My Police Visit

Those of you who think that this blog entry will be about getting arrested are going to be terribly disappointed......

I have been trying to get an interview with the head of the Human Trafficking Unit at the State Police since November. Finally I just decided to e-mail again and in true Latvian fashion he said is tomorrow OK and gave me the address of his office. Thats when I realized that the interview was going to take place in the former KGB Headquarters that is now a Police Station on Stabu iela in Riga. The building hasn't been refurbished at all and I learned through the course of the interview that they were actually moving out at the end of the month because the building that used to be a hotel during independent Latvia was being given back to its previous owners. It was truly eerie walking around in a building that so many people had been killed or murdered in. As I sat in his soundproof office I kept thinking that the faded paint spot on the wall might have held a picture of Lenin and that the office I was sitting in was probably used to question enemies of the state. I really think that they should turn the building, at least the bottom floors, into a museum honoring those that died..but of course it will just probably lie vacant because who would want to live in the former KGB headquarters anyways.

The Memorial to the Victims of Communism on Stabu iela

Daugavpils

When I have mentioned traveling to Daugavpils, Latvia's second largest city close to the Russian border, most people have told me to not even bother. Even one of my guide books said there is little to see there and we wouldn't recommend it. After spending the day there I seriously wonder if any of these people have actually been to Daugavpils. We took the train there yesterday for a day trip and it was a very pleasant and interesting city. I think its kind of sad that people make it out to be horrible, full of factories and economic depression because people there were nothing but nice to us and there were enough touristy things to keep us busy all day. It was actually very funny because going there felt like a different world, like we were in a foreign country but not really, all the street signs were in Latvian but everyone spoke Russian. Still we never had significant problems communicating with people and they were really excited to have tourists in their city. Here are some of the pictures from my adventures.

Alexander Nevsky Orthodox Church
Soviet World War II Memorial (that wasn't identified on my map)
The entrance to the fortress
The fortress used to be a Soviet Union Army base and the remnants of communism are still visible. People actually live in the old barracks of the fortress (we saw kids playing behind this gate).
Me and the Cathedral of Boris and Glyeb. We actually went and watched the end of the Easter service which is the most sacred holiday of the year in the Eastern Orthodox church.
Jill and I on the train ride home.

The Circus

We went the circus on Friday night and a truly horrifying and awkward experience. The arena smelled like animal urine and looked like it was from Soviet times. Also most of the performers were Russian and the talking was in Russian so I couldn't understand anything. The safety equipment was on par with Latvian standards (meaning there was little to none) so I kept thinking that people were going fall down from the trapeze with the greatest of ease. The poor bears looked like they needed to eat something and they had this plus 60 year old clown that was really not funny (maybe if I could have understood what he was saying it would have been more entertaining). All in all it was an interesting cultural experience..to say the least.

The Acrobats
The Bears

My Bart Simpson Moment

My friend Monika (who majored in Linguistics in college) and I have been talking about the meaning of language lately. When I first got here and I really wanted to say thank you to someone I would always say paldies (the Latvian word for thank you) and then say thank you so much. This is because the word didn't really thank you to me..and now it does..its very weird to have that kind of language transformation.

But what I am really waiting for is what I like to call my Bart Simpson moment. There are only two Simpson's episodes that I can recall with clarity, one is the episode where Bart participates in a Model UN conference and then other is when he is an exchange student in France. In this episode he lives with a French family that makes him do a lot of work, sleep in the barn and yells at him in French. They end being corrupt and when Bart goes to town he seeks the help of a French policeman and when the policeman cannot understand Bart's English, a frustrated Bart walks away and rants about how stupid he is for having not learned French, when all the sudden he starts speaking in French. He hurries back to the policeman and explains his situation in French the corrupt Frenchmen are arrested and everyone lives happily ever after. I have studies Latvian for going on five years now and still have difficulty speaking (its the last piece of the language acquisition puzzle). I mean I can communicate just fine but in my classes and at meetings when I try to articilate my ideas in coherent sentences they always come out like I am a five year old. Its just frustrating sometimes when you realize just how difficult it is to learn another language..So I guess I am still waiting for my Bart Simpson moment with only 90 days left I hope it comes soon!

Koknese

On Sunday my North American friends and I went to Koknese.....a small city on the Daugava River not visited by many tourists. These castle ruins are not particularly important unless you have read the Latvian national epic. The castle is considered to be home of Laimdota, the true love of the Latvian epic hero Lačplesis and seemingly rises from the water (actually the reason it now sits on the water is because the Soviets built a dam up stream which flooded the whole are around the castle). Here are some of the pictures from my adventures.

This is the church that let us the Minister's bathroom...where we met the minister and then felt inclined to attend mass. Afterwards we climbed up to the top of the church steeple.
The castle ruins built in the 13th century, but like all the castles in Latvia the was destroyed during the Great Northern War in the 1700s.

Me and the ruins looking out on the Daugava.
This picture actually isn't mine but you can see how the castle ruins rise from the water (we didn't have enough time to walk around to other side and take a picture).

Flowers

Latvians are perpetual flower givers....they give flowers for every occasion and even have a 24 hour flower market just in case you need emergency flowers at 3 am. At my Name's Day party I received a number of very nice flowers, and the bouquets seem to be growing every day as more and more people give me flowers. Its funny because I always tell Matt not to waste his money on buying me flowers because they just die but for some reason in Latvia is seems very special. Maybe this is because its part of the culture or because you can actually buy flowers here at a reasonable price. Latvians even have cultural faux pas concerning the giving of flowers. For example you can never give an even number of flowers, as it is considered to be a sign of bad luck. You only give an even number for funerals and in sympathy bouquets. Also you never give red roses to someone (especially if you are a man) unless you are interested in them romantically (one of my professors had the unfortunate experience of making this mistake at a colleagues dinner party and the man thought he was making a pass at his wife). Also think twice before giving yellow flowers to someone you love as for some people they symbolize decrease of love and jealousy.

My Name's Day Flowers

My Name's Day

April 18th is my Latvian Name's Day and I had a bunch of my close friends over with my parents to celebrate. As I have written here before when it is your name's day in Latvia you make food and provide alcohol for the party...there are no potlucks here! So my friend Monika and I spent the whole day slaving away in the kitchen making all sorts of American and Latvian treats. By the time the party arrived I wanted to take a nap! I don't know how people can entertain all the time its exhausting. But in the end the party was great and a real America meets Latvia theme with Rice Krispie Bars and Piragi. Here is a picture of my friends singing Latvian folk songs with my Latvian Karaoke DVD.

Simone de Beauvoir

To my astonishment there was a feminist conference on Simone de Beauvoir held at the University of Latvia this weekend. There were some very famous feminist scholars from France there, along with the few Latvian academics who are not afraid to call themselves a feminist. (When I tell people here that I am a feminist they look at me like I have a contagious disease that might spread to them and then slowly back away). The conference itself was very interesting and it gave me the chance to meet and speak with a number of people on my interview list.

But that isn't even the most exciting part. I was chatting with the head of the Gender Studies Centre (in English) and a woman came up and starting talking with her in Latvian. Then she turned to me and said (in Latvian) Laura this is Laima Muktupavela. I seriously couldn't believe it because this woman is my second favorite Latvian author (the other one is Aspazija and she died in 1943). It was like meeting the John Grisham of Latvia (in level of fame not type of content). Then I told her (in horribly nervous Latvian) that I read her book at my university in the US and that it was one of my favorites, that I even just saw the play based on her book a couple of weeks ago and that I had just read the story about her in this Latvian magazine. She probably thought I was a total dork but I seriously couldn't believe I was meeting someone I admired so much.

This is one of the reasons that I love studying Latvia because in a small country like this it is possible to just randomly be introduced to people like this and it happens all the time. If I studied Spain or Russia this type of thing would never happen but in Latvia people are genuinely interested in what I am doing and helping me succeed.

Anna Karenina

Last night I went and saw Anna Karenina the ballet at the National Opera House. I ended up skipping class to go and couldn't find anyone to go with me so I just went by myself. The tickets cost $10.00 (this includes the $4.00 I spent on the program) and it was fabulous. This is one of my most favorite books and to see it in my favorite form of artistic expression was very cool. It was kind a postmodern take on the story but the pure emotion of the story and the tragic ending was extraordinary. Just in case you haven't read it I will not ruin the ending as an episode of Jeopardy did for me! This was one of the best ballets I have ever seen and what is even more amazing was how little it cost me. That is one thing I love about living in Latvia, that I can see world class ballet and opera for a fraction of the price in a historic European setting. It truly makes the experience of living here a once in a lifetime opportunity!