New Year, New Library

Well, we've had a great year, and to celebrate, the Public Affairs team at the U.S. Embassy in Vilnius has given itself a present: A brand new Facebook page for the American Center Library.

The page features the latest and greatest news from the library: new acquisitions, program announcements, events etc. We're also running a series on English language and another one on essential American food recipes. Of course, we welcome your suggestions and comments, and please, help us spread the word!

Tubas, Nigerian drama, and Lithuanian Identity: Teaching Literature as a Fulbright Scholar

Today's guest-blogger is Dr. Windy Counsell Petrie, Associate Professor and English Department Chair at Colorado Christian University, who was a Fulbright grantee to Lithuania in 2006. During her time in Lithuania, Dr. Petrie lectured at several Universities on representations of exile in nineteenth- and twentieth-century World Literature as well as the role of female and African American authors in American literary history. Here are her reflections on making the transition from an American University to a Lithuanian one.

On the first day of school at Vilnius University, where I was a visiting scholar, I walked down to campus and witnessed the opening ceremonies for the school year, which occur in the first of many lovely courtyards of the University. Students, spectators, and  tourists watched and listened as the school orchestra played the National Anthem and the University song, children danced in traditional folk costume, and the administration and faculty filed out of the main building onto a large adjoining platform. Speeches were made, the national and University flags raised, and I found it quite moving.  Although I think many Americans would find it quaint to spend the first day of school in festivities, with a band in the background, instead of getting right down to business, I think there’s a certain wisdom to this tradition. After all, any new chance to learn should be celebrated, with tubas if necessary.