Day 26 – Doctor’s Office 2 & ½ of the Jewish tour

Georgia got a bit cranky in the past few days and we decided to take her to the doctor to check out her cold. Both Alicia and I tried to make an appointment for today at Northway. I wrote about them before. They were resisting and suggesting to come tomorrow at 4pm. We were resisting too and compromised for 11:45 today. Alicia used Russian, I used English.

Only after we arrived to the office we realized that because they really did not have available pediatrician on duty they’ve scheduled me, not Georgia with a general physician. After an argument they’ve allowed Georgia to go instead of me. The rest of the office is great. They took blood from Georgia’s finger with a little pen-like device. She did not even notice – the nurse kept her busy looking around the room to spot hidden candy. They process it really quick and it goes into the general computer system. However Georgia refused to pee into a little bottle. The only thing that worked was turning the water on and telling her that lady doctor needs her to fill the bottle to water her flowers.

The doctor concluded that Georgia does have a cold virus but ears, lungs, bladder, and other areas are OK. Dan and I, however, are the weaklings who succumbed to the tonsillitis. To make us feel better she gave Georgia 5 prescriptions for different body parts to use if needed.

Dan managed the final part of the doctor’s appointment (when Georgia decided it was time to go) on his own because I left to meet with Len and Susan for the Jewish tour. He was very heroic and held the “Mamma”-sobbing kid for two hours.

Len, Susan, and I waited for Tamara from the Jewish museum for 24 minutes and then too off to find the Jewish museum. At first we looked on Pamėnkalnio 12 for the Holocaust museum but could not find it. Then we went to Pylimo to find the real thing.

It is a nice little museum and it located in the former Jewish school. The staff was really friendly and kept the place open even though they were supposed to have a lunch break. We called Tamara – turns out she thought we are meeting at 11 – and agreed to meet with her at 3pm. Len & Susan got a little treat by finding a poster featuring Samuel Bak whose works they like.

Close to 3pm we met up with Tamara who turned out very pleasant. She started by showing some really neat things we pass by every day and don’t notice. She even showed a hiding place Samuel Bak used during the war.

I could not stay much longer and I left Len and Susan with Tamara. We agreed that Dan and I will do another tour with her.

When Georgia woke up we went to the playground and waited for Len and Susan to join us for dinner. We went to Forto Dvaras. Upstairs was full so we stayed in the cellar, which also filled up later in the evening. We got a bunch of local specialties and had a really good time.

We had a chance to get to know them a little better and are looking forward to keeping in touch when we are back.

As we were walking them to the gate at around 10pm (and still light outside) we saw police cars, special services and a small crowd around the National Philharmonic Hall. Then we saw the queen of Netherlands get into a car about 5 meters away from where we were standing. She was wearing a blue dress and she waived as her car went by. We did not have our camera with us but here is a recent picture of the queen: http://www.koninklijkhuis.nl/english/content.jsp?objectid=18161. Georgia was super excited.