Thursday was the Lithuanian Independance day, which gave the entire country four day weekend. There were flags everywhere, fireworks, and people going crazy. I celebrated by having rehearsal, and then going to a wonderful blues performance by a group from Chicago. Then on friday we went to the shore of the Baltic Sea. It was beautiful. There is a thin peninsula of sand that protrudes from the Lithuanian Coast (I will try to find a good map). From the top of the dunes you can see both the frozen bay and the dark water of the baltic sea. During the summer it is crowded with tourtists from germany, russia, etc. But now we had the beach to ourselves, on the sea side that is. On the frozen bay there were hundreds of ice fishermen. Literally as far as the eye could see. Apparently now is the time when a small white fish called stintos migrates through the area, and it looked like half the country was there to persue it. I don't know how they stand the cold!! (I'm sure lots of vodka helps.) But I sure am glad they are out there, I got a taste of thier catch at the local kavinė and yummmmm.... I ate about 10 of them - bones, fins and all. Then later we went to Dalės cousins house and got to take advantage of the sauna. You simply don't know how cold you have been until every inch of your body is sweating. After all that walking around in the snow, I was in heaven. Then it was back to kaunas for rehearsal on sunday. The company doesn't usually rehearse on sundays, but I have only a week to learn two rather long pieces for a performance in Kaunas on Feb 28th and Vilnius on March 1st. Really crazy....