Images of Riga 30 Augusts 2007

Bob has been working diligently on preparing for his first class sessions which will be next week Wednesday, Thursday and Friday from 10 to 5.

I was able to drag him away from the computer today to walk to Elizabetes Iela to find the Jana Rozes bookstore. We bought a guide to Old Riga and one to Riga and looked at the dictionaries but walked over to Avots on Puskina Iela (Pushkin Street) to purchase one. We found ourselves in a more Russian section of Riga. The landmark was the Stalin building. We got our dictionary so now may be able to interpret more of the signs along the streets.

This is the Freedom Monument built with money donated by Latvian citizens and unveiled on November 18, 1935. The figures carved on the corners are allegorical and represent the chief values in life: work, spiritual life, family and protection of the motherland.

The figures for work are a worker, a fisherman and a peasant; for family a mother and two children representing the giver of life and peace; It was designed by Latvian architect Karlis Zale. It stands over 350 meters tall and is the tallest monument of its kind in Europe. The figure of the woman on top representing freedom is 9 meters tall and holds 3 golden stars representing the 3 cultural regions of Latvia: Kurzeme, Vidzeme and Latgale.

In the soviet era there was a statue of Lenin facing east and the Freedom monument facing west. Now the statue of Lenin is gone.

DZ 29

Labdien,
We are settling in to the apartment number 29 on Lacplesa. We have a large living-dining area L shaped with the kitchen on the short end of the L. Large windows in the kitchen and dining areas and skylights over the living section bring in plenty of day light. A hall leads to a bedroom and half bath and a larger bedroom and full bath. Very pleasant. Eventually we will be in shape for the 8 flights of stairs we walk up from the courtyard. Since we enter a courtyard we don't hear much city noise at night. During the day it sounds as if some construction is going on near by.
We're working on getting cell phones set up and a printer/fax machine to connect to the lap tops we brought with us. Karlis is our helpful guide to all things Latvian. After shopping, for a sim card and a hair dryer and eating lunch out, he took us on a whirlwind tour of Vecriga (the Old City). We stood on the bronze medallion declaring it a UNESCO World Heritage Site, saw several squares, the old wall of the city, Swedish Gate, Powder Tower and several of the churches. We will return soon with the camera and learn additional background information. The highlight yesterday was the Freedom Monument which is very impressive. A female statue representing freedom at the top of a tall column holding aloft 3 stars representing the 3 regions of Latvia. Several large carved figures on each of the four sides of the pedestal.
After dinner an omelet, bread and tea we grocery shopped for saldkabmaize which is delicious sour dough rye bread and cheese and juice. We will probably shop daily. By going to Rimini the grocery store at 8 at night meant the store was less crowded and we were able to take our time examining labels as we made our decisions. We bought paper towels and the rolls are shorter so each piece torn off is smaller. Good for the environment. Today Bob is at the Attistiba Institute for an orientation and tour.

Arrival in Riga

We're here in Riga 57 24
Andrew drove us to the airport after some good byes and pictures in Topsfield with the Welshes, Tina, Matt, mini and baby Bob. We left Boston on Luftansa at 4 PM Monday and flew to Frankfurt arriving at 5 AM Tuesday. We had a lay over until 10 AM and arrived in Riga at 1:20 also on Luftsana. Both flights were pleasant with good food and courteous service. Our bags were checked straight through so we had no luggage complications.
We were met at the airport by Airita and Dimitri. There was lots of traffic driving from the airport into Riga especially on the bridge over the Daugava River. I tried to click a few quick pictures crossing the bridge. We stopped at an exchange place, double parked, and Bob and Dimitri ran in to get us some Latts. We found the apartment on Lachplesa Iela, found the building guard and there was some conversation in Latvia, a phone call made and Karlis came to meet us. We had met Karlis at our house in Topsfield, when Michael, our landlord, was bringing him to visit US colleges...Brown, BU, BC, Tufts, Colombia, Harvard and Amherst. So Karlis and Dimitri carried two of our 47 pound suitcases up 69 stairs to our third floor apartment. Bob and I mangaged the carry ons, a bag and computer each. Karlis was installing a faster wireless computer router here.
We walked to a nearby grocery, very busy and very croweded. With Karlis' help we bought bread, jam, honey, coffee, milk, muesli, cheese, butter, tea, soup and toilet paper. We had bread and cheese and soup for dinner. Very tasty...
We were able to connect by skype and have a conversation with Andrew and then Tina and then a conference call with all of us together.
We had to look up how to make French Press coffee on the internet to have coffee for breakfast this morning....
Ata

Boston to Riga

The day has come to fly to Latvia....Boston to Frankfurt to Riga due to arrive on Tuesday August 28 .
The next news will come from Riga.....
Ata

Latvian Lessons finished for now

We finished our Latvian lessons on Tuesday and hope to continue once we are in Riga.
We are being met at the airport by Airica Breca from Attitsba Institue so we are delighted we will have a way to get across the Daugava River and arrive at our place on Lachplesa Iela.
We've downloaded skype on our computers and are excited about video and voice communications computer to computer. It works well from Bob's office at home to our computer room. Next we'll see about Latvia to Topsfield. I've heard there is a bit of a lag time.
We have two suitcases packed and have more and the carry ons to go. Five days to go.

Latvia

Labrit! Svieks!
Our Latvian lessons finish up next week. We have looked at the mission statement of Attistiba, the Institute where Bob will be teaching and how to read bus schedules in Latvian. We traced the route from our apartment to the institute using the directions from their web site and our Riga map in which buildings are numbered. Bob's first assignment is ethics. He has learned that he will also teach in branch campuses in Daugavpils and Rezekne as well as Riga. It looks as if some of the courses are set up in modules including evenings and weekends to accommodate working students. In Latvian we've worked on some of the imperatives some of the teaching words....Sit down, read, listen, study. The verb for to study has a prefix which means to retain. Parents say yes you have studied but have you studied and retained your information. I like that notion....also the verb for to learn is a reflexive verb since when you learn you do it for/to yourself. It is interesting to discover these parts of another language. We leave August 27 and arrive in Riga August 28 via Frankfurt. We are working on getting Skype set up to stay in touch with home.

Our Latvian Lessons Continue

Bob and I continue to study Latvian. We have worked with noun endings in the dative, accusative and locative cases. We had a list of different types of maize (bread) for vocabulary. We are looking at rye, wheat, whole wheat and sour dough type breads...I think it is good that our apartment is a third floor walk up. The food sounds great. We have a tongue twister to memorize about ice cream (saldejums)...one of my favorite foods.