Do you eat frogs?!

On Friday, we went to a school in Varėna (south of Vilnius) to be the “books” of a living library. It looks like a normal library, where people can come to read books, but here the books are human beings. The purpose of this action is to talk about prejudices, stereotypes and to allow participants to meet people who can inform them about a topic.

This is the second time that I participate, beeing a “French book” (prancūzas). At the entrance of the human library, the readers choose in a catalog, the “book” that they want to read / to meet. For the “French book”, the catalog says:

– Valgo varles: eat frogs

– Intelectualūs: intellectuals

– Nekalba užsienio kalbomis: do not speak foreign languages

– Arogantiški: arrogant

– Nacionalistai: nationalists

This is me!

The first students I meet ask me, laughing: “Do you eat frogs?” It looks really funny for them. I tell them that I have never eaten frogs. They look disappointed. Then I add: “But sometimes, I eat very tasty snails!”

I expected laughs again, but no. Now they have disgusted faces. I try to catch their attention speaking about wine, champagne and cheese but nothing happens … They are shocked.

With the following, I try not to mention my love for snails, avoiding some nauseas to my “readers”. Some of them want to talk about politics, the rise of nationalism or Islam in France, some others speak about the Cannes film festival, or the pollution. One of them asks me if in France, it is possible to drink the tap water or if it is too polluted … Then, he explains me that France is the country that uses the most pesticides in Europe. I did not know and I think: “The human library is the only library where the book can learn from its reader!”