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!