The Legend

As you saw in my last blog, Lithuania has ancient castles. And actually not so few! Why? As I wrote before, Lithuania has a very long past reaching back to the 12 century. In those days, there lived many generations of dukes, one of whom even became the one and only (so far) king of our land. His name was Mindaugas. Anyways, talking about castles, they were used as the residences of the dukes and as defensive fortifications. One of the most famous castles is Gediminas Castle, which stands on a hill in Vilnius, the centre of the capital of Lithuania. So time for its legend :)

According to the legend found in the Chronicle of Lithuania, Gediminas, the Grand Duke of Lithuania, once had a prophetical dream. He dreamt that an iron wolf standing on one particular place in Vilnius was howling like hundreds of wolves. As the Lithuanians were pagan in those days, the Grand Duke asked the chief pagan priest Lizdeika about the meaning of his dream. The priest answered that this dream reflects the Gods’ will that Gediminas should build a castle in the same place where the wolf was howling. The extremely loud howling in the dream, said Lizdeika, probably meant that this castle would make the city of Vilnius prosperous and famous in all the Europe. In fact, the castle was built in 1230 and the capital was moved from Trakai to the new town Vilnius, which has remained the capital of Lithuania.

Talking about Trakai, this small town is situated about 30 kilometers (we don’t use miles or pounds, or feet or Fahrenheit in Lithuania!!!) away. There are a lot of picturesque lakes in that area. Actually, the Castle of Trakai itself is surrounded by the lake and you need to walk over the bridge if you want to visit.
PS. See – dream interpretation was so popular and powerful (people were building castles after dreaming a wolf :) even in ancient times!

Lithuania

I decided that it’s high time to interrupt my writing about this and that and…

acquaint you guys with my homeland Lithuania :) Some of you have probably never heard about it before, but from now on you won’t have any excuses to say: “What? Lithuania? Is it in Albania (that was what one guy in LEAP 3 asked me)? Oh, no, no – it’s probably an African country!” or – “It belongs to Russia, right?” Actually the last question is one of the worst things you could ask Lithuanians… Why? Well, guys, if you ask this question, means you definitely need to improve your history knowledge!

Could you believe if I say that the name Lietuva (that’s what we call our country) was mentioned for the first time in 1009…? This shows what a long history my country has. Lithuania, which is located in Eastern Europe, is a parliamentary democracy although the President of the country also has some powers. In 2004 Lithuania, which has a population of 3.5 mln. people, became a member of the European Union and NATO. One more interesting thing about my country is that it has a 90 km coast line on the Baltic Sea. Yeah!!!

Those people who are interested in sports might have heard about Lithuanian basketball players who played or are still playing in NBA: A.Sabonis, S. Macijauskas, Z. Ilgauskas, D.Songaila, and M.Andriuskevicius. Ice hockey players D.Kasparaitis (currently playing for the New York Rangers) and D.Zubrius (used to play for the Montreal Canadiens). One more celebrity in the Lithuanian sport’s world is discus thrower V.Alekna who has won many Olympic medals and world championships. Ok, enough for now; better leave something to tell for next time.

PS. in the pics you can see Trakai Castle, Kaunas Rotušė (town hall), centre street in Vilnius (the capital city), Gedimino Castle (it was built in 1230, actually there is a very interesting legend about it!! I think I'll tell you about it in one of my blogs :) and a tiny part of the seaside in Nida.

My Sixth Blog :)

Hello, guys! How is your reading week going? Studying each day? I actually do :) I haven’t done almost any writing yet, but I’ve read a lot. I’ve heard reading is one of the best and least painful ways to improve your language.

One more thing that I am enjoying during this week is cooking :) For example, today I cooked a stir-fry of carrots, tomato, tuna and rice :) it was not bad, but I have a feeling that my Chinese friends would have complained about the rice – it was too mushy :) And for desert I made an apple pie :) Niam niam! It is an equivalent to English yummy. Actually I heard one Canadian 2-year old boy saying niam niam as he was eating a piece of pizza; ) see – children have a Lithuanian soul, which they probably forget about as they grow older!

Hmmm, my post still contains a little bit less that 200 words (I’m counting:), so I need to write something more :) Last Sunday I went to my first Canadian baptism in Canada!! One of the funniest things was that the baby slept all through the ceremony waking up only at the end :) Even a priest was astonished by this. Actually, that guy was pretty funny – he called the parents of the baby farmers although they don’t have anything in common with farming activities :) By the way, talking about priests… I have been 3 times in 3 different churches in Canada and all the priests that held the mass were foreigners!!! Once I even talked a little bit in German to one priest after mass :)

Hockey Night in Canada

Wow, what a Saturday I had!!! I went to the… hockey game in the Saddledome!!! :D The Calgary Flames were playing the Colorado Avalanche. Actually, it was my first time watching this sport. When I entered the stadium, my first impression was wow – so many hockey fans!!! Almost all of them were dressed in special red outfits and held various posters. I had a very good seat – in the fifth row! Therefore, I could take so many pictures without zooming in.

I think this game is quite cruel… Players hit each other so many times; two guys even had to leave the rink because of their bloody noses… Ewww! In addition, they pushed each other to the glass walls so strongly that it seemed that the glass wall would fall down. Another thing, this time funny – the refs were jumping like rabbits over the sliding puck whenever it came on their way. Moreover, our neighbor from a higher row tried to affect the Colorado’s goalie’s concentration by shouting his last name Buuuuuuuuuudaaaaaaj and sending him some hex with his hands pointed towards the goalie and shaking his fingers as if he was some kind of magician.

The most awesome thing about the game was that they showed my face on the big screen! What an honor. :D Hee hee! Ok, enough about sports. To be honest, I don’t really like watching such games. I think playing them instead is healthier :)

Ups, I just realised I forgot to mention that Calgary won 5:2 :)

A few days ago, we talked about the pyramids in Egypt and an instructor asked us if we know any other place where pyramids are located. I know one :) It’s on the top of Market Mall! Two big ones and four small ones (at least I can see these) hee hee! You can see them in pic.

Many LEAP students write how much they miss their families and homes. I do it too, but as one guy (can’t remember who) commented, we should try not to think about that so often and it will be easier. I agree. One day when I was thinking about my family, I went to google-maps or google-Earth (one of them) and found my house in Lithuania!!!! I could see cars parked around, trees, and other houses. That was pretty exciting :) By the way, I have one little story to cheer you up :)

Guess who said bye-bye to a Christmas tree yesterday??? Hmmm… was it really a CHRISTMAS tree…we decorated it only a few days before the New Year’s eve :) Anyway, the way we said farewell was quite funny – instead of dragging it all the way through the hallway and throwing needles on the carpet, we simply throw the tree from the balcony from the third floor. Just like that. Ups. Actually, I wanted to suggest to pick some cones as souvenirs, bet when I opened my mouth to say that – it was too late :) or… was it?? When there’s a will, there’s a way. So I just went downstairs and ripped off 3 nice cones.

Now you are probably asking “and what about the tree?” (good job Loreta - you learnt to anticipate questions that readers may ask :) Ohh, we just left it. Just kidding :p Of course we took it to the place where all Christmas trees get together before they go to their paradise.