My newest post is going to be a reflection of my first full year of being a Latvian. However, this short post will be a quick explanation of the barefoot trail of Valguma Pasaule. The bad news is there will not be many photos. This weekend, we rented a car so that we could travel …
Three Days in a Tent When I was in Latvia in 2016, I learned about this big music festival that happens every July. Both Ansis and Rita talked about it. It is one of those classic stories where a couple of Latvians had a dream to get some bands to come to this tiny country, …
The Song Festival 2018 This year Latvia held its 26th annual song festival and 16th annual dance festival. These celebrations are held every 5 years, and I feel blessed to be living here in both the Centennial year and the year of this incredible event! I thought that there was no way the performance could …
Colorado to Chicago Welcome to Part 2 of the journey from Latvia to Ireland, America, London and back to Latvia. This post starts in Granby, Colorado a tiny mountain town. Quite frankly, I just need to publish this. There may be mistakes and not all the photos are perfect. June 5-7: Granby Instead of taking …
Rita and I took a trip from Latvia to America and back again by way of Ireland and England. I keep promising my brother Paul an itinerary. I figured I would do it by way of a blog post. In this post, I will attempt to share each place we traveled to with a few …
Midsummer. St. John’s Eve. The holiday is celebrated all over Europe, but it isn’t really a thing in America. In Latvia, the celebration of Jāni (both St. John and a mythical all-father sort of dude who is supposed to show up on the morning of the 24th of June) is probably almost as big as …
This post is dedicated to Stephany Kecy who always seems to have my back on social media! (fixed the misspelled name) She asked me whether I had made my decision—was I coming back to Westside or not? I thought I had posted about it, but I haven’t written any sort of thoughtful explanation or reflection. …
I was going to write a post last week about our cultural activities, but time is what it is and lo, here I am at the end of May pondering existence on a Monday afternoon. Enjoy! Tvīda brauciens: Tweed Ride Riga 12 May 2018 A few months ago, Rita and Anna brought up the idea …
Labor Day: Latvian (and Lithuanian) Style In the United States, Labor Day is celebrated on the first Monday of September, and it is typically the end of summer. However, in most other countries, May 1 is the traditional day to recognize the importance of labor movements throughout history. In Latvia, Rita, Anna and I had …
WARNING! This is likely to be the most boring thing I have ever written. DEDICATION: I dedicate this to my older brother, Paul, who loves data and odd collections of numbers and bits of information that others might not think twice about. I live a few blocks away from the Turgenev tram stop, and tram …