May was a busy month

It is already June 5 and it seems I should recount some of what Bob and I have been doing in May.

Andrew left at the end of April, Gunnar from Finland arrived May 2 and stayed until the 5th and Lilli from Germany arrived on the 9th and stayed until the fifteenth, Barbara from the States arrived on the twelfth and returned to Ipswich on the twenty-third and Bob's four UNH students arrived on May 26 for a two week course/study/tour here in Latvia. They leave this Friday. Gudrun and Mattias from Germany are coming in June for a weekend visit. We're really pleased that so many of our friends have come to Riga.

With all the visitors to "tour" around we have been visiting and revisiting many of the places that we have come to know during our nine months and also venturing out to take in new sites and experiences.

So we have visited Jurmala, the Baltic Sea area several times and seen more museums including the Museum of History and Culture. In May Latvia hosted "museum night" when all museums across the country were free to the public and open until 1 am. We went to see a documentary film called The Soviet Story which is controversial in Russia because it protrays Soviet leaders in a harsh light. Later in the week we saw an art exhibit on The Mythology of Soviet Realism which displayed paintings and sculptures done according to Soviet "guidelines." We've seen Russalka and La Boheme at the opera, gone to the open air ethnographic museum several times and Barbara and I took the train to Cesis and climbed the stone spiral stairways with our candle lantern to light our way. We cheered our young Fulbright friends as they ran the 5K section of the Riga marathon which was won by a Kenyan and heard the Oriana Choir from London in a joint concert with the Hansa Banka choir in St. John's church. The Brits were well received when they sang a Latvian folk song and both choirs combined to sing the Hallelujah Chorus. We attended a 60 year celebration of dance program with folk dance groups from several regions of Latvia at the Dzintari concert venue with the four UNH students.

It now is light from 4:36 to 22:09....(yes, that's correct until 10:09 pm) and of course there is a twilight glow after that. We love the long days of sunshine.

So a few pictures of these many wonderful Latvian experiences will give you an idea of our Maijs, May. Can you match the picture with the descriptions?