The Diary of Nachenthaly Francisco

Day 2, 4th of July 2013, Lithuania

The morning started with delicious eggs and tosti’s. We knew that it was a stay-in-day and the beautiful weather made the morning more than perfect. At 12 o’clock we started the program. We started with games to get to know each other. The name game was quite interesting with names like Mindaugus and Guoda, but to our surprise Chantal and Marleen were quite difficult names to pronounce as well. Nachenthaly is a difficult name in Holland, so I was not surprised that I had to introduce myself as Chenty. After that we were paired up and we had to draw each other and our hobbies. All the drawings were placed on the wall in the activitiesroom. 

After we have made some groundrules, we had a moment to listen to the rules of the training centrum itself. The best part of the day was the lunch. The Lithuanians eat warm food twice a day. The lunch was a buffet with rice, potatos, chicken, salad etc. Elisa and I are absolute fan of this custom. The Lithuanians take more time for their lunch than for their dinner. This is why it was not that strange to find pancakes as dinner meal. In the evening we had a coffee break (as if anyone would drink coffee with 27 degrees outside) and it lasted like 30 minutes. It were 30 minutes of massive cookie eating, which did not make sense. All the girls over here are like super thin and do not eat a thing, but when it comes to the coffee break with cookies everyone was stuffing their plate and building pyramids of cookies.

Obviously we did not only eat the whole day. First we were teamed up and we made collages about our goals in this project and our hopes and dreams. After our half man – half woman collage with all sorts of crazy things on it, it was time for the presentations:

The Dutch group, we, presented a quiz with all sorts of stereotypes. Every country represented one group and we wanted to find out which country knew the Netherlands the best. It surprised us all that everyone thought that the fact “The Dutch are known for their greediness” was false. Guess we made a good impression on the groups. It turns out that Latvia knows the Netherlands the best, but we are not completely sure if they cheated with their mobile phones or not. Let’s just say that they are good observants (of mobile phone screens).

The Lithuanian group began with a funny video about stereotypes in Lithuania and it turns out that there is in fact a Mac Donalds in Lithuania, that they have electricity and iPhones. After their presentation it was time to dance to the songs of their “Stars Down”.

The Latvian group kept it easy and showed us three videos. One about history, one about economy and one about Latvia as a whole.

The Hungarian group made a quiz and it turns out that Croatia knows the most about Hungary and the Hungarian culture. Did you know that the Rubiks Cube come from Croatia? We do!

The Croatian group had a Powerpoint with a lot of information. One interesting fact was that they have grounds filled with truffles which are about 2000euros per kg. They have like million euros beneath their ground. They ended with a song and a legend about a giant who shook the highest tower in town. The grave of this giant was found, but as soon as the discoverers opened the enormous coffin with extraordinary bones the bones turned to dust. Quite a legend indeed. One to really “believe” in, but still a nice one to have.

There can definitely be concluded that we learned a lot the second day, we filmed a lot as well, so more will be shown as soon as the video has been made. For now, we are preparing for a long day full of culture.

Much greetings from Lithuania,

Nachenthaly Francisco