Episode 25 - Lithuanian Actress Discovered at Cafe du Paris - Interview with Ieva

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While paying the bill after leaving the Cafe du Paris with my friend and former classmate Gian Paolo, visiting from Rome (see Episode 24), I strike up a conversation with Ieva, a charming young student of French at Vilnius University. She and I share stories of our Lithuanian and American families, separated by half a century of brutal, senseless Soviet occupation. Part of my work here is my own attempt to find ways to heal. What I want is for people to not dwell on this dark past, but instead to acknowledge it, to learn from it, and to find ways to move forward together in a positive, constructive manner. Ieva shares a very heartbreaking story of a family divided by the complete political and social isolation of Lithuania from the world in the last half of the twentieth century, a story which was echoed in my own family, and in many, many others. But Ieva is somehow still optimistic. Something more even, she is vivacious and vibrant. She greets every other passerby on the sidewalk outside the cafe and kisses cheeks with her friends who come in to order coffee. She exudes a joie de vivre that is infectious. I could spend all afternoon talking with her, but a Hare Krishna parade cuts our interview short.

Category:

Travel & Events

Tags:

• Vilnius
• Lithuania
• Travel
• Lithuanian
• Americans
• Cafe
• du
• Paris
• French
• University
• Kathy
• Griffin

[ttyy97]

That is the funniest interview I enjoyed watching, especially with your being so anxious about Krishna people coming by...:) Nice to know about the cafe in Vilnius and the people who work there.

[followJJB]

@ttyy97 Ieva is so charming, and such a natural on camera, we HAD to get her on film. And she has such a fascinating story, one that is shared by many of us who have families who were divided by the occupation of Lithuania and the other two Baltic nations (Latvia and Estonia) by Russia.  It's nice that now after so much of the weight of that history has passed we can heal from that and sit together on a sunny day in Vilnius and have a nice chat and share our stories. Thanks for watching.

[SENASSTASYS]

Interesting comparing Vegas and Vilnius. I'm not a gambler, and I do not like too much country stars and Elvises in their 70's performing in Vegas (akaTwitty).

I'll chose to travel to Vilnius instead. It is a fun just just to walk on the sreet of Vilnius an to look arround. If you walk in Chicago - just closed office buildings, in New York XXX shops and dancing nudes every second door.