We're going outside! Hello and welcome back to The Bliss Bean. I've actually kinda
missed talking to the camera but it might not be as fun today because I'm
challenging myself to speak only in Lithuanian for this video. I do speak
Lithuanian at home with my family so I am fluent but not as fluent as I am in
English but being in Lithuania for the past five days has helped me kind of
restore my skills a little bit so this is gonna be really good practice for me
and hopefully I won't have to use Google Translate too much so today's video is
gonna be a Q&A video because I didn't know what else to make a video about that I
could speak about in Lithuanian. Obviously I will have English subtitles
for the majority of you but I know there are some Lithuanian viewers because on
my How I Study Korean video I got a bunch of people in the comments saying
that they were from Lithuania - and they were so surprised to find someone that
was also Lithuanian studying Korean! Anyways, welcome back to The Bliss Bean
and let's start answering! This already feels so awkward
So the first question is - where exactly is Lithuania? Near Russia?
Wait, I'll look at a map because I know it's near Russia but- I forget which countries
are above us and below us. So Lithuania is in eastern Europe and around us are:
Latvia, Belarus, and Poland. So that's where Lithuania is! The next question is what
are your favorite Lithuanian dishes? All of them? All Lithuanian dishes. We
don't eat a lot of Lithuanian food at home in America but
those that we do eat always taste better here when grandma makes them.
I really like zeppelins, "koldunai", which is dumplings, "balandeliai"
A meatball with rice and then wrapped in cabbage.
Beet soup, not "borscht" (a Russian cold soup), but hot beet soup
Oh, my grandma made these pancakes with raisins.
They're really... really thick.
Very thick pancakes.
Fried (rye) bread with garlic and cheese.
Um... what else, what else, what else.
Well of course there are also very simple foods like potatoes and sour cream
and dark (rye) bread, butter is really delicious here.
Simple foods that we also eat in America but here we eat them way more often so it feels like "Lithuanian" food.
And that person also asked about Lithuanian desserts.
Honestly when I think about Lithuanian food I don't really think about desserts.
What desserts do we have?
My brother: uh, Napoleon
Oh, Napoleon cake.
You can come over here for a little bit.
This is my brother.
My brother: hello.
He has trouble speaking Lithuanian, but it's okay.
He understands it, he just doesn't speak it.
We ate Lithuanian- oh, "spurgos"!
Ahh, it fell!
"Spurgos" are balls of dough with quark cheese that are fried in oil.
*struggles with the pronounciation of the word oil ("aliejus") in this sentence*
I don't know.
It's hard- It's hard to speak Lithuanian.
"Sureliai" are kind of a dessert but when I was little
and lived here, every day for breakfast I would have "sureliai" and Actimel (a yogurt drink)
So it wasn't a dessert to me but it has a lot of sugar so it should be a dessert.
Okay, then "favorite spots in Lithuania that you have traveled to or would like to travel to?"
On this trip we visited Druskininkai which is probably the most popular city with tourists.
Right now we are in Varena, where both of my grandmas live.
So obviously that's why Iike it here.
And we haven't been anywhere else in Lithuania (on this trip)
Tomorrow we will drive to Vilnius, which is where I was born and is where I lived for a few years before coming to America.
But overall in Lithuania (not just on this trip), we have been to Trakai,
That's a really beautiful city where there is a lot of water and bridges and like, castles.
But- but where-
My brother: have you ever really-
Shut up
A place I would like to visit is Kaunas, because I don't think I've ever been there
At least I don't remember
But that's probably the second biggest city in Lithuania.
Lithuania is a small country, but there is stuff to see.
If you had to jump into a pool of anything (other than water cause that's boring) what would it be?
I would jump into a pool that has those little balls
My brother: I'd jump in concrete
In commercials they're called Orbeez, little balls that are hard but when you put in water
they expand and become soft like gelatin
So I think it would be really fun to jump into a pool like that.
Which language is harder - Lithuanian or English?
And out of all the languages you know, which has been the hardest to learn and why?
Lithuanian or English - definitely Lithuanian.
English is kind of difficult because when you're starting to learn it,
it's hard to understand how to pronounce words.
A lot of words aren't pronounced the way they are written.
And there are a lot of weird rules -
Things you would understand and know only if you lived in an English-speaking country.
But overall, as a language, I think Lithuanian has so many weird rules that I can't even imagine
how a person could fully learn it not having learned it since childhood.
As for which language was hardest to learn from those that I know,
Lithuanian of course was not hard at all to learn
because I spoke it from the beginning.
English was also really easy to learn because I was about 4 or 5
when I learned it, simply because I went to school
and naturally learned it the way little kids can
Spanish I also wouldn't say was very difficult.
Of course, I studied it for 5 years,
But I think knowing Lithuanian and English really helped me.
Because Spanish wasn't drastically different.
I would say that Korean has been the most difficult for me to learn
because I had to learn a totally new alphabet
And words rarely are similar to the English or Spanish ones.
So Korean has been the hardest, but, really,
it's fun to learn when it's challenging.
How do I translate this? Dream career
I don't know, maybe this is a very "basic" answer,
But I think it would be a really interesting job to do YouTube
Because I love making videos,
I love doing things where I can create something.
And it's a job where you can choose where and when you do it,
Sort of how you do it
And I really like that because I love creating my own schedule,
And working the way I know I work best.
So if I could do this as my main job, I think that would be really really fun for me.
What do you expect will be the most important or the biggest result
that you get out of this "year without school"? Gap year?
I actually saw my - I don't know how to say it in Lithuanian - my great-aunt
And she told me "don't forget what you learned in school,
I'm worried you will forget everything"
Every year I forget what I learned that year at school so I don't think that'll be a problem...
But what I'll get out of this year...
I think the most important thing will be the traveling.
Because I don't know when I'll get a chance again to do something like this.
And then the last question is - what has been your biggest accomplishment so far?
Maybe starting this YouTube channel?
Because I did it for a really long time without any results.
Every other week at first, then every week, even when school got really difficult.
I still made videos and I finally see some results and
And, that's really...
I feel very proud of that,
let's just go back to English now
Now it feels so unnatural speaking English.
Thank you for sending in questions because
I didn't know what else to talk about for this video.
I don't really know if there are a lot of Lithuanian YouTubers
I've never, like, looked into the Lithuanian side of YouTube
Maybe there are?
But I hope this has been an interesting cultural experience for you
My brother is becoming annoyed with me now
for making him stay out here so long so
We're gonna head back inside now,
But before we do that, you should go ahead and click the subscribe button
And also give this video a like if you enjoyed it
I'm not sure if I'll have a video next week.
I thought I would be doing a lot more with my blog over the course of this trip
But then I realized that
It's really nice to just spend time with family
And not think about anything and just basically
Eat and sleep and occasionally nap,
And visit family members that I haven't seen in 5 years or more.
Okay well anyways, that's it and I'll maybe see you next week, so, bye!
My brother: cameo appearance, uh
My brother: hello
Okay, that's done
My brother: okay, bye!
Can you not?
My brother: Can you- Can you k-not?
My brother: Can you tie a k-not?
No
Can you go in that direction?
My brother: Which direction?
That- like far, far in that direction.
My brother: Okay
Like just keep walking
My brother: Home
No, farther
Farther
Okay, good