The community of Kaunas mosque provided an opportunity for anyone interested to go inside the unique Tatar mosque of Kaunas, to see a Muslim prayer, look around and enjoy food from various countries and cultures. The mosque has become an important contact point for old and new Muslim communities, the latter consisting of foreign students, workers, spouses of Lithuanians, expats …
Brief visit to Marijampolė
I attended a debate in Marijampolė, the seventh-largest town in Lithuania, which was an occasion to visit this town for the first time. As a regional center of Lithuania’s historically most affluent region, Suvalkija, it continuously appeared in school textbooks. Many prominent writers and Lithuanian independence activists were from this region and had studied in Marijampolė. Still, I couldn′t have …
Hanami in Kaunas
Feeling very nostalgic about my proper hanami in Tokyo in 2009, I attended a Japanese Embassy / Sugihara Museum event in Kaunas, where a Japanese performance artist Kirie Oda cooperated with Lithuanian violinist and singer to create a performance around Sugihara House, which used to be the Japanese consulate before WWII and now hosts a Sugihara museum, foundation, and VMU …
New Year at the Baltic coast
I usually try to find something special to do on New Year’s eve, and I was more than happy when a friend suggested going to the seaside. Palanga, one of the main seaside resorts in Lithuania, is a nightmare in summer, packed with families, budget tourists, and party-goers. But it makes a great winter getaway.
Short video about an evaluation of structural funds and equal opportunities
My last project at Public Policy and Management Institute was an evaluation of the impact of EU structural funds on gender equality and non-discrimination. In addition to data collection and presentation, I organized a conference with various stakeholders and contributed to another, quite an unusual output of the evaluation – a promotional video. This was the first time our team …
Dali & Magritte visit a small town near Kaunas
On Sunday I used the last opportunity to visit an exhibition of various minor works by Dali and Magritte at Raudondvaris manor, not far from Kaunas. Thanks to my friend R., who was willing to drive there in this suddenly freezing weather, we reached the recently redeveloped suburban area, which used to be a famous noble clan’s estate (you can …
Seminar on women’s entrepreneurship in London
In September, I had a chance to go to London again – this time to attend an inspiring seminar on promoting women′s entrepreneurship, which was organized by the European Commission and the UK government (summary). In addition to lots of new ideas, I found new Twitter accounts to follow, as the government agencies involved in this seminar, as well as …
Bar food and beer tour with Marius Plečkaitis
Walking by creepy looking blue lights from a wallpaper shop in the central station area, we are disappointed to see that a tiny shop with an old-school concrete sign is closed. Having spent many years in Kaunas, did I ever go there to buy meat pastries (čeburekai)? Definitely not. But on a tour with a connoisseur guide and a group …
A bit about my 20s
I rarely post personal photos and stories online these days, but it’s fun to think about the end of my 20s, which were an era in itself, and to look back at all the different memories. As someone said, the best thing about being in your 30s now is that all your craziest experiences happened in the pre-Facebook era. So …
Evaluation on equal opportunities in structural funds completed
Good news: colleagues from my old job at PPMI have finalized the project Evaluation of the impact of EU structural support on the implementation of the horizontal priority “Gender equality and non-discrimination” for the Lithuanian Ministry of Finance, where I was the key researcher and did most of the data collection and analysis. As I have written for PPMI website …