The countdown has begun. In exactly 10 days from now I will arrive in Riga, Latvia.
I will depart from Airport Düsseldorf Weeze (Germany) at 6:55 AM on August 5 and arrive at Riga International Airport at 10:05 AM. I don't believe I have to fear for any jet lag as Latvia is just one hour ahead of The Netherlands, being in a GMT+2 time zone. Upon arrival I will head to my accommodation PRIMA dormitory in Reznas street 10 k.1, which is just 5 km from Riga. It also only takes about 20-30 minutes to reach 19 Raina Boulevard, which is the main building of the University of Latvia (and my replacement for the University of Groningen during the Autumn semester). Although registration week takes place from 27.08-2012-02.09.2012, my EILC (Erasmus Intensive Language Course) Latvian already starts at August 6!, and is finalised by taking a Latvian exam on 30.08.2012. Some people asked me why I took the opportunity to do the EILC (''giving up'' part of my summer vacation) or even study the Latvian language, considering it isn't the easiest. I can respond in several ways, but ''Hard is what makes it great.'' is probably the best one! Currently, I am already studying both Latvian and Russian (since the latter is also widely spoken in Riga). For this, I am making use of Teach Yourself book/CD pack's (Complete Latvian & Get Started In Russian), which are great! So much for now, I will try to keep you up to date on a weekly basis when I am finally there!!
PS: I decided to write this blog in English instead of Dutch as not everyone of who I know and is (possibly) interested in following my blog is fluent in Dutch.
