Basketball, clubs, and the KGB

I've had a busy 24 hours. Last night I went to play basketball at a university. I asked around the Embassy and found a Lithuanian who is on a team, and he said I could come practice with them. An American who works on the Embassy is on the team too, and he gave me a ride. We played games of four on four, and I actually shot really well. When I was open. I'm too lanky and clumsy to have strong ball-handling skills. It was fascinating to be a small player on a team, too; the Lithuanians were all my height, but most were much thicker.

I found out that the basketball leagues here are very well organized. There is one united system of 200+ teams, and teams are placed in different tiers based on their competitive ability. The team on the top at any given time is actually the Lithuanian National team (which usually competes well in the Olympics). This structure is fascinating to me; it essentially means that anyone can work their way up from the bottom to the professional tier if they play hard. One player on the team I played with will probably go far; I maybe saw him miss one shot out of fifteen, and the majority were three-pointers. Another layer to this competitive league is that teams have corporate sponsors, and there is actually significant pressure from sponsors to play well. I heard stories of Russian sponsored teams--called "gangs"--who hurt players on other teams.

After I played basketball, I called Jeff, a new friend who works in Public Affairs at the Embassy, and he told me to come to a club where there was a Lithuanian cover-band playing motown hits. He said it would be quite a walk and recommended I call the Marines to see if I could bum a ride. I'm glad I took his advice because the Marines made my night exciting. There is a driver on staff 24 hours at the Embassy; because of this perpetual DD, the Marines go out every night (unless they are on duty, of course). I got a ride with them to Tamsta first. The motown band was actually really good. It was fun to see Lithuanians singing these songs and dancing. The Marines are friends with two bouncer-like, enormous Lithuanians. I don't remember their names: partly because I couldn't hear them, partly because they bought me so many drinks I probably wouldn't remember anyway. When we were there, Jeff introduced me to several of the Fulbrighters living and studying here. One girl, Audra, actually interned at the Embassy a few years ago, and she was telling me who I have to meet and what I have to see here. I also had a lengthy conversation with a Lithuanian I bumped into about career paths of all things. He has been a lawyer for five years, but he's quitting his job in two weeks to pursue a career in journalism. I wished him luck.

We left Tamsta, and the Marines took me to two other clubs. The first was a big place; one dance floor was for techno, and the other for hip hop. The Americans I was with don't like techno, but the way I see it, I can dance to hip hop any time back home. When in Rome, you know? I'm in Eastern Europe, so I'm going to dance to techno. There were hired dancers on the techno side dancing on elevated platforms, and drinks were absurdly expensive and so avoided. But I had fun dancing, for sure. I noticed that Lithuanians are very shy. Of course, some just say Americans are very forward. Either way, I saw so many girls and boys dancing separately. But they were eyeing each other, and I could tell that they wanted to dance, and neither was brave enough to ask. Girls seemed surprised when I asked, but none turned me down. I danced with someone named Dalia for a long time, and she said that I seemed crazy. I told her I was being normal, but could try to be crazy. I said I would dance with a boy to prove it, and she dared me to. So, I did. He was wearing suspenders, and I snapped them. I explained what I was up to, and he laughed. After that she called me crazy more and said that I was embarrasing her in front of her friends. She must not have been that embarrassed, though, because she told me of her own volition where she's going Monday night. And, no, I won't be going there; Mallary and I have an agreement that allows dancing and harmless flirting. But there's something like a time-limit on interactions with anyone of the opposite sex, so it remains harmless. Plus, it's not fair to the person we're flirting with. The Marines are friends with this awesome Lithuanian girl named Milda, and she told me that girls don't assume you are single if you dance with them here. But to me it still seems wrong to give someone false-hope. I've been with Mallary a long time, but I remember my hopes being dashed like that before I met her, and it hurt. The last club we went to was cool too, but nothing special. They did play a few salsa songs that were fun to dance to. I got home after four. I don't understand how the Marines do this every night. I called my family before I went to bed around five.

When I woke up today, I went to the KGB museum which documents the years of Soviet occupation. The museum is housed in the old Soviet prison. The exhibits were very moving. I'll relay some of the facts that surprised me. Lithuania was an independent nation for the years between the World Wars, but the Soviets reclaimed power by dirty politics in the 1940's. The museum spoke about the Sovietization of the Lithuanian people--how their culture and language was forbidden, and how over 120 thousand Lithuanians were deported to remote parts of Russia to live in exile. Another 140 thousand were sent to work in camps, practically as slaves. Of these people, about 25 thousand died because of poor living conditions. There was a partisan movement of freedom fighters in Lithuania from '44 though '53. These fighters, known as the "Forest Brothers," fought a guerilla war against the occupying Soviets and are considered national heroes today. The museum had an amazing collection of photos of these soldiers, many of whom were women, and a good collection of their personal belongings and writings. I remember clearly a picture of a woman in a uniform wearing braids and a smile and brandishing a machine gun at the cameraman. The partisan movement took some time to be organized, and by time it was, their ranks were already thinning. Of course, they lost in their effort, but they gave Lithuanians hope of eventual independence. The Soviets used to lay the corpses of these freedom fighters in the streets of Vilnius to scare citizens. This only made them hate the Soviets more. The time after Stalin's death is called "the thaw," as Soviet power lessened over time despite KGB presence until the early '90's. Exiled citizens were allowed to return after his death, but nearly 50 thousand remained in exile because they had established new lives and their lives in Lithuania had been destroyed; those that chose to return were not given back their lost property and faced extreme prejudice. There was an awesome room called the "Glory Room," which was a remaking of a Soviet museum from the '60's that honored their own prowess and socialist ideals. It was interesting to see how one-sided the Soviet's telling of the same story was. The museum also told the story of how Vilnius was run while the Iron-Curtain was down. Of interest to me, a traveler, was the fact that foreign visitors to Vilnius were only allowed to stay in one hotel, which was heavily bugged so the KGB could spy. I also took a tour of the spooky prison, which has not been altered since it closing in the '90's. Here are some pictures:

 
This shows "a box," where new prisoners (captured anti-communists, for example) were kept for a few hours while their paper work was being processed. It is difficult to tell from the photo, but I could not have stood in this room nor reached my hands out in front of me.

This room is for solitary confinement. Supposedly this was for misbehaving inmates, but someone usually went their for withholding evidence. Trips here were usually 10 days long. Inmates only wore underwear with no shoes. There was no heating and a small window. Meals were 300 grams of bread a day and half a liter of warm water. Inmates were forced to exercise and not permitted to sleep more than five hours. If you look carefully in the photo, you can see that the bed has a locking mechanism to keep it tight to the wall. Another solitary confinement room was completely padded and equipped with a straitjacket.

 

This was definitely the most distrubing sight. In this cell the floor was filled with water. To stay out of the usually freezing water, an inmate would have to stand on that small platform in the center. It was small enough so balancing is difficult, and inmates often fell in the water. Sometimes the guards would put two inmates in at once to watch them fight for the platform. 

So, let's try to end on a high note? As an update on what I posted about flowers the other day, I heard that those flower markets are open 24/7. One of the drivers at the Embassy told me that roses are the most popular gift, but tulips will be everywhere soon, so they are a cheap choice. I was also warned to never buy someone a dozen roses because in Lithuania an even number of flowers is strictly for funerals, so gifts must always been in an odd number of blossoms. Could you imagine if you had to count each blossom in your bouquets, Mom? Supposedly people will really get spooked if you give them an even number; it's like a curse. And what is the origin of that rule? I enjoy traveling for small pieces of culture like this.

 
This last picture is the view from my apartment. I am looking towards Old Town Vilnius; there's not much to see from this vantage, but the sunrise was beautiful.

Oh, and I should apologize now for any writing errors, which my mom is eagerly pointing out because I am critical of her writing. I would remind her that every writer, even an English major, needs an editor. That's why editing is a profession. The errors come from me trying to write these posts quickly, so I have time to do more things...that I can write about. It's a catch-22. If anyone has read Sir Tristram Shandy, they will remember when he notes that it would take a lifetime to adequately write about all the activity in a single hour.

Until next time,

Alex

Comments

[Thomas Longberg]

I hope your experiences in Vilnius are unique enough to justify the climate there compared to Barcelona. I really like reading your blog, not only because you write well and from the liver (is that a saying in the US or only in Norway?), but also because it's very interesting to see how an American perceives European cultures, traditions and history. I'm planning to do an exchange semester in Hong Kong in 18 months or so, if I do then this blog will certainly be one of the sources of inspiration.

Once I finish The 13 & 1/2 Lives of Captain Bluebear, Gödel-Escher-Bach, The Exploits and Adventures of Brigadier Gerard and all the other books I've failed to finish lately, I will check out Sir Tristam Shandy.

Keep writing!

[Alex Chapple]

Well, thanks. I hope I don't sound as ignorant about European cultures as I feel. Regardless, I'll keep writing because that's when I reflect and so learn. Oh, and Tristram Shandy is probably the longest book I've read. Very painful. But it had its gems.

[Holly Heider Chapple]

Great post Alex. Of course I loved the part about the flowers and actually we arrange in odds as well. That is the one and only thing someone taught me when I started designing flowers.
My heart could not handle the pictures of the jails. Super painful.