I like the train

So far I'm actually really enjoying the commute. The waking up at 5am I could probably do without (coffee and I have become reacquainted on a best friends basis again), but the hour train ride is actually doing me some good. When people first see me at work in the mornings they've been commenting how good, happy, peaceful I look (already awake for 3 hours and productive instead of having just rolled out of bed)!

I spend the morning commute preparing myself for the day (I want to say it in Latvian - es noskanojos dienai - I "tune" myself for the day) and it's great. I've been writing in my journal again which is helping me get things out of my head and makes space for other more valuable stuff. I've been reading passages to help myself start the day out right. Then I have been doing some homework for my online class. Finally, I allow myself a bit of "train potato" (my mom's word, play on couch potato) time just watching the sun rise as I'm approaching Riga, listening to some of my favorite songs on the MP3 player. I'm at school half an hour before most people, so I get a lot done and never feel rushed. It's really quite a good way to start the day.

On the way home it's an unwinding process. The train is usually really loud and full on the way home (though no problems with finding a seat yet), but I pretty much pass out as soon as the train starts moving on the way home (as I'm known to do in moving vehicles). I totally love after school naps, but it's easy to let an after school nap just take up the whole evening, so it's nice to just get a bit of shut eye on the train and be refreshed when I get home. I sleep about half the way home and wake up to read whatever novel I'm reading for the second half of the journey. The train gets emptier and quieter as we approach Sigulda, and by the time we are in Sigulda I hear only Latvian. (It's a such a glaring difference now that I travel back and forth how much Russian you hear in Riga, and I've yet to hear any Russian in Sigulda.) Then I have the walk home during which I might see a car or two but mainly I'm listening to dogs, cats, birds and snow. It's incredible. I'm not really good at leaving my work at work, but I have been totally able to do that in the last two weeks.

My walk to the train in the mornings I'm sure still looks a little funny from a bird's eye view. I leave the house cautiously early, twenty minutes before the train departs, knowing it is consistently only a seven minute walk to the train. The first three minutes I walk and it is totally silent save my own footsteps (also incredible). But since it's so quiet, the last four minutes of walk time I'm listening to the train warm up in the mornings, making all kinds of crazy sighing, spurting, breathing noises, all the time sounding to me like it's getting ready to close it's doors and take off without me. Have I mentioned at this time of year the walk is through ever changing mixtures of ice, slush and serious puddles (and it's a bit tricky to predict what's what so early in the morning)? So my morning walk that begins peacefully turns into some sort of crazy dance of me trying to pick up the pace and not end up on my bottom in a puddle. I'm sure it's quite amusing and I always have a silent smile at myself when I make it onto the train with more than ten minutes to spare, knowing I'll be doing the same thing again tomorrow.... :)

Oh, and this will only make the most sense to people who are seasoned passengers of Riga's public transport, but it is a breath of fresh air in the mornings to hear the conductor say, "Labrit, milie un cienijamie pasazieri, ludzu sagatovijiet savas biletes!" ("Good morning, dear and respected passengers, please prepare you tickets!") I won't even get into the words you are likely to hear on Riga's public tranpsort (a large part of which inspired me to buy the MP3 player for tuning out purposes), but it's like night and day. I like it.