Sunday, 24 January 2016

(B) - A Short Baltic Story - What Ernest and Monika saw was more than a chain!

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A Short Baltic Story from Riga
It was just over two years ago. Monika Erb and her husband Ernest had just come back from Riga. And, there they saw something quite interesting. A long chain of people passing books!

It turned out that the new building of the Lithuanian National Library had just been completed and the best way of moving the very many books from the old building to the new one was by means of a human chain. And this was the chain that Ernest and Monica saw.

And, because of the long distance between the two buildings, many people had been needed, and, despite the very cold weather, enough people had turned out to be part of this great book moving chain.
And, everyone was happy. There was a visible feeling of togetherness and fun. And, this impressed Ernest and Monika. The books being carefully passed were everyone's books and everyone cared.

And this is what Ernest and Monika saw. The Baltic tradition of doing it together. The Latvian way of moving a library.
Could this happen where you live?

Vocabulary

chain – Kette
despite – trotzdem
distance - Entfernung
it turned out – es hat sich herausgestellt
impressed - beeindruckt
means - Mittel
togetherness - Zusammenhalt
together – zusammen
turned out – sind gekommen
visible – sichtbar



Questions

Where had Monika and Ernest just come back from?
What did Monika and Ernest see in Riga?
What were the people passing?
From where to where were the people passing the books?
How were the books being passed?
What was the weather like?

What impressed Ernest and Monika?

Maggy Steiner

  Maggy Steiner had a wonderful childhood.  She went to school in Vienna, and spent her summers with her uncle and aunt and her two cousins ...