American in Latvia

1) We have this weird Jeopardy-music-as-club-music played between classes as a bell. It's strange.
2) We go to every class together... the same 25 people in each class. It's actually pretty fun.
3) People are friendly. Shy, but friendly. Maybe it's due to the small class size, but I already feel really comfortable with my classmates. The downside of having such a small class and not changing with each period is that I only know about 25 (okay, maybe 30) people in the entire school... but I've not had to face the trouble of eating lunch alone, or wandering lost between classes, or anything like that. Everyone's been so helpful. (Sidenote: On the first full day of school, Gatis called me at lunch to see how school was and make sure I was making friends. Still don't know how he knew when I had lunch, but anyway...)
4) We have an open campus, which means that on days like today when I have a free period right before lunch, I get to go home at 11:10 and don't have to be back at school until 1. Today Marta came home with me during free period. We bought some pastries and biezpiens at Maxima and then sat in my kitchen and talked until it was time to leave. Laura was also home for the first time in a few days... she was packing her things and calling a taxi. Apparently she's moving in with a friend. She said she was coming back tonight to tell Mama Zane, and she was wearing my scarf and cardigan, so I hope she'll actually return tonight, becuase I kind of need those back...
5) While I have 10 classes (Russian, Latvian, English, Music, Philosophy, Science, Geography, Math, History, Literature, Business/Econ, and Psychology), most tend to be pretty... relaxed.
Science was hysterical today. It was my second science lesson; the first was last Friday, and it was spent watching some movie about cavemen. Today we were classifying living things, which was much more entertaining than it sounds. So, there's an entire class of mammals called "homos" in Latvian... not homosapiens. Just homos. And I managed to successfully complete a worksheet in Latvian classifying a whale. One of the questions (which I understood without help!) was, "Why is a whale like a fish?" My answer: "Valim arī patīk veldēt." (Whale also likes to swim.)
Literature on Friday was also, er, intersting. We wrote down the names of modern Latvian authors and the titles of their books, and our teacher explained the themes. The only words I really understood were "incest," "gays," "lesbians," and "pedophilia." All in one book!
Geography is actually my favorite subject, although I've only had once lesson. I learned a bunch of new vocabulary related to economic sectors. Interesting fact: Latvia is 53% third sector, 35% second sector, and 18% first sector. Our teacher talked about how before the occupation, Denmark and Latvia were economically on the same level, and predicted that had the Soviets not invaded, Latvia would be as prosperous as Denmark. Interestingly, she did not use the word Soviets - she always said "Russia." Estonia had a higher percentage of third sector, and Lithuania's was much lower. So while I required a translator for much of Georgraphy, it's one of my most interesting classes. It is not, in fact, staring at maps.
6) Cultural Note: Latvians love maps. Latvians love finding Latvia on a map, and Valmierans (?) love finding Valmiera on a map. Latvians also love giving driving directions to hypothetical vacation spots on maps, and they love for you to show where you live on a map, and where your grandma lives, and where your second cousin was born, and where your second cousin's wife was born, etc. Latvians also love photo albums, physical and virtual. In the US, when a new friend comes over it's not really common to be like, "Hey, want to see my Facebook pictures?" But here, it's just another way to get to know someone and... invite them into your life, so to speak. I actually really like all the map-reading and photo sharing. I'm going to come back to the US for college and be that weird girl walking around with a map and a photo album. "Want to see my map? Want to see my etchings?" (Just kidding about the etchings...)

My dienasgrāmata!

7) Speaking of maps, my dienasgrāmata (planner, literally "day book") is so cute. Every Latvian girl has an adorable planner. They all appear to be made by the same company. The inside front cover is a map of Latvia taking up two pages, and on the back there's a map of Europe (with flags!) In the back, there's a description of street signs, list of useful telephone numbers, Greek letters, geometry, periodic table of elements, solar system facts, paragraphs on the different regions of Latvia, the national anthem, the national bird/flower/tree/insect of Latvia (with pictures!), facts on every member of the EU, and a Celcius-Fahrenheit chart (which is my life.) And all this in a tiny lightweight planner! (Did I really just spend a paragraph talking about my planner? Oh well. It's not just me... all the girls in my class are obsessed with their planners too.)

Continuing where we left off... We walked from Maxima to the conert venue, the "Unfinished Skyscraper." The Unfinished Skyscraper is an unfinished and abandoned apartment building in the middle of a field. Skyscraper? Not exactly; it's about three or four stories tall. There's no roof, no glass in the windows, etc. Most of the internal walls are graffitied, some sparsely and others full on painted murals. We paid our 2 lats entry and made our way up some treacherous stairs to the main concert room... I really don't know what to call it, but it was on the second level. The walls and ceiling were sounproofed with some drab and faded mustard colored fabric over padding, which gave the whole thing a strange feel. It was fairly well lit, actually. The first band was some frightening screamo group... I really thought the lead singer was having a seizure. He basically ran around in a circle screaming into the mic. It was highly amusing once I got over my shock. After a while we left to another part of the building, a dark room with a saggy naked lady graffiti-mural, and sat there for a while, talking. Everyone spoke in English for my benefit, which was very kind of them, but I sort of feel like I won't be able to learn any Latvian this way. When someone said something in Latvian and I responded without the need for a translator, everyone was pleasantly shocked. I was rather proud of myself.

We went back and listened to part of the second band, and then went downstairs to the courtyard. The building was designed as a square with a courtyard in the middle, and now there's couches, benches, blankets, and a fire pit there. It's a fairly big space and a lot of people were just hanging out there, despite the 7 degree weather. As I am terrified of fleas and disease, I passed on the couches and blankets and instead took a seat on a bench. Again, we just sat there and talked, and it was surprisingly fun. Then a drunk Latvian came over and got really excited when he found out I was from the US. He told me about everything from how he teaches children to ski (demonstrating his technique) and about his plans to move to California and buy a hippie bus.

Cultural Observation Detour: I've noticed that when Latvians go out in groups, they tend to be gender segregated. Groups of 3 girls will meet somewhere and then meet up with another group of 4 girls and then a group of 10 girls will be going somewhere together - and it appears that guys do the same - but there are rarely mixed gender groups. Sometimes I will see one girl with her boyfriend and his friends, but I haven't actually seen a group of friends of both sexes - at least in public. Also, in the cafeteria, I've noticed guys' tables and girls' tables. Unless they're romantically involved, it seems that guys and girls don't really hang much together. At the concert, our group of 10 or so girls was sitting together, and behind us there was a group of 10 or so guys. We never interacted with them, and it was just normal.

Anyway... after the final band, who were Canadian and actually very good, it was already around 2 am. We walked maybe 10 or 15 minutes to the Hesburger in the mall. Hesburger is happening at 2 am in Valmiera. Every seat was taken inside. I had some greasy fries (good old American food... although Hesburger is actually a Finnish chain) and ice cream. We stayed at Hesburger for a bit and then walked a couple blocks to this club called Tinta, where I just walked in through the back door. We only stayed for about fifteen minutes due to the weird 70's not-quite-disco-but-close music that was spastic enough to prevent any dancing. On our way back from Tinta we ran into an acquaintance who talked to me about California and the US (I really don't know what he was going on about... I think he may also have wanted a hippie bus...) By the time he finished talking I was exhausted and there were only three of us left, so the two other girls walked me home. I surprisingly did not wake anyone up with my 3:30 am return. And that, my friends, was my first night out in Latvia.

Also, to continue the theme of this blog being hunks of text followed by a picture of Allie making a face:

According to this medal, I placed third in the Latvian BMX Championships. And I totally didn't steal this from Gatis...

Latvia is small. Valmiera may be one of the biggest cities in Latvia, but it is small. Two results of this: 


1) Everyone knows everyone. Everyone knows my host siblings, my host siblings know who my classmates are, and it seems that most of the youth of Valmiera recognize the other youth of Valmiera, even if they don't know them personally. Given that I am a) new, b) from America, and c) a Californian, I am quite the novelty. Apparently it's known that there's an exchange student from America, and when I meet people there's a bunch of "Oh, so you're the American!", and occasional, "Oh, so Gatis is your brother?" Also, I've gotten about five Katy Perry comparisons - "You look exactly like Katy Perry - and you're a California Girl!" Everyone also finds the fact that I speak Spanish highly entertaining, and I often field requests to "Say something in Spanish!" or "Say something in French!" (even though I'm really only conversational in French.) I have also had to say "kaķitis" (kitty) about 20 times because my accent "is so cute when [I] say that!"


2) You get anywhere in Valmiera by foot within fifteen minutes, which means kids are more independent and from a younger age. There's no need to ask parents for a ride or permission to go somewhere. Kids just announce that they're heading out, say where they're going - to the center, or to a friend's, or for a walk - and that's it. When Mama Zane returned from work on Friday, I asked her if I could go with to a concert with three of my classmates. She said "Of course! Where is it?" She actually seemed shocked that I was requesting permission. When I asked her what time I had to be home, she shrugged and said, "Whenever you want to come home. If you're the last one up, just remember to lock the door." After further discussion in a mix of Latvian and Russian, I found out that - like most Latvian teenagers - if it's not a school night, I have no curfew. 


Gatis actually is the strictest "parent" in the house. He has taken my safety as his personal mission for the year. Yesterday (unbeknownst to me) he contacted a BMX friend who is in my class to get the numbers of all the people I was going out with.  Then he gave me multiple talks about safety and informed me that if I run into trouble, I should call him and he'll be there "like that" (insert 'vroom-vroom' motion and sound effects.) After the safety talk last night, we watched a couple episodes of Nitro Circus on my laptop, and at 9 I went to meet three classmates in front of Maxima (a Latvian CVS, but with more food items... outside of Maxima is kind of like the SPL.)


I just wrote a lengthy description of the entire night (all 6 hours of it - I returned home at 3:30), but I accidentally deleted it and am now kicking myself. Consider that saved for part 2. I know the suspense is killing you.


(Oh, and good news: my arm wound finally stopped oozing. Until today it was constantly oozing through every layer of bandage. Gnarly.)

Biking with Gatis and without glasses is a horrible idea. Scrapes like that on knee, ankle, elbow,  and hip. Plus bruised head.

Exiting the stage (so you can all appreciate my first-day-of-school outfit, and the fact that I braved 7 degree C. weather in a tiny cardigan.

I have big feet. Size 10 American, 42 European. Apparently shoes in Latvia don't fit my big American feet. Almost every exchange student says they brought too many formal clothes and fancy shoes and not enough sneakers and casual wear. Well, they didn't go to Latvia. Heels are casual footwear here. I only brought flip flops, Converse, Doc Martens, and a pair of silver Nike ballet flats that are more sporty than they are dressy. I desperately ran around Valleta (Valmiera's shopping mall, always affectionately called by its proper name) and found no shoes in my size. Apparently a few stores do stock 42s, but they usually only get one or two pairs that sell out immediately. So on August 31 I found myself without a pair of formal shoes.
Yesterday I tried on a run-through of my outfit (a blouse, black miniskirt, and black tights) and decided to wear the Converse since I had nothing else. Plus, Converse with skirts and tights are adorable. Then Gatis walked in the room. His jaw literally dropped. "Vat are you vearing on your feets?!" We had a long conversation/argument about whether or not it was acceptable to wear informal shoes with a formal outfit. I said that the contrast was fashionable; he said that "while it may be okay in the US, in Latvia it will be the death of your social life! People only wear those shoes for sports, and rarely walk on the street in them - not to mention with a skirt!"  I replied that if I wore a miniskirt and heels I'd look like a hooker. His reply? "No, you'll look like a Latvian girl!" Priceless.

Waiting awkwardly onstage

Ultimately, Mama Zane dug up an old pair of basic black kitten heels that were too big for her, and I wore those despite the fact that they were too small for my right foot and too big for my left foot. (My feet are deformed, apparently.) So, the first day of school... my school started the earliest of anyone's (at 8:30). Mama Zane made Gatis babysit me - he walked me to my classroom where I met my teacher, and then we followed her to the front lawn where the assembly was. I found the other exchange student at the school, Katrin from Germany, and we stood together and were both mutually baffled by the proceedings. Some highlights: the band (they wear neon yellow pants) playing Down by the Riverside, the horse-drawn carriage that took the band director for a ride and then returned to pick up the elementary school's director forty minutes later, the gifting of the umbrella to my teacher for her success in "sport dance" (can anyone tell me what that is?), and another umbrella gifting to Kristaps or Kristobal (that's Spanish...) or Kristofer Something, who won the European BMX championships and went to the BMX world champs in South Africa. (I call him umbrella boy because I can't remember his name.)

If you look closely, you will see a horse and carriage. Yes, this is my school.

Then they announced that they had two exchange students, and called Katrin and I to the stage. We stood there awkwardly and then had to make brief speeches. I'd prepared one in Latvian, but the director wanted me to speak in English... so I did. The director then handed Katrin and I plastic shopping bags that say "Valmiera" with a map of Valmiera inside, and a picture of the school. We left the stage, there were more songs, and then it was over.
Gatis left to talk to someone from the school about my science classes and whether I can take them in 11th class (I'll be taking Chemistry and Bio - I need both to graduate), and I went back to the classroom with my classmates. The teacher selected a girl who spoke good English to show me around, and I sat next to her.  I talked some to her, and also the the girl sitting on the other side of me. The poor girl had a really bad cold but was very nice and helpful, etc. Our teacher gave us our schedules and ice cream, we sat there for a while, we went outside and took a class picture, and then we were finished. The two girls (Maja and Marta) walked me home. It was actually a really fun first day, probably because it only lasted about two hours. My feet are killing me from the shoes... I can't wait to wear Converse and jeans tomorrow. What a lazy American I am.

Anyway, here's my schedule:
Period 1: 8 - 8:40
Period 2: 8:50 - 9:30
Period 3: 9:40 - 10:20
Period 4: 10:30 - 11:10
Period 5: 11:20 - 12:00
Period 6 (Lunch): 12:10 - 12:50
Period 7: 13 - 13:40
Period 8: 13:50 - 14:30
Period 9: 14:35 - 15:15
Period 10: 15:20 - 16:00

Tuesdays and Wednesdays I don't have to go to school until 8:50, and Wednesdays and Thursdays I finish at 3:15. All other days, I go to school from 8 to 4.  Somewhere in the bolded periods I'll have Chemistry and Bio... or maybe subbed for an English class... who knows. I'm still waiting to here back from the director, but here's my preliminary schedule. We go to most of the classes except for optional ones (Russian, Ethics, etc.) with the same 25 people... I think there's only five boys in our class, sadly.

Edit: Because my daily schedule isn't that interesting, I will instead list the classes I am taking. Some are 6 times a week, some only once. All in all, there are 14 different subjects. Intense.

Russian
English
Music
Philosophy
Psychology
Math
Chemistry
Biology
Latvian and World History
Latvian
Literature
Politics
Business Economics
Ethics
Geography

Me on the lake.

Canoes on the pond

A frog Tēvocis Andris caught.

The house - inside there's two bedrooms, a bathroom, sitting room, kitchen, and sauna.

The cat eating

Outside the house

The pond

Boats on the lake

Privacy
The concept of privacy is very different in Latvia. Back in the US, when someone is on Facebook or checking their email or writing in a journal, there is an invisible boundary no one crosses - or if they do, it's considered extremely rude. In my host family, if someone is on the computer it is common to gather around and watch what they're doing, read their email, etc. Given that I'm typically a very private person, it's probably one of the most difficult things to which I must adjust.

"Clean"
There is a different concept of "cleanliness" here. In Latvia, everyone drinks milk/water/juice/yogurt straight out of the carton (at meal times it's just passed around), silverware is shared, everyone eating from the same dish is normal, and we usually eat straight off the table (except for dinner.) I'm not exactly a germophobe, or I would have serious issues here, but it's the second most difficult adjustment. But I'm diving headfirst into the Latvian way of life. I figure that if my host family is still alive and undiseased, I'll be fine as well.

Pop Culture
There are practically no cultural differences when it comes to pop culture. America is everywhere. I watch more MTV here than I do in the US. The other favorite channel in our house is LMT, which plays a German soap opera dubbed in Russian and subtitled in Latvian around the clock (or at least every time I turn the TV on.) Also, Latvians are obsessed with Eminem.

And finally, a special treat for everyone... Latvian rap!