Thursday, October 7, 2010

Cocopufficas


The next morning we met up with another wedding guest and hit the hotel’s continental breakfast. Damian, a proper Englishman and fellow History professor, had arrived the night before while we were at dinner. Over coffee, we brought him up to speed on the beaver situation as Nate’s stomachache had not improved. “Is it even legal to eat beaver?” he inquired.

Little did I know, this breakfast would set the culinary stage for the next three weeks. Spread over a few large tables was a selection of meats (mostly ham-looking items), some hard boiled eggs, sliced cheese and tomatoes, an assortment of pickled vegetables, a choice of dark and light bread, a big bowl of pink yoghurt, and a few cold cereal options.

When Nate saw that I had opted for the brown cereal with the pink yoghurt he commented, “Oh, I see you’ll be dining on the Cocopufficas?” Sure enough, the cereal turned out to be the
Lithuanian version of Coco Puffs (see above photo taken during a later trip to the market).

According to Nate, when in doubt regarding an English to Lithuanian translation, simply add an “as” to the end of the word. For example, salon becomes salonas. You can also recognize a Lithuanian name by the presence of an “as” as in Medogas, Lina’s brother, and my good friend Tony (from Antanas) Brasunas. No wonder the the hotel staff kept called me "Americanas."

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