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!!!

Group "Vēja ziedi" song/ music video!

A few years back my friend Agnese and I started playing around with GarageBand on my Mac and came up with some funky, techno-y arrangements of traditional Latvian folk songs. It came together in an album (which was sold to family and friends- still available!) and the group "Vēja ziedi" was formed. Since then we've continued to drop some tracks whenever we're together (either in Latvia or elsewhere...) and here's one of the latest jems we've created.

Song- Man atnāca Jāņu diena
Artist- Vēja ziedi
Lyrics- traditional Latvian folk song
Video- Vid

Man atnāca Jāņu diena - Vēja ziedi from tomsons eagleton on Vimeo.

Check out me singing with LA!

Hello dear friends!

A few weeks ago, my dear friend LeighAnne invited me over to sing some songs with her. We had a great time jamming and working out fun harmonies to bring you two great cover songs!

LeighAnne is working on a blog where she gets together with her best buds to sing songs. It's awesome and you should check it out!

http://laandfriends.wordpress.com/

Here are the videos we put together as seen on YouTube!

Something in the Water by Brooke Fraser:



Don't Panic by Coldplay/Ellie Goulding:

Off to the capital!

("Gay rights are human rights" -Hilary Clinton)

A visit to DC is always written in my books whenever I can manage it because it's where my best friend from high school days, Christine lives. It's hard to believe that we're already out of college and fighting it in the real world!

This trip was especially exciting because we were going to see Mumford & Sons LIVE! AHHH! I've been following this group for a while now. LOVED their performance at the Grammy's (along with the Avett Brothers and Bob Dylan):



Gotta say that this concert was nothing short of incredible. The musicians were jumping from one instrument to another, their harmonies were tight and they didn't miss a beat! They themselves mentioned that this was the biggest gig they had played (obviously they didn't count the Grammy performance...a nation wide publicly televised performance?). They were pros and did a good job balancing between songs we all have grown to love and new songs they were trying out on us. Their music tends to get a bit repetitive and predictable, but the concert as a whole was well rounded and entertaining.

(Why, hello! Mr. Mumford!)

The rest of the weekend was spent trying to stay as cool as possible (the heat wave was reaching 90s-100 * F!). It was gay pride weekend in DC, therefore, the party was hoppin' and the city buzzing with excitement!

(Christine, Sean, Imanta)

Now, I hate to get all sappy on you, I try to keep this blog light and joyful, but there are some things that just hit you hard. A few years ago I attended a walk to support gay rights in Latvia. At that time (and still today), the country had very little support or acceptance of LGBT people. A general stand on the topic is that being homosexual is a disease and that this is not something people want to accept in society. The walk was enclosed, on the other side of the fences was the opposition yelling hateful words to us participating. It's so unfortunate that a country can be so close minded to letting people love each other. This is a struggle that the people of Latvia will one day hopefully overcome and move forward with their beliefs to allow all citizens to feel safe and free to express their sexual orientation.

That being said, this was my first gay pride experience in the USA and boy, was it a different from the one in Latvia! A quiet, somber moment to hesitantly show support for this group in Latvia is countered with hooting, hollering, music, joy and pure happiness in D.C! Flags, rainbows, drag queens everywhere you looked. It was a party! There was one moment in particular, where parents and loved ones of LGBT people were marching with signs that showed their support. I was almost brought to tears thinking about how wonderful it is to be able to live in a place where people can feel free to express themselves and this is one right I will always cherish and defend as a US citizen. But, I was so hurt that in Latvia a day like this is still far away in the future.

So there you have it folks! A few weekend trips summed up in a few posts. Next week I'm off to Latvian summer camp in the Catskills to sing and play with little kiddies and keep the Latvian juices flowing! Can't seem to get away from the kid jobs.. Cheers!