Crepe-tastic evening!

As much as I love singing in a formal way, jamming at the bar, with an audience, there is something so much more natural and rewarding when a group of friends comes together and breaks into song in the middle of making dinner!

This weekend I invited a few girl friends over to eat crepes in all possible combinations- salty, sweet, and everything in between.  It was the first evening I've hosted in the apartment and turned out to be quite nice to spend quality time with friends, chatting over a bottle (or few) of wine...

(Agnese, Imanta, Ginta @ Crepe-tastic!)

As a side note, it is a Latvian tradition to celebrate names days.  What is that?!  Yes, every day of the year has certain names that are to be celebrated- some names are on specific days that have a specific meaning, ex, on St. John's day (Summer solstice) we celebrate the name John (Jānis).  My names day is on August 19 (Imanta)!  And don't worry, if you're name isn't on the calendar, there's a special day for all those names that aren't on the name's day calendar! :)  On Saturday it was Anetes names day and so we had to congratulate her with a song...  One of our personal favorites of course is the folksong Labvakar, rudzu lauks (Good evening, rye field), and Agnese, Ginta and I broke out into song, mid-cooking crepes.  Here's a little peek of that:

(video courtesy of Santa)

But what's going on outside of the apartment?  Fall is upon us, this past weekend you could definitely feel the cold air taking over and chills passing through your bones.  Leaves are coloring (I must try to make it to the countryside to see some nature!)  Classes are going as well as they could be... last week we had group presentations in European Integration, each group presenting a theme about the structure of the EU (ex, European Parliament, European Council, etc)... and the professor threw everyone for a loop when, at the end of the presentation instead of asking a few general follow up questions, asked for the group to go through the ENTIRE presentation again so he could ask/explain/expand on each slide.  My goodness, each presentation lasted at least 30 minutes (when the max time he specified was 10-12 minutes).  Frustration boiled up inside me as we listened to each presentation twice... not understanding why the professor didn't stick to his own time restrictions and if he felt such a great need to redo everyone's work, why didn't he simply give lectures on these topics himself?!  That being said, my group didn't even get a chance to present (pushed to this week)...  So, we're still adjusting to the quirks and specialties of new professors.

What's to come?  A week of calm before my friend Kaira comes to visit from the States!  Quite excited to give her full tours and check out some new stuff myself!  So keep an eye out for that post, I'm sure there will be lots to share!  Wishing you all sunny days~

A week in music...

Wow!  Time really flies when you're having fun.  I can't believe it's already October- and so much as happened!  It's been an absolutely beautiful weekend in Rīga, sunny, blue skies, but the smell of Fall is definitely in the air.  Today I even collected some of the first fallen, colorful leaves.

But to keep you up to date with what is happening?!  Where to begin.  The past week has been full of new musical endeavors.  I had already been speaking with my friend Vēsma (a violin playing, Latvian-Australian chica full of positive energy and ideas!) about jamming together, maybe put together an act for local bars.  She already plays a few nights a week, but as she's moving back to Australia for a while (to get married!), she's looking for someone to replace her and I'm slowly getting into the system.  Last week she invited me to sing a few folk songs at her friends' wedding, in an impromptu way to congratulate the new couple as they were coming out of the church.  It was a beautiful ceremony and nice to give some background music to a someone's special day!

 (Vēsma and I with the newlyweds!)

Then this weekend I joined Vēsma and Kārlis at their usual spot- Kiwi Bar- for a midday gig.  It's rugby season here in Europe and the bar needed a way to entertain the guests between games.  We hadn't practiced one bit, but luckily the songs in their set are pretty well known and we just made up some harmonies on the fly.  For such a raw performance we sounded pretty darn good!  And I'm proud to say that even Uncle Joe's mandolin joined us for a few songs.  Despite my absolute nervousness about playing it in public, I'm loving the mandolin.  It's easy breezy and I think adds such a flavorful layer to songs.

(Vēsma and I at Kiwi bar!)

Saturday night was the one-year anniversary of my favorite bar in Rīga- ALA Folkklubs (ALA Folkbar), where we go quite regularly to get our folk dance, folk song fix.  In full on celebration, the bar was hopping with free snacks, shots and even a pig roast!  But of course, the best part was the music.  Two groups switched on and off entertaining guests with upbeat arrangements of folk songs, there was such a great energy in the room and it's always so refreshing to see young people enjoying the folk traditions of our culture.  SO COOL!

(Clip of the hoppin' group at Folkklubs!)

And just like that, another weekend has passed.  I'm pumped and a bit stressed about the coming week, it's the beginning of presentations and handing in topic proposals, etc!  Work has begun, oh my.  But it's all good and interesting.  Happy October to all and to end, some pictures of the Fall market/festival last weekend in Rīga.

(Carrot festival! Yes, those are carrots NOT hotdogs...)