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...
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:
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~
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~
i love it! keep these posts coming! :) :) :)
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