Snow, snow, snow

Yes it is snowing, and snowing and snowing. Oh how I enjoy snow but it is a pain to walk in. I didn't have to do that in Kansas. It is nice though to not worry about getting into any car accidents. No car, no accidents. :) I did, however, get splashed again by a car driving by. I was walking along, very far away from the curb, when a car comes zooming by. As it does, it picks up slush from the dirty ground and throws it at me. I thought I was getting pelted by snowballs. I had slush on my jacket and pants. It was a good thing I wasn't wearing work clothes. I was just meeting Marta for a winter walk and drinks later. This turned out to be a very windy snowy day, but good because we were able to get outside. We took some pictures. It is still snowing and I'm not sure when it will stop.

Freedom

You will never guess what I had to do this past Saturday. I had to go to school. That's right, school on a Saturday. Not such a nice idea. We got Monday off before their Independence Day so we had to make up for the missing school day on Saturday. The English Department decided to have students put together performances that expresses some kind of freedom. The teachers read from a Dr. Seuss book, Oh The Places You Go, and others did videos and skits. The kids enjoyed this two period performance, probably because they got to miss some classes. :)

Independence Day! 90 years

So this past weekend Latvia celebrated it's independence for 90 years and what an incredible struggle. With all that this county and its people hard to endure, it is quite special to be here today and know about all that they have been through. Needless to say, Latvians are very proud to be who they are and to live where they do. I can't blame them.

The festivites start early on in the week. Many concerts and mini celebrations are happening all around. They have a light show in certain areas of Riga where there are displays of lights and shapes on buildings and in parks. It was quite lovely to see. I met Marta and helped cook some bacon rolls. They were quite delicious and I had one too many. So did Ilze. By the end of the night we had small stomachaches. It was worth it though. Those tasty treats were pretty good. Hopefully, I'll be able to make them when I get home. Poor Justin. He will have to try all of my Latvian cooking. :)

The biggest moment of the evening was going out to see the fireworks. Before they started we watched the President of Latvia, Estonia, and Lithuania speak. We headed out into the most crowded area I have ever been in. I was linked to Mart and Ilze as we were walking past everyone. Eventually it became more dense and harder to see. It already doesn't help being so short. As we are going along people are pushing and trying to get through Marta, Ilze and my chain. I was not letting go! The pushiest of them all were the old ladies. I have never seen so many of them with such... I don't even know what to call it. :) At one point, I felt like I was being swallowed. It was pretty bad. We finally reached the fireworks, and they were okay. The cool part was the fact that it was to shown to music. It was nice.

Enjoy the pics. My Picasa Web Album is located under September.

Stereotypes

Okay. I thought it would be funny and interesting to hear what this country (my students in particular) thinks about America/Americans. Feel free to comment. My students have my blog site as well so it would be good for them to see how you guys react to their opinions. :) Be insightful and respectful. This is a good way to learn about one another.

1. We are a fat country (that came to me as no surprise)

2. We eat fastfood all the time

3. We like big things (big cars, big houses, etc)

4. Life in a normal high school is like the movies, even the parties. (I wish)

5. We have a lot of pride for our country.

6. We are not as well educated as the rest of the world.

I can't remember anymore. I will add them as I go.

Nicholas' Visit

Nicholas' visit was very nice. We took in the weekend in a very laid back way. We always woke up when we wanted, and I was able to see some things that I hadn't seen while I've been here. Unfortuneatly we were surrounded by not so good weather. It just isn't the best time of year to visit Latvia.
On the very last day, Nicholas saw how small this city was. We both ran into a friend of mine on our way to Jurmala. Jurmala was windy and cold but there is some pretty good seafood there. :) When we arrived back into Riga we decided to see Quantum of Solace at the cinema. On our way there we ran into a family that I had met a week ago. (I have a small tutoring job for a few months because of this small meeting) and on our way home we ran into the same friend that we ran into before leaving for Jurmala. It was the first time that has happened to me too so it was kind of funny.
Earlier in the weekend we had the pleasure of my friend Marta to keep us entertained. She makes the most wonderful food. She will be missed when she leaves to go back to the states in a few weeks.
We did a lot of walking around in the city and enjoying the view. It was a good time with an old friend.

Visitors

Kelli's visit was great! We explored Riga and even went to Tallinn with Tom, the other Fulbrighter. Kelli said very simply while we were walking home from the Sky bar for my birthday, "So, this is how Rose lives her life." Well, maybe those aren't the exact words, but I'm sure it went something like that. I think out of the few days she was here, we had not too bad of weather. Some were rainy and others were cloudy. I can't remember if any of them were sunny. That is life in Latvia. Hopefully the sun will shine more while I'm here. :) "Yeah right", is what the natives are saying as they are reading this.
Not too much happened as far as out-of-the-ordinary goes. Kelli, correct me if I'm wrong and add a comment.
We left very early to fly to Barcelona. Thanks to my good friend Marta, we had no worries getting to the airport. We had a great time. Again lots of rain, but God blessed us with one sunny day. It just so happened that on that day we walked along the beach. We tried some sangrias. The first time was yuck, but the second time Kelli tried and it was better. I had a freshly squeezed orange juice. It was quite tasty. We went to eat out A LOT during her stay but we were able to taste good meals and okay meals. On our last night in Barcelona, we happened to meet a nice guy in the restaurant from Wisconsin. He is now a facebook friend. We chatted for a while and decided to grab some more drinks. Needless to say, we consumed enough, especially for having two hours of sleep before having to leave for the airport the next day. I was tired! When I finally arrived in Munich to catch my connecting flight, I heard Latvian being spoken by some teenagers. Finally a language I recognize but still don't understand. I was finally going "home".
So overall, a very good visit from Kelli. Next... Nicholas' visit from France. He is still here so I will write about that experience as soon as he leaves. (So far, so good) Seeing a lot of things that I haven't seen yet. This is why visitors are good to have.

One last thing about the closing of Barcelona trip...Like I said earlier we had to get up pretty early the day of our flight; I forgot to mention our cab fare when we arrived at the airport. It was a total of 48 euros. That is quite a bit of money and Kelli and I didn't have that much. I recall only having a total of 41 euros so we were off by 10 dollars or so. Luckily, the cab driver always wanted to visit America and wanted a dollar bill to compensate for the missing amount. Kelli gave him a dollar and I added 5 more because it wasn't even close to being the total bill. Everything was fine after that. So the moral of the lesson, don't leave home without the dollar. It may be worth more than you think. :)

10th graders

What a fun evening! This is a tradition at Gymnasium #1 for the 10 graders. Every year, each class gets together and puts on a performance for the rest of their classmates that they don't know. Here in Latvia, the students move from class to class and year to year with one another. They get to know each other very well but don't have much friends outside of their own class. They put together this evening to specifically target that. After their class performances they are broken up into different groups that consist of students from other teams. They then travel to a new room and there 11th and 12th graders set up something for the kids to participate in. One room was midget football. Another room was dark where the kids had to find a key and it's briefcase. The next room, kids had to make up a classmate in to a famous person. Another room had students connect clothing to reach opposite sides of the walls. I had to leave this one because it was not good to see my students with their clothes off. It's a bit weird. :)

After all the activities are completed they gather again and listen to a band that wraps up the evening. It was a good time and the students really seemed to enjoy it.

Enjoy the pictures that are on my web album.