Gaismas Raksti: Cultural Experiences After a week of cultural experiences, I need to write something to deconstruct what I have observed, felt, and discovered. The title of this post is based on the multimedia show we experienced last night by Shipsea, a Latvian rockstar, at the National Library, Gaismas Pils. The title of the show …
Ziemā Pludmales 14 January 2018 After we arrived back in Riga this afternoon, I was making up new words to Lou Reed’s “Perfect Day” and singing aloud on Gogoļa street past the cold people waiting for a bus, carrying a pussy willow branch and a bag of driftwood from the Gulf of Riga. I like …
29 December 2017 This is something I have been trying to process for awhile, so I’m just going to write it out in a short post here to see where it takes me. When I woke up this morning, I saw this article in the Omaha World Herald about the Millard South Principal who is …
The Holidays Holiday season is upon us! So far, I have survived enjoyed a few Latvian and American holidays here in Riga. I have already written about Halloween, and this week we had a sort of Latvian/American overlap. Right now, a turkey is cooking in my tiny Latvian convection oven. I hope it is okay. November …
No pictures. 18 WordPress updates. It has been awhile since I wrote anything other than emails and Facebook posts, so on this Wednesday I am attempting to get my thoughts in order. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, but it is not a holiday here in Latvia. I am, however, attempting to make some sort of celebration this …
Have Good Living It seems like there should be something written here about my dad who turned 90 years old on November 1, 2017. I have done some interviews and recordings with him over the years, and I used one line in the video I made for his party that stands out for me. “My …
1.11.17 Prologue: I have not written in awhile. I could blame this on many things—time, laziness, disinterest—but I have just been contemplating the reason that I am writing. I watched an episode of Bill Maher’s show and he was questioning why we share everything on social media. I decided to examine my posts to ask …
Kaķis 4.10.17 This is just a quick post to let everyone know that we fulfilled Anna’s dream and got a cat. Rita happened to know someone who knew someone who had a farm and there were some kittens who needed a home, so we decided to help him out. Jacques Balzam arrived in the early …
Drošība un Miers 28.9.17 Safety and Peace… I wanted to write a quick follow-up to my post yesterday about the vacation being over. I want to make sure that no one misunderstands my collection of mishaps and woes as a general reflection of my mood. Yes, there are ups and downs, as there always are …
Nav Brīvdienas 26.9.17 Yes, it is true. This is not a vacation. This is not a trip. This is real life! After three weeks of being a Latvian worker, doing the daily commute, and getting my ducks in a row, I am exhausted and content at the same time. From my blog posts, one might …