Cultural Week

One of the great things about living in Europe especially Latvia during Christmas time is that there are so many fun free cultural things to do. Over the past couple weeks I have been really busy trying to take advantge of all these free fun cultural things. Here are some photos from my adventures.

A classical music concert at the Small Guild.
This is a folk dancing concert with one of the best folk dancing groups in Latvia.

Yet another Astr'o'nout Concert at the University of Latvia Christmas Ball (which I am severely underdressed for). This time I got to get really close and didn't get yelled at when we took photos.

Latvian Hockey

This week I got to live out one of my dreams in Latvia by attending a Latvian hockey game(twice)! One of my professors invited me to see a game with her and her family. So I saw the Latvian National team play a team from Russia....Latvia won 5-1. Then the next day I saw the Under 20 tournament where Latvia played the United Kingdom Latvia won 5-0. I went to this game with one of my fellow Fulbrighters and my Canadian friend Kristina. We sat between a drunk Latvian guy who spoke Latvian to me for three hours in Latvian (which was actually good language practice for me because he didn't speak any english) and a scout for the Washington Cavaliers (the hockey team in DC). Here are some photos from my Latvian Hockey Adventures.




My North American friends
Kristina, me and our new Latvian friend.

American Party in Latvia!

One of my fellow Fulbrighters and I decided to throw an American Party on Saturday at his apartment. I made boxed brownies and received compliments all night on how good they were and if people could have the recipe. I said it was very complicated to perfect but here is what you should do....go to Stockmans (the western department store here), but the brownie mix and follow the directions. They all couldn't believe that they came from a box and I said that that was the American way. All in all it was very fun and there is nothing like heaps of alcohol to break down cultural barriers and make people friends! I even stayed out all night which I haven't done since the last time I lived here in 1999. The next day I had like 10 friendship requests on Facebook and draugiem.lv (the Latvian My Space).

Me and the girls from my Latvian class

Drakula

December 5 was Volunteer Appreciation Day (not just in Latvia around the world) and since I am a volunteer my work gave me a free ticket for the premiere of Drakula, Fresh Blood. I bought a program, hoping that would outline the play and help me understand it, which told the history of Drakula and all of the movies featuring him. So I was expecting a traditional play about Drakula. Or course what I expect to happen and what actually happens to me in Latvia are always vastly different. What I got was a rock musical about Drakula, where he was featured as a rock musician/terrorist living under an authoritarian police state. It was very 1984 but in musical form, which consequently is the most difficult mode of communication in a foreign language so I probably have only a cursory understanding of it all. They had futuristic costumes and there was even a nationalist resistance movement where they combined Nazi like gestures with Latvian folk dancing. One thing I will never get used to, as the prude American that I am, is the naked people on stage. Nearly every play I have seen in Latvia has had naked people...like that is supposed to make it more artistic. All in all it was yet another cultural experience where the ending was a bit unclear. Although I did ask my colleagues what happened at the end and they also had no idea. So it was a successful night at the Latvian theatre where everyone left a bit perplexed but entertained (they even played Like a Virgin by Madonna).

Meeting the Ambassador

I would like to say that this was a key event in my life and one that I remember and cherish forever but I think I will remember it more for its hilarity than for anything that was actually said.

To my knowledge we are the first group of Fulbrighters to Latvia that have actually gotten to meet the US Ambassador so I feel thankful for that. The meeting was very weird and seemed more like a PR opportunity than anything else. Basically we were herded into the room in her residence, introduced to her, listened to her speak about Latvia (I was actually impressed by how much she knew) for 30 minutes, had coffee and snacks, and then she left. Maybe this is how diplomatic things work but I thought that it seemed like a very unimportant event for her.

Then I looked on the US Embassy homepage and there we were (I am on the lower left hand side). So my lasting memory of meeting the US Ambassador to Latvia will be a Latvian American flag pin and this picture I saved from the website.

Astro'n'out Concert

One my favorite things to do is go to concerts, like movies in Latvia, they remind me of home even if the songs are in Latvian. After the Christmas tree lighting I met up with a bunch of students from my Latvian class and we went to hear the new hot band in Latvia at a place called the Soap Factory.

With that name I was expecting something much worse but it actually was the best concert venue I have been to in Latvia and even the bathrooms had toilet paper and doors that locked (which for me is very important). This is the second time I have seen the band Astro'n'out, the first time was acoustic, and I must say it was a very good concert (also the lead singer is a girl which is totally awesome). Their most popular song is about Riga and is kind of the ode to my year in Latvia.

When we went into the concert they said that we couldn't take photos...but of course I didn't listen. I took some with the flash off and then decided to chance it by taking one with the flash on. Then my friend Kristina wanted to take one with my camera and I said okay but if you get thrown out for taking the picture don't blame me....and sure enough about 30 seconds later a guard came right to our section and started yelling no pictures. I just told Kristina if he says anything to you just answer him in English like you don't understand. For once being a foreigner here might have actually helped us. Luckily he didn't see who took the photo so he couldn't do anything...still makes for a pretty exciting story though. Here are the pictures that almost got us thrown out of the concert.

My picture:

Kristina's picture:

Christmas Tree Lighting

Today I went to see the Christmas tree lighting ceremony in the town square. This event symbolizes the start of the Christmas season. This is especially significant in Riga because the first Christmas tree was rumored to have been light in this very spot in 1510. The ceremony was very short and included Santa, a band and some Latvian pyrotechnics. By Latvian pyrotechnics I mean that they didn't take into consideration the way the wind was blowing when they set them up because all the smoke from the fireworks blew right into the crowd. I don't think I have ever seen a crowd disperse that fast. Here are some pictures from this event (I am really trying to to work on my night photography so I apologize if they are a bit blurry).

The Latvian Pyrotechnics..it was hard to see let alone breathe
Santa Claus with the little kids:

The spot of the first Christmas tree
The light tree once the smoke had cleared:

Name's Days

Today is my host dad's name's day (and my dad's birthday which I always think is the 29th..so Happy Birthday). As I said in a previous post name's days are like birthdays in Latvia and everyone has one. Even if your name isn't Latvian there are name's days for unlisted names. My host dad explained to me that on name's day you don't invited people to come over to house to celebrate...they just do. So you must prepare food for an undisclosed number of people and hope that they show up otherwise you might be eating leftovers (which is hard because nothing in Latvia has preservatives so things go bad quickly). So last night my host dad asked if I wanted to come and see how they prepare trout and I was like sure. I was expecting some secret family recipe of herbs and seasoning.........instead I walked into the kitchen and a whole dead fish was staring back at me. It reminded me of all the dead fish I had to pick up while raking the shore when I was younger. Here is a picture just in case you don't believe me....let's just say there isn't a Latvian translation for "gross."


So I sat there and watched him take a whole fish apart. Let me just say that I heard crunching sounds that will give me nightmares for weeks to come. It was definitely an educational experience though I guess they use every part of the fish. They even take the stomach, head and backbone and make soup out of them. The only things they don't use are the gills and eyes...I told my host parents that more people in America would be vegetarians if they had to do this before eating fish. Then they asked "you like fish right?" and I said "I like fish sticks"....

Registering

After you get your Latvian residency permit you have to register your place of residence with the government. There are only five places in the whole country where you can register your place of residence and luckily the closest place to me was only a 15 minute walk from my house. I found the whole process of registering very weird. It is another remnant from Soviet times where citizens had to register their place of residence (even though in theory the place you lived was not really yours but property of the state anyway). I just find it quite scary to have the government know exactly where you live. On the other hand the University of Wisconsin-Eau Claire alumni association has been able to find me no matter where I live.....so it must not be that hard to locate people in US either, even without the registration process. It just kind of makes me wonder if the registration process is just an exercise in futility.....but then again I guess one could say that same thing about the Soviet Union.

Residency Permit

Its official I finally got my Latvian Residency Permit today after 91 days of being in the country (you are only allowed to stay visa free for 90 days and they can deport you after that). As many of you know I have put a lot of time and effort into this permit (which is actually just a sticker in my passport). After all the money and leg work Matt and I have put into this is, it actually feels very anticlimactic. But I feel like I should celebrate so I will be the American that I am and go to the mall.

Happy Thanksgiving

This week in my english class I tried to teach my students about Thanksgiving. We did the usual reading about the history of the day and learning about what we do in America and such. And then the speaking activity was to think about what you were thankful for and talk about it with a partner. I always know when they don't understand something cause they all sit silently and look at their papers. So I started giving examples of what I was thankful for like my family, the opportunity to live in Latvia and learn Latvian and so on. They still gave me puzzled looks and I said well aren't you glad that Latvia is independent and that you get to live in a free country. And they were like no that's fate...I guess I didn't think that trying to teach about being thankful about things was so hard. Finally after about 20 mins they admitted that they were thankful that they get to learn English for free and other things like that. It was just an interesting cultural experience and another lesson to add to the many I have learned about cultural differences.
Also speaking of thanksgiving one of the Fulbright professors and his wife hosted us for Thanksgiving dinner last night and it was so nice to chat with fellow Americans. I think its like therapy living abroad to share your cultural stories and mishaps with other people from your country who have had similar experiences. Still it was nice to get together with other people who understood the idea behind Thanksgiving!

Me and some of the women from my english class!

You hang up no you hang up....

You know those obnoxious people who won't hang up the phone when they are talking to their significant other and are like you hang up no you hang up...I guess I admit I have been guilty of it as well from time to time. Well that doesn't happen in Latvia in Latvia they can't get you off the phone fast enough and they practically hang up on you. They don't even say goodbye most times. In America usually we build up to it..like ok well talk to you later..or have a good day..in Latvia if you tried to say that the person has most likely already exited the conversation. Its probably cause mobile calls here are outrageously expensive and so people want to say what they need to say and get it over with. It reminds me of those cell phone commercials where they talk like they are in an auction to not use up their minutes except in Latvia instead of talking fast they just cut out the formalities of saying goodbye and hang up instead.

Three Prices

One thing that has always perturbed me on my trips to Europe is that they charge non-Europeans more to get into museums and other touristy things. I guess I don't understand it because in America we have the same price for everything no matter where you are from (except in and out of state tuition). Plus our national museums in DC are free.
In Latvia though they have three prices for almost everything. One for Latvians, one for Europeans and one for everyone else. My Latvian class for example cost twice as much for me as it did for everyone else cause I am from outside of Europe. Then when I got some documents notarized which is supposed to be a set price they charged me 10 times as much even though I only spoke in Latvian. So I thought it was funny when I went back to same place this week to get another thing notarized for my residency permit except this time instead of 10 lats I was charged one. I think this was because it was a Latvian document and last time they were documents in English. I just think its funny that even though the dollar is doing poorly they still assume we have so much money so we have to pay twice as much. After getting ripped off and charged more then everyone else it kind of makes you miss home where there are free refills and the price that it says is the price you pay even if you have a foreign accent.

Latvian Independence Day!

Today was Latvia's 89th Independence Day (of course it was interrupted by almost 50 years in the Soviet Union but I guess they just kept on counting). I went to the Latvian Military Parade which lasted about 20 mins and I couldn't get any good pictures cause there were so many people on the banks of the Daugava (the river that Riga was built around). Then I went to a true Latvian party where we sang folk songs and drank hot balsams (a really good Latvian drink with back current juice). Then we went to watch the fireworks which were pretty impressive (see picture above). They too were along the banks of the Daugava and light horizontally so they went along with the skyline of Riga. I only wish I was a bit closer!

Dinner Party German Style

Living in Latvia has really made me aware of all the little cultural differences you would never see just traveling through a country. For example on Saturday I was invited to a dinner party because my German friend Thomas (who lived across the hall from me in the Latvian dorms two summers ago) was in town. I was told the party would begin at 8:00 pm so I left the house at 8:00 pm and headed to the store to buy a bottle of wine. While I was at the store my other German friend Katja called me and said are you coming and I was like yeah just picking up a bottle of wine. This was about 8:20. Then she said why are you so late and I was like um you said 8:00 and I explained that in the US when someone says 8:00 you show up fashionably late like 30 mins and she was like well in Germany when we say 8:00 we mean 8:00. Needless to say I was 45 mins late to the party and had all the Germans there wondering how we accomplish anything in the US if we are all late to things. Just another, in a long list of lessons about cultural differences!

Martiņa Diena

Today was also Martiņa Diena which according to the Baltic Times is a "conglomeration of ancient pagan traditions surrounding the end of the harvest period and more modern Christian traditions brought by the Germans in the 16th and 17th centuries. Many of the customs of the holiday are similar to easily recognizable Halloween traditions. People dress in masks styled after animals and go door to door singing, dancing and begging for small gifts (St. Martin is considered the patron saint of beggars)." I went out to the Ethnographic Open Air Museum to see what kinds of festivities I could find and found that I was probably the oldest person there without children!

Some Latvian folk Dancing.
More folk dancing.
A guy in a wolf mask.
The ladies playing the music.

Lačplesa Diena

Today was Lačplesa Diena, Veterans Day, or the Day of Heroes in Latvia. I was actually on my way to another celebration when I happened upon a military parade at the Freedom Monument marking the 80th anniversary of the establishment of the Latvian army. Lačplesa Diena is the official date for commemoration of Latvian soldiers. On this date in 1919, the Latvian Army won a decisive breakthrough in the fighting against the Russian and German forces, which had taken up arms against the Republic of Latvia. The victory marked the conclusion of the Latvian War of Liberation (1918-1920) and allowed the work of creating the new state to begin.

The President Valdis Zatlers giving his Lačplesa Diena speech.
The soon to be ousted Prime Minister laying flowers at the Freedom Monument.
A bonfire on the shores of Daugava River.

People laying candles on the ancient city wall in commemoration of those that fought for Latvia.

Dear Ladies and Gentlemen...

Today I got to give a speech at the Parliament Building to the Committee on Equal Opportunities for Women and Men for the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe. At first when my boss asked me I was kind of like OK why me but then I realized it was because she would be out of town and I spoke the best English. Flattering right. I spoke on the contribution of civil society to the participation of women in politics. It was very exciting I got to have my speech translated into French and Latvian. Although I did hear some mistakes in the Latvian translation and thought about having one of those Condaliza Rice correcting moments but thought better of it. We had those microphones I always dreamed about in Model United Nations Club.....you hit a green button to talk and your microphone turns red. Kind of makes you wonder how politicians can leave them on and say inappropriate things so everyone can hear.

Directions Please....

I get asked directions all the time here in Latvia. I don't know if its because I look like a local (doubt it) or that I look like a nice person (probably more likely) or that I look very knowledgeable (I like to think its a combination of the three). Today I got asked directions in Russian. At first I gave them my I don't speak Russian phrase which I have memorized and perfectly conjugated but then I realized that I actually understood what they were asking me. It was one of those language moments that everyone who has studied a language is familiar with. What I like to call the light bulb moment when you can actually understand something in a foreign language. Except the thing is I haven't been studying Russian since I got here (only Latvian) but have managed to pick up a lot on the streets and TV. I guess this whole immersion thing has helped me with two languages instead of just one.

More Protests..but this time I was there!

Today I participated in the largest protest in Latvia since the independence movement. There were different reports about how many people there were but I would say between 7,000-9,000. Which is even more amazing considering it was freezing and that the snow eventually turned to rain. I really think it was a key moment in Latvian history and I was so happy to be able to be there to see it. I really love protests, to me that is democracy. People getting out on the streets and telling the government what they think. Again they were protesting the firing of the head of the Corruption Bureau and corruption within the government. The protest took place in Dome Square and here is picture I managed to take by holding my camera high above my head.

A Bad Latvian Week

I know that everyone who has lived on a foreign country has had a week like I just did. It was one of those weeks where everything goes wrong and you wish you had the comfort and for me the efficiency and customer service skills of home. I am having problems with my residency permit, got yelled at in the tram (thankfully they don't teach us much slang in Latvian class so I couldn't understand what she was saying to me), had bad cultural experiences with deadlines and people not observing them, got yelled at by a notary with about 10 people staring at me and probably thinking stupid foreigner as I was trying to convey what I needed. Lets just say it was just an all around bad week and I am glad its over! I just bought some Dr. Pepper soda and I am going to watch one of my movies and have a fun American night by myself away from all the scary yelling Latvians and hope that next week things will get better!

Babysitting

After reading the title I am sure more of you, as the insightful readers that you are, are going to think this story is about me taking care of a bunch of Latvian kids. The closest thing I have come to that is entertaining my professors kids at dinner last night. No this story has nothing to do with that.
I was walking down the street today when I saw outside of one of the expensive designer shops an equally posh baby carriage and inside was a little sleeping baby...where was its mother you ask? I assume that she was inside of the store shopping and left her baby outside in 10 degree weather (Celsius) by itself. Hopefully she put the wheel brake on!
I have actually seen this a couple times before today and it still baffles me. I mean you see kids walking around the streets by themselves at all hours of the day and night....when they should probably be in school and baby carriages left outside of shops. My American professor doesn't let her children cross the street by themselves and I really don't blame her. Its scary for me sometimes trying to navigate the cobblestones in ice with cars barreling down the streets at 50 mph. It all kind of makes you wonder are the parents in Latvia?

Protests in Riga

Of course it was just my luck that the one day I actually leave Riga the largest protest since independence was held. My host Mom even participated in the protest. How did all these people know there was going to be a protest? Well like in Soviet times when people wanted to announce a protest they published it in the evening newspaper. So key cultural and political figures wrote an open letter to the government. They said that they would participate in a protest the next day in front of the Saiema (the Latvian Parliament). Over 5,000 people answered the call packing the street of old town and making it difficult for the politicians to ignore them because they had to walk through a crowd of chanting people to get from their offices to the parliament building. They were protesting over the firing of the head of corruption bureau. Of course this story was not covered in the Western media but for more info about this please read The Baltic Times.

Ludza

This week I had the opportunity to go to Ludza in the eastern part of Latvia to conduct a seminar educating people on Human Trafficking. I had never been to Latgale (the eastern region of Latvia) before and jumped at the opportunity. Since the city was less than 30 kilometers from the Russian border we had a number of border guards and policemen and also people from NGOs. We taught them things like what is human trafficking, how to identify a victim, how people get trafficked and what is rehabilitation. It was very interesting to hear their perspectives and see what they could actually do to stop people from getting trafficked.
Here are some of the pictures from my trip



This is were we slept in Latvian they call it campings. It was actually really nice!
This is one of the presentations from the seminar. The arrows pointing to the Paldies (thank you in Latvian) show just how many opportunities there are to save someone from being trafficked.

The American Ambassador

I was invited to hear the United States Ambassador Catherine Todd Bailey speak at the University of Latvia. The speech was titled "Preserving Our Common Values" With a title like that I was expecting a light hearted comparison of Latvian and American values. Instead she basically tore Latvian politics to shreds and stopped just short of saying that the government is corrupt. It was very interesting and something that made headlines here and really pissed some people off.

It's just fish....

Last night my host parents had a couple of their friends over to the house. I was reading in my room and my host dad asked if I would like to join them. They handed me a bunch of food and I started eating. As I was eating I looked more closely at what I was eating and realized that it was cooked mushrooms....so it turns out that I finally ate Latvian mushrooms and I must admit they were not at all that bad.
But the story does not end there. Then they started passing around some appetizers. When then finally got to me I looked down and realized what they were about to eat. My host mom was like do you know what that is and unfortunately I did know. As I wrote before I always learn the words for food I do not like and this word was right up there with the mushrooms....it was eel. My host mom was like don't you want to try some it is a delicacy in Latvia........and she added it costs a lot of money. I sucked it up and took one cut it into three pieces and hoped for the best. As I ate it with all of the people in the room watching me, I thought this is why people travel to other countries, to learn and try new things......and it turns out eel did taste a lot like fish.

The Third German Invasion

One of my Political Science Professors made an off hand comment that has really stuck with me since. We were going around the class and saying where we were from and what we study. In a class of 15 of us, 11 were German and she said it is the Third German Invasion. The Germans invaded and subsequently ruled the Baltic States for over 700 years, and then the Nazis came back in World War II (with ironically many of the Baltic Germans who left or were called back during the interwar period and were hoping to reclaim their land).
The thing is that professor was completely correct. It seems wherever I go in old town there is a German tourist group and in my classes most of the students are German. I guess in Germany it must be cool to study the Baltic States. Also when you look at the sky line of Riga it looks like it could be a city in Germany and Riga has one of the largest concentrations of Art Nouveau (Jugendstil) Architecture in the world. Additionally my host mom told me that during Soviet times people were encouraged to learn German instead of English (which is why she speaks German instead of English). So Latvia really is a perfect place for Germans to vacation. It looks just like Germany, they are not seen as occupiers (the Latvians have the Russians for that) and lots of people speak German. So if any of you want to visit Germany but don't want to pay the high prices or the horrible exchange rates (Latvia does not have the Euro yet) consider coming to Latvia where it feels like Germany but with 50 years of Soviet Occupation!

Latvian Malls

I am always amazed when I walk around Riga how they take things from Soviet times and transform them to fit in present day Latvia. For example the Occupation Museum was during Soviet times, the Museum to the Red Riflemen, a Latvian battalion that fought to defend Lenin during the Russian Revolution (which is the short version of the story for a more complete version see here). After independence the building was vacant and there was talk that they should just tear it down. Instead some American Latvians bought the building and turned it into a museum chronicling the Occupation of Latvia. Then I learned that most of the shopping malls in Riga were old Soviet factories. Domina mall was once VEF Domina a factory where electronic radios were made for the entire USSR. So it seems that the remnants of communism that most people see around Riga are the exact opposite of what they were during Soviet times. Factories displaying the industrial strength of the workers paradise in Soviet times are now capitalist malls where people can pay too much for designer clothing from all around the world. I am not sure they did this on purpose but they definitely made good use out of a bunch of vacant buildings and turned them into things the Soviets would have despised.

Why Latvian?

Ever since I started studying Latvian, people have always asked me why would do you study Latvia? Its a small country of little to no importance to which I have no family ties. My brother posted an interesting article that I thought I should share with you all. He found it in BusinessWeek and it says that the demand for translations into Latvian grew faster than any other translation request over the last year. I finally feel justified in my decision..and dedicate this blog post to all those people who thought what in the world are you going to do with Latvian? Thanks Mike for showing me that my Latvian skills are marketable at last!

Happy Birthday?!

I am not sure if I have explained previously on my blog that in addition to my research I am also volunteering at a women's non-governmental organization called Marta while I am in Latvia. I help out with human trafficking research (which is my research topic), translations, and teach an English circle.
Yesterday I was at work preparing for my first English conversation circle when they came and told me it was someones birthday today and that we were going to sing to them. I followed everyone else downstairs to the kitchen where there was a huge birthday food extravaganza. We sang Happy Birthday (thank you Latvian Saturday school for teaching me the Latvian birthday song, everyone was impressed..not with my singing but with the fact that I knew the words) and everyone started to eat.
I then asked one of my co-workers who made all this food and she said the birthday girl did. And I said she made all this food for HER birthday celebration and she was like yeah duh. I guess in Latvia you celebrate your birthday by slaving over the stove and making food for everyone you know and even people you don't (I was introduced to her yesterday).
I remember as a kid always being sad that my birthday was in the summer and how it was always lumped in with all the other summer birthdays. Well not anymore...I guess birthdays in Latvia are happy for everyone but the birthday girl!

Chivalry is not dead!

Last night was my American-Latvian friends' last night in Riga so we went out to celebrate. At the end of the night we were walking home with one her Latvian male friends when I said OK we are two blocks away from my house I will see you later. Her friend was like no you can't walk by yourself and I thought well I am an independent American women yes I can walk the two blocks to my house. However he insisted and I finally gave up my feminist notions and let them walk me two blocks out of their way to my house. Then when we were across the street I thanked them for walking me home and said I can take it from here. We said our goodbyes and I crossed the street. As I punched the code to my building I looked back and noticed that they were still standing there. Apparently he needed to make sure I reached my door safely. I thought this story was funny because an American guy would never do that but yet all these Latvian women are looking to marry rich foreigners. So Ladies if you are looking for men to hold open doors for you and walk you home Latvia is the place for you!

Mikelis Diena

In Latvia almost everyone has a Name's Day, which in many cases is considered bigger than your birthday. Today was Mikelis Diena, the final day of a three day festival concluding the harvest season. The last day of the celebration is the market day when all the craftsmen and farmers bring their goods to town to sell in a huge market. It was also the day that men were supposed to propose in Latvia but I didn't see any of that. Here are some pictures from the celebration!

Folk Dancing in Dome Square

Fruits of the Harvest

More Folk Dancing

The Festival concludes with a feast where chicken is the main course. I don't think anyone told him that!

Swedish Adventures

I sailed to Stockholm, Sweden with two of my American-Latvian friends this past week. It was the first time I have really traveled since I got to Latvia and it was a fun adventure. We sailed from Riga at 5 pm on Tuesday reached Stockholm at 9 the next morning, toured the city and sailed back that night coming into to Riga around 11 on Thursday. It was a very fun trip and nice because previously all I had seen of Sweden was the airport. Here are some of my pictures from our Swedish Adventures.

The Swedish Royal Palace
The Harbor

The Changing of the Guard

The Swedish Parliament

The three of us the morning after with the boat we took in the background

The Dogs of Riga

Today I went with my American-Latvian friends to the Brāļu kapi (The Brother's Cemetery). I like to call it the Arlington of Latvia and it is one of my most favorite places in all of Latvia. It's a cemetery built during the interwar period to commemorate all the fallen soldiers during the World War I and the War for Independence. We went early in the evening before dusk, and we were asked why we were going to the cemetery in the afternoon. I guess Latvians only go to cemeteries in the morning. We were really the only ones there except for a grounds keeper and some Russians who apparently didn't know the Latvian rules about cemetery visits. As we made our way to the grave of Janis Cakste, the first Latvian President (which is actually located in the Meza Kapi cemetery) the sun had set and there were three seemingly wild dogs sort of guarding the grave. You never really know if the dogs here have owners, the other day I saw an owner put the leash in his dogs mouth so the dog could walk itself.

OK back to my story......As we approached the grave I started to tell my friends the story of how during Soviet times this grave became a pilgrimage site in Latvia. People would come to lay flowers and remember the freedom they had during the interwar period. The KGB of course didn't like this so they posted a guard for the grave to keep track of people who visited who visited. In the Occupation Museum they even have a KGB picture, taken from the archives, of a KGB guard and people walking past. We tried to take pictures of the dogs at the grave but none of them turned out....It was all very creepy. We were thinking that maybe the dogs are ghosts of the former KGB officers who used to guard the grave! On a side note The Dogs of Riga is also the title of a book I bought in Sweden by Kurt Wallander, a famous Swedish crime writer, I of course knew nothing about.

Look into my eyes.....

On Thursday night I went out with one of my American friends, a couple of her Latvian relatives and a new Canadian friend. We went to this bar and the Latvians started pounding down drinks.....After about five (on their end not mine) they started proposing toasts and cheersing. The word for cheers in Latvian is prieka just in case you wanted to know. So we did the first toast and one of the Latvians was like no no we have to do it again and the native English speakers were like why....he said because you didn't look into my eyes. We were like OK. So we tried it again and he was like no no you did it wrong again.
I guess in Latvia when you cheers with someone you must look deep into their eyes and only break the uncomfortable stare when you have finished your drink. When I asked why they said that is just the way it is done....Its just very weird because on the streets and trams no one looks each other in the eye. So I guess the only place in Latvian culture where it is acceptable to look into someone's eyes is when you are drinking....

Latvian Stalking

I have noticed walking around the streets of Riga that people really don't like it when you follow them. Probably just another remnant from communist times, but still its pretty funny. Today I was walking behind this women and she started nervously looking around for about a half a block and then suddenly stopped short and moved to the curb, probably to see if I would stop as well. It is just really interesting because the concept of personal space here and in Europe is very different from America. I mean people stand uncomfortably close to you everywhere on the tram, in the grocery store, even on the street but if you follow them even at a distance they freak out. This incident made me realize two things 1) I would make a horrible spy and 2) Stalking someone in Latvia is frowned upon but invading their personal space everywhere else is just another fact of life.

Happily Ever After

I went to a play at the National Theatre last night. It was a Latvian comedy which normally implies that someone will die or be committing suicide.....but it was a nice surprise to find that it was actually funny. Of course in true Latvian fashion the ending was unclear and so the audience in kept wondering if they eventually get together. There is no "happily ever after" in Latvian drama but the song "Mama Mia" by ABBA was playing in the background so all seemed right with the world. The weird thing for me was that at the end of the play everyone was clapping in unison. I don't know if this is a result of communist times where even clapping was not an individual activity but it was very weird.

Then, on our way home my friend and I were standing at a street corner waiting to cross when this ambulance (without its lights on) came barreling down the street. Let me sidetrack here to say that the streets and sidewalks here are riddled with pot holes and after it rains (which it did yesterday) walking around the city is like trying to navigate a mine field.

Okay, back to the story so we were standing there and this ambulance was probably going about 50 mph down the street and I pulled my friend back a little in an attempt to try and stay away from the splash. Then the ambulance hit a huge pot hole and sprayed both of us...we're talking full on movie splash drenching us both from head to toe. Except in the movies its not nasty, grey, exhaust smelling water and the people are so in love they don't even notice it. Let me tell you we noticed it all right. I can still smell the putrid water on my jacket. I guess real life isn't really like the movies, instead its more like a Latvian drama with no happily ever after!

Hardship Pay

I know that I have been slightly "wussified" by living in Seattle for three years. The weather there is really mild and rarely gets below freezing. Since I have arrived in Latvia I have been really cold. So cold that I even went and bought gloves with the fingers tips missing to keep my hands slightly warmer when I am reading. A

t first I thought it was just me and that I have to suck it up because I am from MN. Then someone told me that they don't turn the heat on in the entire city until October 1 every year. So even if its freezing out you can't turn up the heat because there is none until October 1. I think they must do this to save money or maybe because they want everyone to build up their fat reserves for the winter. So now I don't feel so bad that I am cold because no one in the entire city or maybe the whole country has heat. I guess we all will need to just suck it up until October 1........14 days and counting.

On a side note they are also shutting off the hot water on our entire block for a week because of some building construction on the block. So everyone on my block will be smelling worse than usual for the next week. When I asked my host Mom about it she just said yeah that's normal (which is what people usually tell me when I ask them about weird things that I don't understand as a foreigner). So I won't have heat or hot water until almost October 1...is this why US embassy workers in Latvia get hardship pay?

New York Sale

Stockmanns is a big store located in the Center of Riga. It has tons of designer clothes and the most western food in the country. I went there yesterday to look for peanut butter and they were having a New York Sale. This picture shows what Latvians view New York or American food to be like...a bunch of junk food. I just thought it was really funny plus everything was really expensive so I don't know how Latvians could afford to eat it anyway.

Mushrooming

As many of you probably know I really hate mushrooms. I think they are gross mold and fungus that grows out of the ground and looks like a slug. While traveling I make it a point to know the words for food I don't like in as many languages as possible. I seriously know how to say mushroom in 10 different languages (well a bunch of them are the same word champinon but whose counting really). So you imagine my reaction when my host family got back from the country and told me they have a surprise. They led me into the kitchen where I discovered to my horror, bushels and bushels of mushrooms. They had gone mushrooming this weekend (there is even a verb for it in Latvian senot- to mushroom) and brought back all sorts of different kinds for me to try. I really haven't figured out how to politely decline them when they give me food. I don't want to be rude and I am a really picky eater. I have managed to avoid eating them thus far but have realized that I either need to say I don't like them or suck it up and eat them. I will let you know which one I decide to do but knowing my passive aggressive nature it will most likely be the latter.

Bluetooth Crazies

Did anyone see that Keystone beer commercial where it seems like this cute girl is talking to this guy getting a beer but she is really on her bluetooth? (If you missed it here it is) The guy thinks that she is hitting on him and he starts talking to her and she's like um hold on a sec.....AKVARDS. That is my Latvianized word for awkward because the word doesn't exist in the Latvian language. (They also don't have a word for fun either which I think might say a lot about their culture). Anyways I have kind of gotten used to what I think is people talking to themselves in US especially in Seattle where there are lots of crazies. But in Latvia that technology doesn't exist (or at least people don't really use it) so today as I was walking on the street and saw a perfectly normal looking girl talking to herself and thought nothing of it. This is what happens when you live in Seattle for three years and get used to all sorts of people talking to themselves...so I guess the moral of the story is there are crazy people everywhere you just have to open your ears and eyes to see them!

The President

I have seen two US presidents in my lifetime. Of course by see I mean spotted Bill Clinton on the street in Seattle and glimpsed George Bush getting on a plane in Eau Claire. So I was happy to find out that the President of Latvia Valdis Zatlers was going to be speaking at the second day on the mass media conference I was attending. I then conveyed this excitement to both my host parents and one of my political science professors and received a lukewarm responses followed snide comments. As it turns out I think I was one of the only people at the conference excited about hearing him speak (I forgot my camera otherwise I would show you pictures). People in Latvia are just not excited about the new president and I feel kind of sorry for him. Standing up there speaking I felt he looked like one of the puppet politicians that the Soviets installed all over Eastern Europe to help take over governments, unheard of people with little to nothing interesting to say and less interest in actually doing anything productive. Maybe the people of Latvia were just too excited about the former President Vaira Vike-Freiberga and no one could possibly live up to their expectations. So from now on the position of president will be looked upon with ridicule and humor instead of respect and admiration as it was under Vaira Vike-Freiberga. Maybe that's how a country truly knows it has entered the west, boring ineffective politicians.
Here is an article by my political science professor which explains the Zalters and the Latvian presidency in more detail posted by the American Latvian Association.

Work Days

For most of this week my host parents go to work around 8:00 am and come back around 8:00 p.m. It got me to thinking man they work long hours in Latvia. So I asked my host mom why she worked such long hours. And she said that during communist times that long of a work day was standard....but now she usually goes to the gym after work! I thought that was pretty funny and is a great example of just how far Latvia has come since the fall of communism in 1991.

MANGO

Since I arrived in Latvia I have been kind of trying to avoid speaking Latvian. It makes me nervous and people always know I am foreigner because of my accent and so on. Last night I was telling Matt this and he yelled "Going to MANGO isnt going to make you learn Latvian!" Because I went shopping with one of my American friends rather than studying or speaking Latvian. So today I went to a conference on the mass media in Latvia (which was in Latvian) and even talked to a former member of parliament in Latvian. Sometimes its nice to have someone to remind of the great opportunity I have by being here and that I better make the most of my time here. Thanks Matt for making me appreciate it all!

CCCP

I will never understand why people think its cool to wear and sell CCCP clothing. CCCP stands for the Soyuz Sovietskikh Sotsialistichieskikh Riespublik or Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR). I see it all over Riga, people are wearing it they sell it in stores.....but I just don't get it. I mean you don't see people walking around Germany with giant swastikas and Nazi paraphernalia probably because its illegal there but still. So why is it ok to wear clothing from the "Evil Empire" here? Maybe its because Riga is only 40 percent Latvian or because there is an entire new generation here that never lived under communism. Or maybe I am just getting old and my realization that its not cool to wear clothing from a government that killed and deported millions of people, confirms that I am totally clueless as to whats cool with the kids in Latvia.

Pimp My Ride International

I have been watching a lot of mtv.lv lately since it is one of only three channels I get in English (cartoon network and BBC are the other two). Plus it is subtitled in Latvian so along with being able to understand everything I get to read it in Latvian and learn helpful slang swear words that we never learned in Latvian class!
Yesterday I watched Pimp My Ride International .....yes pimp my ride has gone worldwide. (I guess I didn't know if was that popular of a show since I don't have MTV in the US.) The first episode was the pimping of Marek's trabant in rural Poland. You can watch the preview on the following site http://comps.mtv.co.uk/pimp/flash/site.jhtml and let me just say it is so hilarious. The grandma does a little dance when he brings the car home and the only words they can say in English are WOW and their accents are very Borat-esque. One thing that has always puzzled me about the show is that they pimp the ride with all this expensive and cool stuff but don't tell us if they install an alarm system. Which when you see him driving down a road in rural Poland you truly wonder how long that car will look like that even with an alarm system. Clearly Pimp My Ride hasn't taken the remnants of communism and poverty into consideration as they launch their world wide pimpathon!

The Invasion

So I went to see Harry Potter yesterday at the Coca Cola Plaza in Riga. One thing I have always noticed about going to movies is that me and the Americans that I go with are usually the only ones laughing at jokes. At first I thought it was because the subtitles didn't convey the joke effectively. But then walking around the streets and interacting with people I have noticed that I smile more than the average person here. And then I was standing in a group of people and I laughed and everyone turned and looked at me like what is wrong with that girl.

I felt like I was Nicole Kidman in her new movie The Invasion (of which I have only seen the preview). In the movie she cant show any emotion because otherwise the Aliens will know she is not one of them and take over her body. That is kind of how I feel living here in Latvia. If you smile at people and say please and thank you they know you are a foreigner and so to blend in you must show no emotion!

September 1

My American Latvian friend Monika who I met yesterday in a fit of homesickness told me something I couldn't believe (I am still awaiting a real confirmation of this fact). She said that Latvian school children always start school on September 1. Even if that day happens to be a weekend its a tradition (maybe from Soviet times) that school starts on the first. So while you are all enjoying your Saturday morning sleeping in please think of the poor schoolchildren in Latvia who had to get out of bed on a Saturday to start school today. Of course they have Sunday off and then have to return back from school on Monday then I asked her what happens if September 1 is a Sunday and she said I am not sure and neither am I.

Garbage trucks

So I like to think after studying Latvia for going on eight years and having lived here numerous times that I know a lot about the country. That was until yesterday when my host dad came to me and said Laura I have a job for you.... and being the good American worker that I am I jumped at the chance.

So he walks over to the window and points down to the street below. You see that barber shop or beauty salon (dependent on your translation). I said yeah. At 8:00 pm precisely you must take the garbage down and wait in front of that shop. I said ok then what. Then a garbage truck will pull up and you must throw the garbage into the back of the truck! I was secretly thinking don't you have a dumpster or something to just throw it in? But no the people of this advanced European Union city have a specific time every day that the garbage truck comes... slows to a somewhat stop and hurl all the garbage they have into a truck hoping not to miss or hit one of the fellow garbage throwers in the process. Of course if you miss the truck you must wait until the next night and let your smelly garbage sit in your apartment.

Its all very interesting and just goes to show you even when you think you know a lot about a country you are continually surprised by its quirks on a day to day basis. As as result I have two words about the garbage industry in Latvia privatization!

Arrival

I arrived in Latvia safe and somewhat sound after my flight over the Atlantic. As I get older jet lag is harder to deal with so I am getting up at 5:00 am every day. My host families apartment is right in the center of Riga and perfectly situated between the university and the NGO I will be working at. I am excited to be here and still a little nervous about speaking Latvian but as my host brother said I can get my point across so I guess that's what really matters and the rest will come with time and studying!