gerai :)

I just began class!  I've tested into the second level class :)  We learned 3 cases today!  Anyway, I'm meeting a lot of great people in this course who have similar backgrounds like mine - grandparents who fled the country in the 1940s or during Soviet times.  We've been doing several hours of language a day, and we have taken some cultural courses, too.  I like the course and I'm glad I'm taking it.  Ordering food, getting around, knowing what to say, and knowing how to act really works.

I'm really struggling with how to word my observations so far to you - I'm really into constructionist anthropology theory (that culture doesn't "govern" over people, but that people build the illusion of culture around themselves) and yet all I want to do is tell you all of the little "culture rules" that seem to control the behavior I have been analyzing and generalizing.  In my culture classes, we've been doing just that - studying culture "rules" and "how culture here makes people act".  I'll figure out a sensible way to explain things in a later post, but even just a week into the field, I'm really questioning the basics of how I can accurately describe and share what I see!  

Here are some pictures!  These include a rainy day in Vilnius and going out with new friends from class.  Ate - emily