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.