small town 40 km outside of Kaunas, to congregate at the grandparents' place to celebrate grandpa's 74th birthday. We arrived and the older generation was already seated at the table--Grandpa's brother (who looks just like ... read more

Uzgavenes Today was a special day in Lithuania. It was the day where ‘Uzgavenes’ is celebrated—the day that we chase away winter and welcome in Spring. Though the actual day of ‘Uzgavenes’ will be on the 5th of February, the large festival was held on a Sunday in Rumsiskes so that working folks could attend. Though there is also a festival held in Vilnius, the major Uzgavenes festival is the one in Rumsiskes park. We left much later than we should have, headed to Rumsiskes which was about 20 kilometers outside of Kaunas on the road to Vilnius. We hit traffic about halfway there and the final 10 kilometers we traveled at a snail’s pace (all of the cars, it turned out, were headed to the festival). It took us about an hour and a half ... read more

I am writing this latest blog from Montpellier, France, having arrived here several days ago from Kaunas, Lithuania via Dublin and then Paris. It has been over a month since I wrote and there is much to write about. My six weeks with Viktorija’s family was wonderful. Since I was not working, I spent most of my time staying at home—helping out around the house, sometimes helping with/learning how to make Lithuanian cuisine, going on runs or doing yoga……I learned how to make Cepeliniai, a traditional Lithuanian dish made from potatoes through a long process of mashing the potatoes, putting them through a juicer to extract the starch, recombining with the potatoes (two different kinds), carefully forming them into small football-shaped dumplings around prepared ground meat (pork/beef) and then put into boiling water to cook. Served ... read more