Conversational Lithuanian, Tuesday evening

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal arrived at the community center with plenty of time to spare, found the classroom, and set out the food he'd made for the evening. One savory, one sweet, and a drink. Then he made sure there were signs up to direct the students and any drop-ins to where the class was.



Hannibal waited until a few minutes after the class time, just to make sure anybody that wanted to be here, was. He nodded and smiled at those who came in, then began.

"Sveiki atvykę. Which is to say, hello and welcome. For those of you I haven't met before, I am Doctor Hannibal Lecter. I'm a psychiatrist in Baltimore, and I am teaching cooking at the school. After one of this island's incidents last semester, it occurred to me that it might be useful to have somebody here able to speak the language of my childhood." He nodded at Jono assuming he's there. "Possibly also to share a language with others that anybody seeking to do damage here is unlikely to understand. I'm pleased to see there is some interest in it.

"I think for this class I will bow to convention and ask for introductions. In addition to your names, please let me know if you have any knowledge of the language already, and what sorts of vocabulary you would find most useful."

Comments

Sign in!

[sharp_as_knives]

He won't assign you all "Lithuanian names", at least.

Re: Sign in!

[furnaceface]

Jonothon Starsmore

Re: Sign in!

[bitten_notshy]

Jack Priest

Introductions

[sharp_as_knives]

What do you know, and what would you like to learn?

Re: Introductions

[furnaceface]

Jono hung back for a moment before introducing himself, looking around the room to see if there were any new faces he'd have to be gentle with. And then apparently deciding that he didn't actually care enough to let it keep him from talking entirely.

//I'm Jonothon Starsmore. Jono, if you'd rather. And the Lithuanian that I know is... pretty much nil. Honestly, if what I get out of this class are basics like, 'are you hungry,' or 'yes, you're safe,' I'll consider it a win.//

Here was one person who was obviously in the class because of that aforementioned incident last semester.

Re: Introductions

[sharp_as_knives]

"If everybody gets out of here learning that much, I certainly will," Hannibal answered with a chuckle.

Re: Introductions

[bitten_notshy]

Jack hadn't been in a classroom on the island since he taught; it was nice to see some things never changed. Like introductions week.

"Hi, I'm Jack," he said. "I don't know Lithuanian, but I moved enough as a child that I've at least dabbled in most European languages. The best are English, Spanish, Czech, Russian, French and German."

His list was shorter than it used to be, but after so many years, he wasn't sure he'd be able to keep up a conversation in Hungarian or Italian, or several others. He regretted this.

"I'm interested in any vocabulary. I like what you said about having an unusual language in your pocket to fend off eavesdroppers."

Re: Introductions

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal nodded at Jack. "We have some overlap, then; French, German, and Russian as well as English. And some very bad Yiddish," he recalled ruefully.

Re: Introductions

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"//I didn't know you spoke Russian!//" Kenzi said, pleased. "And now I want to be an international spy."

Re: Introductions

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Hey ya. I'm Kenzi, I speak Russian, I plan to be an international traveler and you never know, Lithuanian might come in handy." For robbing Lithuanian mobsters, probably. "I know some from our neighbors in Canada, but it's mostly curse words."

Re: Introductions

[sharp_as_knives]

"Many people seem to start with those; they were some of my first words in several languages," Hannibal admitted.

Just so long as she didn't rob Lithuanian-American cannibals, Hannibal would be happy to teach her distracting phrases.

Re: Introductions

[lovemykilt]

"Uh, I'm Priestly," Priestly said. He was out of practice on this sort of thing; they didn't have you go around and introduce yourselves in community college classes on the mainland. "No first name, just Priestly." In case it came up. "I know jack-all about Lithuanian. Or Lithuania, honestly. I've got some French, but, uh, mostly food terms. So those would be cool, or, you know, like Jono said, the basic emergency phrases. Mostly I'm here because I thought it might be a nice break to take a class that's not even remotely business or nutrition related."

Re: Introductions

[sharp_as_knives]

"It's good to meet you." Hannibal nodded at him. "You're taking nutrition classes and you know French terms for food; does that mean you're a chef yourself?"

Re: Introductions

[talentforlying]

"Constantine. John Constantine. 'M the librarian, an' havin' another language under my belt is handy." For spells, swearing, more swearing...

Re: Introductions

[sharp_as_knives]

Hannibal was perfectly willing to teach swearing, though it probably had limited use outside of Lithuania.

"I remember you from that...very purple representation of somebody's mind," Hannibal noted. "It's a pleasure to see you again." He hoped.

Re: Introductions

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Forgive Eleanor; she had been sitting ramrod-straight ever since he had said the word 'psychiatrist.' She had missed entire phrases from his very nice speech as a result.

"What sort of psychiatrist are you?" she asked sharply. "And why is a psychiatrist teaching Lithuanian?"

If her tone implied that she thought he was teaching Lithuanian as a way to brainwash them and perform dark ritualistic experiments, well. She mostly did.

Re: Introductions

[imablackwidowbaby]

"I'm Natasha Romanoff. I speak Russian, and Lithuanian seems like it might come in handy sometime." Probably, like Kenzi, involving Lithuanian mobsters, though she wouldn't be ripping them off exactly. "It never hurts to learn a new language, right? And I think my housemate, Clint Barton, will usually be here, too, but he had to go and have a birthday this week."

Food!

[sharp_as_knives]

"I've also brought some food; more or less traditional Lithuanian, albeit a little updated." Hannibal gestured at the table.

Poppyseed spurgos garnished with lemon cream, crème fraîche sorbet, and candied blueberries

Cepelinai with cheese curd or meat filling

Krupnikas (warm, alcoholic spiced honey drink)

(Also, very good coffee.)

"Something savory, something sweet, and something warming. Please, help yourselves."

Re: Food!

[furnaceface]

Jonothon couldn't eat the food (though he wanted very much to be able to), but he could certainly appreciate the presentation of it. On top of his skill with flavour, Hannibal certainly had a way of making his dishes look good.

At least he'd gotten better at not staring longingly at food when it was set out before him. After a moment taken to look at the dishes, he stepped back out of the way, so that anyone who wanted to eat could help themselves.

Re: Food!

[bitten_notshy]

Jack sniffed at the food appreciatively; it smelled like home in a way much modern American food didn't. He took an assortment of pastries and dumplings, and filled his goblet with the honey drink.

Re: Food!

[regretiz4suckas.livejournal.com]

"Mmmmmmmm!" Kenzi remembered how good those Dr. Lecter-provided candies had tasted at Halloween, and dug right in. The spurgos and krupnikas were good enough that she was asking, "Can I get your recipes? I'm not much of a cook, but I bet I can bribe the guys at Luke's into making stuff for me."

Re: Food!

[lovemykilt]

It wasn't that often, any more, that Priestly encountered a new food that he didn't make himself. He took a little bit of everything, taking his time as he ate to try to work out the ingredients, including holding it up and examining the structure as well as savoring the flavors on his tongue. The process involved more than a few little impressed and pleased noises.

The cook at Luke's was going to hate Priestly taking this class if Hannibal kept bringing in new foods. Hate it.

Talk to Hannibal!

[sharp_as_knives]

If you have any questions or comments after class.

OOC!

[sharp_as_knives]

Ahahaha! All Lithuanian brought to you courtesy of various language sites and Google Translate - why did I decide to do this again?

Re: OOC!

[nobloodymessiah.livejournal.com]

Random question! I signed Eleanor up for class, not realizing she'd be a little jumpy about Hannibal being a psychiatrist. Is it okay if she's weird at him?

(Her crazy mother that wanted her to rule the world: also a psychiatrist, and the only one she's ever met.)