[ESN EVENT] Welcome Seminar/ Party

At Saturday the 8th of September we had our first trip outside Riga with ESN.Our destination, guest house Kali. Here we would have the ESN Welcome Party. Upon arrival we split the entire group between 3 buildings and had a look at our room. It was only then we found out that it would be a cosy night, having to sleep with around 10 people in one room and bed. After this we went downstairs, had a welcome shot of Riga Black Balsam (the 30% one, which is a bit more sweet) and made teams for the ice-breaking activities. During this, one of the first things we did was a namegame. We had to use an adjective starting with the same letter of your first name. After this, the person beside you has to repeat and say his/her own name. This process then continued for the whole group and entire circle. Moreover, we had to pass an orange around, not being allowed to use our hands and feets. Some people clearly struggled more than others, which created funny sights! After the ice-breaking activities we had to decide upon our presentation topic for in the evening after dinner. We had chosen to present about ‘’What I think I do’’, being an internet rage when it comes to several pictures into one, and on which each picture is mentioned what this person or group of persons beliefs you are doing, it e.g. either being your parents or society. After we finished with this it was time to get dressed up for the Bad Taste party.

The day after (Sunday 9th of September) we had breakfast, some free time, a closing ceremony during which the purpose of ESN was stressed as well as the nominations and the awards of the happening of the day before.
Afterwards it was time to say goodbye to this lovely guest house with its beautiful nature and enjoyable waterbicycle and to hit the road back to Riga.

PRE-ARISTOTELES

On Sunday the 2nd of September, there was this feast called ‘’Aristoteles’’. During this feast, which is each September, new and experienced students of the University of Latvia get together on Dome Square and show their passion for their faculty in various ways (e.g. by using slogans, posters, or other performances). Ultimately, the idea is to stand out with your faculty as much as possible. Moreover, the Rector of the University, deans of faculties and others will refer to students. After the official part on Dome Square all students are welcomed to join the march to the Main Building of the University of Latvia. After that a party will start with some exciting competitions, photo corner, dancing, Latvian favorite musicians, bands and much more. The above was more or less the description of this event on the event page.  Whilst I can confirm on the beginning of that being mentioned (and that it was something worth experiencing), I did not experience the latter. I found the price of 5 Ls without discount flyer (later lowered to 4 Ls when asking the second time) to be too high to enter for any kind of university party. I will never find out if it was actually worth the money, but I was ok with that at the time, and am still now.

ESN Introduction Week (Part II)

DAY 4 OF  INTRODUCTION WEEK – INTERNATIONAL DAY

On Thursday the 30th of August my EILC exam was scheduled, but also International Day!
Earlier that week the ESN team asked me if I could prepare something for my country, so I did.
Last-minute the only other Dutch representative added info to my presentation leading it to be a combined effort. I myself discussed the stereotypes of windmills, wooden shoes, ‘’De Wallen’’ and weed (and whether I find these to be correct or not). Moreover, I told the audience about ‘’hagelslag’’, Dutch cheese (and how Germans use ‘’käsekopf’’ as a swear word), salted herring (with a picture of ‘’haringhappen’’) and of course the lovely ‘’oliebollen’’ which we eat during New Year’s Eve. To me that covered the most (spoken) parts of what I know about my own country. During this International Day I have also seen presentations from other countries, including Laos and India! We also witnessed some Serbian & Turkish dancing, Turkish singing, and were able to taste liquors such as Rakia and Bison Grass Vodka. After all these new impressions it was time to have a good night rest, since I mentioned I hardly slept the day before. 13 hours of sleep helped me to restore my energy level. 

DAY 5 OF INTRODUCTION WEEK – TRADITIONAL LATVIAN DINNER AT LIDO 

Finally, on Friday (31st of August) we went out for eating at Lido. This is a self-service restaurant with good quality food, but for a lower price than ordinary restaurants. We went to the one at Krasta iela 76 (Lido Recreation Center), being very closeby to my dormitory and also one of the bigger Lido’s around (there are 8 Lido’s in Rīga) if I would have to guess.

To get an idea of the prices in Lido, rice with vegetables and mushrooms (1,2 Ls), Chicken Shashlik (2,1 Ls) and 200 ml of Black Currant -Juice (0,5 Ls) adds up to 3,8 Ls or about 5,45 EUR, and offering you quite a decent meal.

Although it said Traditional Latvian Dinner on the invitation by ESN, you could still get something on your plate being completely international. For me it was also like this, although as far as I know I never had the ‘’Shashlik’’ before. It is tasty, but I don’t know if I should be so happy about the fact that I just read on Wikipedia that it is considered to be fastfood, haha. 

And with this event the introduction week had come to an end. I wouldn’t have minded if the introduction week would have been 1 or 2 days longer, as I enjoyed each event.

ESN Introduction Week (Part I)

In this and my next blog-entries* I would like to reflect on the ESN (Erasmus Student Network) activities I have joined in the past, and provide a glimpse of which are to follow in the future! I will start of by showing on which days I have been occupied by ESN movement, marked in yellow on the calendar (clickable) below.

*Due to technical limitations these cannot be combined.  
 

From 27 August to 31 August there was the introduction week of ESN, with there still being a preARISTOTLE (non ESN) party on the end of the same week. 

DAY 1 OF INTRODUCTION WEEK - OLD TOWN TOUR
To start, on Monday 27 August we had the Old Town (Vecrīga in Latvian) Tour with ESN. Although our guide was great, I already heard a lot of what he said before. This is also because I already had experienced a guided Old Town Walking Tour during my EILC. Yet, it was a fun game to try to see how much I remembered! Other then that, I was able to meet some new people once more, which is always a good thing. If you pass this part of Riga for the first time, you will be amazed by how each building seems to have a different size, height, shape or color! I consider this part of Riga to be the most beautiful of all. It is definitely worth a visit! Sometimes it is also possible to secretely join one of the many guided tours, although you have to get lucky with the language spoken by the guide.
Precisely at the end of our own tour it started to rain quite heavily! This is when I was told that it is impossible to survive in Latvia without a raincoat. Being used to the Dutch weather I had better hopes! Furthermore, the Latvians (ESN team & buddies) told us that the sewage system in Riga cannot handle large amounts of waters, which I was able to witness from first sight. Yet, so far I have encountered less rain and wind than I am used too. As for the average temperature, it is still quite low and lower than that of 
The Netherlands.

DAY 2 OF INTRODUCTION WEEK – BOWLING
On day 2 (Tuesday, 28th of August) of the introduction week it was time to go bowling, and again, meet new people. After all, many people were still flying in for ERASMUS. J
For the bowling, we went to Zelta Boulinga Centrs (2/4 Uzvaras blvd), here we had some great fun! It is also here where I learned that it sometimes better to say that you are from The Netherlands rather than from Holland, as it can be confused with Poland! After I explained to a girl that I came from Holland she told me with full excitement that there was another girl at the bowling coming from the same place! Only when I tapped this girl her shoulder and asked I found out she was Polish...! This would have been the first Dutch exchange student I had talked to since my arrival in Riga, but it was not meant to be. Actually, still now I only have met 2 Dutch exchange students. But frankly, I do not care for this all that much. It will be more interesting to get to know something about other cultures. And if I will speak Dutch, it then might as well be with the few (but still more than Dutch) Dutch speaking Belgium exchange students I met. In either case, I am happy that I am not situated like the German Erasmus students, which have come to Riga in great quantities. As a result, they speak to each other a lot in their own language, instead of English (which is the goal of many people here on Erasmus – improving on their English). Lastly, it is funny that the German students sometimes include me as being part of the large German pack, forgetting for a split-second that I’m actually from The Netherlands. 

DAY 3 OF INTRODUCTION WEEK – PUB CRAWL

The 3rd day (Wednesday, 29th of August) of the introduction week it was time for the pub crawl. I think this is a typical event for almost any student introduction week! As common with pub crawls, we also had to fulfill some assignments. This included such activities as making a human pyramid in front of the Liberty Monument and faking ‘’Alien Attack’’ and ‘’Execution’’ as group poses. These activities were outside the bar, but we also had activities which took place inside. Inside we had to do assignments such as asking for the bartender his name (you will probably see him more often after all!) and count the number of blonde girls in the bar (which somehow the guys who had to do this enjoyed very much ;)). We were also tested on our Latvian language skills and had to write down the names of famous locations and buildings based on pictures provided. Our team had done very well in this photo and quiz competition, as we were later awarded with the 2nd prize!Our team had done very  well in this photo and quiz competition, as we were later awarded with the 2nd prize! All in all, this night was a great success. The only sad feeling I had this day that I would have liked to attend the birthday of my oldest brother (whose birthday is also on August 29), but circumstances decided elsewise. One other ‘’tiny’’ problem was that I still had to study for my EILC exam for the day after. After having returned from the pub crawl at 3 AM in the morning and having my test at 10:30 AM, I did not sleep much this night. This resulted in extreme tireness for the day after.

My immediate surroundings

It's time.. for some pictures!

So this is Rēznas Iela/ Reznas Street (the street where I live) and the nearby railway track.

The picture on the bottom left is a gambling shop that has been renovated just a few weeks ago. I find this to be somewhat ironic since the environment does not display many rich people living here. However, the following Wikipedia webpage sheds some interesting views on the appearance and investments in this district!
Related link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maskavas_For%C5%A1tate

Now, as we move towards the dormitory this is what you will see on your immediate left. 

To be honest, the graffiti works make it a bit hard for me to generate this ''feel home straight away'' feeling. Moreover, it is questionable why one would put up roadwork signs, brick up doors and apply fencing to the windows of a building. This would only be of temporarily nature in my neighbourhood and the building would be demolished quite soon. But here it seems to be part of a more long-lasting strategy. Mostly, I just ignore these sights as I move my way to enter the dormitory at the right-hand side. 

Once inside and going to the top floor, the above is what you will see. I found it to be somewhat crazy to see that there is also actually a tree growing on the rooftop of the building I just talked about...

When leaving Rēznas Iela and moving towards the City Centre, the first street you pass is Lomonosova Iela. With the picture put up above I wanted to illustrate the wide variety of buildings in this district, which was also mentioned on the Wikipedia webpage. On the 2nd picture seen from the left, you can find either ''East 4A'' or ''Easy 4A'' (don't know what it is supposed to say) been written on the wall. I have seen this same writing on many walls, maybe it is the graffiti autograph of the local gang? 

Not much further down the road is something which is shown on the map as 'Ebreju kapi', translated as Jewish Cemetery. Here you can find a stone with engraved writing, which says:

''The Old Jewish Cemetery
This is Riga's first Jewish cemetery. It was opened in 1725 and burials continued here until the late 1930s. After German forces occupied Riga in 1941, the prayer house and the mortuary were burned down. The cemetery became a mass burial site for over 1,000 Jews killed in the streets and houses of the Riga Ghetto. Following World War Two, many of the cemetery's tombstones were removed and used as building material. Others deteriorated. The wall surrounding the cemetery collapsed, and the site left uncared for fell into disrepair. In the 1960s, the site was razed and renamed ''The Park of the Communist Brigades.'' In 1992, the park was renamed ''The Old Jewish Cemetery.''''



In one of my future blog posts I will  try to write something (and post pictures) about places which are more located towards the City Centre, since these show an entirely different perspective of what Riga has to offer.

Jurmala

One of the most famous tourist attractions outside Riga is the beach in Jurmala. When you want to go here from Riga you can simply go to the central station and buy a cheap return ticket for the train, it will only cost you 1.95 Ls (or about 2.80 EUR)! Then once you get off at stop Majori it is another 12-15 minutes walk to reach the beach. Actually, I have been told that most Latvians know better places to reside at the seaside. Yet, I consider Jurmala to still be a good place to relax. I have learned that it is common for Latvians (or at least part of them) to stay in their private vacation home near the beach to spend the weekend. But since I never went to any of these places, I can only offer some pictures of Jurmala. 

As you might have noticed, it is not really sunny on the picture on the top left. Currently, I have been to Jurmala three times. The first time I went it was only 15 degrees on a Sunday, not really qualifying as a 'Sunny Sunday' as such. To make matters worse, I was informed that it was 30 degrees on the same day in The Netherlands. Indeed, August and summer in general hasn't been that great in Latvia. Let's hope winter will make up for it!! 

My nameday

Namedays... before going to Latvia I have never really heard about them.
But during my EILC course I learned more about this. Curious as I was, I started to use Google in an attempt to find my own nameday. Unfortunately, without any definite results! Luckily, with the help of my buddy I found out that my nameday for 'Rojs' is on the 20th of August. On the right you can see the cheese pie I shared with some of my dormmates to celebrate this. Finally, some people have many namedays each year (in different countries) and thus acting as a possible excuse for partying too much.

Cooking Lesson

In the third week of the EILC it was time to hit the kitchen! There was quite some excitement all around I can say! I do not believe any of us EILC students considered themselve to be knowledgeable about Latvian and/or Russian cuisine, and what we had to cook was also still a big surprise.




Luckily, a chef from the university canteen briefly explained and showed us what we had to do, but then it was our turn. Unfortunately, I do not have the recipe for the apple dessert (picture 1), but do have the ones for picture 2 & 3 (see down below).

Darba lapa

Siera-burkānu salāti
Recepte (3 personām)
100g siers, 2 vārītas oļas, 1 vārīts burkāns, 2 karotes majonēze, sāls,
pipari
Sieru un burkānus sarīvē, olas sagriež. Majonēzei pievieno sāli, piparus, pārlej salātiem un izmaisa. Dekorē ar olu un zaļumiem.

Rosols
7 vārīti kartupeļi, 300g vārīta desa, 2 gurķi, 1 vārīts burkāns, 80g zaļie zirnīši (konservēti), 7 karotes majonēzes, 300g skābs krējums, pipari, sāls

Kartupeļus, olas, guķus, desu sagriež. Visu liek bļodā, pievieno zirnīšus. No krējuma, majonēzes, pipariem un sāls pagatavo mērci. Pārlej rasolu un samaisa. 

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Just before eating you can say ''Labu apetīti!'' 

Passed my first exam!

First of all, I have to conclude that I failed in trying to keep my blog up to date on a weekly basis.
My apoligies for those who have checked and found out that there were no new entries.
However, I have experienced enough to write about!

Most importantly, I passed my EILC (Erasmus Intensive Language Course) Latvian with a 7! To my great surprise, it even says on my diploma that it is worth 6 ECTs, something which I have to check with my Home University for sure!

Other then that, I would also like to provide a short recap of the course itself.
We had about 19-21 hours of class each week, but not only Latvian language! We have done:

● Welcome meeting & afternoon (double party! - with national snacks)

● Excursion outside Riga,  Sigulda* or "Switzerland of Latvia"
● City Tour: Art Nouveau Riga
● Visit to Riga Art Nouveau Museum

● Riga City Festival (on own occassion - highlights   recommended)

● Visit to Museum of the Occupation of Latvia

● Cooking lesson

● Visit to the Latvian Ethnographic Open-air Museum
● Closing party

Pictures are lacking, but I have some of the cooking lesson! These will be shown in my next blog entry, including the recipe. Naturally, it is written in Latvian, which may cause some problems!
It also did for me, but Google Translate should be able to help you out quite a bit.
Be careful with that though, as Google Translate does not always provide the correct translation. Unfortunately, I discovered this the hard way. Luckily there are plenty of substitutes which do function a lot better, but these are most likely unnecessary for your needs.
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*For those interested in visiting Sigulda in their lifetime, it is recommended to go there in the middle of September or in October.