Cathedrals, Culture and Klaipeda
What a lovely week! We spent an afternoon exploring some of the many cathedrals of Vilnius. They were sobering and enchanting to wander through, the fresh flowers mingled with the smell of incense and really transported us back in time. My favorite was the Russian Orthodox cathedral which was painted a stunning bright green, I love to think about the effort that went into designing and constructing these massive and elaborate structures. Many of these ornate cathedrals were appropriated under Soviet rule to serve as warehouses, theatres and other secular purposes. One was turned into the Museum of Atheism which I found almost too ironic. It’s incredible to consider how long these structures have been here and how long they will remain.
We spent some time with my mom’s best friend who stopped by on his way from Warsaw. He gave Ariana and I some advice on the 2L job search and international law over heavenly Korean food. He also took me to see Indomeneo, Mozart’s first opera. We both love opera, but I don’t think either of us knew what we were getting into. This 3-hour Italian opera was definitely the oddest and most powerful production I’ve ever seen. It was a modern interpretation which utilized giant balloon letters, a massive pointing hand which descended from the ceiling, and women who were pulled through paper screens during their arias. The cast was covered in blood for most of the show and the crew threw buckets of water at the leading tenor while he sang. It was an incredible emotional experience, the performance focused less on the father/son dynamic that carried the original version and more on the struggle between the men and women in the show. The story was one of deep sacrifice and left everyone in the audience emotionally spent. This performance felt powerful and relevant, I will definitely never forget it.
Ariana and I took a weekend trip to Klaipeda on the Baltic coast. We took a 4-hour bus ride and spent the weekend exploring the small town and the beautiful scenery. On our first day we stumbled upon the Klaipeda Castle Museum, we began by touring the ruins and studying the 13th century artifacts, but the exhibits did not stop there, the museum covered the history of Klaipeda through WWII. We learned that Klaipeda was devastated by the war, Lithuania was forced to surrender the region to the Germans who proceeded to evacuate the port city. When the Soviets invaded in 1945 they found 20 residents in the entire area. This small museum had one of the most interesting exhibits I’ve ever experienced, you enter a dark room and there is a giant table with sand covering it, you push the sand away and see the artifacts under the glass. We walked around the table uncovering letters, oven mitts and china all left behind in the exodus. We really felt as if we were discovering these historical mementos first hand.
For our second day we rented bikes and took the short ferry ride to the Curonian Spit. We went on a fantastic ride through the forest with intermittent stops to explore the beaches. The first beach we reached was a nude beach which was definitely unexpected, but we soon settled on a clothed beach and read our books in the sun.
We also continued our GDPR work, synthesizing our research into a memo to be sent to all participating parties in the NarcoMaps project. This memo will serve as a guideline for all the interviewers and will dictate what they must do to protect the personal data of anyone they interview. One thing we made especially clear is that the information and consent requirements do not only apply if the interviewee shares a piece of personal data about themselves, but also applies if they share personal data or identifying information of another. The interviewer is then responsible for locating that person, getting their consent, and informing them of their rights. We emphasized an desire to avoid this by not allowing an interviewee to share any information that could be used to identify themselves or others. We enjoyed this project because it is so relevant to global law. These new regulations don’t only reach the EU but effect any business that collects personal data from anyone in the EU. It has been incredible to see how many US websites have updated their privacy policies to comply with this European regulation. It’s thrilling to work with a statute that has such a profound and far reaching effect in our technologically dependent world.
The best thing I ate this week was the first thing I ate in Klaipeda. After getting off the bus, we hopped into a little modern restaurant for lunch and I ordered the cured ham and melon. It was almost too pretty to eat but definitely too delicious not to.
