Diana smaida....

Good thing.....

2012-01-28T12:49:00.002+02:00

....I'm mostly just hanging out at home these days, because it seems even my maternity tops are no longer big enough to keep this belly covered!

Ready or not....

2012-01-22T11:33:00.003+02:00

Just as my stomach is changing by the hour, so are my feelings of readiness on becoming a new mother. Except my stomach is always expanding in the same direction, but my feelings are expanding and contracting here, there and everywhere.

On the whole, I'm feeling much more settled, calm and ready in the past week. I've finally tied up a lot of loose ends at work so I feel like I can actually step away for a little bit. The big things are physically set for the arrival of the baby - bed is in place, clothes and diapers are washed and folded, his bags are packed (even if ours are not ready yet). I've read and reflected a lot about the physical and emotional process of birth, both the scientific and the huge variety of personal stories women have experienced. Similarly, I've got a general idea of what needs to be done to take care of newborn both physically and emotionally. And yet of course, I fully recognize that with giving birth and caring for a newborn, there's only so much you can prepare ahead of time - the rest will be taken care of by instinct and by handling situations as they come up, because there's no way to prepare for every possible possibility....and of course in understanding that, the settled, calm and ready feelings are that much deeper. I've done what can be done and now it's time to let it be.

I had a similar experience as a student teacher on the brink of graduation, questioning whether I felt ready or not to teach my own class. I dug up my reflective journal this morning, and found that most of the sentiments I documented at that transitional moment in my life apply all over again.

"I've been really thinking about what it means to be ready to be a teacher in your own classroom. In so many ways I feel ready to go. I feel like I have a much better understanding of my philosophy of classroom management which was the last thing I was really worried about - not that I have everything polished with my classroom management but knowing my philosophy and what I feel good about helps! So in general, I feel good about the thought of having my own classroom. But then I'll start reading a book - about guided reading or classroom management - and feel like I knew nothing before I started reading that book and I was never really ready. So here's my conclusion - I'll never be 100% ready - there will never be a point when I know everything I will need to know to be a teacher. My cooperating teacher is still taking classes and improving her teaching. So that makes me feel pretty much ready again!

Then I was thinking about the students I will have and how lucky the students at the end of my career will be because I will know so much more about teaching by then and I worry about the first few groups I will have because they'll be struggling right along with me in the beginning. But actually, they'll be learning with me - and even though their experience will be very different than children later in my career, each experience will be good in a different way. These thoughts seem pretty obvious and in a way I've always had those thoughts, but I've become very conscious of them in the last weeks."

And so I feel about stepping into motherhood. Ready and unready all at once. But that's really what life is about then, isn't it? There's only so much you can do to prepare, and then the rest happens while living it.

After ten years of teaching, I still feel much the same way as I did on the day I wrote this journal entry. I am still absolutely learning as I go. Some days are brilliant, lessons are great and I can clearly see the progress I've made in my own teaching. Other days, it feels like I'm back at square one, could spend a hundred more years in studies and still not get it right. Like all learning in school and in life, it's a journey. One of the courses I am now taking has introduced the idea of a "fixed" mindset versus a "growth" mindset. As long as we recognize that it is all about growth (and the never actually getting there!) and are always challenging ourselves to take the next steps forward, we are moving in the right direction.

I appreciated re-reading my university supervisor's response to this particular journal entry: "In your comments about being 'ready' for teaching, and then feeling unsure, I sensed some nerves about how your life is soon going to change, along with some well-deserved confidence about your successes thus far. I agree with you; you're never fully ready, and -- if you can remember that -- in a strange way you're always ready. I'm not sure where you're going to end up as a teacher. But as your own confidence rises and dips, you might as well hear some praise: You think like a seasoned educator. Your insights about teaching and your healthy connection to your inner self are quite remarkable. They are also assets that will make your teaching immeasurably valuable to the lives of young children - whoever they end up being.

Over the course of the semester, I have been greatly impressed with your talent and commitment to teaching. Perhaps most of all, however, I have been impressed by your demonstrated convictions. You believe in the children you teach. You believe that they have something to teach you. I know I send a lot of praise your way, but I hope you don't get too used to it. It's not for you. It's for the children you will teach. Teaching is hard work, and those kids need someone like you in their corner. So remember all this praise you received and deserved, and climb over whatever obstacles you will face."

I hope the same will translate from teaching into parenting. As I make this transition into parenting, I know it will be hard and heart-breaking and ultimately the most rewarding work I will ever do. I'm looking forward to growing in parenting much as I have and will continue to do in teaching. Much as I was excited to find out who my first "clients" in teaching would be, I can't wait to meet this little boy who has signed up for the journey of a lifetime with us. We will never be 100% ready, we will never be perfect or "finished" with our learning and growing together. And that's exactly as it should be.

Ready or not.... :)

Growing by the hour....

2012-01-17T12:03:00.003+02:00

At our last visit, the midwife said, "From here on out, you will be growing not by days, but by hours." How true! One to five weeks of growth left, and I just can't imagine how that is physically possible.... Technically, he could decide to arrive today because from here on out he is considered full-term. We still have two classes left for parents-to-be, finishing next Monday, so we asked him to at least wait that long so that we'll have a better idea of what we are doing. ;)

We are beyond excited, but doing our best to be patient. And we are not the only ones who are excited - a couple of weeks ago we visited friends and were gifted this artwork of our family. :) Children are so perceptive (whether they know it or not!). KB's favorite element of the drawing is that he is red, I am blue and the little boy is exactly half red and half blue. Brilliant!

Love in every stitch

2012-01-07T14:25:00.010+02:00

This is the story of three blankets filled with a ridiculous amount of love, patiently awaiting the arrival a little boy.

The first blanket was a project started by his mom nearly two years ago. It was a project specifically designed to pour all the love for this little person that had yet to be created into one place. The project came along quickly at first, then was on hold for a pretty long time as she was grumpy that things were not happening on her timeline, and finally got finished at Christmas time this year in a whirlwind of energy as his arrival grew closer (and she has to admit, his timing is perfect, even if she wasn't patient enough to see that for a while).

This will be his outside blanket to keep him snuggly in the stroller or carseat - it's two layers of fleece so it should do the trick even in a Latvian winter (which finally arrived in the form of a white blanket of snow today in Mezaparks).

Here is a close-up of the stitching, a Latvian sun cross-stitch pattern designed by the little boy's great-grandmother. A mother's welcome-to-the-world present for the little boy...

The second blanket is a project made by two people - the little boy's grandmother and great-grandfather. It's a nice thick quilt with sunflowers in the material (my favorites). It will keep the little boy cozy as he explores his world, learns to roll over, sit up, go for some toys at the edge of the quilt and begin crawling...

If you look carefully at the next photo, you'll see there are tan bits of yarn that have been tied up, holding together the layers of the quilt. These were carefully tied together by the little boy's great-grandfather who is 97 years old and spends some of his time in the nursing home helping his daughter (the boy's grandmother) work on craft projects. What a moment that will be when the little boy learns to use his fingers to start untying all the little knots his great-grandfather so carefully tied... :)

The third quilt involves the most stitches and love from the most people. It was part of a round-robin quilt project completed by six women in the little boy's family. That means each woman added the next section of the quilt (not planned ahead of time - you get what the others have worked on and let your creativity flow to design the next bit) until the quilt was complete. Since the boy's mom is not a quilter and lives halfway around the world from the other women, it was a real honor to be included in this project. Her role was to dye some linen fabric from Latvia for each quilt and to sew a little cross-stitch design for each quilt (from an archive of Latvian designs created by the little boy's great-grandmother). In any case, the amount of love, creativity and family tradition in this blanket is incredible.

The little boy's parents are convinced he was waiting for the arrival of this quilt in Latvia before officially signing up for his journey here on earth. His aunt hand-delivered the blanket last spring and just a couple of short weeks later, as a true surprise, here he was. This blanket will hang in his room (our room) on the wall, reminding him and all of us that he is a ray of sunshine in this house. The photo does not do this blanket justice, it is warm and beautiful and somehow truly radiates the love from every stitch.

A close-up of the Latvian sun cross-stitch design in the center.

All of these blankets contain an element of the sun theme - warmth, energy, brightness and love. Such a fitting way to welcome a little boy to the world.

Dreams and "Difficultness"

2012-01-05T09:28:00.005+02:00

I can't remember now if I've written about it on the blog before, but in the last years I've realized that my dreams serve a definite purpose quite often in that they allow me to experience things that I feel are missing in "real" life. Often this has included me being on the beach and truly experiencing a few hours of real sunlight in the dead of winter or spending quality time with people I am missing. I can still vividly remember a dream in which I sat and ate a pint of Ben and Jerry's and could distinctly taste every lovely bite of it. I wake up in the mornings feeling satisfied after such dreams.

In the past few weeks, I've had nearly nightly dreams about our baby being here. The first ones had some elements of anxiety to them - for nights in a row I dreamt that all of a sudden I looked down, wasn't pregnant anymore (clearly had somehow given birth but hadn't actually been present for it) and realized I had a baby to feed and care for. Now that I seem to have gotten that out of my system, the anxiety element (for now) is gone. Or it appears in silly ways - the other night I dreamt that his head came out deformed after the birth as sometimes happens but it was shaped like a butternut squash (which has definitely been a favorite food in the last months and that day I had happened to find a butternut squash in an eco store which I was so excitedly planning to eat the next day), but in the dream we were just looking back on the pictures of the butternut head because he was already a bit bigger with a nice round head and I was snuggling him and all was good.

The dreams have now clearly taken on the purpose of just giving me that which my mind seems to need, but can't have yet. Nearly nightly, I dream of this little guy being here with us, we are snuggling him, talking to him, taking care of him and generally being good parents. It is lovely to be able to feel it, experience it and prepare for it. This is the good motivation that will help me do what needs to be done in order for him to be born in a few short weeks - in contrast to what we could call the rising "difficultness" which will also serve it's role in motivating.

Pregnancy in Latvian is called grutnieciba, literally translated as "difficultness". At my last visit with the midwife, she warned me that these are the weeks that they talk about when they mean "difficultness" (though I could also argue that the first weeks of feeling hungover 24 hours a day and not being able to each much of anything because every last smell was huge and disgusting were no walk in the park). In any case, I appreciate her way of thinking - this is how nature helps to prepare us for giving birth. Pregnancy will get increasingly more uncomfortable and difficult with everyday to give me true motivation in order for the baby to be born. So now, when I wake up with my hands swollen and barely able to move my fingers, or am dealing with heartburn and ridiculously frequent bathroom visits at night, or just have to move at turtle-speed slowly but surely to get anything done so I don't topple over, I smile, thank nature for doing its bit to help get me ready, and file the moment away in my memory (or ask KB to remind me when I'll need it) to use as motivation when the time comes.

And the dreams...I appreciate those even more because they are a friendly kind of motivation. Every night he looks a little bit different - last night he had a very thick black head of hair, sometimes he is a bald Buddha baby, always with very wise and sweet button eyes looking out to take in the world. It will be interesting to see which of those babies is actually ours. Hopefully not the butternut squash.... ;)

Work that comes from the heart

2012-01-01T11:23:00.003+02:00

Last night on welcoming in the New Year, KB and I reflected a fair bit on the last year, which was definitely an uphill year for us in so many ways. This year he has experienced what it means to have your work/job come from the heart. It is a night and day difference to get up each morning when you are doing what you love and loving what you do.

I have always felt lucky that I had figured out what I loved so early in life and have been able to do it - even if I had to step away from it for a while to realize that teaching is absolutely in my heart.

Last night, I received a New Year's Eve email from the parent of a child who was in our 3x3 family camp morning group this summer. (KB and I co-taught the 3-6 year olds - 28 of them! - for one week in July, which was such a wonderful experience for us to do together.) The email included pictures of flowers that we had planted together and a big thanks again from the family and from the little boy in particular, who insisted upon taking pictures to send us. The mom thanked us again for the work we did as teachers, which inspires children and help them grow - seen both literally and figuratively through the growth of the flowers we planted together.

One of the infinite reasons I love the work I do....and it's incredible to receive such reminders, particularly when it's a connection with a child that was created within just a short seven days, which left a lasting footprint.

Hoping that 2012 finds you all doing what you love and loving what you do. :)

Priecigus Svetkus!

2011-12-28T10:57:00.002+02:00

Ber, Laimite, sudrabinu
Ziemassvetku vakara,
Lai mirdzeja visas takas
Jaunaja gadina!

All the very best wishes to our family and friends in 2012. May the new year bring showers of sunshine and love, just enough rain to help us grow, and above all plenty of those magical moments of stopping to take it all, leaving you with nothing but a smile!

70 days

2011-12-22T18:17:00.003+02:00

One of the great benefits to starting a family in Latvia is the maternity leave. It starts 70 days before your due date and continues for up to a year after the birth. For the record, I got to choose my own due date (within a certain range) as was most convenient for my work schedule - I chose February 8 meaning I've technically been on maternity leave since December 1.

The first weeks went by in a flash - lots of midwife and doctors visits and a few trips to government offices to get the maternity leave squared away. (Luckily, since sunrise isn't until nearly 9am in December, I showed up at the offices when they opened at 8.30 and was able to avoid the lines.) Plus I actually spent a fair amount of time at school still in December wrapping things up, and will still be in to finish up a few things in January.

And of course I could not just allow myself to relax during this time - I am on three graduate level online courses (two of which I'm aiming to start and finish in the month of January before we become a family of three). I figured I sure won't have extra time on my hands after February, so might as well take advantage of these 70 days I got. At the rate we're going though, I feel like I could blink one more time and February will be upon us!

Lots of my time is filled with reading - preparing myself for birth and parenting, reading texts for coursework, and also just for fun. Mims the Wondercat has taken this as a time to start getting to know the baby. She kneads my stomach for a while, then lays down and he kicks and pokes her for a while, then she kneads him again, and so we go on.... It's a pretty cozy way to spend this season of hibernation if I do say so myself. :)

Through a child's eyes...

2011-12-19T14:50:00.005+02:00

It's not that the last year and a half in Latvia hasn't been as deliciously sunny, as soak-you-to-your-bones rainy and as magically rainbow-y as the previous years. It's just that I didn't really care as much to experience it in the same way.

After the first years of excitement at every new experience, friendship and opportunity, realities started settling in. Dear friends who had become our local family moved away one or two at a time. The economic situation was a whole lot rainier than sunny for longer than was comfortable, and the repetition of one-step-forward, two-steps-back just wears on you after a while. And just as promptly as we were filled with excitement again at the biggest ray of sunshine we'd seen in a long time, that got rained out as well when 2010 started with a positive pregnancy test that ended with a miscarriage exactly on my Name's Day a short 8 weeks later. Not so much a downpour as storm that just plain knocks you off your feet.

Now that I am finally slowing down and taking some much needed time for reflection, I realize how I've stepped back from life in the last year and a half. It's not even that I've identified more with the rainy side of life during this time, it's just been more comfortable to spend lots of "me time" in the calm and relative safety of our home. Not sunny or rainy, it just "is".

Happily, this chapter of my life has wrapped itself up (and that's not said in regret, it was certainly a time that was needed and served its own purpose) and I'm ready to waddle back out into the highs and lows of life in Latvia - smile intact. :)

Why waddle?

In the next 5-9 weeks we'll be joined in our journey by a new little person - also already lovingly known as Mazais Saimnieks ("little farmer"), Little Drummer Boy, Pucite (little owl), Chupins (short for "chupins of cuteness" or "little pile of cuteness"), Mini Dude and "Mazins bet Mighty" (little but mighty). I'm quite sure I'm joining mothers around the world in saying this, but from my point of view, never before has another little human being been awaited with this much love and excitement. :)

I recently had a conversation with my own mom in which she was reflecting on how having children impacted her own life. She remembered actually having free time before us, but even now that we have been out of the house for years, she still hasn't been able to regain that sense of "me time" because something always needs to be done. I already put it down for the record with her, but now I am going public with that (and feel free to remind me of this at any point in the next X amount of years that I'm on earth) - I realize my life will never be just my own anymore and I am ready for this.

Surely there will be days that I'll be ready to give anything for five minutes to myself, but at this moment which I hope I'll always be able to remind myself of - I am ready for this little person to come into my life with all of his quirks and needs because with that comes all of his magic. If I haven't been so interested in getting out to see something new or even to do the same-old in the last while, I simply can't wait to do it all - new and old - with our little person because for him EVERYthing will be brand new and magical. There is so much to learn and experience and do in this life and to see it all through his eyes will be amazing. I've seen it with children I've worked with for years, and I'm thankful beyond words that this will be part of my daily experience. He will bring heaps of sunshine, undoubtedly plenty of rain, and above all brilliant rainbows into this home.

We're working hard to catch the Christmas spirit this year with the soupy gray weather just outside our window and sloppy ground that instantly absorbs any chance at brightness that the few attempts at snow have tried to bring. The thing that warms us every time is talking about how next year, our Mazais Saimnieks will be enjoying his first Christmas - probably already pulling himself up on furniture and cruising around as we hold his hands, wide eyes taking it all in.

How can that thought alone not make you look at the whole world with a smile again?

Real life Farmville

2010-08-12T16:34:00.005+03:00

The harvest has begun! Tomatoes (red, yellow and brown), cucumbers, lettuce, basil (red, green and our own marbalized hybrid), green peppers, chili peppers, habanero peppers, green onions, oregano, parsley....all coming out of our greenhouse at astonishing rates.

The greenhouse (also fondly known as 11. trolejbus - and some of our 5 and younger visitors have taken the title seriously, locking themselves in and taking "rides" this summer) has been one of KB's main projects this summer, and we are definitely enjoying the benefits of all the hard work.

But the "surprise garden" is happening at Jaunvitagas this summer. This spring we tried an experiment - KB plowed a small area of land, we threw some seedlings that had been sprouted at home into the gound, put up a quick fence around the area and decided to see what would happen. Our neighbors were convinced the wild boar would tear it apart. We were a bit discouraged when we saw how quickly weeds were coming up and even more discouraged by the massive heat this summer, and felt sure nothing would survive as no one was there to water, weed or otherwise maintain the garden.

Much to our surprise, this week we came home with five massive zucchinis that were buried among the weeds, uncovered two pumpkins well on their way to being full grown and many pumpkin flowers, and are unsure whether three very healthy plants are also cucumbers or squash, but are excited to find out. Seems us not weeding probably helped these plants not get dried out in the great heat and they thrived regardless. And though there are animal tracks circling the garden, the fence has not been touched.

Another great surprise was sugar peas. The ones in our greenhouse did not do well, but somehow, a good number of pea seeds got mixed in with a bunch of wildflowers KB planted at Jaunvitagas and we unexpectedly picked a bag full of peas as well.

Along with the regular mushrooming and berry picking, I've been quite busy in the kitchen with all the goods from the harvest. To me, a very good way to spend my last few days before school begins again.

Two seasons

2010-06-06T11:27:00.002+03:00

I've decided there are two seasons in Latvia - hibernation and the active season. This makes blogging more of a challenge, because during hibernation, there's not much to write about and during the active season, well, I'm out there living it and there's not much time to write about it!

This weekend I'm sick in bed with a fever watching the beautiful weather through my window. I wanted to update the blog with photos, but the camera is out with KB who's more active than ever this active season with Laimins, the new (to us) blue mini-tractor. Sun up at 4:30 am and sundown after 10:30 pm makes for some very long workdays for him. I myself am trying to keep my head above the water with the inevitable end of the school year craziness coupled with a fairly intensive (or maybe it just seems so with all the other work right now) six-week online course.

Updates on the farmer front this year include two greenhouses constructed right here in Sigulda and a fenced in garden at Jaunvitagas. Photos to follow hopefully soon. Hope everyone is enjoying their own active season, no matter where you are in the world!

The more I read....

2010-03-27T19:37:00.003+02:00

....the more in awe I am of how I choose books (or books choose me) at just the right times in my life.

Today's quote that went straight to my heart:

"Every time I thought that I was 'put together,' I realized that we're always putting ourselves together, gathering the world in, letting it sift down and form us."
(Calla Lily Ponder, herione of my current Kindle book)

An unexpected visitor

2010-03-13T09:28:00.004+02:00

Spring and winter are absolutely hanging out together at the moment. I'm trying to think of it in nice terms, it doesn't feel like they are fighting each other, but rather playing together, each taking short turns making their appearance. Even with the ever increasing sunlight, the choirs of birds and the unmistakeable smell of spring in the air, yesterday it snowed again. This added just enough snow to the many centimeters already on the ground, that the fence separating our yard from the neighbors is now completely buried. Thus, we have a temporary visitor, the neighbor's German shepard now lives in our yard as well. :)

The pictures don't really do justice to the mountain of snow, but in the photos, he is literally laying on top of fence. The good news is, hopefully there will be no more neighborhood cats peeing on our front door trying to get Mima's attention, now that dog smell is all about. The bad news is he found several plastic flower pots in our backyard (I think they were on our back mini-porch) and destroyed them all over our backyard.

And Mims also wants her fifteen minutes of fame, so here is a bit of photo evidence of her latest hobby: alternating between loving and attempting to kill her catnip lion, her Christmas present from her family in the US.

Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!

2010-03-10T21:56:00.002+02:00

This is the yearly post in which I can officially announce that the sun has come back to us! The days have been noticeably lighter and lighter for a while now (that's what happens when you gain sunlight at the amazing rate of an extra four and a half minutes a day), and today I left the house for the train at a few minutes to 6am with a band of light on the horizon and when I got home at quarter to 7 the sun was just on it's way down in a beautiful sunset. Hooray! Nevermind that we still have centimeters upon centimeters of snow on the ground (not particularly in any hurry to melt), the sky has been blue for six days in a row now and the smell of spring was unmistakeably in the air. It's like reuniting with an old friend. :)

31, a tough pill to swallow

2010-03-06T17:51:00.002+02:00

Fascinating. I was looking back through some of my posts from last spring (mainly looking for a quote about spring that I wasn't sure if I had already posted) and re-read last year's birthday post. I now have a theory. I don't do well with birthdays that have to do with the number 13. Last year's post outlined my difficulties with my 13th birthday and my 26th birthday (double 13). This year's birthday (the REVERSE of 13) was another one that will go down in the books as traumatic in the reflective department.

This is the first birthday where my number makes me feel old. Yes, I know, age is just a number, and I've always been more or less ok with the numbers (strangely minus the years that relate to 13, I am discovering)... I always get comments that I don't look my age, so as the numbers have gone up, I've always been able to "feel" young regardless. 30 was still an ok year for me - I guess because although there were things I had envisioned for myself by 30, it was still my 30th year so I still had time to make it happen. But now that this year has come and gone, I have a bit of reconciling to do with why certain goals are not met. This is the first moment in my life I've really come across this feeling of an actual possibility of running out of time in life.

In a way, moments like this are good, they put fire under you to keep your goals and dreams fresh. However, at the same time, it's a reminder to slow down and enjoy what you have and trust that everything else will work itself out. Thus also the quote about spring I was looking for.... I couldn't find the one I was actually looking for, but the idea is quite close to this:

"No winter lasts forever, no spring skips its turn."

Be patient. Be happy in the moment you have. Trust that everything will come to you in the right moment. Even if you think you know exactly when that right moment is (because quite frankly in my opinion, spring should be making it's entrance now!), the earth has bigger plans and it knows what's best. Spring will not forget about you.....be patient.

I think the quote I was looking for referred to the sun and the moon, and the seasons as well - they don't hurry each other along, they give each other their time and patiently arrive when it is their turn.

So, just as I can't dictate that spring will arrive on March 21, even if the calendar says so, I suppose I can't dictate certain goals just because my birthday calendar says so. I'll follow the lead of the sun/moon and the seasons, and my goal for this year is patience and appreciation for the moment.

My birthday wish

2010-02-27T10:12:00.005+02:00

As I come up on my birthday month (yes, I traditionally think of the whole month as belonging to me) here is my wish in this rollercoaster of a year. (So far this year has taken the cake in achieving extreme highs and recordbreaking lows in such an amazingly short amount of time - and I've had some significant rollercoasters in my time...) I wish that everyone who has been handed a basketful of lemons in 2010 (because I am not the only one) is able to make the most delicious lemonade ever (straight up or mixed with your alcoholic drink of choice). It's all leading to something good, that if for certain. I was just going to ask life to give us a minute to add some water and dilute those lemons for the lemonade, but looking at the wet spot in my ceiling and the river of a street with all this melting snow, fear not, water is on the way. :) More sugar, please. :)

(P.S. This is not to say life should never hand you lemons. I fully recognize their nutritional value and necessity for growth in life as well. Lemons are ok too, just sometimes the really big ones are tough to digest.)

Huh

2010-02-26T16:47:00.001+02:00

Was she pretending to be a child again or had she just lost her mind? I just saw an 80+ year old woman walking down the street eating a snowball like it was an apple. My mind is not quite sure how to process that one... :)

Four years

2010-02-18T11:21:00.004+02:00

My profile now officially reads "after FOUR years in LV...." (February 13 came and went quite uneventfully this year, with me slugging on the couch with my kleenex box battling a particularly unfriendly cold), but the sentence continues to read "I'm still trying to make sense of it all." Wondering if/when I might get to edit the rest of that sentence, but I'm starting to think that just might be part of it all.

To my faithful readers who are still waiting for LV as home, Part 2 (and to myself, disappointed for still not being able to fully articulate)... I guess that is what this whole blog is about... If I could put it into words in a nice neat sentence, I'd do it, but I sincerely struggle with it. Instead I can only offer photographs or anecdotes which give small insights into what I'm feeling, but there is no nutshell for me. At least not yet. Maybe by year 5?

I can only say I've come up with the realization that a lot of the things I love about being here could be summed as storybook moments. They're small glimpses into all the wonderful and beautiful things we learned and experienced about LV while growing up elsewhere, and to be able to experience them firsthand and more often than just while vacationing here but really being part of it, make up one piece of the puzzle as to why LV feels like home. Like last week, it made me smile out loud again to hear someone's ringtone on the train - a well-loved Latvian folksong. I have no idea who that person is, but it's a small instant connection. It's the little stuff...

Hmmmmm.....did any of that actually make sense? Could be my stuffy sick head still talking....that being said, I think it's time to get off the cat's schedule (sleeping 20 or so hours a day) and consider cleaning this pighole. KB is still recovering from surgery and even though we've both been down for the count, we have not been able to convince Mims to pitch in with the housework, thus the mega-mess. You see, life is still life everywhere, and in between the storybook moments, there's still cleaning to be done.

*** P.S. A little bit more reflection after cleaning....

The final part of that first sentence in my profile reads "but always with a smile...." Lately I feel like that smile has faded and maybe that's why it's a bit harder for me to write. But I look at the rest of what I have written - about the storms being a bit stormier, the sun shining a bit brighter....and rainbows through it all. It's been a heavily stormy period - watching this country not really be able to take care of itself yet, watching people around me lose faith in this place even as I'm struggling to hang on to my own, feeling exhausted from constantly trying to make ends meet, saying good-bye to friends who are family over and over again....but I'm still hopeful that means there are some seriously bright days coming ahead as a law of averages. And I am well overdue for a rainbow. Good thing spring is just around the corner.

LV as home, Part 1

2010-02-10T21:52:00.004+02:00

Still working on my own explanation clarifying why and how LV feels like home, but as a starter, let me present the lyrics of a song. The song is from a boy band Tranzits but the words give me goosebumps every time I hear them. So I guess if you read this and can relate, that's the beginning of this conversation (as the first lines of the lyrics indicate). :)

Es gribu Tev ko pajautāt
Vai esi redzējis Latviju rītausmā – ja jā
Tad varam sākt
Par sajūtām
Kuras visskaudrāk mēs izjūtam tālu no mājām
Kā ceļš
Kā valoda
Tās vieno mūs un tās atņemt vai nopirkt tie nespēs
Ir laiks
Ar sevi sākt
Ko dalīt vienmēr ir bijis un būs

Piedz.
Kamēr vasaras rītos no ziedošām pļavām balta migla pacelsies
Lai cik tālu bijis vienalga ko darījis ceļš mans mājup ies
Ja ikviens savu sirdi no bailēm un pagātnes sārņiem iztīrīs
Strauts kas tek man gar mājām gadu tūkstošiem ilgi atkal tecēs tīrs

Un var jau būt
Sen liekas Tev
Ka citur zaļāka zāle un skaistāk dzied putni
Kā tiem no tuksnešiem
Kas izvelk saknes un ripo – kur labi tur mājas
Cik daudz vēl spēka būs
Jo kalnam augstajam neredz ne gala ne malas
Bet reiz ir jāsaprot
Ka tikai kopā tur uzkāpt būs lemts

Varbūt ka esmu naivs
Un viss tikai cīņa ar vējdzirnavām
Bet kamēr tecēs strauts
Mana ticība nezudīs

The world's tallest snowman....

2010-01-31T20:28:00.003+02:00

....is right here in Sigulda, measuring seven meters! The competition open to all of Sigulda's primary school students to name the snowman is happening this week. :)

Living in scary times

2010-01-30T10:15:00.004+02:00

Yesterday I thought there was going to be a riot on the train to work. It stopped just outside of Riga, no explanation. After about five minutes of waiting, people were coming up to the front car and just pounding down the door to the conductor, demanding information. When he said that he didn't know how long we would be standing but he just got information from Riga that the computer system is down and we can't get in (I guess because they couldn't switch over the tracks), everyone just started yelling about how he needed to open the doors and let them out immediately. At first he said no, and I was thinking what are all these people so worked up about, there's nothing that can be done, so just sit down and relax. But they all start screaming about how they have to get to work on time or they will get let go. And I realized for a good number of them, it's probably true. When the unemployment rate is over 20%, I guess you make one mistake and your boss doesn't think twice about letting you go because there are hundreds and thousands of others who will gladly do your job, and be there on time. Yikes. So finally the conductor opened the doors, in the middle of nowhere (at least I had no idea what we were even close to or where I would go) and people start jumping out of the train landing in snow banks (no platform). Madness. In the end we ended up getting into Riga half an hour later than scheduled, and I still made it to work before school started. I spent the day feeling very grateful to have an employer that would have been understanding in such a situation.

I have been mulling over completing my thoughts about "home in LV" all week. Yesterday I actually started taking some notes on the train ride home, so we'll see if I can't cook something up by the end of this weekend.

I thought I was losing my mind when I heard birds chirping outside this morning, but I just saw them flying from tree to tree, so clearly nature begins to wake up when the temperature goes from -28 to -2. We still have 40 cm of snow on the ground (it snowed more this week), but it's another beautiful blue sky day. :)

Home is where the heart is....

2010-01-23T14:38:00.006+02:00

Huh. This is the title that has been stuck in my head since returning to LV from my visit to the States and Mexico last summer. Never wrote about it, couldn't for some reason. Since then, KB and I were both back in the States and Canada again for the winter holidays, and upon arrival back to LV, the title is screaming loud in my mind again. But I feel stuck...again. It's not a story that's easy to articulate, but it is definitely there. I'm wondering if that's why I didn't write for so many months, and am feeling a block about writing on my blog again, even after the grand re-opening following my new year's resolution. I'm not really sure where the rest of this is going, but I figure I better give it a try...

I feel stuck because I don't know how to answer this question. Where is home? This question always becomes exaggerated just before, during and after a trip back to North America. There's lots of confusion prior to the trip when family and friends from the US ask, "What dates are you coming home?" (Wait a minute, I am home here in LV.) But then I find myself feeling very at home while I am there, while still talking about returning back home to LV. What do you do when your heart quite literally belongs in two places? And those two homes are a full day of travel and many hundreds of dollars apart...

So North America feels like home for obvious reasons, that one is not so hard to articulate. All of my nearest and dearest family and friends live there, the people who have known me the longest and love me anyway. :) Those are the ones I don't have to give long-winded explanations to - they know my history, they can know from just looking at me, they just know.... Missing these people has been exasperated lately for two reasons. First, I'm coming up on four years of living in LV. When I come back for a visit, I feel like a whole part of my life is passing me by on the other side of the ocean. It's so nice to be able to spend time together, but it doesn't make up for all the everyday stuff I am missing out on. Secondly, most "family" we have created for ourselves in terms of our closest friends here in LV have moved away thanks to the economic situation. It's tough to keep starting over again, to make those deep connections with people so you can just call them up when something is going on without having to explain yourself from the beginning again. It's just tough.

But then there's that part about LV feeling like home, that's not so easy to put into words. It has to do with this incredible sense of homecoming every time I've been away and I'm landing back at the Riga airport. LV just looks and feels different from above. I feel connected, through songs about this place, through magical moments I've had in our forest, on our land, at the sea.... I can't say any more about it today, it's all I can really articulate.

So one is a sense of home with the people, one is a sense of home with the place...

And I'll end with a photo, which I was intending to post separately, but now seems to tie in quite nicely today. It's a photo of my favorite winter holiday decorations in Riga, the first thing I saw in the mornings when leaving the train station. (Luckily, I snapped the picture just in time on Thursday because on Friday they were gone. Holiday decorations go up quite late in LV, literally just before Christmas, but they stay up through most of January which keeps it feeling nice and bright on those dark mornings....) I love these holiday lights, because it's another one of those things that just makes me smile out loud, and think, "Cool, I'm living in LV...."

2010, I will blog again...

2010-01-18T18:22:00.008+02:00

:)

It was one of my new year's resolutions! Since I probably could have funded my next trip to North America if I had a lat for every time someone asked me "why don't you blog anymore??", I figured it was time to start writing again. Ok, it's taken 18 days into the new year to live up to this resolution, but I guess just this week I finally feel back into the swing of things here in LV.

The quick list of realizations on why I had stopped blogging (excuses, excuses....):

1. The two hours I spend on the train each day serve as my time of reflection. I have composed many a brilliant blog in my head, but by the time I got to a computer, it was already out of my system.

2. Our camera was out of order (less fun to blog without pictures).

3. If you don't have something nice to say, don't say it. Life in LV has been tough, tough, and tougher. The economic crisis elsewhere in the world does not begin to compare to what is happening here. We've had a lot of friends moving away and it's just generally been an emotionally tiring time.

4. Farmville. It took over my life. Sadly, and yet happily, it was also one of my new year's resolutions to stop playing Farmville. Sorry, farmville neighbors. (Notice I have not actually had the courage to delete my existence on Farmville - actually that might suck me back in! - but I'm definitely on sabbatical.....and it's amazing how much more time I have at night and less stress worrying about withering crops.....)

So there, those are the four obstacles I am working toward overcoming in order to blog again. KB has also requested a "column" in my blog - he thinks he may write about architecture and building, music, ice fishing, forestry (mainly chain sawing), and such. So stay tuned. :)

And today, I leave you with a few photos that have come close to capturing the beauty that has been Latvia's winter since we've been back. We returned to 36 cm of snow (yes, KB measured), blocking our driveway, gate and garage - an hour of both of us shoveling just to pull the car in. But it has been perfectly white, blue sky days and an entire week's worth of frost that coated every last tree branch - absolutely gorgeous! (And I love Sigulda! Today walking home from the train I realized on the side streets the snow is still pure white - no fresh snow in over a week, but no pollution!)

The agreement

2009-06-02T15:59:00.003+03:00

Really, they are just too funny...

Today the kids presented me with a surprise - an agreement they all secretly wrote and signed.

"Mrs. Diana is very kind to Grade 2B. She can read a lot. She explains homework very well. She does not yell very much. Agreed by: (signed by all the kids in class)."

I like the she does not yell "very much".

If I don't write about it I just might cry, again...

2009-05-30T11:12:00.002+03:00

Out of any combination of kids in the world to have been my first second grade class ever, I don't think I could possibly imagine a more wonderful group of kids. There are no words to explain how amazing every last one of them has been this year. I love them to pieces, we laugh together every day, we talk about the serious things of life together each day, it is absolutely and in every way like a little family. (And with that I mean to say, don't think there weren't days that we drove each other nuts, like in every good family, but even in those nutty moments, we have still felt pretty good together.) Every year I wonder how I'll really be able to say good-bye and how I could ever feel so good with another class. Of course, I do and it all works out, but man, if I could keep these guys another year I would. (And it doesn't help that they are asking me daily to teach them again next year and that their parents are wanting me to move up with them as well - it's tempting, but I think in the end better for my career if I spend at least two years in a row teaching the same thing - in eight years it's been something different every year.)

So what got this post going in my mind, what got me on the verge of tears again this morning, was reading what the students have written about/to each other. For the end of the year I'm having each child write what they like best about every other child in the class. It's not me actually, it's them, they came up with this ideas themselves sometime in the fall and I wrote myself a post-it and stuck it in my plan book so I'd remember it for the end of the year. In our curriculum (as I've mentioned before) we learn about these profiles and attitudes - good ways for people to be (respectful, tolerant, commited, risk-takers, etc.), so the children themselves decided at the end of the year after we've studied all of them, they should have a chance to let their classmates know which ones they think they are good at. (I mean that alone, how cool are these second grade students of mine??) So now I'm just re-reading them and here goes on some of them.....(you'll see they're not quite sure how to use the words grammatically correctly yet, but trust me, they know what the words mean and are using them in the right places). :)

"Sorry of other times when we were fighting. You are respect to me."

"I think you are very communicator. I like your petshops very much."

"Thank you for being caring to me. I loved being friends!"

"You were very funny. I like funny people! I like being your friend."

"I like soccer too, just like you! You are pretty commitment!"

"I will never forget how fast you can swim, you were faster than all the boys!"

"I will never forget your dancing skills and your beautiful handwriting!"

"You are very balanced because in sports you are good sportsmanship."

"You are good to each children."

"I like you because you believe in people."

(Is it pretty amazing that 7 and 8 year olds can express appreciation to each other about things like this??)

Well, here was the kicker that almost brought me to tears...they were also allowed to write a note to themselves so they can look back on it someday and see what they thought about themselves this year, and how can you not melt when you read something like this...

"Dear Me,
I was a thinker. I was caring and I was an inquirer too.
It all happened in 2B."

Ok, maybe I'm overly emotional this time of year and it doesn't say so much at all, but I read that and I see that my students recognize and appreciate their accomplishments for the year and they think that 2B was a pretty great place to be. She wants herself to remind herself of that years from now when she reads this. I doesn't get much better than that.

This and that from our garden

2009-05-29T18:51:00.006+03:00

Trying to determine what we should weed or leave...

Different kinds of pirts

2009-05-25T19:50:00.006+03:00

Weekly pirts (Latvians saunas) have become part of our lives now that we are living in Sigulda. My skin has never felt so great! There is no normal-sounding way to translate it, but what makes it so great, as I'm sure I've mentioned before, is once you get good and sweaty you get "beaten" with a small "broom", the standard is one made of birch branches. It sounds weird, but it really stimulates your blood flow, helps clean out all your toxins, acts like aromatherapy and is even like a little massage. It really is wonderful.

A while ago we bought a great book all about pirts, so now we have been experimenting with many different kinds of "brooms". Typically you use brooms that have been dried out, but this time of year it's especially great to use fresh ones. So two weeks ago we did a pirts with cherry blossom branches that were in bloom. This weekend we did one with lilacs. Each type of branch is of course meant to help your body in different ways (both with through the scents you breathe in and the healing qualities of the leaves). So here you can see IG and I getting the brooms ready with lilacs from our garden. They smelled divine.A bit of a rainwater flinging fight followed... :)
And Mims the Wondercat of course does not join us in pirts (though she likes creeping around in the sauna when it's dark during the week), but she does a good job of keeping clean anyway. :)

A very cool day!

2009-05-23T09:11:00.003+03:00

Living in Latvia it's pretty regular and normal to meet people who are "famous" on the scale of living in such a small country. We always enjoy reading the tabloids while we're waiting in line at the grocery store because it's almost guaranteed there will be an article about at least one person that we know personally and we can have a good chuckle about it - usually it's one of Latvia's top musicians or sometimes someone I know from working in an international school. But yesterday I had an opportunity that is cool pretty much on the world scale.

Our final unit of the year at school called "I Feel Good" is an inquiry into choices we make each day which have an impact on our own well-being - diet and nutrition, exercise, balancing work and rest, etc. So yesterday we set out to interview a professional athete about the choices he makes each day to be able to feel his best and perform at his best. We took a field trip to the BMX track in Valmiera and interviewed the gold medalist from last year's Olympic games in Beijing.

Let me put it in perspective for you with some facts my class and I learned before the trip. Latvia has been participating in the Olympics since 1924 (Latvia was only six years old as a country at this time, a child). Since that time Latvia has come home with two gold medals, both since it's second independence after the fall of the Soviet Union. Of course that is a huge deal when you are talking about a country of just two million people. And in the first year that BMX became an official Olympic sport, it was a Latvian who took the gold. That's impressive not only on our small scale, but he is the best at what he does in the world. It's entirely possible that I was more excited than the kids on this day.

So the very coolest thing is how nice and down to earth both Maris the medalist and his coach Ivo were toward us. One of my students even showed appreciation about this because she said, "Mrs. Diana, I was a little worried and I thought he might be like the other Latvian men with such short hair [a buzz cut] and he would be not so nice, but he was soooooo nice to us and shared so many great things with us!"

We learned that he also gets so nervous before a race and he told the children how he deals with his nerves by visualizing the last time he did really well in a race and tries to get ready to repeat that. We learned that he has broken both collar bones and several ribs and then got a tattoo of the Chinese symbol for health on his arm, and (knock on wood!) hasn't had any big injuries since then. (I'm sharing all the fun facts we learned, can you tell I'm excited??) And we learned that when his father first brought him to the BMX track at the age of five he cried and cried because he was so scared and it took five visits before he was brave enough to get on a bike. This was the best thing for my class to hear, because after that they all overcame a bit of fear, took a risk and tried their hand on a BMX bike!

I can't post the lovely picture of all of us together with Maris, nor can a post the one where we are sitting around the picnic tables interviewing him and my students look so studious diligently taking notes. But I can post the pictures I made my students take of their goofy teacher who was so excited.... :)

Me sitting on the really real bike that he rode in the Olympics!
Then the kids said, "Mrs. Diana, you have to pretend like you just won the gold medal!"
And finally, here I am holding the really real gold medal! More interesting facts about the medal - the medal is not solid gold, the front is gold plated and the back of the medal is always designed by the hosting country, so this particular medal has a Chinese stone on the back. So there.....and my kids said I get the gold medal in teaching! :)

Weekend photo update

2009-05-17T21:07:00.009+03:00

We are putting up a pajumte (seriously, I can't for the life of me think of what it's called in English). This summer. Think carport but with a floor. Basically we need a place to hang out beside the bonfire in case of rain (or if it's too sunny, as KB says, but if it's sunny, I don't care, I will not be under a roof). So this weekend all six posts went in. Amazing! The goal of course is to be done by Jani (summer solstice at the end of June) - at least with the roof, if not the floor.

And I used a lawnmower for the first time in my life this weekend. The "lawn" was over a hectare large, with molehills every two steps and uphill both ways (literally). I did not hurt myself. :)

:)

2009-04-20T17:41:00.003+03:00

I come back to school after spring break and it's already light outside when I'm walking to the train at 5:30am. And it's no longer a silent walk. I'm accompanied by the bird choir. But there are still no cars on the road, which means I get to see cool things like this....
A very cute hedgehog was sniffing his way toward me on my way to work this morning! How great is that?

I kind of want a tattoo of this on my forehead (but maybe I'll settle for a post-it note I can carry around with me)....

2009-04-14T12:13:00.002+03:00

Life always gives us
exactly the teacher we need
at every moment.
This includes every mosquito,
every misfortune,
every red light,
every traffic jam,
every obnoxious supervisor (or employee),
every illness, every loss,
every moment of joy or depression,
every addiction,
every piece of garbage,
every breath.

(Charlotte Joko Beck)

Photo follow-up

2009-04-13T10:55:00.006+03:00

Happy Easter!

2009-04-12T13:23:00.002+03:00

Incredibly, today has brought the kind of weather that one associates with Easter - sunny, warm and spring like. I can't even remember the last time Easter has been delivered on such a beautiful day! So what's in store for us today?

This morning I went out to the garden and snipped various leaves, needles, small branches so that KB and I could decorate our Easter eggs. The way that happens is the eggs get dipped in water and then you stick the leaves or rice or whatever you want to the egg and then tightly wrap the egg in onion skins. Then the eggs get boiled as normal. Our friends AA and EM are here celebrating with us, and they were quite impressed with our technology of wrapping them into old nylon stockings (an old trick from mom/grandma). Photos will surely follow. The eggs turned out beautifully, each one unique, and we proceeded with the yearly "egg wars", choosing the egg that looks most solid and trying to smash as many eggs that the others' have chosen as you can. KB was the winner, as he has been for the last three years running! Also, as "saimnieks" of the house, he cut his egg evenly into four parts and shared among all the people at the breakfast table, so that we may all have an equally abundant year this year. The neighbors also came over to share their eggs with us, and we shared ours as well.

Today involves a bit more yardwork for us (though the blisters on my hands from raking are indicating that my share of yardwork may be done for the day, so I will retire to a bit of reading in the sunshine). :)

Swinging is a must today, so that mosquitos stay away from you for the summer and also so that you don't sleep the summer away. The higher you swing, the more abundant a year you will have. You are helping to "swing in" the sun.

We will surely end the day with a pirts. Today I'll be trying out using a pussywillow broom. We've been reading up on the different types of brooms you can make and use in the pirts, each with their own healing effects. I guess a photo might be in order in the near future to aid in the explanation of what really goes on in the pirts. And we will be drinking fresh birch tree juice (collected much like sap from maple trees) to rehydrate after pirts.

Warm and sunny Easter wishes from Sigulda! :)

The ice cream man is back...

2009-04-06T19:26:00.002+03:00

As chapter two of how you know spring has returned to Latvia...the ice cream man is back on the train. A few minutes before the trains from Riga take of to their destination, a parade of guys selling stuff comes through the wagons. I have had no problem up until now resisting the guy who sells last month's magazines at a discount as well as the guy who sells flashlights, playing cards, batteries, sewing kits, and other random stuff. But today, the ice cream man returned. Please tell me how I am supposed to resist buying an ice cream for a mere twenty five santims when it gets paraded past me and people all around me are buying and eating them. Today I held strong, and stuck to my healthy after school snack of a rye bread sandwich and flavored water. But for an ice cream queen such as myself, this shall be a true test of will...

Spring is in the air! :)

2009-04-05T19:57:00.008+03:00

Despite the lingering sore throat today, I couldn't not go outside and sit under the perfectly blue sky and soak up some sun in the 15+ degree weather. It was the first real taste of spring, as evidenced by the first white crocus blooming in front of the house, the first butterfly of the season (both KB and I saw a colorful one, meaning it will be a colorful summer for us), the many birds hanging out in our birdhouse and birdfeeder (a source of great entertainment for Mims from her window seat), and the large variety of insects finding their way already into our house (there is something to be said for the screens on windows in the US). So I got out my thickest scarf, made myself a cup of tea, and sat outside reading for a good part of the afternoon.
In the following picture you can see the fountain we uncovered earlier in the week when most of the snow finally melted! The owners of the house let us know that they have had goldfish swimming around in there summers past. I thought Bubbles (the class fish) might have an interesting summer vacation except they did also warn that the goldfish sometimes get eaten by birds... As well, in the past they've had a chair in the fountain as a place to sit down and cool off after pirts (sauna). :)
A slightly wider view of the yard, including the swingset and sandbox (great attraction for godchildren!) and the shed in the corner which also has a meat smoker in front of it.
Our patio with the door to the garage, which connects to the house. To the very left you can see the white outdoor fireplace where we grill out.
A view of the back of the house against today's beautiful blue sky...
So there is a bit of a sneak peek from the outside - anyone want to come visit? :) We've had guests every weekend since moving in and we're looking forward to a great spring and summer of being able to spend time outdoors, in our very own backyard!

The bug that wouldn't go away

2009-04-03T10:14:00.002+03:00

That seems to be all that's in the news from me currently - I'm on my third sick day this month. :( It seems to just be one really persistent bug that keeps showing up, yuck. KB is my nurse, monitoring my Theraflu intake, which is actually working wonders. Clearly I just need to be more mindful of taking care of myself, my immune system is obviously just shot at the moment. Any suggestions?

The kids at school are getting worried. They frequently write me letters (and I always write them back) and lots of the letter lately have had comments like "I hope you feel well today", "I hope your tummy doesn't hurt today", "I wish you have good health"... Have I mentioned how wonderful and caring they are? They're really great kids. KB suggested that we have to re-title the story they wrote earlier in the year to "The Not-So-Healthy Teacher and The Working Kids". Our next unit of inquiry will be "I Feel Good" and I think our project may be figuring out how to get the teacher more healthy....

Sun update :)

2009-03-28T18:59:00.003+02:00

I'm writing this at 7pm and it's not yet dark out! Yesterday when I left the house at 5:40 for the train the sun was already on it's way up! Tonight we've got daylight savings, meaning tomorrow night at 8pm it won't be dark yet! Hooray!!!

We've still got several centimeters of snow on the ground (in Sigulda, not Riga), but we've started trying to sprout some herbs and veggies under flourescent bulbs in our basement. It is highly exciting to be getting ready for a summer full of fresh salads right from our back yard.

And I love that my kids at school are regularly asking me to open a window (even though it's still hovering around 0 outside) so they can get a "smell of spring". We actually had a New Year's style countdown for 1:44 in our classroom last Friday because the kids knew that was the official beginning of spring. So any time the snow decides to read the memo so we can start seeing some green it will be great! (Until then, still working hard to have appreciation for the white....it's better than gray, right?)

Living like a camel

2009-03-21T17:00:00.003+02:00

In my morning train reading this week, I uncovered the analogy of living like a camel or living like a horse. A camel needs very little food and water, it chews and re-chews for a long time. A horse will eat and eat, it is never satisfied and is always looking for more. (Disclaimer: a) I am paraphrasing and b) I'm not an animal expert so I'm taking it at face value that this is generally true of camels and horses.) The idea is that many of us are horses in life, always looking for the next thrill in life, never really satisfied in the moment. We need more and more and more just to feel alive. Camels, on the other hand, take what they are given and get the most they possibly can out of it, appreciate it, use it, and re-use it when the going gets tough. So I'm choosing to try to be more of a camel in life, savoring the moment.

Case and point, there has been a fresh layer of snow (on the already exisiting several inches) every morning this week. At first I found myself doing the typical grumblings in my head, wishing the snow away and fiercely hoping for spring to show up soon. But as I was having my train potato time, I recognized that it really was the beautiful kind of snow cover that makes the world a brighter place because every single branch and rooftop white. I thought, why shouldn't I look at this snowfall as magical and breathtaking as the first snowfall of the year? The snow doesn't know that I'm really waiting for spring, so I've been looking at it through new eyes all week, appreciating that which currently is, because that's what I've been given. It's kind of like taking yourself outside of time for a moment, so you're not stressing about that which has been or will be, and training yourself to just be with what you've got (not being biased because it's March and the calendar says it should be spring, but just being....), if that makes sense..... It's a bit of work inside your mind to get to that point, but it's nice.

In other news, I'm also remembering what it means to be a decent human being again. That might sound sad or even horrible, but Riga took it out of me. I've actually been embarrassed by my own non-decent human being-ness at moments (but the good news is, it's not too late and I can still fix it)! For example, I found myself elbowing and pushing to get in the line to get off the train in Sigulda and when another passenger actually took a step back and let me into the line with a smile, I'm sure I turned beet red as I thought "oh, yeah, that's the polite and decent way to exit a train".

I can pinpoint the day when I started having to be rude and pushy on public transport. KB and I had gone to the beach on one of those perfect summer days together with our friend PP. When we were preparing to come home, the first train was absolutely packed full - people were literally pushing themselves in with body parts still hanging out, sucking tummies in when the doors closed, just to get on that train. PP (who'd been living in LV a while longer than us) pushed himself into that train, while we held back and politely said, we'll wait for the next train. I remember him waving goodbye to use before the door closed - if he didn't have a smile and a beer bottle in his hand, I'm sorry to say, it would've looked like he was being deported. Two more trains came and went, each time it was the same story, until finally KB and I realized, if we wanted to make it home that night, we were going to have to shove our way in too. It was the worst experience, where mothers were actually crying out that their children were squashed and couldn't breathe, and that's where I started learning that being polite wasn't always going to help you survive here. So I'm really relieved and glad to be in a place that is letting me get back some of that decent human being-ness.

What else? The second graders are great, as always. What other job do you constantly get to hear funny and innocent quotes from people who are growing so quickly and working figuring out the world? For example, "I'm sooo glad it's lunch time! I'm hungry as a .... as a .... raccoon!"

Finally, there is always a good story to tell about Mims the Wondercat. She still continues to love spicy food and was the entertainment point of our guests last night as she devoured spicy Mexican chicken (prepared by a friend in true Mexican style and just on the borderline for me of being able to eat it)! And she's always been fascinated with closets (figuring out how to break into them and pull out all kinds of treasures), so living in the new house is no exception and one of her first maneuvers was to figure out how to open these closet doors. The newest development is that she has now figured out how to open a closet, close the door behind herself and just make a nest for herself in our clothes. She scared the life our of me today when I opened the closet and started digging for a sweatshirt and all of a sudden her head popped up. Who knew you might have to baby-proof a closets and drawers for a cat?

And fire

2009-03-14T10:12:00.002+02:00

It's such a great meditation to just sit and stare at the fire at night. I can see how it's programmed into our genes that flames are calming and therapeutic.

I like the train

2009-03-12T20:22:00.003+02:00

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.

Three decades

2009-03-06T11:08:00.004+02:00

Birthdays have always been a big deal for me. Ever since I was young, I've had a particular dislike of St. Patrick's Day because it was in "my" month and all that green and shamrocky stuff took away from what in my mind should have been a purple month all about me. (Save shamrock shakes served at McDonald's during the month of March, those were also invented just for me and they can stay.) There was a rule growing up that we weren't allowed to talk about birthdays until exactly one month before the fact. (Torture at the time, but I now fully understand the need for adults to maintain their sanity, and I've enforced that same rule in my own classroom.) You can believe come February 5, I was all about planning for March 5. At least that's the way I remember it. It's no wonder at some point I captured the nickname Birthday Princess...

So I've always made a big deal about celebrating it, but at the same time internally, from a very young age, birthdays have been a serious time of reflection for me in a way that I'm sure was well beyond my years. On my 13th birthday after all my friends had gone home after the party, I cried crocodile tears because I was no longer a child. (I remember my mom comforting me and finally calming me by putting it into perspective and saying "If you think you feel old because you're a teenager now, imagine how I feel - I have a daughter who's a teenager now!") I'm quite sure 10 was even traumatic for me because I was already in the double digits. I recognize this is not the standard reaction for most children who just can't wait to grow up and be teenagers. I can only attribute it to some kind of deep, soulful understanding that a good childhood really is the happiest, safest time of our lives, and already then, without really knowing it, I knew it would only get harder from here on out and I was trying to savor it while I still had it. Maybe that's one of the many reasons I'm a teacher, so I can still have access to that part of life and if possible help make it a bit happier for those souls who are still lucky enough to be in that carefree time.

26 was another big reflective one for me. I was past a quarter of a century and close enough to 30 that I really dissected my life and set some serious goals for myself as to what I wanted to accomplish by the time I reached 30. Mostly it had to do with getting my life in order so that I'd be ready to have a family. Clearly I could plan all I wanted, but life had different plans for me. So yesterday, when I passed that looming three decade mark in my life, I found that I'm still a bit dazed and confused at how dramatically life can change in a relatively short period of time. I'm still diligently and sometimes painfully working on finding some kind of balance between what I was, what I am and what I'd like to be. And yet I keep coming up on this idea of life leading me to a more laidback space, where I just might learn to let it go and to just be.

At any rate, I definitely don't have it figured out just yet. The more I experience, the less I know. In one sense, that's exciting, in the other sense, I sort of feel I've hit a point where it's just a bit too much right now. I was recently talking with a colleague about this very thing - living outside your comfort zone is good, it pushes you to grow as a person, but at the same time, you still need just enough comfort to feel ok with it all. And that's where I am, on this birthday. I've heard over and over again how the 30s are better than the 20s, and that is something I am definitely looking forward to!

All that being said, March 5 was quite a nice day for me this year. I got lots of flowers at work again, so that you could already smell spring from my classroom coming up the steps to the second floor! I even received a basket of flowers with warm wishes from Africa which was a terrific surprise! :) I also have plenty of chocolate to keep me sane at work for the next month, which is very necessary (certainly not because of the students, but the politics of the school) and I received a beautiful stone necklace from my students. The day had started bright and early before the sun with a birthday card in the mailbox of our new home - my parents had sent it just three days before and it miraculously arrived right on my birthday. (I realize I'm getting more sentimental when a card made me cry!) And the day ended with us visiting a friend who had just recently climbed Mt. Kilimanjaro and been on a safari in Tanzania, so we went to watch her slideshow of photos. Absolutely beautiful and breathtaking - there is so much more to see and do in the next three (plus) decades, that is for sure... As we were leaving, the conversation ended with this friend telling us how she has gone out and done all these amazing things in life because came to realize that the only thing holding her back in life is herself. And that's what was on my mind as I fell asleep on March 5 the thirtieth, the purplest, and simultaneously happiest and most reflective day of the year....

On a new path

2009-03-01T17:56:00.003+02:00

"As a single footstep will not make a path on the earth, so a single thought will not make a pathway in the mind. To make a deep physical path, we walk again and again. To make a deep mental path, we must think over and over the kind of thoughts we wish to dominate our lives." (Henry David Thoreau)

This quote showed up just at the right time (as so many things is life tend to do). New town, new home, new decade of my life....good time to work on charting out a new path.... :)

On moving

2009-02-27T10:24:00.005+02:00

No pictures yet, but lots of random thoughts to post, and if I don't get them down, I'm sure they'll get lost in my head (it's a very busy place)....

* We have spent the last week marvelling at how much stuff one can accumulate in three years time. Three years ago, KB and I each arrived with just three suitcases a piece. It took us one moving van and four car trips to get everything to Sigulda!

* If I didn't know it before, I know it now. I'm allergic to dust. There was a lot of it in the moving/cleaning process, so it was lots of sneezing and watery eyes for me. I've even got the red Rudolph nose to prove it.

* While moving down 113 steps is easier than moving up, it's still quite a painful task. When IG and I went shopping for her wedding dress two days after the big move, we just kept laughing because were quite sure we looked like old ladies wearing wigs from the back, so slowly we were moving through the streets of Riga.

* We have lots of good friends to thank for helping us in the moving process - I can honestly say it wouldn't have happened without them! AD and IG take the biggest gold star for helping us pack up the treehouse as well (between the four of us we got it all packed up in a day!). Thanks also to AV, TK and EM as well as AK and our former neighbors for donating boxes to us! All who helped will be rewarded with many a weekend in our pirts (sauna)! :)

* It's a good thing that unpacking happens after packing because it's generally more fun. It's really starting to feel like home already!

* Mima the Wondercat is just now coming back to her senses. She spent the whole week in a pretty crazy state, as she was slowly watching things disappear from her treehouse home. Moving day was the fifth time in her life that she has actually been outside. She screamed the entire way to Sigulda. She has this thing about pooping when she is nervous (every time we go to the vet, let's not forget the first infamous visit when she pooped on the seat of the taxi....) but this time she peed herself too and was completely yellow when we arrived to the new home. I wiped her down with a wet towel as best I could after we let her go in the bathroom, hoping she would start cleaning herself, but she was too scared/embarrassed by her own smell to do that. So she got the first bath of her life. She is not a normal cat, because she actually really enjoyed the bath. She only got upset when we took her out to dry her. Then she went into hiding for the rest of the day and only came around to check us out while we were sleeping. The following day she went into hiding again and only came out at night when I was the only one home unpacking. Now she's back to being a dog and came straight to bed with me and slept at my feet as usual. She's been hanging out on the window sills amazed to see something more than just the sky. This morning she was growling at the flag.

* Having a fireplace is so cozy. I love it.

* Even though I won't feel too rested going back to work next week after our "ski break", I'm glad we moved during this time. I can't imagine trying to do it all in the evening while still working during the day.

* Starting Monday I will check out my new commute. It involves a five minute walk to the train in Sigulda, one hour on the train to Riga, then a 7 minute bus trip from the train station across the bridge, and another 10 minute walk to school. I'm really glad I found the bus from the train station over the bridge, because otherwise it would've been another 40 minute walk from train to school (I tried it out one day last week - I somehow thought it was a big closer, but no, it's over 2 km). As long as the train isn't too full and I can get a seat, I think I'll be fine with reading, sleeping or doing homework. I don't see sitting in the train as a waste of time. And if I have to stand, KB has offered me his mp3 player, where I can download and watch some of my TV shows. I think it will be fine. It will be an adjustment, but once I get home I'll just be able to totally relax.

* There is really something to be said for living in a home as opposed to an apartment in the city. Space to breathe and to just be.....it's nice.

* I hope I can discipline myself to start writing shorter, more frequent posts again rather than these long ones. They are more fun to write and I'm sure to read..... One of my many goals for self-improvement during this time of change. :)

* And now back to unpacking so I can relax and watch KB on TV tonight. He helped with the move and then had to take off for Ventspils for three days for Eurovision semi-finals. I actually don't mind, because that means I get to unpack everything how I want it. Hopefully, he'll be pleasantly surprised when he comes home on Sunday!

hahahahaha......

2009-02-16T22:51:00.007+02:00

In these tough economic times, it's good to have a Plan B... Presenting the debut to my acting career. (I'm still laughing.....)

Balance

2009-02-01T17:44:00.002+02:00

One month in, I would give a good evaluation to my resolution of Balance in life... :)

Something that will help me to achieve that even better this year is an upcoming change at the end of this month. We will be moving to a house that we will be renting in Sigulda! This means I will now have an hour train-ride communte in the mornings and evenings, but it also means I'll be coming to fresh air, quiet, green, a garden and a home.

How to start up again?

2009-01-25T14:52:00.003+02:00

You know it's been a while since the last blog when you get an email from your mom saying, your last blog was January 4th, is that true? :) I'm glad someone out there is taking an interest. :)

Reasons for the absence of new blogs:

1. I'm trying to do a really good job of my new year's mantra (the fat elephant on the tiny stool), so most nights that means shortening the to-do list and I'm taking time to relax.

2. Writing reports ate up a fair bit of my "free time" the first weeks of January.

3. I haven't been so good with taking pictures myself lately, which leaves me to wait for pictures from others, and when I've promised pictures on the blog, but can't deliver them, I have a hard time writing about anything else.

4. Once I've stopped writing for a while I feel like I need a really good story to get back in the game. No such stories have come up lately, but I figure I've gotta start writing again sometime, so here I go, sharing a list of 25 things about myself, as I have also published on Facebook after being "tagged".

Rules: Once you've been tagged, you are supposed to write a note with 25 random things, facts, habits, or goals about you.

1. This is my second attempt at writing this list. I stopped my first list because my first ten comments seemed more negative than I wanted them to be (though they probably really weren't). That's a pretty good indication of how hard I'm still working to keep a happy and optimistic outlook on life living in a place that can be pretty negative.

2. I love, love, love (am in love with?) Ben and Jerry's ice cream, still and forever. Sometimes I spend 5 Ls ($10) on a pint of Haagen Dazs ice cream because it's the closest thing here in LV. I've had people smuggle it into the country for me.

3. I'm coming up on my three year anniversary of living in Latvia (February 13), and realize that any time you open a new door for yourself it just makes life more complicated. Interesting, too, but definitely complicated. Nothing is perfect, there are plusses and minuses to everything in life.

4. I have a phobia about belly buttons (something to the effect of that's the place where all your skin is attached and held together so belly buttons shouldn't be touched).

5. I'm finding that I am really enjoying teaching grade 2 after years of being a preschool teacher, though some days I wonder if it's not this particular group of kids that is making it so great. If anyone can do it, they will be the ones to save the world.

6. I try to exercise by doing Pilates at home at least five days a week, which means waking up at 5:30am. I have more energy and feel better on the days I stick with it!

7. I also try to start each day with a quote or idea, kind of like a positive mantra for the day.

8. I really like to read and wish my eyes didn't close up on me after just a couple of pages of reading at night.

9. If the "unique" personalities of my past and future pets is any indication on what kind of children I will raise, I'm a little worried about what might happen....

10. I own enough children's books that my dad once recommended I might take out insurance on them, much as people sometimes insure large CD collections.

11. I can't stand to watch Latvian TV (horrible, horrible voice overs), so I'm really glad that we can now download and watch shows through our computer. I'm hooked on Grey's Anatomy, 24, Lost, The Office and Gilmore Girls.

12. I'm officially addited to Scrabble and Pathwords on Facebook.

13. My spirituality and beliefs have changed immensely over the last few years, and while I can feel what it is that I now believe, it's somehow not something that I can easily articulate in a few words. I've come to appreciate the complexity and individuality of it all.

14. I can't really get my head around the fact that I'll be 30 in a few short weeks.

15. I appreciate the sun a lot more than I ever have in my life before.

16. I prefer having "campouts" and sleeping on the couch rather than in bed. I also usually put on my pajamas as soon as I get home at night. Being cozy is the best.

17. I really hope that KB and I wil be able to fulfill our big dreams of a house at Jaunvitagas some day. I don't like that the economy can make us so doubtful of our own dreams.

18. I feel most peaceful wandering the woods at Jaunvitagas. I love being able to pick wild berries in the summer and mushrooms in the fall and then cooking with them at home.

19. I wish it were easier to see my family more than once a year.

20. It is 113 steps up to our "treehouse" apartment, no lift.

21. I currently have several craft projects going: knitting a scarf, dying fabric and cross-stitching for a round robin quilt project with five other women in my family, and I've been trying to sew a skirt on my sewing maching since October.

22. I love having lots of plants in our apartment. There are currently 46 plants living in the treehouse.

23. I like to cook and bake and I especially like having people to cook and bake for.

24. I don't think I'll ever stop learning how to be a better teacher. I am now about to sit down with homework for an online course about teaching children with dyslexia.

25. If I could be doing anything right now, it would be to jump ahead some months and be relaxing on a beach here in LV with my husband. Warm sun, sand on bare feet, fresh breeze....

The ultimate Sunday night

2009-01-04T21:31:00.004+02:00

This is the Sunday night of all Sunday nights. You can try not to let it eat away at the last hours of a lovely day off, but it still creeps in, that dread of totally not looking forward to Monday morning. The one after winter vacation from school for me has always been the ultimate Sunday night. I vividly remember crying alligator tears about it in elementary school.

The night before the first day of school in August is always filled with this bittersweetness of not wanting the summer to end, but there's jittery excitement because it's something new. Plus you've been away long enough, that you have some energy going back into it. Fall break, ski break, spring break, those are long enough to feel like you've had a bit of a break away, but you're not too far out of routine to somehow get back into it. But this Sunday night after two and a half weeks away is a tough one - I haven't yet found a way to make peace with it. Plus it's the dead of winter, and the treehouse is a pretty cozy place. At this moment, I would be content to be paid to be a slug on our couch for the rest of my life.

The great news is that we have had four white and bright sunny days in a row this year - that must be some kind of record! It's been gorgeous outside! I attribute that to a snowy white candle I bought at the end of last year, and I burned it as a meditation for snow in January. My other meditation for the new year was the wine I drank on New Year's Eve, called Balance with a fat elephant balancing on a tiny stool. I'm going to be the elephant on the stool this year.

I'm still compiling holiday photos, but for now, here is a sneak peak of our New Year's Eve celebration. I'll save the details for the rest of the photos.

The mantra in our treehouse for the year: "2009 will be just fine..." :)

Slightly delirious

2008-12-29T21:13:00.003+02:00

The treehouse stinks of burnt plastic plus magnolia vanilla air freshener and a powerful but delicious gingerbread candle. I'm freezing because the windows have been open half an hour and slightly delirious from the smell... This may be a signal from the universe that I am really meant to do nothing during this winter break...

I've been doing a lot of relaxing this break because my body has given me serious signs I need to slow down - weird piercing random headaches along with total lightheadedness for a week had me quite concerned and I totally slowed down (aka: retired to being a slug on my couch) for a week before Christmas. (I "passed" all the tests the doctor put me through, so all signs point to stress that I need to manage a bit better.) This was followed by a Christmas cold/flu that my husband shared with me, so it has been all about reading good books and watching lots of movies the last week and a half. The only truly constructive things I have done include the following:

1. KB drove me to school for one hour so I could change the water in Bubbles' tank so that he survives the holidays. He is spending Christmas and New Years at school by himself this year after the close escape from death that we had last holiday season...

2. Spent Christmas Eve in Burtnieki with IG's family. It was quite nice to be in a family setting again for Christmas this year. We baked more piparkukas and piragi and had lots of great food to eat, and we sang Christmas and other songs. I hope we didn't get anyone else sick.

3. I have been attempting to dye fabric. Thus the treehouse smells of burnt plastic and I think I may just need to go back to only relaxing....

I am participating with five other women in my family on round robin quilts, where each person adds something to each quilt, writes a little something a journal that travels with that quilt, and it the end everyone has their own special quilt to keep, along with the story of the quilt. Since I, however, do not quilt, I have a different task. To dye fabric.

My sister sent me fabric dye before the holidays and I bought the linen here to dye a bit for each quilt within each person's color scheme. Krix and I have been in serious communication for a week now over email and skype as she has been trying to coach me through a technique they all learned for dying the fabric. This invovles sprinking the dye on damp fabric, putting it into a ziploc bag and microwaving it for two minutes. The part about the plastic bag in a microwave concerned me, but both Krix and mom confirmed having used this technique before.

The first attempt was just amusing, as KB was helping me with his advice (including using a fish net for a better "sprinkling" effect). We stared down the microwave nervously during the first two minutes, but other than some leakage, which I was able to clean up, nothing too damaging occured. A few of the other dyes did leave as permanent stain in the microwave, so I decided to set it aside for the night.

Tonight, however, during the second attempt, my microwave burned a massive charred hole into the first plastic bag. I turned it down from 800 power to 600 and the microwave still burned holes into the next two bags, which I quickly removed before they charred. So the question is, are European microwaves really that different from American microwaves? Or should I really just not attempt any work during this holiday and stick to 100% relaxation?

I'm slightly too delirious to make the decision now. Maybe I'll attempt it again tomorrow when I can think more clearly again...

In waiting...

2008-12-20T19:58:00.002+02:00

Hooray! Tomorrow is officially the shortest day of the year. As of Monday, we gain back three seconds of daylight. That is the best news all year. :)

Ziemas un Saulgriezu kalnos
Saule un cilveki kapj -
Parlukot darbus, kas veikti,
Sagaidit jaunos, kas nak...

Commentary on the black and white

2008-12-13T13:06:00.003+02:00

I've been deep in thought about the black and white world for the last week or so. It was triggered by a concert we attended last week, a legendary Latvian rock singer celebrating thirty years on the stage. The concert was quite well done with a short text, poems or food for thought in between every couple of songs. The thought that stuck with me most was the idea that winter is the time of year that we should use to rejuvenate ourselves much like nature does, to be quiet and still and look inside ourselves to see what work you can do on yourself. In a bleak outside world, you look inside yourself and in other people to find color. Perhaps not the most eloquent translation/paraphrase, but you get the idea.... Also, not this was not a novel idea to me, but somehow it has really spoken to me this time around.

This was followed by our trip to Jaunvitagas to get the Christmas tree. (As an aside, Ojars the Batmobile is officially banned from another trip to Jaunvitagas until spring - this time we got stuck in the snow for only three minutes, as opposed to the three hours we were stuck in the mud the week before.....) KB and I are finally "feeling" holidays again for the first time in years and decided to start creating our own traditions. We chose our own tree to bring home, but also decorated a tree that stays (thus the ribbon tieing in the last post).

There was very little snow on the ground in Riga, but the scene changed quickly as we drove out of town. Everything was breathtakingly, beautifully white and we couldn't help commenting on it the whole drive. It was another cloudy day in LV, but the grey skies have a very different feel when everything else is covered in white. We decided it felt like we were living in a black and white photograph, and suddenly the winter did not seem so bleak anymore, but rather extraordinary. When KB saw the photos we had taken (in particular, the one of me carrying the tree), he said it looked like one of those black and white photos with just one part colored in. And so, at least for now, the way I look at everything around me has changed. During my recess duty this week, I wasn't feeling down about another cloudy day, but I looked at all the color the kids were creating in a black and white world - not only in the literal sense with their multicolored snow gear but also the color and energy they were creating from inside themselves - each one something special enough to be colored in so it could stand out in a black and white world.

Living in the extremes here in LV, the cycles of life are that much more pronounced and I have developed a much deeper appreciation for the way our universe has been created and all that we can stand to learn from it, if we are just open and willing. So here's to the black and white which is winter - of course the white always helps (so send some more our way please, if you've got it), but there's just as much to be said for the grey, too. Because this morning when I woke up with my eyes on a bright, crisp blue sky, it felt like winning some sort of lottery, and I know it's going to be a good day!

Finding a bit of color in a black and white world

2008-12-09T18:20:00.015+02:00

Friend or foe?

2008-12-06T19:35:00.004+02:00

I bought a new hat. We're not sure if Mima is wildly in love with it or hates it with a passion, but either way, she attacks it any chance she gets. Because of that, the hat strategically lives at the highest place on the coat rack, though I wouldn't put it past Mims to plot out a late night attack while we are sleeping.And here is evidence of how I take winter seriously now that it's my third winter in LV with recess duty. (I don't know why my face looks crooked or what the goofy expression is all about, but it's the only picture I could get KB to take on our way out the door today.)

How we celebrated Latvia's 90th birthday

2008-11-24T08:52:00.008+02:00

This first picture is totally unrelated to Latvia's 90th birthday, except that it happened that day. It is too cute not to share. We started the day at the studio because KB had to be there for a photo shoot, and here is godson A with his dad, learning the tricks of the trade.This was the first sunny 18th of November I have experienced in Latvia! It was like a big birthday present for us. The night before it had snowed enough that everything was just white and bright that morning. The wind was brisk, which made it a crisp day, but the blue skies made all the difference.

So we started our celebration by laying flowers at the freedom monument.
Then we met AD, IG and Mr. and Mrs. P. for a quick cup of tea to warm up before the military parade. Here we are all bundled and patriotic trying to scope out the best spot to stand for the parade. (2pm in the afternoon, you'll notice the sun is already on it's way down.)

I swear the parade keeps getting shorter and shorter every year (or I'm already just familiar with everything I will see). Regardless, the best part is always the helicopter carrying Latvia's flag. This year we decided to stand on the bridge, which is the best view of the helicopter as it goes right overhead. I felt a bit teary about it all this year (I think especially after having seen the movie Rigas Sargi) as we were standing on the very bridge where people had risked their own lives fighting for their vision of independence for Latvia excatly 90 years ago.
After the parade we were not quick enough to get to a restaurant before they were all full, so the six of us came back to the treehouse, made our own pizzas and watched some of the concerts on TV. Then we headed over to the P residence, where they have access to a 15th floor balcony, and watched the fireworks from afar. Considering this was a Tuesday, waking up for work on Wednesday morning was tough enough, but well worth it.

Being a bear

2008-11-23T16:06:00.002+02:00

Today, I hibernate. I really should go the grocery store, most importantly because we are totally out of dish soap, second most importantly because the food Mims has left in her bowl is all the cat food we have in the house, but I think it will wait until tomorrow. Snow has been blowing from the sky all day (not falling, but fiercely blowing), our slanted windows are fully covered with icy white crystals, and I can't bring myself to get off this snuggly couch. I can't even say I've been productive about my hibernation. I wrote a lovely to-do list this morning, which did not include playing computer games, yet that is how I've spent the day. I have homework to do, newsletters to write, Xmas presents to knit, a book to read, naps to take, movies to watch, but I can't stop the addiction of trying to beat my own high score on pathwords and staries.

I realize I've been delinquent about blogging lately. Work has been a bear (and not in the hibernation sense of the word). We had a four day weekend for Latvia's 90th birthday on November 18th - two days of which were filled with interesting stuff and one day of which was totally wasted recovering from the interesting stuff, but those posts will have to wait because I don't have the pictures in order yet. Hopefully that will get done before December.

The good news is that the mega doses of Vitamin D my dad researched and recommended are seriously helping with the mood this year. That doesn't mean I don't long for a bit of sunshine, but I'm not experiencing the same sense of doom I have in the past. Additionally, as my body was kind enough to dream me a Ben and Jerry's experience, it has also allowed me to dream of the beach and sunshine several nights, where I literally feel the warmth and glow of the sun on my skin, and that seems to be enough.

Homework or newsletter next? Ok, one more computer game, and then I'll decide....

The next chapter in the adventures of Mims the Wondercat

2008-11-13T17:25:00.006+02:00

Full moons make Mims completely mental.

It was a very bright full moon last night and as the treehouse (aka: our apartment) is on the top floor of the building with slanted ceilings and therefore slanted windows, we have no curtains. Mims has been sleeping in the bed lately since it has gotten colder (usually creeps her way directly between us and make a little hotdog of herself during the night), but all of a sudden at 3am last night, she had to start running laps around the treehouse. Then she got into the potpourri in the bathroom, which meant she was batting dried flowers around the bedroom. I kicked her out and closed the door. Somehow she broke in about two seconds later. I kicked her out again, moved the potpourri to the kitchen counter (at 3am it made sense that this would stop her craziness), closed both doors leading to our bedroom, and continued my nyquil induced sleep until the morning. (Yeah, you know she was being a serious maniac, when she roused me from nyquil sleep.) In the morning, there were bits of dried flowers in every corner of the treehouse and the potpourri bowl was totally empty, so she had been dancing on the kitchen counters as well. KB had been so kind to bring me home a pack of cough drops which he had left on the kitchen table - I still saw them there at 3am, but at 6am they were missing and nowhere to be found. Still haven't found them. Maybe she ate them and that's what made her so cuckoo. Who knows, but clearly I'm not the only one affected by the full moon in our house.....

Warning

2008-11-09T17:11:00.004+02:00

If you go to see a Russian play which is called a comedy, it might not really have a funny ending. In fact, it might have a pretty morbid ending. Like the main character kills himself and then the play ends.

We had a lovely evening at the theater last night. As KB does some work in a music studio which is in the building of Dailes Theater, he has the chance to get tickets for 2 Ls (as opposed to 12-20 Ls) a couple of hours before the show, depending on what's still available. We haven't taken too much advantage of this yet (preferring up until now to instead go the route of creeping on shows from backstage while sipping wine and snacking on food from the cafe), but this winter we decided one cure against the blahblahs would be to do something cultural now and again. We had some friends join us for the show last night and had ourselves a pretty nice evening.

Except it was just a learning experience about the cultural norms of what is a comedy. Don't get me wrong, there were some funny parts (in an absurd, psychotic sort of way)... I just understand now that comedy doesn't mean the same thing everywhere around the world.

And for the record, it was a Russian play translated to Latvian (I have not yet learned Russian).

It's been busy

2008-11-08T10:37:00.002+02:00

Come November, and I'm working much, much more, not less. There seems to be no end in sight to this maddness of working until 6 or 7 pm on the average evening and still bringing home work on the weekend. I seriously find myself wishing most nights that I could just put on my pajamas and stay at school over night. Not because I would rather be at school than at home, but the thought of bundling up in winter gear just to go out into the dark to have a thirty to fifty minute walking and trolley bussing commute home (complete with elbowing, pushing and shoving) only to eat dinner, fall asleep and get up at 5:30am to exercise and come right back to school again in the morning is exhausting. Next week is accreditation week, meaning a team of ten people will be spending the week at our school, coming in to observe at our classrooms any time, free to ask me or my students questions about anything at any time. Just a bit stressful. Ok, at least that is followed by the a four day weekend thanks to Latvia's 90th birthday! I'd like to say that after that things will calm down, but by then we are gearing up for the madness that is the winter festival. So I'm already counting down the days until December 19th, the first day of our winter vacation. It cannot come quickly enough.

Luckily, the good news is that my students are still stellar! I have started aerobics on Thursday nights at school, which happily gives me more energy that evening to do a bit of homework when I get home. (I just started an online class about teaching children with dyslexia to help out one of my students this year.) Also, we have a field trip planned to Lacu Maiznica to see how bread is made and make our own cookies as well. For those of you who have been there, or had the chance to eat their bread, cookies or grauzdini, you know what a treat this is to look forward to!

So sorry for not having more exciting things to write about lately, but the extent of my existance is truly eat, sleep, school. It's a good thing I like what I do.

Oh, and knitting season has started again, so during the five minutes I can keep my eyes open at night, some lovely Xmas presents are being created. :)

Yum.....

2008-10-30T09:18:00.005+02:00

Big thanks to MP and JS! We cashed in the second part of your wedding gift last night and had a major sushi fest at home - YUM!!!! The funny thing is, they gave us six sets of chopsticks, clearly they didn't think just two people would put back this much food. Oh, but we did. It was lovely. :)

Time to get more active

2008-10-27T19:12:00.002+02:00

Nekā nedarīšana ir visai nogurdinoša, jo tu nevari apstāties un atpūsties.

Translation: Doing nothing is completely exhausting, because you can't stop and rest.

That was in my horoscope today, and it helped me set my goal for fall break, to start doing more! Reading that resonated all too true for me, as this school year I have been working so much and convincing myself that I'm too tired for anything by the time I get home. It is good to choose to be lazy sometimes, but I think I've been choosing it too much lately. I've set some projects for myself this fall break - some school-related which I have forbade myself to even think about until Wednesday and some personal projects. I'm optimistic about a good week coming.

We cleaned the house like maniacs (9 am until 5 pm yesterday), and realized the house hadn't had a good cleaning since well before the wedding in June. It feels good and it's so much easier to be productive. The mess just made me feel like closing my eyes and sleeping all the time. We rewarded ourselves (or really created motivation for ourselves) by having a group of friends over to play Apples to Apples last night, which is always fun and funny. We also started watching the Trailer Park Boys with them again. Ricky, Julian and Bubbles are such a great way to combat the winter blahblahs, I think we'll go through all seven seasons again this winter.

I can still taste it!

2008-10-26T07:24:00.004+02:00

I just spent at least half the night dreaming that I was eating all my favorite Ben and Jerry's ice creams in turn - half baked, chocolate chip cookie dough, caramel sutra, peace of cake, phish food - and I could truly taste every sweet bite in my dream! Upon waking this morning, I wasn't sad that this hadn't really happened, but I atually somehow felt satisfied because it was such a real dream (and how nice that I didn't feel like I rolled out of bed - no calories in dream food, even after eating ice cream for about four hours straight). So many of my colleagues have headed out of the country to Ben and Jerry's selling locations during our fall break, so last week I had countless conversations of "Eat some ice cream for me while you're there!" How nice of my brain to offer me an escape to ice cream land as well. It's really great how our bodies and minds can find ways to give us what we need sometimes, even if it feels impossible. :)

High noon

2008-10-22T10:15:00.003+03:00

It's been a beautiful and relatively sunny October in Latvia this year. Yesterday, however, when I had recess duty at high noon on a crisp and sunny fall day, I noticed that shadows were quite long and the sun was sitting rather low in the sky. I felt the first morsels of dread, as I know the next time I will really, really get to feel and enjoy the sun on a sunny day won't be until about April again. Sigh..... It's pitch black as I wake up in the morning, I'm walking to school as the sun is rising. It's still light out when I head home, but it won't be much longer, till it's all happening in the dark. Daylight savings is this weekend. Hmph. It's nearly time to bring out the happy light again.

Creepy

2008-10-16T19:41:00.002+03:00

Two night ago, on the eve of the full moon, I dreamed that someone from the American embassy came looking for me at work and needed me to prove my American identity, because there was a pending terrorist attack on Latvia and they were going to need to evacuate all Americans. The dream proceeded with a plane coming toward the building, us not being sure if it was the bomb or the protectors. It ended up being the bomb and I felt myself hanging on for dear life as long as I could, but then I also felt myself exploding. It wasn't painful, actually quite peaceful, like I wanted to live as long as I could, but I was able to let go when I knew I couldn't live anymore. Then I was still around on earth to be able to see what happened after I was gone.

Imagine my surprise when I go to work this morning and the administration let's me know that there is a team of Americans from the Department of State here to talk to all the American teachers! I totally panicked. It was ok, and of course was something unrelated, but that was certainly a jump start to my morning!

And for those wondering, dreaming your own death is not actually bad or ominous. It's the signal of change and new beginnings. Since I went into it all peacefully in the dream, I take that all as a good sign.

Is our earth getting sick?

2008-10-14T19:04:00.002+03:00

One of my kiddos asked me today if I thought that the earth was getting warmer or cooler, and then proceeded to tell me her theory that the earth is getting warmer because it's getting sick. Like when we are sick, we have a fever, the earth is getting a fever too. Because people are not taking care of the earth.

I, for one, would like to let kids rule the world for a while. At least their priorities are in the right place and they might help fix this place up....

A bit of pre-Thanksgiving advice

2008-10-12T09:01:00.002+03:00

I celebrated the Canadian Thanksgiving last night, and thank goodness I now have six weeks of recovery before we host the American Thanksgiving at the end of November. This is what I learned this year:

There is a very good reason you should wear pants that fit to Thanksgiving dinner!

Yesterday when dressing, I purposely looked for the pants that would least squeeze my stomach at the Thanksgiving dinner. (A bit of a challenge for me these days, as I've been slacking on the Pilates lately.) We debated with KB, IG and AD for a while why we couldn't actually wear pajama pants to the dinner, as the point is to be elastic and eat as much as you can!

Take my advice, friends, do not go this route this year. Wear pants that actually fit you! The problem is, if you don't have the waistband of the pants squeezing and telling you when to stop, the next thing that squeezes and tells you when to stop is your skin. And you can't loosen your skin when you get home.

I'm quite sure I've never eaten so much before in my life as I did last night, because my skin still feels too tight this morning. Aijajai......it was amazingly good food - a turkey cooked just right in a convection oven, gailenu gravy (mushrooms just freshly picked from the forest), KB's famous stuffing, AD's homemade from scratch macaroni and cheese, roasted vegetables and butternut squash, yum....... And for dessert, I had made pumpkin cake with cream cheese frosting, and AD had made cinnamon buns, of course we all had to eat both desserts.

Today we're heading to Jaunvitagas for recovery. I'm on a mission to collect moss for a science experiment we'll be doing in class tomorrow and I'll be searching for the last of this season's mushrooms (though we've already had a frost, so it's doubtful), and KB will be going to town with his trimmer. Hopefully the fresh air will do a world of good.

A fall weekend

2008-10-06T18:56:00.016+03:00

Mima the Wondercat's top list of favorite foods

2008-10-05T21:39:00.003+03:00

10. Dry crunchy food in this order: salmon is the best, then chicken, then liver, finally the blahblah indoor fat cat food I'm usually given on a daily basis. (Thank goodness the local grocery store has discontinued selling the indoor fat cat food - I need to put my winter fat back on, says Mims.)

9. The moist cat food I'm given once in a blue moon, when I'm especially well behaved. I point to the one I would like - tuna is always the favorite.

8. Crabby cat treats which I get after I am well-behaved for a manicure (usually I'm pretty good about getting my nails trimmed).

7. Tuna juice, but not the tuna. And no salmon for me. My people are not sure why, but I jump like I've just seen a ghost when salmon is offered to me.

6. Frikadelu zupa (a Latvian soup).

5. CHICKEN in any way, shape or form!!!!!

4. Barbeque pulled pork sandwiches, as I discovered tonight.

3. KB's spicy chili. Seriously, Diana can't even handle the stuff, but I love licking out the bowl afterwards!

2. MILK!!!! I get tail seizures about milk, it makes me so happy! Yogurt too! Cheese, not anymore. That was my favorite food as a baby, but I'm all grown up now.

And my number 1, top favorite food of all time.... Carmex. I love to lick Diana's fingers after she puts her carmex on at night and then I clean my fur like a maniac. Once she left the carmex open for me to see how much I'd eat. I would've scarfed the whole thing down if she hadn't stopped me. I love that stuff....

This and that at the end of the week....

2008-10-03T20:27:00.002+03:00

1. I did answer my own "what's worse?" this week. Having your alarm clock wake you deep in the middle of a sweet dream, only to realize that it's not really a sweet dream but you have spent the whole night nigthmaring (too bad that's not a real English word like "murgot" in Latvian) about the lesson you have planned for the next day.

2. People who care too much about their own nails should not give manicures to others. I guess as one of my improvements of myself before I'm not 29.5 anymore, I started getting bi-weekly manicures this year, in an effort to break an approximately 23 year old habit of picking at my nails. This week I was so irritated with the manicurist who had her own artificial nails over an inch long, trying to desperately not to ruin her own manicure in an effort of completing mine. I really spent the whole hour thinking, "would you like me to do that myself, because I could do it a whole lot faster?!"

3. My second graders still rock the world. :)

4. I still work too much. As we were still at school at 6pm on a Friday night, another teacher and I pondered why we are always there so late and how do other teachers actually get prepared without working late. We decided that we are either "very committed or need to be committed....."

5. I like my bed warmer. And I've finally discovered a good solution, as my bed warmer has a much later bed time than I do (being that I am a teaching, I am pooped at night and I wake up at 5:30 am). 6 nights out of 7 I fall asleep on the couch. At such an embarrassingly early hour I can't even post it here. KB used to wake me a few hours later and send me off to bed, as he felt sorry for me sleeping on the couch, but would only join me even later. The couch was so warm and the bed was so cold! So now, the new routine is that I happily sleep on the couch until KB is ready to go to bed. I get up and brush my teeth and wash my face, while he lays on my side of the bed warming it up. Then he gets on his own crisp side of the bed (which he prefers - what????) and we both happily drift into sleepland - me in my warmth, him in his cool. It is a great and wonderful deal.

6. The leaves are nearing their brightest, most colorful peak, and a nice weekend is forecasted ahead. We're hoping for a great adventure somewhere outside tomorrow. Hooray for the weekend! :)

Sometimes I still surprise myself

2008-09-28T10:55:00.002+03:00

Some days I look at myself and am amazed at the things I'm doing in my life. If you would've told me ten years ago what I would be doing today, I wouldn't have believed you for a second. (It reminds me of a saying I once read, when someone asked God why we can't just know about what's going to happen in our own futures, and the answer was, "If I told you, you wouldn't believe me anyway...." Isn't that the truth?) Anyway, yesterday was definitely one of those days. From 7am until 11pm, I was an actress, filming for a commercial. The last scene was even of me dancing in a night club, and somewhere, somehow, I've built up enough confidence that I was able to do this on camera.

How, you may ask, did this come along? In LV, it's all about who you know, not what you know. So as some of you may remember, last spring, I received a phone call on a Sunday morning from a friend who is a film director, asking if I couldn't come and just play one short scene as a school psychologist in a series of video clips being recorded to show in LV schools. That in and of itself was a big experience for me, as I showed up, got make-uped and then handed a fairly long text (certainly not the "one sentence" I had been promised) and was told that "we're on" in two minutes, memorize it and be ready to go. I survived that experience, and was fairly certain that was the extent of my fifteen minutes of fame in life.

Not so. Mid-week this week, the same friend contacted me, asking if I would be willing to help out with filming for a commercial on Saturday. I said sure, thinking this would be another small, quick favor. The next day, I received another email saying that I had been chosen for the lead female role in this commercial and that I needed to send more photos of myself for the Estonian directors to look over. So I had to pull KB out of bed and we did a quick photo-shoot at home before school that day, because I don't have a model portfolio just ready to go. (Why, why, why they chose me over the other professionals, I still don't understand.....) Finally I found out that we would be filming two different commercials for a European hotel chain to be shown in all the Baltic countries. This required me to be ready to go at 7am on Saturday morning (I had to prepare and bring all my own outfits to change into) and the plan was that we would work until about midnight. Whew.

Luckily, I did not have to prepare speaking roles, as there will be a voice speaking over the scenes in the different languages for each country. The first scene was checking in to the hotel. They only had to stop recording once because of me, when I tripped on a light. Fortunately, that was the extent of my clumsiness for the day. :) The next scene was eating at the hotel restaurant. That was pure and perfect torture. This scene started being filmed at noon, we were all starving already, and we each had a beautifully prepared, aromatic meal in front of us which we were not allowed to touch. They also kept pouring wine into our glasses and taking it away to pour it back into the bottle, which we were not even allowed to sip. We were truly beginning to drool our own make-up off by the end of two hours of this torture.... Finally, when this scene was done, we asked the waiter to heat up the meals, ate them anyway and downed the wine. Then we all went to join the rest of the crew and ate part (or in the case of the men - all) of another lunch. Then we needed some serious coffee to pull ourselves out of the wine/food coma which followed such a good meal.

The next scene was filming a business meeting in the conference room. Then we filmed a scene in one of the hotel rooms, where I had to stand at the window drinking coffee and turn to approve the other guy's choice of shirt and tie. Whew, I had to drink lots of coffee during those shots (with my left hand, nonetheless) and it was so hot because of the lights I thought I was going to pass out. Luckily, I did not.

Then we had some time to get ready before the night club scene. We raided the mini bars in all the dressing rooms and I took care of all the Bacardi. :) I did not even recognize myself by the time my make-up was done for the night club scene (black eyeshadow, anyone?) but it ended up being pretty fun. Thank goodness for those hip hop dance lessons last year, which made me not quite so scared to dance in front of a camera (or maybe it was the Bacardi?). And that was a wrap, for a very very long day. It's funny how tourists at the night club were taking pictures of all the filming and really treating us like we were some kind of big stars....

But my favorite moment of being treated like a big star was actually on Friday after school. On Friday, I had a bit of a warm-up in acting, as my class finally put on the play of "The Lazy Teacher and The Working Kids" for the whole school. They were absolutely superb (or so I hear, as I was acting the role of the lazy teacher and had my eyes closed for most of the production)! I was so, so proud of them! Even the ones who have been shy and nervous to get on stage in the past, really opened up and everyone did such a great job. :) After school when I was leaving, there were only a handful of kids left on the playgound, but a first grader ran up to me with big eyes and says, "I know you!!! You're the lazy teacher from that show!" It was crazy cute and put a big smile on my face at the end of a long and tiring week.

So today, I rest. I'll tell you why filming was so tiring yesterday and why my brain woke up well before my body was able to move this morning. Not because you are doing anything so strenuous, but because your energy is so on and off during the entire day. KB told me when I'm filming, be ready to "hurry up and wait", which was so true. You film one take, then they spend a long time reajusting things before the next take. Then you hear "get ready!" and your body jumps back to life, only to wait another ten minutes as they "quickly" readjust something else. And all day, you are requiring your body to jump to life at a second's notice. At least with teaching, you are "on" all day. Also tiring, but in a very different way.

In conclusion, I enjoyed trying something new again (and surprised myself that I was able to do it), I really enjoyed earning so much money in one day, but I'm glad to return to the classroom on Monday, because most days that's what makes me really happy.

If I don't write about it, I just might cry

2008-09-19T09:57:00.004+03:00

I can count on one hand the number of times I've cried of happiness in my life. But this school year, I seriously feel that I will cry nearly every day from looking at this group of children just being themselves. Seriously, if you feel that the world is going to crap (as I do many a day living in LV), come take a look at my classroom because these are the kids who are going to save the world.

I was feeling a bit grumpy upon arriving to school this morning, when two girls, who get to school early because their moms also teach, are hard at work making a nametag for Mr. A, the assistant in our class, because he doesn't have one and they decided he needs one too. One says, "Mrs. Diana, you look just LOVELY today," and my mood already starts improving.

But this is what takes the cake. Show and tell today. I have never been a fan of show and tell - it drags on, it is nearly the same junk every week, it gets boring quickly, but the kids love it. This year I put a spin on show and tell in my class - each week there is a theme and they have to think ahead and choose something that will relate to that theme. It is all about what we are doing in the classroom - either related to our unit of inquiry or the PYP profile or attitude that we are focusing on. Since the beginning of the year, we've been focusing on the profile CARING, so today they had to bring something to demonstrate caring. Not such an easy task, fairly abstract. They blew me away.

One girl brought in her brother from kindergarten, and told all about how they are caring to each other in their play. Another brought a miniature table from a dollhouse with everything to set the table, and told us how on the weekends, when she and her sister wake up early before their parents, they set the table for them and prepare everything in the kitchen "so it looks and smells nice" when they wake up. (Really, I promise, these are real children!) Others brought photographs of themselves doing caring tasks at home (helping in the garden, etc.). Still others brought favorite books with characters that did something caring. Others brought their stuffed animal "pets" (some represented real pets, others were really just imaginary pets) and described how they care for their pets. Seriously, seriously, I was nearly in tears by the end, because if you could see how gently and sweetly they described all of this, how they listened and complimented each other, how perfectly superb they all are as individuals and as a group, you may start thinking the world might just turn out ok after all.....

A bit of freetime followed, because they have been working so hard for me, and again, I watched them all make sure to include each other in their games, involve friends who were sitting out on the side, and find ways to include each other or play new games if something was hard for someone. Then we walked down to music class, I was the tail of the line. When I arrived, there was no music teacher yet, but my class had arranged themselved perfectly, sitting on the risers, going "shhhhshhhh, let's surprise the teacher!". A group of angels on earth, that is what they are.

All props to their families, of course, for doing such a wonderful job at home. I also have mentioned to some that if you believe in that type of thing, I would say I have a classroom full of "old souls" this year - though I'm not an expert at second grade yet, I can say with a fair amount of certainty, that this is no ordinary grade two class. I am a lucky, lucky teacher this year. :)

What's worse?

2008-09-17T19:01:00.002+03:00

Having your alarm clock wake you in the middle of a deep sleep or waking up on your own ten minutes before your alarm clock is supposed to ring, realizing that you have just totally missed out on ten minutes of sweet sleep? Latley, my body clock has finally adjusted to waking up early again, but it's overachieving. I don't really like it.

A Latvian miracle!

2008-09-16T18:41:00.004+03:00

I went to the post office today. There was not a single line and three whole ladies were working and available to help me. I actually froze up with confusion about what to do next. I'm still in shock....

For your reading pleasure....

2008-09-15T17:31:00.003+03:00

Please enjoy the first story composed by Grade 2B this year. We had read "The Little Red Hen" and talked about cooperation a fair bit, and how that would apply to our classroom this year. As our first group writing project, we talked about how good writers can take ideas from other writers - not copy them, because then it's not original, but simply use good ideas. So we planned our story. I had picked the characters (Grade 2B teachers and students) and the setting (our school), but the plot is totally and completely the fruit of their awesome minds.

Not only did we write the story, but we are publishing a book which will be donated to our library, and further, we are presenting a play of this story for our entire school in an assembly in less than two weeks. Once you have read the story, you will understand why I am now also shopping for new pajamas in addition to new shoes.....

I present to you.... "The Lazy Teacher and The Working Kids" by Grade 2B

One cold fall morning the teacher of Grade 2B came to the classroom in her pajamas and said, “I’m so tired.” Then the teacher made a bed with the pillows and laid down on them.

The children started doing circle time by themselves. They did calendar, date writing, counting sticks, writing the weather and doing their jobs. Then the children turned on the Jack Johnson CD and started doing their work.

When the children finished their work, they went to Art, I.T. and Sports.

Then they ate their snacks because it was time. They listened to Johnny Cash while they ate snacks.

During snack there was a fire drill. The teacher kept sleeping. So the girls closed the windows, turned off the lights, turned off the CD and got the red and green paper while the boys put the teacher on the chair with wheels and rolled her out the door. And they did not forget to close the door!

They went outside and the other teachers said, “What is this teacher doing in the chair?” The students answered, “She’s sleeping!”

They went back inside and put the teacher back on the pillows. The classroom had a fish called Bubbles. Sometimes Bubbles talked. Bubbles said to one student who had brought cake to school, “Give the teacher her coffee and the cake you brought.”

The children opened the teacher’s mouth and poured the coffee in. She woke up!

There was a note by the cake. Who would read the note?

“Not I,” said the teacher.

“Not I,” said Bubbles.”

“Then we will!” said the kids.

The teacher was so lazy she had forgotten how to read, but the working children taught her how to read and write again. And the teacher never slept at school again because she wanted to read and write like her students. The end.

Just to be clear, the kids really just wanted to call her the Teacher of Grade 2B (not Mrs. Diana, as I had suggested) - which I appreciate. However, I do get to play that role in our play.... Additionally, the story is quite accurate about how our days go (and I really do believe this group of kids would run the class on their own just like so!), all the way down to the Jack Johnson CD. No Johnny Cash yet, but I'm not totally opposed to that either.... :)

Shoe shopping

2008-09-10T20:08:00.004+03:00

Very sadly the time has come. I have been living in LV for two years and seven months. I walk almost everywhere I go. My shoes have started dieing. I can no longer put off the need to buy new shoes.

In the first week of school, two of my long-faithful pairs of shoes broke. Working in grade two, the kids let you know that kind of stuff. I had just finished giving some long-winded explanation, asked "any questions?" and get, "Mrs. Diana, when are you going to buy new shoes? Because yours are broken on the bottom." There is no escaping, no trying to hide it......I only have one suitable pair of shoes for work at the moment. Hmph.

As many of you near and dear to me know, I have not had the best of luck in the shoe department here in LV. The first experience was in trying to find a suitable pair of black boots. Let's just say that the email I wrote about that shoe shopping experience made the black boots I did buy infamous with my friends and family back in the States. When I had flown back for my grandmother's funeral, the second words out of everyone's mouth, after condolences, were, "Are those the boots?"

My second shoe shopping experience in LV ended up with a pair of sandals that literally broke within the first five mintues of me wearing them and two months of jumping through hoops and more ridiculous stories before getting my money back.

So yesterday, KB finally threw me in the car and said he was taking me shoe shopping. Yes, yes, I think we both realize in hindsight that was a pretty nutty thing to assume that this would actually be productive for us to do together. My attempt at shoe shopping with my new husband looked something like this:

KB: "These are nice shoes." Me, thinking, could you possible pick a more horrific pair?? (Answer: of course, yes, because you haven't seen anything until you've seen shoe choices in LV.) After a few attempts of this, Me: "Why don't you go and look at your men's shoes?" KB: "Fine, I'll just go the electronics store." Me, calling him on the phone a few minutes later: "I don't want you so close but I don't want you so far away. What if I find a pair I need your opinion on?" KB meets me at the next shoe store and obediently looks at men's shoes until I find two pair I need an opinion on. KB's opinion: "They look like grandma shoes." Me: "Ok, it's time to go home now, I'll try this again on my own later this week."

MP, I miss you!!! I need your opinion on shoes!!!!

Later in the evening, I uncovered more of my trauma about shoe shopping. As a child I had extraordinarily narrow feet, which meant I could only shop at one children's shoe store and had about two options in that store. I never got to get anything I liked. To top that one off I also had flat feet. So in kindergarten I had to spend the year wearing brown orthopedic shoes. All of this has led to shoe shopping leaving a bad taste in my mouth. I remember the year I agreed to buy a pair of shoes (sometime in elementary school) which I hated, just to be able to stop shopping for shoes. I had to wear them the whole year and it was horrible. Most men would probably appreciate a wife who is not obsessed with shoe shopping. That's fine. Until it comes to the point when all your shoes are broken. I don't know, I just may be barefoot this winter....

Snoozing should be illegal

2008-08-30T22:31:00.005+03:00

All in all it was a great first week of school. My personal goal for next week is to get more disciplined with actually waking up with my alarm clock. That has to be one of the top worst thing about going back to school - suddenly being obligated to wake up to an alarm clock five days of the week. I was really running to get to school on time Thursday and Friday, but fortunately was organized enough to get myself totally prepared for the morning the night before. That also meant that I was at school until 6pm every night last week. I am really trying to cut out earlier, but somehow it just doesn't happen.

I am really enjoying grade two so far. I got to do cool things like give a spelling test and was quite impressed how I was able to lay down the law so that no one dared to make a peep during the test. Friday was the first day that my students did not beg me to stay overnight at the school for a sleepover. I think I finally tired them out by the end of the week.

The best thing all week was to really observe what a great group they are in working together and supporting each other. Honestly, I was nearly in tears at random moments throughout the week, because of how absolutely wonderful this group is. It's not just me, on Friday after school I talked to their kindergarten teacher from two years ago about them and she said she spent nearly the whole year in tears for the same reason. She still has their pictures up on a wall at home.

For example, we talked a lot this week about how we all learn differently, at different rates and in different ways. Partly this is because I have two students in the class with significant enough special needs that they have personal assistants. But also, in general, I've got a class of extremely talented learners and learners who are really stuggling - I got the extremes. So we read several books and had many discussions about this. Near the end of the week, I told them the story of Helen Keller from an old book which I had read in the third grade. They were mesmerized and asked so many questions about her and talked about it all day. We also talked about how learning is like going up a hill, we are all learning more each day, but each of our hills look different. Right away, someone commented, "Yes, and some of the hills are hard and some are easy!" Then we drew what different hills might look like - some more steady, others with flat parts (when you might not be learning so fast) and then parts that go straight up when you are really learning a lot. They got it! Someone else was totally relating by saying, "Yeah, Mrs. Diana, I know, I was in one of those flat parts one time." So we talked about not worrying if you are in a flat part, that your day will come when you will get it too. And also, that we can all help each other out when we see them at a hard part in their hill. And then, they asked if they could draw their own hills. THAT is exactly how it's supposed to work in our school, where the students suggest their own ideas for inquiry and activities. So we did draw our own hills. It was way cool to see what everyone came up with because they were really all very different and I would say from what I know about them already a very accurate reflection of each individual.

And it helps when on a weekly reflection, you read that someone's answer to the question, "What is something new you learned this week?" was "That there could be so nice a teacher as you, because you are so calm."

I like grade two. :)

Tired but happy....

2008-08-27T20:27:00.003+03:00

After day three I'm feeling quite good about grade two. Mostly I have to say that the group of kids I have this year are a truly amazing collection of people. Angels in disguise I might say, because I really can't think of another place I've ever been with twelve such genuinley kind and caring people at once. No exceptions.

Not that it's all been a walk in the park. We have one little boy in our class with significant disabilities - both physical and academic (which we were prepared for) but also emotional/behavioral as we are coming to find out. Our school has never had a case like this before and is really not equipped for it. We knew it would be a learning curve going in, but it's proved quite exhausting already. However, I will not dwell on this at the moment, in part because I've talked about it nearly day and night for three days already, but also because the group of kids together is truly amazing in helping this all to happen. We have also seen huge progress in the adjustment process in the first three days alone, which is extremely encouraging.

That being said, I am hugely thankful that this will be my first grade two class. They are even patient with me as I'm learning the ropes of grade two and remembering/rediscovering what it's like to work with this age group.

Along with the traditional lapful of flowers which I received on the first day of school, I have also already received two pieces of handmade jewelry as well as a thank you letter from my students. From the first day already they did not want to go home, but have begged every night to have a sleepover at the school with me. I'm glad I dreamed all my anxieties before school, because as the character Bob says in the great movie What About Bob?, "If you pretend it, then it's not really happening." So far so good.... :)

The end is near.....

2008-08-24T11:48:00.002+03:00

We are losing four and a half minutes of sunlight a day (roughly half an hour a week). Three years ago, I never thought I'd be sad about the sun setting at nine pm and rising at six am. Seems normal, but now it feels like everything is dying. Only because I know what is coming. I've discovered that for me November 18 (ironically, Latvia's independence day) is the moment when it all really shuts down for me, until about mid-February. So from now until November, I'm hanging on to every moment of precious sunlight I can. Come spring, I'll be celebrating sunlight from six till nine, but for now, it's the beginning of the end...... :(

Ready for Monday

2008-08-22T19:45:00.002+03:00

Kids start school on Monday! Today was the last day of nervous and excited preparation, you could really feel the energy building in the school. The day ended with an open house for students to visit their new classes and a barbeque (which sadly got rained out rather quickly, but that is LV). About half of my new second graders have now visited the class and I'm feeling quite good. They were also for the most part extremely smiley and excited. Several parents metioned that their children have said in the last week that they are really ready for vacation to end and school to begin. We are all pretty excited for a new beginning.

(Note: one of my favorite events each year in my childhood was shopping for new school supplies and getting the backpack ready for the first day. Seriously, right up there with Christmas. Maybe that's why I became a teacher, because I get that feeling times thirteen as I'm getting ready for thirteen kids!)

But hands down the best part of today was seeing a few of my kids from last year. The way they ran to me when they saw me and threw themselves on me and hugged so tight and just smiled and smiled while we talked.....it's still hard to let go of the last class. Every year. A few weeks will pass and I'll be in it deep with the new guys already, but these guys were my life last year and it was great to see them again. I'm already planning a visit to my old class as soon as my new class goes to specials on Monday. At least it's nice to finally be working in the same school instead of moving around each year as I have been, so I can still check in with them and follow up on them, even after they're not "mine" anymore. I still have moments when I sit back and think about all the kids I've taught, way back to the very first Head Start kids (who are now fifth graders!), and wonder how they are doing now.

So here's to starting a whole new year and getting to love a whole new group of kids...I think it's gonna be a good one!

Side story: The second graders LOVE Bubbles. I thought they might not care so much but they are really excited about him, and dragging parents and friends over to show him off. I did the sneak attack of bringing Bubbles in, just packaged him up and took him with. He was totally fine when I settled him in and while I was paying attention to him. But when I got with work he started belly-uping. A few colleages came in and said, "oh, he doesn't look so good" and I said no, he faking and you have to talk to him nice and he'll be fine. So everyone told him how beautiful he is and how great he'll be in grade two, etc. Then when Bubbles and I were alone, I went to the tank, he belly-up swam over to my finger and I gently tapped and told him to turn over, which he did. I told him that's enough faking, he'll be fine in grade two and he'll love it and the kids will love him just like they did in preschool. Then he we down to the bottom and slept for a while (not belly up, just normal as he does) and before I left the classroom that day, he woke up and screamed at me to feed him again. Today he was already screaming at me as I walked in the door of the classroom and he was totally fine all day long, loving the attention from the kids. You may think I'm full of it, but I tell you, he's a fish with personality.

Please knock

2008-08-20T18:10:00.003+03:00

It is getting more ridiculous by the moment. Mims was (of course) in her home under the coffee table tonight and KB was talking to her (telling her how he's not too thrilled that she has "moved in" down there) and she was totally ignoring him, as cats do - eyes open just a slit and head stubbornly facing the other way. He called her name which she really always responds to, but this time nothing. Jokingly, I said that he has to knock to be able to talk to her in her new home. He knocked, and she turned her head with a look "yes, can I help you?" Too funny - I needed a good laugh today.

Did you know?

2008-08-19T22:50:00.002+03:00

In Latvia it is against the law for a woman to lift more than 10 kg at work, but men can lift 50 kg. I learned that at my work safety training today. I think I may need to take this up with my boss at Jaunvitagas.... :) I could be demoted from branch duty to stick duty!

A tribute to my pets

2008-08-18T19:58:00.002+03:00

They are weird and wacky. Some days I really do fear for my future children, because I have never owned a "normal" pet....

I was preparing myself for the fact that this post was going to be something like R.I.P. Bubbles, so in a panic I took several pictures of my faithful fish below. (Bubbles is the white and speckled guy.)He is my school fish. I got him last year at the beginning of the year with preschoolers, because classroom pets can be a great transition for those tearful mornings when saying goodbye is tough. Feeding the fish his breakfast is a tremendous responsibility and a very cool thing to do. He was great with the little guys - extremely patient with the curious tap-taps (though they were pretty good about it pretty quickly) and even patient as they learned to fish him out using the net on the days they helped me change his water. He is also a bossy little guy. Just this morning to KB I said I should've named him Bubba instead of Bubbles, because he can truly create a lot of noise when he wants to eat (which is ALL the time). Anytime someone walks past he screams (if that's possible for a fish) loud fishy noises and flips his tail all about until he gets fed. Ok, he got used to many breakfasts a day with the preschoolers.....

I almost lost him once already. During school breaks, Bubbles came to live with me at home. The day I was transporting him back to school after winter break, it was so cold and his water got so cold that when I was filling his tank again at school I couldn't even get the water out of the tap to be cold enough to match that which he was swimming in. For about a week, Bubbles just laid at the bottom of the tank. Of course the kids were all very worried and asked what was wrong with him, and we had some great conversations about how he was sick and how when they are sick they just want to sleep all the time too. They asked about taking him to the doctor of course, and B even said, "When I am sick my mommy takes care of me until I feel better, so now I want to take care of Bubbles until he feels better." We were all rooting for Bubbles - me most of all, because I was really preparing the death talk for three year olds. I avidly googled how to nurse sick fish back to health, and it really worked. For as much as it's possible to love a fish, I love this fish - he's a great classroom fish. I was getting ready to take him back for the second graders this year.

Last week on the morning I was talking about taking him back to school, Bubbles started floating belly-up every time I walked by. So I panicked, took a bunch of pictures because I wanted to remember how great he was, and didn't end up taking him to school that day. When I got home at night he was fine. I kid you not, two days later, when I was getting ready to take him in again, belly-up. Didn't take him, then he was fine. The weekend passed and he has been fine. I haven't talked about taking him in again, and he has been fine. Coincidence or not, I think it will have to be a sneak attack to bring him in - no talk of a plan. The little stinker is clearly not ready for summer vacation to be over yet!

And then there is Mims the Wondercat. We recently got a new small area rug to put under our coffee table. Mims has now decided that this will be her new home. She lives under the coffee table now. She only comes out to eat and use her box. She doesn't even come out for pilates anymore. Mims in her new home.... :)

Test run...

2008-08-11T21:38:00.004+03:00

This weekend godson A spent the whole weekend with us. Usually we hang out for a few hours - play cars, play every musical instrument in the house, terrorize Mims the Wondercat and have him wash our dishes (I swear, he loves to do this!) - and then we send him home. However, we did the whole nine yards with three meals a day times two days, bathtime and bedtime at night, all from our very own treehouse. It was a test run for having a little person around, and I say we did quite well. They were two very relaxed and fun days for all three of us (only Mims does not make it four....).

Saturday we had big plans to spend the day outside to tucker the little guy out, but mother nature had different plans. Though rain was in the forecast, the sky was blue when we woke up, so I set about packing up our picnic lunch while KB made sure A felt happy and welcome during the drop off. By the time we got all three of us in the car, the sky turned gray. By the time we braved Jugla traffic (meaning random lane closures each day for neverending construction and work on water pipes) and made it to the outdoor museum, it was pouring on us. So we turned around and headed right back into town to the mall with a fast food place that has a playland. We figured while we were out we might as well give little A a run for his money. Not so much though. The only part of playland that really drew his attention was the big spiral tube slide, and he was fascinated as the big kids went down. He stood at the top babbling to us in A-talk (really, it is a language of its own) and finally decided to go for it. However, he hadn't caught on to the sitting down thing, so he was trying to walk down. Got scared about five steps in - wouldn't come forward or backward but just started screaming. So KB is at the bottom trying to coax him out, I am standing on the side near the top (it was built so adults can't fit in there) encouraging him, but neither of us could see him. Finally, finally, he walked down and fell into KB's arms screaming at the top of his lungs. Calmed him down with a strawberry milkshake and a song. He went right back up again. We thought he was being so brave to try again, but apparently he had just forgotten and the whole story repeated. After the third time, we didn't feel up to anymore evil looks from the staff and patrons, so we packed up the bags and left. This was one more screaming fit as we left, but we calmed that one down just as quickly as the rest.

We did some shopping, as we were at the mall. KB bought five new shirts for work for the price of one and we bought a hammock! Meanwhile, A had fallen asleep in KB's arms and my allergy eyes were acting up bigtime, so we headed home. The rest of the day passed fairly uneventfully at home, which was nice. We played with cars and expanded A's interests to insects and frogs. Below is photo evidence of how we passed the afternoon. Apparently, my legs serve as a great road (my head is not in the photo because I didn't want documentation of my eyes). At one point I had a mini-nap while I was holding the ice pack over my eyes and woke up to plastic flies, grasshoppers and worms strategically placed on my neck and shoulders. :)Then KB went out for pizza and we all ate our fill. At this point we decided to brave bathtime. To avoid tears, it ended up with me rolling up my pajama pants and getting into the tub with A while KB washed him up, but by the time we were ready to get out he was just getting started. There was a lot of saving the frogs in the boat and then sinking them again. Meanwhile, KB slowly removed the rest of the toys one by one, while I pulled the plug and the water gradually disappeared. Then we transitioned into bedtime nicely by making the couch into a big bed which he happily jumped up on and put on a bit of Baby Einstein (seriously good stuff for the little guys) and we all fell asleep on the couch. I put myself to bed but left the guys on the couch for a campout.

The next morning the sun came out and we did a beach day!! Repacked the picnic lunch and off we went. By the time we got to the beach, it was raining again (hello, Latvia!), but it was only a drizzle so we went for it anyway. A few minutes later the sun was out again and we had a great time, filling and emptying buckets and kicking around a ball. And here is the king of cute....

The boys did go in for a bit of a swim as well. :)
As we were packing up to leave in order to get A home, a yellow jacket got tangled in my hair and stung me on the neck. Not knowing if this is the beesting I'm allergic to, we got a bit scared and really had to hurry. I took my pills, got some ice on it and realized that when a little one is relying just on you to keep him safe, you can't even let something possibly life-threatening like that stop you from caring for him even for a moment. We acted fast, stayed calm, and were on our way back to Riga, with KB driving just this side of safe to get us back quickly, but talking to A the whole way, and me icing my neck and feeding him the picnic lunch he refused to eat on the beach because it was way too much fun. Dropped him off at home and I proceeded to pass out on our couch all drugged up and KB passed out not too far after, exhausted but happy from the weekend.

Dreaming it....

2008-08-07T10:39:00.002+03:00

Vacation? What vacation? I've said it before and I'll say it again, teachers (for the most part - the really good (aka: nutty) ones, anyway) do not take summer vacation. Whether you are taking summer course work, teaching summer school or constantly improving your old curriculum in your mind, if not on paper (even when you really don't want to, you just can't turn your brain off.....) like my colleagues have been doing this summer, or like me, you are dreaming it at night because working on it during the day isn't enough, summer vacation for teachers just really isn't summer vacation like everyone seems to think it is. I'm not complaining in any sense of the word - it sure has been nice to be able to do some of this thinking, pondering, reading and preparing on the beach when the sunshine just demands that of you - but once a teacher always a teacher....there's just a certain place that resides in your mind and heart that you can never fully shutdown.

That being said, the anxiety dreams about teaching grade two are in full swing. Like every night... I think they fairly well reflect what the reality will be (besides a few weird twists that can only take place in the dream world) - sometimes I'm dreaming myself if complete control of the situation and other times I'm in a panic of mad chaos. The bulk of the dreams represent me as both a student and a teacher (like I'm taking a university course about teaching and suddenly I realize that I am actaully supposed to be teaching it and find myself totally unprepared) or me teaching the little kids again who wander off and get lost among the big kids and I'm searching for my little guys. It's going to be a tough year full of new challenges, but as always I'm preparing in advance as much as possible, and I'm sure we'll all survive (hopefully even with a smile!) in the end.

However, the dreaded August allergy eyes are back in full force this year, which is slowing down a bit of my work. As I'm not yet required to be at school, my eye are truly horrid enough that I would rather hide out in the safe haven of the treehouse apartment rather than be stared down on the streets of Riga for looking anything less than perfect, so I'm doing as much as I can from home. This leads to more time-wasting than I'm sure I might be doing at school (ie: suddenly that extra nap seems incredibly necessary or I must play just one more game of pathwords on the computer, or I blog....), but I am doing my best. Come next week, I may not have a choice anymore.... And I really hope that by some miracle, the allergy eyes will pass early this year. I always feel bad for the kids on the first day of school who have to meet Miss Diana, with the crazy red eyes.....

The rest of the evening...

2008-08-05T16:15:00.014+03:00

Here we are on the way to the reception. Unofficially sponsored by Cesu alus..... "Blue cans by day, red cans by night...."
And what do you know? After all the worry and heartache about the reception, they had everything ready for us and it was all great! The food was great and we took a lot home with us, and they even had the ice that we had specially requested!

More "dancing", actually rotalas (games) led by the musicians. Better not to ask...... Just have a good laugh... ;)

I, as the bride, was very briefly kidnapped as tends to occur at any good Latvian wedding. ES and GO snatched me up and KB had to sing me a song to get me back.

Lots and lots of singing continued with the wonderful musicians.

The night ended back at Jaunvitagas with more singing around the bonfire. That is where we finally danced our first dance as husband and wife - very fittingly, a song called Varaviksne (rainbow) - and ate our "wedding cake" - s'mores! - real ones with all the right ingredients imported by my mom and Krix! Untraditional, and we totally loved every minute of it, because it was just us. :)
And if all goes well, this will be the view from our kitchen window each morning some years from now.... Total and absolute beauty and peace....
(For the record, this photo was taken around 3am.) :)

And then....

2008-08-04T10:02:00.014+03:00

We danced! The musicians led us in some fun traditional Latvian dances, also with a couple of silly new twists (like "plaukstinu polka" also with shoulders, elbows, hips, ankles, cheeks....)

A few cute pictures...

Those are the infamous rubber boots from the invitation - that really is what we wear as saimnieks and saimniece!

Then we handed out thank-yous to everyone for being there. Krix painted these great little boxes (unfortunately, no pictures of just the boxes) to look like birch trees and with a Latvian saulite (sun) design on the top. Inside we wrote our names, the date and a small poem. "Muzam sauli sirdi nest, vinas starus tumsa mest..." The boxes were filled with wildflower seeds. Some guests decided to take them home and plant them in their own gardens as a reminder of the day, others planted theirs by us.
Guests (shortest to tallest) planting their seeds in the field...

And as my dad had emptied his box, he filled it with something else that he found!

My very favorite moment....

2008-07-31T23:20:00.006+03:00

At the very end of the ceremony, the guests game together in a circle around us. We were asked to hug each other very tightly. They spoke of how our life together would bring many new things and take us down all kinds of different paths. Just as the weather had showed us that day, there might be sunny days and cloudy days and without a doubt there would also be stormy days, because that is life. But we were asked on those stormy days to remember back to how we feel exactly at this moment and to remember to turn towards each other and come together more closely during those turbulent times rather than to turn away from one another. It is possible that many other beautiful things were said, but that is what I remember in my heart. I put it there very carefully, the words and the feeling of the moment, so hopefully I can bring it out, should life ask that of me in the future.And then we were surrounded by sheer beauty - lots of color but mostly genuinely smiling faces of the people we love most in the world.... :)
Beautiful.....

The fertility ritual

2008-07-30T21:49:00.005+03:00

As I think I mentioned earlier, the ancient Latvian weddings were designed with a bit more emphasis for the bride, because she was experiencing the biggest life changes (leaving her family and home to live with her husband's). Of course a big imminent change is becoming a mother. This was the fertility ritual for me. Both mothers helped to seat me and then helped to cover me with this white cloth.
As I sat underneath the cloth, it was just a time for me to listen and reflect. The guests all got to say their wishes for me and for us in our future together. It was a pretty amazing experience. Then everyone threw grains. The grains which landed on the cloth were the wishes which will come true immediately. The grains which fell on the ground will take a bit longer to be fulfilled. Here we are collecting the grains/our wishes which will come true in the near future.
Maybe a wedding we will attend in the future? The two little A's sharing their grains with each other..... :)

Parting with the flower wreath...

2008-07-28T09:11:00.009+03:00

At this point, it was time for me to say goodbye to my flower wreath, which is only worn by unmarried women, as I was now a wife! My sister took me for a few laps around the fire as the guests sang and got to admire me in the flower wreath one last time...Then KB got to do the honors with removing the flower wreath.
We threaded the wreath onto a traditional belt and swung it around, letting it "dance" one more time.
Then I got to present the flower wreath to an unmarried woman, who I would like to have the same luck in finding a good husband as I did. I gave the honors to IG, who was at the time still bravely waiting for her future fiance to buy his plane ticket to move here from Canada - now she is officially counting the days until he arrives in September! I say, we should attribute some of that to the magic of the wreath.... :)
Beautiful....and happy! :)
Also, today is our one month wedding anniversary! (We are not planning on celebrating each and every month, but we thought it would be fun to celebrate the first month, so we're planning a special dinner out tonight.) One of our friends told us that Latvia's ex-president, the very wonderful Vaira Vike-Freiberga, said in an interview that every year she and her husband "reevaluate" their relationship on their anniversary and they decide whether they would like to continue for another year. :) (Kind of a nice way not to take things for granted....) We checked in with each other and said "yes!" to another month today! :)

Uniting two families

2008-07-27T11:47:00.011+03:00

Now it was time to symbolically unite the two families. This was done with the help of both sets of parents. KB's parents held one Latvian belt on either side and my parents held another, and together it formed a cross, showing the point where the two families meet and now continue together in life.The cross was then placed on the ground.
Now it was time for KB to do a "freestyle dance" on the cross - again to gather strength. The only requirement was the his dance steps must include each of the four quadrants, which I believe represented the four directions on the earth. Here he is receiving his instructions - the beat would begin slowly and then pick up speed.
Here is KB in action - doing some kind of crazy hiphop moves! We found out after he did the dance that the musicians were following his beat, and the way that he chose to dance represented something about how our life together would be. Their assessment was that "dzive bus veikla" - our life will be quick-paced!
Then our vedejtevs had to repeat. (His dance steps were quite orderly and organized.)
Finally, KB needed to choose a man who he would like to see get married next, to come and do the dance and gather strength. He chose JS (who is getting married next summer!) and also our vedejparis' youngest son joined him. :)

And there it is....

2008-07-25T21:06:00.002+03:00

This post will stray a bit from my typical posts, and it's definitely a weird break in the middle of my retelling the wedding story, but it's what's big inside me at the moment. As I'm a teacher on summer break with a bit of extra time on her hands, I have more time and energy to publish that which I am feeling. Call it the cycles of the moon (I swear they are getting to me more and more in my ripe age of 29), call it the wind-down and debriefing of emotions post-wedding, but this summer I've got a lot of extra, extra large feelings going on, too big for my physical body sometimes. So I purge....

We can call this a tribute to KB.

At first glance, I know we turn some heads and make others wonder what it is that really brought and keeps us together. At second glance, I sometimes wonder that myself. I say that with all the love in my heart. The teacher and the musician, not such a likely combo. I receive the not so infrequent phone call starting with "Pele, don't be angry, but....." followed by something like "I bought another drum for my kit and still need 50 Ls to pay for it" or I get awakened by musicians still rocking out in our upstairs bedroom at 3am on a school night or it's just plain summer concert tour mode and then there's no reasoning....and so on.

But I can say all of that with a smile in my heart and on my face, because here's why. When I was going through my divorce three years ago, I dealt with stuff in a lot of ways, but one thing I did was to make an angry CD for myself to listen to when I needed to get that stuff out and a happy CD to bring myself back up again. The transition song in the middle, was what I called my hope song. It was all that I was looking for in a life partner and I listened to it with a slim possibility that just maybe, I might still be able to find that for myself someday. In the end, it happened a bunch faster than I thought, not necessarily in the form that I had expected (again, all the love in my heart.... :), but the bottom line was, that every line in this hope song was answered in one person.

We made a deal with each other, early on, that it's not fair to cage up a butterfly or put a tear in its wings by trying to hold it down. We are two pretty different people, and though we may not always understand each other, we understand that we each have our own needs and do our best to respect that about each other. And bottom line is, we love each other for that. So there it is.....

I don't know about the legality of copyright stuff on blogs, but I fully attribute the next lines of the text to Alanis Morissette. The song called "Everything", my hope song....

I can be a nightmare of the grandest kind
I can withhold like it's going out of style
I can be the moodiest baby
And you've never met anyone as negative as I am sometimes

I am the wisest woman you've ever met
I am the kindest soul with whom you've connected
I have the bravest heart that you've ever seen
And you've never met anyone as positive as I am sometimes

You see everything
You see every part
You see all my light
And you love my dark

You dig everything of which I'm ashamed
There's not anything to which you can't relate

And you're still here....

I blame everyone else not my own partaking
My passive aggressiveness can be devastating
I'm terrified and mistrusting
And you've never met anyone as close to down as I am sometimes

What I resist, persists and speaks louder than I know
What I resist, you love, no matter how low or high I go

I'm the funniest woman that you've ever known
I'm the dullest woman that you've ever known
I'm the most gorgeous woman that you've ever known
And you've never met anyone as everything as I am sometimes

You see everything
You see every part
You see all my light
And you love my dark

You dig everything of which I'm ashamed
There's not anything to which I can't relate

And you're still here...

"The equalizing"

2008-07-25T19:43:00.006+03:00

After exchanging rings and vows, we did the "lidzinasana" or "equalizing". This was an important part of the ancient Latvian wedding tradition. The feeling that I get and have always gotten is that historically Latvians, while recognizing that there are differences in men's and women's roles in the family, it was not considered that women should be submissive to their husbands, thus the "equalizing".

For lidzinasana, we needed to find a large rock. (See back to my previous post about rock duty - this was a fun job for me!) We found a rock which we thought would do, but the folklorists, when they came to scope out the scene a few days before the wedding, immediately found another and ideal rock. You can't see from the picture, but it is diamond shaped from above, white, gray and pink with sparkles. Just in the the middle on the top of the rock, is the rock's "heart", a perfectly pink indentation, and a bit to the side, there is the "soul", a perfectly white indentation. Since we had to relocate the rock, KB had to dig it into the ground a bit - the rock needs to be solid and sturdy, as it is the foundation for our future together. So we each put our right foot on the rock and joined hands.Then our vedeju paris also put their right feet on the rock and covered our hands with their hands, from the top and the bottom, as they are our guides into married life and are also responsible for helping to protect our marriage. And we breathed together, inhaling from the earth, and asked for strength and blessing.
And there is the godson, helping with the drums (a musician's son - how can you deny him?)! I absolutely loved this about the ceremony, that really everyone, everyone participated as they saw fit, and that the folklorists allowed and welcomed this. It was very "real", not a show to be put on, but it is all about a series of rituals, designed to teach the young couple lessons about what is important and necessary in marriage, gathering strength from the earth and from the community as well.

Rings and vows

2008-07-23T13:12:00.009+03:00

After the fire had burned down a bit, it was time to bless the rings. These are our rings, being blessed over the fire.Exchanging of rings (the second time - now they are legal AND blessed).
Then we stood back to back - first as all the guests together chanted a blessing for us and then as the folklorists blessed each of us individually. They were burning a small torch of all kinds of dried grasses tied together (kind of like incense) and in front of each of us they "drew" Latvian symbols in the air while saying their own blessings/wishes for us.
Here we are exchanging our vows. I can only remember a bit of what we promised each other (can't wait for the video so I can hear it again), but I just remember thinking how beautiful it was what we were saying, and how right that this was exactly what a husband and wife should be promising one another. You will notice that our hands are tied together - that is with an ethnic belt which my grandmother designed and made for my folk costume. (Ever heard of "tying the knot"? We did this LITERALLY!) So the final vows, I do remember, were that love unites us and love also frees us, and then the belt came off, and they reminded us that while our souls are now bound together we are not physically bound together, reminding us each to keep our own, and that our souls being bound together is much stronger and more lasting than any physical bonds.

Hands down, this is one of my top two favorite photos of the day.
A kiss to seal the deal. :)
This picture may be a bit out of order - I think it is just after she removed the belt and saying how love unites us and love frees us!
And here we are, taking a stroll around as the newlyweds, KB "showing off" his new wife. :) He has this goofy "saimnieks" (farmer) face - including a smile and a nod - that he was making the whole time in the video (he noticed this himself) and we had a big laugh about it... :)

Gathering strength

2008-07-21T15:48:00.005+03:00

After we had built the fire, we sang some verses to get the fire going. I'm not sure of the meaning behind all the verses, but at least one verse was thrown in and they whispered to me that this was a verse to ward off accidents with fire in the new home we are planning to build right there. I know that we were also singing something to the effect that there always would be a fire burning between me and KB in our relationship. There were several of these moments during the ceremony when little things were whispered just to me and KB by the folklorists, making it extra special, and we knew that what they were doing was just for us. It may have left some of the guests a bit confused, but for us it was kind of nice...

With our expert fire-building skills and awesome singing, we had built it a bit too big to start with the exchange of the rings, so while we waited for the fire to burn down a bit, KB gathered strength from the men at the ceremony and I gathered strength from the women. The men went first, and did the "dance of the bear" around the fire. Then they passed the energy around the cirlce, starting and ending with KB, by clapping hands with the next person, saying "HO HO!" The first time around, it was a bit weak, but as it went on, we could literally see the men gathering their energy. I would say from the outside it looked a lot like a sports team gearing themselves up for the event, getting more and more into it. KB said it was pretty powerful the second time around and he really felt it. It went faster and louder, and to me sounded like a heartbeat travelling around the cirlce.
The women were next, and women gather their strength from being able to sit together with a girlfriend or other females, and talk and share. So we went around the cirlce singing, all holding hands, every so often breaking down into circles of two or three, continuing the singing. In the end, I was "returned" to KB, and, strength now gathered, we were ready to go on.

Lighting the fire

2008-07-19T17:01:00.005+03:00

We still have not collected wedding photos from all of our guests, so I know there is a better picture of this moment out there....however, for now this one will have to do. Our next task was to try to do the impossible - we had to hold water in our hands. This task is about as easy as holding love in your hands. However, when we worked together (one pair of hands on top of the other) it was a bit easier... Then we got to clean out what was behind us in our past by throwing water behind us (got those people nice and wet!), clear our future by throwing water in front of us, and enjoy the moment we are in (one more time - tris lietas labas lietas - good things come in threes!) by throwing water straight up! :)
The area for the fire was decorated with fern leaves, and together we built and lit the fire for the ceremony...

KB's godson really wanted to help build the fire... We let him do as much as he could, but then he just had to stand back with dad...

Beginning the ceremony

2008-07-17T15:50:00.008+03:00

The photos above show the people who helped to make the ceremony happen. The musicians as well as the folklorists, who are husband and wife. They truly made it a beautiful day for us.

Everything began as the guests came close together in a circle around the place where the fire would be built. We passed a ball of yarn around the circle, creating a circle to unite us. Then a "laimes akmens" was strung onto the yarn, this is a rock which is found in nature with a perfect hole in it. As the rock was passed around the circle, each guest introduced him/herself and how they knew us. Now that we all knew each other, we could begin!
The first order of business was making a wreath of flowers for me. This was the last time that I would get to wear a flower wreath, as they are only for unmarried women; married women covered their heads. However, before the flower wreath could be finished, KB and I each had to take a close look at all of the flowers that had been woven into the wreath, and smell them as well. Then we each had to choose the one that was our favorite. Here we are looking, smelling, choosing... :)

For those of you who don't know, I actually suffer from some pretty serious allergies this time of year from some sort of flower pollens. The allergies show up in my eyes, which become crazy red, really puffy and ridiculously itchy. Usually it actually hits me at the end of the summer (making me a fun sight as the "new teacher" on the first days of school!) but this year they were bugging me early. I had gone to the pharmacy to pick up some allergy medicine to start taking about a week before the wedding. They of course didn't have my usual medicine at the time, so I took a replacement. Anyway, during this part of the ceremony, I was really getting nervous about whether the new medicine would do it's job.

After we had chosen our favorite flowers and picked one out of the wreath, we were instructed to gently rub it over each other's faces. This was a way to mark each other with our favorite scent so that we would always know when the other was coming and we could even find each other in the dark. I had chosen a jasmine flower. I was so lucky that KB had chosen a fern leaf, as I was pretty sure that was not what I am allergic to! (That also got a pretty good laugh from the crowd, as "flowering ferns" are what young couples go off into the woods to look for on the night of the summer solstice - as we all know ferns do not flower, it's just a good excuse to go off into the woods....) :) In the end, all was well, and the new allergy medicine worked beautifully. My flower wreath was finished off by my vedeju mate, and we were ready to begin!

Arriving at Jaunvitagas

2008-07-15T08:57:00.011+03:00

After we made it legal, everyone headed to Jaunvitagas. All day long it threatened to rain, but the storms totally held off to one side of the sky. In many ways, this was actually the ideal weather for us. If the sun had been out, it's quite possible we would have all melted in the field. Of course many people had commentary throughout the day about the weather. KB said it reminded him that there is nothing in life that should be taken for granted - mother nature granted us the weather that we needed, but only just so. We often get the feeling that our grandparents who are not with us anymore are watching over us, especially when we are at Jaunvitagas. I get the feeling that on that day they were there and literally holding back the storms so that we could have a beautiful day (because the storms were really circling all around us). The folklorists who led the wedding ceremony and blessing at Jaunvitagas reminded us that in Latvian mythology Thunder of course reminds us of the strength of God, so his presence was there as well. In any case, it all worked out for a beautiful day. While this photo doesn't capture the most threatening clouds, it is a great shot looking out from where our ceremony was held.Upon arriving at Jaunvitagas, everyone lent a helping hand in final decorations, setting out some snacks and preparing the champagne toasts. That was just what we had envisioned for the feel of the day, nothing too formal, but everyone participating, helping out and enjoying their time together. Then we gathered for toasts. Again, whichever guests wanted to congratulate us at this time could, so most people presented their gifts, gave us words of wisdom or recited short poems or quotes at this time.

MP and JS gave us words of wisdom to wear. This is a reminder to us, if we ever feel like we are going to bed angry, we should put these on. We actually have been wearing them around the house quite a bit in the past two weeks (not because we are angry, just because we want to)! :)
Then we did the "formal family shots" before the next part of the day began. Us with the parents. Us with the family, including Krix and AA. Us with our vedeju paris. I'm still looking for a copy of the whole group shot that I like - since we got seated in the front, my face looks like a squished up potato in the pictures I've seen so far....

Making it legal

2008-07-12T08:49:00.010+03:00

The wedding started at noon, first with the official part at the "city hall." The ladies who work there were extremely cute in decorating the place with fresh jasmine flowers and leaves. Mostly the ceremony was the ladies reciting lots of poetry about love and their keyboardist playing schmoozy songs and singing about love. For me, a bit much. The moms were crying so it must've been good. :) We got to officially thank our parents with flowers as part of the ceremony, which was nice. The ceremony was also quite official with several signatures (both old and new names) in several places and an official reading of each line of our marriage license. (Point of interest - Latvian women have a different ending on their name than men, so while Karlis is Briedis, I am officially Briede. I have yet to see what the US embassy says about this, when I go in to apply for a new passport. I'm sure this could be a whole new bundle of fun with red tape.)

Our witnesses for the marriage were also our vedeju paris - a couple which we chose as "role models" in marriage because we value their relationship and family life - RF and VF from Sweden (also sometimes our Ben and Jerry's suppliers!) who just celebrated their 16th wedding anniversary. :)

A favorite moment was at the end of the ceremony, when all the guests could come up and congratulate us personally. When KB's godson (nearly two years old) came up he looked at us and just said "ALUS!" (beer). We're pretty sure he didn't know what he was saying, but priceless, anyway.... :)

alive and well....smiling and happy.... :)

2008-07-10T19:59:00.003+03:00

I'm back! The treehouse hotel checked out its guests early last Friday morning (my parents, sister and brother-in-law) with tearful goodbyes and so far it has been a slow recovery process. Mima finally started talking to us again two days ago (and when she did start talking, boy, did she start talking)... In one sentence or less: the wedding day was absolutely wonderful! While the preparation was a bit stressful and the "clean-up" (both physical and emotional) has been tiring, we are filled with beautiful memories to last a lifetime.

So obviously, I've got a lot of catching up to do and lots to say about all of it - I'm going to hop around a bit about the last couple of weeks. Today was the first day that I finally had a chance to begin looking at and sorting through all of the wedding pictures that have been downloaded onto Speedy (my computer) and there are a lot! That being said, I have decided to post about the wedding in chapters. Each day (or every couple of days - but I will aim for every day!) I will post a few more pics and write a bit more about the wedding day.

(Briefly, I did not actually fall off the face of the earth this last week. Friday, we did "take the day off" and go to the beach after everyone left, which was a nice day of relaxation. Saturday we became godparents again! This would be a whole blog in and of itself if life were not so busy - the president himself was at the event, as well as some big singer from Italy, which got us in all the newspapers, magazines and on TV that day. My brief commentary of the day includes: the Lutheran church in Latvia scares me, the president has a frighteningly weak handshake for being the leader of a country, lots of money can get you lots in Latvia, and the best moment of the day was when we kidnapped our godson away to buy him an ice cream! On Sunday we attempted to clean the apartment while watching the seven hour parade opening the Latvian Song and Dance Festival on TV. This week we have been working 10 hour days helping our friends by working their booth at an artisans' market. Fun people watching, but also tiring all the same. In other news, Ojarins, our batmobile, got a window knocked out and four lawn chairs were stolen. He was at the car hospital and is better now.)

So....to the wedding day! Only two pictures today, to get us started. The first picture is of KB presenting me with the flower bouquet, as is traditional here. Pretty funny story how that all happened. This is all part of me being the untraditional bride. It all started the night before around 10pm, when a friend of ours called and talked about how the day had been quite stressful for his wife because she hadn't been able to get to her usual mani/pedicurist and someone else had to do her nails for the wedding. At that point I looked down and realized I better do something about my own nails! Then I also started thinking about the fact that I hadn't really tried on any underwear and wasn't sure if I even owned a pair that would show through on a white dress, and I also dug out an old pair of tights that would pass (I decided I needed tights to cover up my bug-bitten legs). Possibly too much info, but this just goes to show my laid back attitude (possibly too laid back?) about the day. I actually appreciated it, as did many guests who commented that they liked the relaxed and down-to-earth feel of the day. I digress....so along with the laid-backness, I called IG around 9am the morning of the wedding, having realized that I didn't even think about getting a bouquet, and asked how necessary this was for the civil part of the ceremony. She said, yeah, I probably need one, so I asked her to pick one out for me. When we arrived at the "city hall" she secretly showed me the bouquet, asked if it would be ok, but couldn't give it to me because KB was supposed to do that. He didn't know about this either, so it was a surprise to him when he pulled up a few minutes later. Here is the ceremonial presentation of the bouquet!

And this is me with the beautiful bouquet. Please note the great necklace! This is how Krixba saved the day! She coordinated the outfit that day through the jewelry so that the white dress, gold shoes, silver wedding ring and bronze jewelry all made sense. Untraditional, I say, and it was just right for us... :)

Sponge Bob Squarepants

2008-06-19T11:57:00.002+03:00

For those of you who enjoy stories about Mims the wondercat....we have found her weakness. She is truly and deathly terrified of Sponge Bob Squarepants.

She has not had problems with balloons in the past, but when KB took down my great end of the year gift (Sponge Bob Squarepants helium balloon) to show her, she acted like the world was going to explode. I have never, never seen her run around in cirlces like such a maniac, screaming like the sky was falling! She totally did the cartoon run of her feet going faster than her little legs would carry her, barrelled through her food and water bowl scattering it everywhere and jumped around on every piece of furniture in the house. Even after KB had safely tied the balloon back in its place, she just sat frozen under the table, screaming at the balloon. Then she went into hiding and even the next morning we still could not find her. Finally, we put the thing in the room upstairs. Mims slowly came out, looking all over for her nemesis, and for the first time in her life even went out into the hallway when we opened the door for her, looking for Spongy (the hallway is usually what brings out these death screams from her). After we left, she spent the remaining day behind the washing machine, even though the balloon was nowhere in sight.

So the point of the story....Mims the wondercat has discovered her arch enemy....Sponge Bob Squarepants.....

Only in LV...

2008-06-19T11:21:00.004+03:00

Perhaps 95% of my posts could start with that title, but here's a fun story for you...

On Tuesday, I was trying to make a phone call to a government office. (That sentence in and of itself should let you know that you are in for a good story!) About two months ago, I had called the office from which I had received my permanent residence visa, asking how I will go about getting a new visa in my new passport once I have changed my last name. That was a fun phone call too - the one where I had first called and no one answered so I called back about half an hour later to the lady picking up the phone and screaming "We are on our lunchbreak right now!!!" and I timidly answered, "Ok.....I just have a quick question - when would be a good time to call back?" and she screamed back "well, if I've picked up the phone and you must ask your question then ask it!!!" The weirdo answer I got at the time is that I need to go get the new visa from the same office where I have declared my official address. (This is something everyone in Latvia must do and keep up on every time you move so you pay your taxes to the correct districts.) Anyway, this sounded fishy to me, but I stopped in at that office a few weeks later to declare my official address (oops, I had been living at the new address for over a year and only just got around to it) and they looked at me like I was from Mars when I asked if this would be the place to come get my new visa.

So Tuesday, I thought I'd try to call back and hope to get the nice lady to pick up the phone this time (there are two who work in this office - the good witch and the bad witch - and everyone who has ever had to deal with this office knows what I am talking about). So I really tried to plan my times accordingly for the phone call, took a deep breath and went for it. No answer. Ok, I gave it the same half hour that I did last time and then tried again. Busy signal. And for the rest of the afternoon whenever I called, busy signal. But the crazy thing that started happening, is that I started getting many a phone call from random numbers, of people thinking that they were calling this same office that I was trying to call! Obviously, I figured that in some twilight zone way, their calls were now getting forwarded to my phone. But this being Latvia, I really didn't know what to do about it, so I just sort of dealt with it for the afternoon, hoping someone would catch on and the problem would just go away.

No such luck - next morning, I am still getting these phone calls. (Honestly, were I not such a straight person, I could've had quite a bit of fun with this. Mostly, these were Russian speaking people, looking to renew their permanent residency visas - that means people who have lived here at least five year (probably longer for most) and have still not bothered to learn the language - MAJOR peeve.... One lady really did panic when she called and asked if she could speak in Russian and I said no, only Latvian. I could've stirred up some great trouble that day....but I diverge....)

So what to do... I begin by calling my own mobile phone company. I explain the situation and there is an uncomfortably long silence on the end of the line. Finally the "customer service rep" (I use that term loosely) just tells me, no that's not possible and it's not happening. Um....ok. So it takes five more explanations until she gets what I am saying and is starting to believe me, but of course, this has nothing to do with her. I must try to call the local company for landlines.

Call the company for landlines, and the woman almost immediately hangs up when I tell her my story because I'm calling about my mobile phone and they don't do mobile phones. I kept her on the line long enough to tell her the story once more so she gets how it has to do with her, then she tells me the same thing, that it's not possible. When I explain to her that it is possible and it is happening, she tells me that it must be my fault, I have done something to forward these calls to myself and there is nothing they can do about it. (How much fun would that be, if I could forward the calls of any government office to my own mobile phone?) No, I told her, that doesn't make any sense. So she tries to locate the landline phone number and tells me such a number does not exist so it can't be happening. Again, I must explain that it IS happening. Then she told me that I must work in that office and so I should want these calls to be coming to me. Um.....ok. No. Finally, she put me on hold. She came back and said she found that this phone number does exist and is being forwarded to me and will try to contact someone to see if they can fix it.

This did not leave me with a great deal of confidence that the problem would be solved. We were calling around trying to find the address for this office (as the office has moved location since we had been there) and were getting ready to go in to the office ourselves to see if we could fix it (because of course we can't call them since I keep getting the busy signal and the calls are coming back to my phone!) Did I mention this was already a cuckoo day as we were driving around like madmen, running wedding errands - to the seamstress for final dress fittings and hurrying to meet they people who will be marrying us at Jaunvitagas? So, we're getting ready to go to the office in person, hoping and praying for the good witch, when I realize, I haven't had a random phone call in about 15 minutes. I tell KB to try to call the office, and by miracle, he gets through to them!

It was the good witch on the phone. KB explained everything, but of course she says (in some form of apology), it was not her fault or her colleague's fault, it must've been the phone's fault or the phone company's fault... And that is the story in Latvia - blame anyone, so long as it's not me....

And then the good witch politely explained, that I do indeed need to get my new visa from the office where I declared my official address. I'm just gonna leave that one for after the wedding....

Mimuliene

2008-06-15T07:59:00.002+03:00

Such a funny, funny cat. The other night we had just gotten home with a friend and she was running around in circles screaming at us, but no one was paying any attention to her. So she walks over to the happy light and turns it on so that the room floods with bright "sun"light, and looks up at us - "now will you please listen to me??" What a character.....

In other news, the real title of this post should be "CRUNCH TIME". However, I'm not really sure what to write about that. School is officially done and I'm signed out for the summer (though this will definitely be a working summer for me as I prepare to teach grade two). (By the way as a side note, my top two favorite end of the year gifts from students this year: 1. a Sponge Bob Sqaurepants balloon picked out especially for Ms. Diana, 2. a giftcard to a spa where I will definitely be getting a massage this week :) !) Anyway, in my mind I had justified everything by thinking that now we would have two weeks to focus solely on preparing for the wedding and everything would get done, though somehow it became painfully obvious to me just yesterday, that we only have one week. Jani is next weekend and then guests already start arriving on Tuesday! It is all wonderful and exciting - and coming up very very fast!!!