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: