7 tips not to die during winter

Winter has come! Everybody was waiting for it, no snow for Christmas, just rain here and there, well, now the Lithuanian winter is here. -22 ° C this morning in Vilnius and snow since one week.

So here are some tips to survive the cold, from my short experience (physical and mental) in these extreme weather conditions.

1. Hibernation

This is one of the most effective solutions. Close all doors and windows, turn the heat to the maximum and burrow deeply under a thick duvet, putting outside sometimes only one hand, just to grab a cup of tea.

Small problem, this technique, although it is working very well, it also prevents any type of social life and ecological awareness (for heating) …

2. The multilayer technique

I sometimes made fun of my Italian flatmate going outside with a pair of pantyhose under her pants, three pairs of socks, two pairs of gloves, hat, scarf, etc, etc. But actually later, I learned that it is maybe a good idea, when I went in the streets of Vilnius with -18 ° C, with my legs and feet anesthetized and I wondered if it was possible that they stop working suddenly and that I fall down on the floor. Yes, finally, stacking layers is useful for cold.

3.Eating high-fat foods (or the penguin technique)

Eating high-fat foods and a lot of them, because the fat makes insulation. This is a great solution for this Baltic cold. I understand better now why the Lithuanian specialties are made from potatoes and meat. We need fat! Being a bit fat, is like having a piece of clothing more, so imagine, being obese: a fat-coat! The penguins on their ice know what I mean (even if the mystery persists: why their feet are not cold?)

4. Analyze your environment

Fighting with the cold is like jumping into a swimming pool when you can not swim. First, you analyze the safety points that you can grab if needed. It’s the same thing with the cold: when you are surrounded by snow and ice in the streets of Vilnius, your legs and your muscles are paralyzed, your ears change their color and ice stalactites appear on your scarf, it means it’s time to find a survival shelter. When a door opens, no matter which one, you must jump and rush inside.

A supermarket, a bank, a library or a church, the important thing is to pretend to be here for a reason. You can warm up for few minutes and then continue your trip.

5. Learning to slide

When pavements and roads are nothing more than ice, you have to adapt yourself. Getting off the bus, crossing a road or just walking on a pavement becomes an acrobatic show. Ok, maybe only for me, because apparently for Lithuanian people of all ages, there is nothing simpler. I have even seen one of them running on the ice with high heels and shopping bags in the hands!

6. Move, dance, shiver

Whether you’re waiting for a bus or waiting for your friends (always the same ones who are late to get out of the bar …) just do not stand more than ten minutes. Walk, run, jump, dance, even if people think you are crazy, it’s for your health!

7. Vodka is not a good idea!

Drinking alcohol to warm up is not a good idea. Just come back to the tip No. 5 to understand it …

Crazy about fireworks!

Even in normal times, when night falls (at around 4:30 pm during winter), we can heard everywhere in Vilnius some sounds of firecrackers and fireworks, for any occasion. A birthday, a wedding, a good mark in math, anything is possible.

But to celebrate the new year, fireworks are everywhere, in every street corners and endless. Lithuanians LOOOOOOVE fireworks!

Video: 

There is a tradition for most Lithuanians to spend money (sometimes vast amounts of it) on fireworks. From midnight on January 1st, the whole town resounds of the explosions from every neighborhood, every yard, every street. And for most of the night.

A little bit of History :
New Year was especially promoted under the Soviet occupation (1940-1990) when the atheist regime unsuccessfully attempted to move Christmas traditions to New Year (by introducing “New Year trees”, “New Year presents”). Only the state-controlled institutions (such as schools) followed this.

10 ways to recognize a Lithuanian Christmas

1. Three days of festivities

Lithuanian Christmas lasts three days. The 24th, 25th and 26th of December. So many days spent around a table wish seems very small compared to the number of dishes prepared for the occasion.

2. Kūčios
Kūčios means Christmas Eve. During this dinner, we do not eat meat, eggs or milk. The tradition also says that we can’t eat anything during this day before dinner.

3. The table plan
The table plan does not mean that you will be sitting next to the new girlfriend of your father’s cousin and you’ll be bored all night long, this plan arranges the dishes on the table, around a central chandelier. A kind of Tetris that only Lithuanians know.

4. Drawing the short straw

On a corner of the table is a straw bouquet rolled-up in newspapers. Each member of the family and guests draws a straw and compare it to those of the others. Those who has the longest one is ensured to be lucky throughout the year.

5. Like a marathon

For the Christmas Eve dinner, there must be at least 12 different dishes on the table. Every guest has to taste at least a little of each dish. They say that if someone skips one dish, he or she will not survive until the day before the next Christmas …

6. “We give thanks to you our Lord Jesus Christ”

Praying before the Christmas Eve dinner is also part of the traditions. Okay, I do not think this is only a Lithuanian tradition, but it was unusual enough for me to talk about it here.

7. A plate for the deceased

We share the ostie with all the guests around the table and also with the spirits of the dead family members thanks to a plate put in the middle of the table. This plate stays here for them during all the night.

8. The Šakotis

This is a typical cake that is eaten on 25th of December. And also for many other occasions (because it’s delicious!)

9. Married in the year!

Before eating a cold soup made from poppy seeds, we put a handful of croutons in our plate. An even number of croutons indicates that you will be a couple before the end of the year, an odd number indicates that you will remain (or become) single.

10. Some strange dishes …

Juice of currants, poppy seeds “milk”, mixed fish with bones reconstructed in the original skin of the fish, black bread with apricots, or “false” rabbit (mysterious pâté in which I still do not know if there is actually some rabbit meat …). Many original and delicious dishes you need to taste at least once in your life!

And a lot of presents!

My Christmas presents: chocolate, sweets, soaps, cheese, eggs, apples, …

Linksmų Kalėdų! (Merry Christmas)

Sounds of Vilnius

“Kita stotelė: Stotis” means  “next stop: station” and that’s what I hear almost every day in the buses and trolleybuses of Vilnius. The sounds of the city are very familiar to me now, so I do not hear them anymore. The journalist Marielle Vitureau had the idea to record these sounds that reflect the atmosphere of Vilnius. Then she gathered them on this virtual map: www.kitastotelestotis.lt

Second religion of Lithuania: Basketball

I had already noticed that the Catholic religion occupies an important place in Lithuania (about 79% of the population is catholic). Much more than in France for exemple. But speaking about the “religion of basketball”, no other country can compete. Basketball in Lithuania is somehow equivalent to tango in Argentina, cricket in England or cheese in France!

the heterogeneous supporters

So when we had had the opportunity to go to see a match in Kaunas, it was an occasion to discover why this sport is so important here. This game was between Kaunas (LT) and Barcelona (ES). My Catalan roomate, of course, really wanted to go and support her team. That is how she brang me there, and how I came to support happily the Kaunas team. With a Barcelona’s and a Kaunas’ flags on our cheeks, we are ready to go to listen the big wave of the Lithuanian supporters. We do not know any song that they are singing but fortunately, we reconize something like “LIE-TU-VA! LIE-TU-VA! ” and so we can reach the movement for one moment.

The game is starting and we can enjoy the mood and learn the rules that we don’t even know … We see the game at about 1 km far away from us because we bought the last seats, and the cheapest ones. The Barcelona’s team takes the advantage. Lithuanian whistle more and more, while my Catalan neighbor is shouting in Spanish to encourage her team (so bad that she was almost alone, I think the players did not hear her). Her applause also is not in the same time as all the stadium wich make laugh our Lithuanian neighbors supporting Kaunas.

At the end, Barcelona wins 78-85, and all Kaunas is crying except us, the heterogeneous supporters.

Video of the match:

 

TOP 10 of the weird things happening abroad

1 – The “baguette”

Before, it was just a part of my meals without giving to me a particular excitement.

Now it is a rare thing that I am looking for everywhere, and when I find it, I’m so glad that I do not even judge its taste which is close to the cheapest baguette in the cheapest supermarket of France

2 – Old songs

Before, they were only old songs that I heard on old radios, with outdated and silly lyrics

Now they are the most beautiful songs in the world, wich I want to sing loudly during parties, but nobody around me understands the pure beauty of these texts …

3 – Cheese

Before, I spent hours in the supermarket choosing the one that tempted me most.

Now it is one of the most expensive products of the store and the choice is restricted to 2 or 3 different cheeses. And when luckily I find a camembert, I realize that it is not a camembert! “why do they put weird stuff inside? “

4 – My French phone

Before, it was my main means of communication and one of the cheapest.

Now it is hidden in my suitcase, always whitout battery, and when it rings, it is like: “what?! someone calls me ?! from France ?! (I run, I fly, I grabbed and pick it up) … and it is advertisment … “and after hanging up, I realize that I ALSO PAID for this useless call!

5 – Holidays

Before, I always tried to spend my holidays abroad

Now for my holidays, I come back home

6 – French movies

Before, I watched them to laugh without thinking, criticizing the quality of the story

Now I watch them with nostalgia and no matter how good is the story

7 – Health insurance

Before, it was a normal privilege

Now it is …

a big joke (that makes everyone laugh except me)

8 – Paris

Before, it was the capital of France

Now this is the city from where all foreigners think I am

9 – Music

Before, I hated French commercial songs in nightclubs

Now when I hear one of those stupid songs in a party, I jump around and I am surprised to sing and know the lyrics

10 – Meet French people

Before, I did not even notice someone speaking in french in a street

Now, it happens so rarely that I cannot stop myself to listen their conversation indiscreetly and go to chat with them

They rename our cities!

This weekend, a huge map of Europe was put on one of the largest squares of Vilnius. The opportunity to see how Lithuanian people call our French cities:

La Rosele (La Rochelle) / Bordo (Bordeaux) / Po (Pau) / Puatje (Poitiers)

Perpinjanas (Perpignan) / Barselona (Barcelona)

Another strange thing that I‘ve learned, all Lithuanian male names ends by -as. So, the first names but also the family names! It means that in the same family, men have names ending by -as, and women, have the same name but with a different ending, -a or -e.

And you know how they call Brad Pitt? … Bradas Pitas!

 

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!”

 

USSR’s style !

After 11 hours running around in France, trains, metro, bus, then a 3 hour flight, I arrive finally in Lithuania.

Welcomed by my futur tutor and two other EVS volunteers, holding a sign with my name, I go with them to the place where I will live for the next few months. He is driving for half an hour before that I can see the first Soviet buildings. Our building too, looks like an USSR-60’s-social-housing. It is located in the north of Vilnius, in the Kalvariju street.

I find a flat of 60’s. Carpets everywhere, a Formica kitchen, a velvet sofa, a rotary phone in my room (I do not know if it works ..), a beautiful flower tapestry on the ceiling (?). The decoration is made of objects and furniture of the 20th century, a kind of “Goog Bye Lenin”. I find there Oriana, Italian from Sicily, Sandra, Spanish from Barcelona and Carlos, Spanish from Murcia.

 

Living room

Bed room

Kitchen

Our neighbourhood