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.