Latvian Quarantine March 2020 My birthday is in March. This doesn’t make me special because almost everyone I know has a birthday in March. But this year was special because I feel that my 48th birthday year celebration was the last big bang before the shit hit the fan. Today, one of my friends in …
Latvian Healthcare Healthcare in the USA As a person from the USA, I grew up in a typical family with healthcare provided mostly through my father’s insurance, with deductibles and additional expenses paid out of pocket. Because I was a relatively unhealthy child with ear problems and constant doctor’s visits, I can still remember how …
Spinal Fusion Surgery Back Story I have been to a lot of hospitals. When we were little, my dad would take me and my brother with him on Friday evenings when he went to visit his Yutan parishioners in various Omaha hospitals. We would stay downstairs, usually haunting the gift shop, as he went up …
The Best Chili in Riga 2019 A Love of Cooking “I make it with love”. That is what my beloved mom told me once when I asked her why her food tasted so good. She never made anything fancy or even interesting, but everything she made for us was irresistible. Growing up with 6 siblings …
Blizzard of Souls This is a movie review of sorts. Thanks to some of my lovely students who gave me a gift certificate to the Akropole Apollo theater, we were able to watch t Dvēseļu putenis in style! This movie, which translates as “Blizzard of Souls” has been the most anticipated movie of the year. …
How Many Tabs Do you Have? This morning, I am looking at my laptop and closing the tabs that I had opened the day before while teaching my students who range from Intermediate to Advanced speakers of English. For those of you who don’t know, I teach primarily at Lingua Franca where I engage in …
Berlin 2019 One of the great things about living in Latvia is that I have the opportunity to just get on a plane for a few hours to travel just about anywhere in Europe. All the cities I dreamed of going to when I was growing up like Paris, London, and Cluj-Napoca are just a …
Movin’ on Up! For anyone who reads this under the age of 40ish, watch this to get the title reference: The rest of you can watch it just to feel a dose of nostalgic inspiration. Rita, Max and I have moved. The process has been delightful and I love moving so much. Seriously though, …
Our Wedding Just in case you weren’t sure or didn’t know, Rita Treija and I were married in a very discrete ceremony on the 15th of June 2019 at approximately 11:02 a.m. My cousin Ansis and his wife Monta were the witnesses. Our photographer, Didzis Grodzs, was also present documenting the entire pre- and post-ceremony …
I hope that people who have read my blog before start off with the question, “Part 3 or 4? Where is part 1?” and they start going through old posts to see if they have missed something. That would be cool! But you haven’t missed anything. I just felt inspired to write on this day, …