Take me out to the McOpera (Supersized for hungry family letters)

So, here’s a typical expatriate evening for the Petrie family.

5 p.m.: Eat at the only McDonald’s in Old Town Vilnius. We do this once a week to reward the kids for being such great sports about borscht and such. Our Vilnius real estate agent, by the way, considers the existence of McDonald’s in his city a horrible travesty, and I tend to agree with him. But I go there, nevertheless. I offer no excuses.

7 p.m. Go to the Opera house for a performance of Aida. Lithuanians love their opera, ballet, and National Philharmonic, and I am planning on loving it, too. We also have tickets to see Swan Lake in December. It will be a lovely way to say goodbye to Eastern Europe.

11p.m. Watch the Padres in the playoffs at Peter’s flat (Peter is from the embassy, about our age, and—oh, no!—A Yankees Fan…). Of course, this is an “early” game, since it starts at 1 p.m. in America. Seeing the late games may involve waking up at 4 a.m. to watch, as Peter does for the Yankees. I don’t know if I’m that dedicated, but Kyle is glad he found a sports fan friend with cable.

Ok, just kidding. It is SO not typical, but it is cool, which is why I wanted to tell everyone about it. Things seem to occur in waves for us. Most evenings I’m enjoying catching up on my reading, but every once in a while a string of parties, receptions, or musical events all happen at once. And the more people you meet, the busier you get, of course. In fact, tonight I had the opportunity to meet a group of Lithuanian Fulbrighters who have recently returned from the U.S. They were very interesting, including a reconstructive surgeon who was doing experimental research on skin transplants in Michigan, and a composer who will be performing the piano piece he composed while on his Fulbright later this month.

In fact, the week of Nov 13-17th may do me in, as it has ended up that I have 3 different presentations in 3 different forums that week.
The first of them is in a town several hours away, and the University there recommended that I catch the 6:30 a.m. train to get there in time to deliver my 11 a.m. lecture. I was game to do so until I told Carlos, the head of the Cultural Affairs section of the embassy, about my plans. “No, no, no,” he said. Now I am going in an embassy car, with a driver. I could have handled the train, but I am not going to refuse being chauffeured. He and Rasa, who handles the migration paperwork, will probably come along, since Carlos needs to make a trip to the town anyway (to arrange some concerts there for a visiting American conductor).