Geriatric snow

Snow does not age gracefully.

When it first lands it covers the land like a soft layer of icing sugar. But over time the snow is compacted and dirtied by the animals that venture out into the harsh conditions (it was - 25 today). Salt and sand are thrown onto the street to increase traction (it looks muddy and gross but if the road is less slippery I appreciate it. I've had enough of skidding in the car and slipping over when I walk.). And animal excretions are frozen where they land, the cold preventing them from decomposing. All in all it destroys the fairy tale picture we have in Australia of a white christmas.

The infamous yellow snow.
Not the greatest photo but I was quite embarrassed to be photographing this particular subject. I get enough shit for taking photos of all the snow, let alone yellow snow.

In other news school was cancelled today. They have a policy that if it's -20 children up until grade 10 don't have to go to school and if it's -25 then everyone can stay home. And yes it reached -25. Wooo! The way it's going at the moment when it reaches -5 I'll be outside in my shorts screaming with joy. It's just so hard to do anything with this cold. Apparently I've had the luck of arriving in the coldest winter in 23 years. Yay for me. I just hope it's not too cold for the ice skating lessons to start on the weekend.

Tomorrow the class is going into Rīga to visit the American embassy. No one seems to be able to tell me why but I'm grateful for the day of school and the adventure. I'll report back tomorrow. :)

The universal language of ... theatre sports!

My host mother told me about a show that she thought I should go and see. It was a theatre sports concert. When she showed me the add I was like 'teatre sports'?? What the hell is that?? Do they get up on stage and act like they are playing sport? Or do they play sport while acting? ie. ice skating as Michael Jackson (which I have seen and it wasn't good, but more on that later.)

Anyway I wrote the English translation in my diary, 'Theatre Sports', and I left it. The next day I looked at it and it dawned on me. It was a theatre sports competition!! (For those of you who don't know http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theatresports).

After I worked this out I felt pretty stupid because I have some great mates who do Theatre Sports and I've been to a couple of performances before. So I was pretty excited about going to a Latvian version of the sport.

The first half hour was spent giggling. It was theatre sports in Latvian!! But it seems bad acting is also a global phenomenon and that you don't need to understand what they are saying to cringe. So the rest of the evening was rather painful. The eldest kids were good but still not quite the calibre of the deakin crew. :)
This is a picture of the beginning of a game of space jump. It was in Latvian!! :)

Ummm ... yeah

It's been pretty subdued in the house today because yesterday one of the dogs died. Obviously my host family was distraught.

I haven't been quite sure what to do. I didn't want to intrude on their grieving and I didn't want to be a burden. So I cleaned up the house from the dinner party the previous night and then got out of there and went shopping.

It was a pretty succesful shopping trip. I bought knitting needles and wool (I have been given 5 weeks to knit a scarf), school books (it dawned on me that I'm here for a year and so I decided I should start taking school slightly more seriously) and general grocery things.

These are some of my purchAses. Riga Dinamo is a Latvian hockey team. Needless to say they are pretty popular. At the games everyone chants Di na mo, or Di na, or Ri ga, or Di na mo Ri ga. I'm hoping this book will get me into the club (not sure which one, maybe the cool kids? :) ). Ontop of the book is my knitting. That's my work from a day. I'm doing a slightly more complex knit from a book of my host mothers but it's not quite working. It's meant to be one texture on one side and another on the other. But somehow I'm managing to get stripes of the two on both sides. But I figure that first attempts at knitting have a duty to look bodge and homemade, it's part of the charm.

I had grander plans for my shopping trip. I wanted to get ready for Australia Day celebrations. I was planning to make lamingtons and since I forgot to bring a flag I was going to sew one. However, the store had no coconut (pretty essential) and there is nowehere I can buy fabric nearby. So I'm not going to have anything special ready for Aus Day. BUT I've decided I'm still going to make the flag. My family thought it was a great idea as they have a flag pole outside their house. So australia day will happen at some point, just not tuesday ( I'll wear a yellow top but I don't have any green (me, no green???)).

I have so any things to write about! Here is a preview of the posts to come.
- a sneak preview into the world of Latvian theatre sports
- an interesting tobogganing video :)
- some local graffiti (the local graffiti artists have a great grasp on the essentials of the english language)
- my thoughts on why everyone has skinny legs
- and I might even share some of my interesting food experiences

But for now here are some pavlova pics!
This is a nice aerial shot that displays the artistry of the fruit placement. I used Kiwi fruit, raspberries and bananas. It was actually quite nice. The pavlova was a hit. Everyone had seconds. YAY! After the drama of cooking it it was nice that it turned out well.

Mmmmm. Scrumptious.

Tas ist ein book

°Highlights of today?

1. Sleeping in
2. Sport
3. German

1. I slept in and missed Culture History. YAY!!

2. We played volleyball (again) for 2.5 hours. It seems to be all they do in sport. Luckily it's fun. I feel like a complete gumby but the girls assure me that I am good. It's either the truth, or they're being nice, or I misinterpreted :). It's a fun game but it hurts sooo much. After the two hours my arms were red. Why make a game that hurts so much to play? Maybe it'll be better when I get some mad wrist callouses.

3. Today I had my second German lesson. Previously I had thought it would be my least favourite class but I have now decided it is my absolute fav! There is something really rewarding with being able to learn German in Latvian. Although I am getting the three languages confused. My teacher is really nice and she found me some German books that are in English so the task won't be as hard as I had once thought. Thank goodness!

And I also made a pavlova!! Photos next time.

This is a photo of my timetable. Too many classes!!




And this is my photo for today. It isn't an amazing piece of photography but I thought it was funny. It is on a coaster that Rūta's aunt brought back from Scotland. As soon as I saw it I thought of my mum (love you) and I knew she would like it. :) I hope you like it too. (Although I think it's best if you don't click on the picture. It get's a little close for comfort then :) )



P.S There are three posts today. Enjoy!!

Ooops I did it again

I mentioned a while ago that I was going to learn 'Ooops I did it again' by Britney Spears in Latvian. Well I did and I want to share it with you. It isn't a direct translation, rather it is an appropriation of the tune. I hope you enjoy it.

[to the tune of 'Ooops I did it again'] Oops, man nokrita pups

To apēda klauns
Man izauga jauns
Oh babe babe

[rough translation] Oops my boobs fell off

They were eaten by clowns
I grow new ones
Oh baby baby

Yesterday was a very big day

School went so slowly yesterday. But when it was finally over I went on an adventure... to the post office!!

This might sound like a pretty pathetic adventure but it was pretty major for me. Up until now I've been accompanied everywhere and had everything translated for me. I never really helped the situation, and their confidence in my ability to get somewhere in one piece, by falling over everytime we went out. But that is all behind me now. I'm an independent woman :)

I also found out (when the UAC servers were finally fixed) that I got into the ANU!!! YAY!!!

I googled 'me at ANU' and searched the images. This was one of the first things that came up so I guess that'll be me next year. Not sure whether I'll be Bruno or the baby.

My New Best Friends

Before we get to the photos of the day. Here is a picture I drew in Art. Sorry if it's hard to see, I drew in pencil. We had to draw a skeleton and we had to write a joke to go with it, see below.

Draw .... Fire

These next photos are the first of my photo a day (more like photo whenever I think of it) series.

These three pictures depict my new best friends.



I hope my calculator isn't reading this. I still love you!!

:D

After a morning of moping and complaining about the snow and how I couldn't get outside, the day took an unexpected yet lovely turn. We went skiing on the highest mountain in Latvia!!!!

Vinnija (my host mother) taught me how to x-country ski. An hour of 'skiing' later(if you can call it that) and I was slightly more coordinated (at least I was skiing faster than Vinnija could walk, even if it was only slightly). I thought it went quite well I conquered a massive hill (it felt massive) and I only fell down twice!!!

This is the big hill. It's 372m above sea level. Wow!!

This next one isn't the greatest quality but I'm actually skiing in it. I'm going up the big hill that I later slid down. Going up a hill on skis is pretty hard. Respect to all those x-country skiers I was watching on eurosport.

Snow Angel :)
Jānis (my host father) and I.

While I was taking my first slides as a skiier the boys busted out a 5km ski. Then when Vinnija and I hit the cafe they hit the slopes again. I spent this time sussing out the fashion on the fields. Everyone seemed to be in plain white, black, blue or red ski clothes with the exception of a few girls who haven't gotten over the 'OMG I'm a girl therefore I LOVE PINK' stage of life. However, two outfits stood out as clear winners. The first was a lady wearing an orange jacket and white and orange pants. They were tasteful and yet still stood out from the rest of the crowd. But the clear winner was a grey and yellow full body suit. It looked so cosy and I loved the yellow detailing down the side, in the hood and on the lining. Here is a picture of the winner (it isn't very good quality cos I was trying to take it surreptitiously). Basically I want this suit!!!



I also remembered today that I once said I was going to take a nice photo a day. And so I'm going to try to stick to that from now on. It's part of my plan to keep me busy. Also in my plan is to knit and go to the local art school (although at the moment it looks like the class age is 6-12. I think I could blend in.)

xoxo
Zaiga

I lots of learning!!

There have been doubters, people who think that I'm wasting my time at school. Well now I give you evidence! I am learning more in Latvia than I ever have before!! Behold my completed school work.


This first piece is called 'Es nesaprotu' ('I don't understand') There are many layers of meaning within this piece. The question mark is an obvious representation of my inability to comprehend the language spoken around me. However, the shape of the question mark is also conjures images of the human ear (I tried to draw an ear but I failed miserably). The words are crowding around the ear trying to be heard but they are just dripping out without being understood. These droplets also express my sorrow at being unable to understand the language.

This piece is called 'The Demise of the Bumblebee'. Here the artist has appropriated the well recognised 'cut here' line. Not only has it been brought out of it's usual context but it's behaviour has also been dramatically changed. By challenging the viewer's perception of the 'cut here' line the artist transforms the line from a symbol into an object.

The bee line also represents a transformation: from a movement into a symbol. However, the main role of the bee is to strengthen the scissors role as an object rather than a symbol. This is achieved when the bee is 'killed' after flying into the blade of the scissors.

Ahh, I miss college English.

Here are some more snow photos. I was trying to capture the frost that had occured two nights earlier. It left every branch coated in frosty ice. It was beautiful!



This last photo is the view from my room.

I really appreciate all the comments and emails. So nice to hear my work is being enjoyed.
Love to all
Zaiga

I'm off to learn how to sing 'Oops I did it again' in Latvian :)

Clap clap for the ....

So in one of my previous posts I told you about how my Latvian teacher sat me down and got me to read from the newspaper aloud.

It was a really awkward situation because the rest of the class was working silently while I was stumbling through the headlines. I was feeling pretty embarrassed and I was very concious of my speech. After stumbling through a particularly difficult and funny sounding headline I chuckled to relieve some tension.

Only later did I find out that the headline I laughed about was talking a terrible fire.... oops.

Emotions

Everyone told me before I left that emotionally this year could be quite hard and I thought I understood that. But I don't think I quite grasped the reality of it.

Since I left Australia I have been on a rollercoaster of emotions. Halfway across the world the reality of the situation damned on me and I thought 'SHIT'. When I arrived those feelings luckily settled down but they're still there.

So to all those people who want to know how I am feeling I've decided to express it through smilies. I was trying to find those cute litle cartoons of bears with different expressions on their faces that psychologists sometimes use, but my search returned nothing. So here I am expressing myself through punctuation.

:)
:D
:\
:(
:|
and then it starts again.

This is the cycle of emotions I have been going through.

Love you all,
Zaiga

Writing, writing, writing

Today I got to sleep in :) (my host bro and sis went earlier) but I slept in a little too long. It was an innocent mistake!! I did wake up earlier but I didn't trust my clock so I went back to sleep (those clocks can be so unreliable) :). Anyway in Australia when I'm late I normally run out of the house with wet hair and breakfast in my tummy (breakfast so has priority). But this morning I realised that if I did that my hair would most likely freeze on my head. So unfortunately the priority was to dry my hair. Then on top of my running late through sheer stupidity the gate was locked and I couldn't get out of the house!!! Luckily I got to school just on time. My first walk to school alone was a success!!

Today I had Biology, Literature, Chemistry, Maths, IT and English. They were all pretty chilled classes.

I officially love my Literature teacher. Today she set the rest of the class some work and then sat down beside me with a newspaper and made me read the headlines aloud. It sounds mean but she was so nice about it and she was the first teacher who doesn't speak English to try and include me in the class. I'm not sure how much work the rest of the class got done what with all the laughing going on.

In Biology and Chemistry I recognise things like DNA and Carbon but that's where it ends. So I spent those lessons drawing. Now I know the trick to becoming a good drawer, have boring classes!! (Why couldn't you have told me earlier Ella?)

Maths is annoying because I know the answer but I don't know how to say it. So I sit there in frustration. My challenge for Wednesday is to speak up!

IT is possibly my favourite lesson. Latvian schools haven't discovered those web page blockers yet so youtube here I come!

English is suprisingly hard. It;s making me think about the language in such a weird way and also when I'm asked to participate I have to try and speak in a way that contributes to the subject being taught. I had fun today trying to explain 'any old' as in 'choose any old number'.

The girls in my class love my accent and so much of the free time between classes today involved me repeating what they said and saying any of the sentences I knew. They quite liked 'I love you like a roast duck'. Thanks for that one mum. They love anything I say. The other day at the party I went to there was a wall with writing on it and I was given a pen and told to write something. So I pulled out an old classic "Tu esi zēns ar krūtīm" which means 'You are a boy with breasts". They loved it. :)After school we walked the post office so that I could post somethings (can't go into details, you never know who is reading this). It was pretty uneventful except that I had another encounter with the bitumen. Now the other side of my bum hurts :( .

NEWS FLASH

This just in. I just had my first Piragi of the year!!! Mmmmmm.

Sorry for all the writing. I was just in a writey mood.
Love you all.

The Exchange

I thought it would be cool to make a newspapery thing. If you click on the image it will be easier to read. Hope you enjoy it.

xox
Zaiga

The Novelty of Snow Will Never Wear Off

All rugged up in the snow. Don't worry Mum and Dad I got a jacket that covers my kidneys.
Rūta, my host sister.
It looks like a car...
I love the way the snow balances on the trees, on everything actually.
The power lines are covered in ice!!!
Boat trip anyone?? By the way that white expanse you see behind the boats is the river Daugava, the largest river in Latvia.

First Day At School

How was school?


Good...






It felt weird going back to school when I should be finished but the day wasn't too bad. I understood nothing in History or Latvian and so I spent my time drawing pictures depicting this. But in Maths and Physics I could understand what was being taught (admittedly this was a result of already having covered these topics in Canberra and not my Latvian skills). My class mates thought it would be funny to volunteer me to answer a question in Mathematics but they shut up when I got it right :)

The students and teachers all seem very nice. They all like to laugh and are friendly depite their reluctance to speak English to me.

I noticed two things today. The first: in every class there is a lot of laughter. And the second: so many people have blue eyes.

Anyway I better get going. Hannah Montana in an unidentifiable language has just come on air. It's a must see.

Plumbaginous? Really?

Today, while attempting to learn Latvian, I found some very useful english words in my Latvian dictionary. I assumed that they didn't exist but apparently they do!!

plum⋅bag⋅i⋅nous
-adjective: containing graphite

plum⋅bif⋅er⋅ous

–adjective: yielding or containing lead.

un⋅put⋅down⋅a⋅ble
–adjective Informal. (esp. of a book or periodical) so interesting or suspenseful as to compel reading.

breast⋅work
–noun: Fortification. a defensive work, usually breast high.


And here it all is in a sentence:
The book on plumbiferous and plumbaginous breastwork is unputdownable.

I have arrived!!!

After a very long trip I finally arrived and, this is the amazing bit, my luggage appeared on time and in one piece as well!!! That's not part of the travel experience. I signed up for luggage drama.

So before I left I was asked to share my first impressions of Latvia. I was given a timeframe of a couple of weeks but the country is very impressionable so I will start right away.

First Impression: SNOW


My flight in Frankfurt got delayed because of the snow and while I sat there watching them de-ice the airplane I was trying to work out whether I would prefer to get there (some flights were cancelled) or perhaps not fly in a plane covered in ice!





There was even a man shovelling snow. I thought this was particularly novel. Especially considering it continued to snow.









I know it's a rubbish bin but do you notice anything special?? That's right. It's covered in snow!!










Second Impression: Snow doesn't stop crazy driving, infact, it seems to encourage it.

Latvians share the same attitude to driving that I have seen in other European countries. Namely that the faster you go the safer you are despite the weather conditions (snow and ice everywhere). I have also discovered the origin of a few of my mothers driving habits ie. lack of indication :) (love you mamiņa)


As for my family, the first impressions are good. They are so nice and enjoy a joke. They also enjoy practising their english so I have a big job ahead of me to speak Latvian. They live in a new house (the bathroom is still being built) across the road from the school. And I have my own room with a big double bed and animal print wall paper. What more could a girl want to combat homesickness?
The flowers they gave me. Awww.


One really cool thing about these is that the grass stems have pearl beads threaded onto them. It's so pretty and such a good idea.







The wicked wall paper. How did they know?








"What's that?" I hear you ask. "Oh that? That's just my television".











This is the roof of my room. I felt like getting arty at 3 in the morning, ok?


















My bedroom. Please excuse the mess.











So there is my first taste of my new life. ļoti garšigi!

Please forgive me for my jet lagged writing style. I promise my next post will be both eloquent and witty.

Zaiga
xox