Kaira visits Riga and has many feelings...

Imanta and Kaira

The grand finale of our time together, taking a picture at the Freedom Monument

Two weeks ago my friend Kaira came to visit.  Kaira is an American-Latvian, comme moi, and enjoys having a good, rowdy time wherever she may be.  The last time she was in Latvia was on her "Sveika, Latvija" trip, which is a trip offered by the American Latvian Association to give kids just finishing Latvian school the chance to travel around Latvia for two weeks and see the land they've been hearing about for so long.  Needless to say, Latvia had changed a lot since then... and so had Kaira.  So she was coming to Rīga for the first time as a willing adult and ready to see this wonderful place for all it is!

As fate may have had it, a trip to Latvia also meant dealing with some crazy existential identity questions.  There we were wondering what the heck this place means to us?  Do we belong here?  Are we more Latvian, more American, more something else?  I have to admit that I had already mulled these intense questions of identity a few years back, when I returned for the first time as a young adult in 2008.  So these reactions coming from Kaira were not foreign and I had prepared myself for them.  All in all, I'm glad she had them.  I think all of us American-Latvians need to experience these feelings and questions to help us decide why we continue being active in American-Latvian society and how Latvia can be a part of our future.  (That being said, I feel a bit guilty that I'm writing this in English....)

In my case, (and this realization has come only in these last weeks of living here) I was faced with this identity crisis of sorts while living in America.  I had to constantly explain to people around me why I did things the way I did, taking on the title of the "stinky Latvian" among high school friends, etc, etc.  Even among Latvian friends this issue would come up when I would get frustrated with youth organization events lacking substance that would force us to discuss this identity that we all claimed to hold so dear to our hearts.  So, how do you resolve this conflict, crisis of identity?  Coming to Latvia, living here for two months now, it is slowly becoming clear that for me, all that needed to be done was to take out the factor that was causing problems- to put it bluntly- America.  I'm in Latvia, I'm Latvian, that's all there is to it.  Obviously, now I'm faced with a backward trend of having to explain my story of coming to Latvia as a product of immigrants and diaspora upbringings, but what it all comes down to is that I've always felt a stronger pull to the Latvian side of my identity.  Being here feels a-okay.  Who knows how I'll feel a month, two months, two years from now, but for now it's this.

So how to make this momentous visit as fruitful and exciting as possible for a dear friend as she's experiencing the most intense feelings?  (FEELINGS was a key term of the week spent together)  We dove right into those feelings and I'm not sure if we've come out head-first, but here's a look at some of the adventures we had!

(First night in Rīga- a late night visit to Aptieka aka Pharmacy Bar for hot Balsam and currant juice)

 (Kaira with the funky cat statue that reminded us of our friend Gints Grinbergs)

(A much needed break at Mārtiņa beķereja for some pīrāgi!)

  (Exploring Centrāltirgus and buying one pickle)

(This one definitely requires some explanation:  At the same time as Kaira was in Latvia, our friends back on the East Coast of the USA were preparing for Rudens Svētki/Fall Fest at camp in the Catskills.  We decided to send our love across the ocean, take pictures of our blunders and celebrate Rudens Svētki along with them!)

 (And here we go!  Imanta and Kaira at ALA Folkbar, drinking Lemberga shots in the colors of the Latvian flag!)

 (Serious Soviet faces, at Ezītis Miglā)

 (Mischievous Imanta and Kaira)

(We even got innocent by-standers to join us in the fun! Vēsma and Santa)

(Fall Fest is celebrated in a house called Rota... Rota also means jewelry in Latvian... well, we found Rota, in which ever sense of the word!)

(Kaira's last night we went to the Sviests IV disk presentation concert.  The emcee asked the audience where the group "Tērvetes Trubadūri" was from- Tērvete- which is in Canada, and Kaira yelled out the answer, winning a free cd!)

(Celebrations continued back at ALA Folkbar with our favorite folk musicians!)

 (Kaira outside the bar "Fīlings", which we felt summed up her trip quite well.)

A beautiful video of beautiful Latvija!

A bit long... but beautiful images of the country in which I live!!!

The meaning of FOLK?

What is the meaning of FOLK?  Folk music, new folk, folk revival, folk-rock... oh the list is endless!  What is your definition of folk music?

And when you see a concert advertisement: FOLKKONCERTS in Latvia... my immediate instinct says its a folklore concert of traditional music that I love love love.  But alas, this is not always the case, and one recently attended concert was not full of beautiful tautas tērpi (folk costumes) and tautas dziesmas (folk songs)... it was infused with the folk-essence of the greats- Dylan, etc.  Raspy voices, acoustic guitars, even a harmonica, mixed with jazz elements such as saxophones, pianos and violins filled the beautiful hall of Lielā Ģilde in Old Town Rīga two weeks ago.

So here are two clips from the concert- one "traditional" folk, one "new" folk.

However, two weeks ago was the CD release concert for Sviests IV, a collection of contemporary folk music, in many variations and interpretations.  I've grown to love and to follow avidly the work that comes out on these CDs, many times groups form especially to make a recording for this collection and you can't find their stuff elsewhere, but other times you have new gems from your favorite artists.  Always a surprise- this edition even has a group from Canada- Tērvetes Trubadūri- which was especially cool!

The concert, at the Academy of Music, featured five groups playing small sets of their repertoires.  It was a diverse and at times bizarre mix of music and unfortunately dragged on because the stage needed to be reset after each group.  Either way, it was a great opportunity to see friends and know that the folk movement in Latvia is alive and well!

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...)

"The air is full of flying factories..."

What KIND of factories?!  Please, HELP!

(Night view from apartment window)

Yes.  The daily trials and random incomprehensible word vomits of professors speaking in their second languages.  Here I am, world!  I've been in Rīga now for a few weeks and finally getting into a groove.  As expected, the transition to life in Rīga hasn't been that difficult, thanks to the previous summers of internships and random visits.  But getting into a new university and entering a completely foreign scholarly system is proving to be a bit of a challenge!  So, I've decided to keep at it with the blog to share some of the quirks and peculiarities of a student's life in Rīga.

Let's start with my program.  With the help of my darling friend Santa, this past summer I was enrolled at the University of Latvia, the faculty of Humanities in the Baltic Sea Region Studies masters degree program.  Phew, that's a mouthful.  And quite misleading, as I've found in explaining it to others.  No, I haven't suddenly had a change of heart and decided to study science...  this is not a program that studies the creatures of the sea!  The Baltic Sea Region is comprised of the countries that border the Baltic Sea, therefore, in this study program we explore not only the Baltic countries themselves (Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania), but also the Scandinavian countries and a touch of Northern Poland and Germany, in a comparative approach covering all the bases of politics, economics, and social studies.  To my advantage (I hope!), this is one of two programs at the University of Latvia, which is offered in English.  The Latvian language laws restrict all education in the country to be presented in the national language, Latvian, however, with some quick maneuvers and calling this an international program (it is linked with several other universities in the region), the instruction language can be English.

 

(Entrance to the main building of the University of Latvia)

As a generosity to those master's degree students who are gainfully employed during the day, my schedule consists of night classes.  Monday thru Friday 6:15pm- 9:30pm.  At first I thought I'd be fine with this adjustment, but I think this is the hardest thing to get used to, mostly because it interferes with all the other social activities I had planned on doing while in Rīga.  Yes, bar hopping is clearly a part of that, but future prospects of singing/playing in bars, as well as joining a folk group or two, arranging rehearsals, etc is much harder when I'm sitting in lectures.

My class schedule currently consists of:
Monday- Baltic Sea Region Concepts, an overview of themes and a mix of different faculty members sharing their expertise with us every week.  So far we've had a touch of Geography and History (looking back from before the Christianization of the region, all the fun stuff I learned back in Latvian Saturday school and Garezers!)
Tuesday- Research Methods & Organization, shockingly thrown back into the world of Statistics.  UGH.  I hate math with such a passion and keeping up with a professor who is spitting out formulas like a Eminem spitting out raps, it's a challenge to keep my brain from exploding.  She also has an incredibly hard time explaining the relevance of our exercises; if I could understand WHY I'm doing this, I'd be much more willing to do it.  But I guess it's good to exercise the other part of my brain... right?
Wednesday- EU Government & Institutions Theory & Practice, a comparatively easy course taking into consideration that I've heard it all before, time and time again.  This class is together with the European Studies program, so we have a much bigger and more diverse group.  I'm excited to get to group work for upcoming Seminars (aka group presentations about a theme).
Thursday- European Economies & Integration Development, another course of little interest or investment, especially because so far we've taken a retrospective view of the development of the EU.  GIVE ME SOMETHING MODERN.  I want to talk about today's crisis and what we're going to do about it.
Friday- Geography.  HA.  Geography? Really?  But when on the first day we were given a map of the region to fill out, I realized I didn't know as much as I thought I did... ooops.  And thank goodness we're discussing all aspects of Geography, current topic: Urban tourism. 

 (Faculty of Economics and Management)

Lucky for me, classes are between two buildings very close to Old Town, where I'm living.  The main building of the University of Latvia and the Faculty of Economics and Management, both right outside of tourist-packed Old Town, making it an easy 10-15 minute commute, even if it means dodging and pushing my way through some large tourist groups snapping away at pictures.

But what about those flying factories?  Last night in Econ class, a student asked about the expenses of transporting goods from far away places to Europe, the professor responded "yes... well... it is more expensive... but nowadays, the goods are always in the air... flying factories... the air is full of flying factories."  I guess what she meant to say was something about technology allowing products to be more accessible, but please loop me in if there are flying factories that I wasn't aware of before.

  So there you have it!  A start to another great adventure... with some pictures to go along with it.  More to come soon, but I need to get to reading and planning papers and group projects...

 (Walking to the main building of LU, you can see the round observatory that's on the roof!)

 (My street, Krāmu iela (Junk Street), on this lovely Friday morning!)

(Coming out of the apartment- the entrance is right behind me- earlier this month with Pops.  Trust me, it's not that warm anymore!  Definitely need a coat!)

3x3 Catskills- Ķēvīt mana švilpastīte

Well, another summer has come to a close.  It was great to be back in the States, spending time in nature with some great friends.  But man- how time flies!

I'm back in Latvia beginning the newest chapter of this blog: Attending the University of Latvia in the Master's degree program Baltic Sea Region Studies.  (You'll have to wait for another post about that)

Before we jump into NOW, I'd like to rewind a bit and post a video of my fabulous friends and I performing Ķēvīt mana švilpastīte at 3x3 camp in the Catskills.  These girls are so fun to jam with and we always have a blast coming up with arrangements of our favorite Latvian folk songs.  I seriously can't wait until we're together again to come up with more material!

Enjoy it here!!!