Olympic Blog

I found this cool blog from two swimmers who are in Athens and blog about whets going on there. Here's the link. Olympic Blog! In other news, nothing has been happening in Riga. Everyone is kind of pissed that the Prime Minister selected one of his own people to be Latvia's European commissioner and everyone is waiting to see what's going to happen on Sept. 1 when all the public Russian language schools will be forced to teach in atleast 60% Latvian. There will be mass protests and riots so it should be a rompin' good time. I have come to the gripping realization that I am never going to make it to the beach this summer. Everytime I make plans to go the beach something always comes up and we never get to go. Tonight there is a going away party for a friend from North Carolina who I met at the same summer camp that I met Lena at. Then tomorrow we are having people over to watch the Olympic Opening Ceremony. On Saturday we are traveling to Bauska to see a play. So I guess I'll just have to wait until next summer to go to the beach. I don't even want to go swimming. I just want to go sit on the beach, and take a nap next to the sea. Oh well. Maybe it will be a warm September. OK, that's enough whining. Have a great day.

End of the Day

The end of my work day is only a half an hour away, but I couldn't go two days without posting. Today was a crazy day. Since most of editorial is on vacation I had to help out proof reading the paper. Anyway this is just a short post so that you guys don't miss me too much. The weather is great and things are finally looking up at work, but I'm still looking for something new. Oh well tomorrow is another day. Here's the link of the day. Its a webpage I've been staring at all day trying to come up with a better slogan for our internet banner. It has to be related to our Job section that highlights Employers as well as employees. See what you can come up with. Allhotels!

Fun Weekend

As I mentioned in the previous post Lena and I spent the weekend in Madona. We took the train on Friday after work. On the train I finished the book I have been reading since I returned from the U.S.. The book Good Omens, by Neil Gaiman and Terry Prachett is one that I would recommend. Its about the end of the world only none of the heavenly beings on earth want it to happen, and anti-christ is an 11 year old boy. Its a nice entertaining story. Anyway, back to this weekend. On Friday night Lena and I gave out present from the U.S., looked at pictures and told stories of our trip to Lena's family. On Saturday, We relaxed during the day and got invited to a family reunion for Lena's best friend Liga. Apparently they were expecting a lot more people and rented out a cabin by a lake filled with food and booze. Instead of letting everything go to waste we were invited to make sure that it wasn't all just old people. We had a great time. The weather was wonderful. I learned to make Gin and Tonics in the dark using the sound of the liquid hitting the plastic cup. Needless to say we drank a little. Here's a link to a better review of Good Omens.

No Beach

Well I didn't get to go to the beach. I had to go home and pay the rent. Anyway, today after work Lena and I are going to Madona to visit he mom (Aija), sister (Elina) and her mom's boyfriend (Normunds). There is going to be a lot of partying, because yesterday was Elina's birthday and a few days ago was Normunds name day. Other things planned for this weekend consists of going to the lake (or quarry I'm not sure what it is), also on Saturday night is a Latvian movie in the open air theatre. In other news, things are going bad at work. The administration has decided to change the payment structure, and now if we don't sell three ads a month then we only get half of our pay. So, I am now officially looking for another job. I'm going to try to keep writing for the paper, because it is interesting and I could use the extra money. Starting Monday I'm going to start sending out CV's (Resumes). OK well here's a link to Madona's website. Madona!

The Beach

Well apparently I'm an idiot. I just spent an hour writing a post about my trip to Ikskili (A suburb of Riga), how I don't feel like working, and how Lena and I actually might get to go to the beach today, but when I tried to link to the website for the beach where we would be going, something happened and I lost the whole text. I don't feel like re-writing the whole thing. I also don't think that I could remember it in detail, so you'll just have to believe me that is was a great post. I'm going to try the link again. Here's the link of the day. The Beach!

Another Day Gone

After work I had a few beers with some Journalist people I know, and I gave them the blog address so now I HAVE to write something interesting or I'm going to hear about it from them. For all the new people reading I'll do a quick summary of what's going on right now. Summer has finally arrived in Riga which is awful, because I have to work from 9:00 AM to 18:00 PM Monday through Friday. I want to go to the beach, but its not going to happen today or tomorrow, because tonight I have to goes visit relatives. Visiting relatives means large amounts of food being shoved down my pie hole, by aunts and having uncles keep pouring me drinks of some kind of hard alcohol. Tomorrow I can't go to the beach, because we have to meet with our land lady to pay the rent. Although maybe we can go afterwards if she doesn't sit and talk for a long period of time. According to the weather reports the nice weather is not going to last very long so I may never make it to the beach this summer. OK, that's enough complaining. Overall life is good. I've been looking at other people's blogs and I've noticed that they put a lot of links in their blogs, so here's where I get most of my news from. I don't know if I've linked to it before, but here it is again. Fark!

Aluksne

Well this past weekend was fun. On Friday night I went out with a couple of reporters and did some much needed bar hoping. On Saturday Lena and I took the 4 1/2 hour bus ride to Aluksne to see my Aunt who is visiting and go to the city festival that was taking place there. It was a really good time. It was a lot of food and a lot of old people talking about the way things were. We drove back Saturday with my Aunt. In other news Lena has gotten accepted at the Cultural Academy for her Masters in Cultural Management. Also Ryanair starting in October will be flying from London, Frankfurt, and Helsinki to Riga from $8.00. So if you can get a cheap flight to one of these cities you can come visit. Here is the link that my Brother Adams posted in an earler comment so that you don't have to do the copy and paste thing.

Sleep

Its getting harder and harder with every passing day to stay awake at work. As soon as I sit down at my desk my eyelids become the heaviest part of my body. I don't really drink coffee, but I think today I'm going to have to in order to keep from falling asleep. If anyone has some good suggestions on how to stay awake they would be appreciated. The weather today reminded me of a joke that I was told last Sunday.

There is a Baltic person happily walking along the beach on the Mediterranean Sea. He's so happy and enjoying the weather so much that everyone around him thinks that there is something wrong. Finally another person walks up to him and asks, "Why are you so happy? Don't you have summer where you are from?"
He replies, "Of course we have summer, but I had to work that day."

The reason I told this joke is because yesterday was a beautiful day, but today its raining and cold again.

Slacker

OK, so I've been slacking on the blogging. I'm sorry. Today is a wonderful day in Riga. I'm eating an Ice cream cone. It would be a great day to go to the beach, but Lena has to study for her last entrance exam to get into grad school. I had lunch with my aunt who is visiting for a few weeks. She was planning on going to the beach. I have somewhere lost the will to do work. I thought it was the weather, but today has been great and I still don't want to do any work. I guess I've been so lazy that I haven't wanted to blog either. I would love to just sit on the beach with a good book. Every time I close my eyes I'm already there. Listening to the waves and watching the seagulls fly.

I Almost Forgot

I got so caught up in work and trying to stay awake that I completely forgot to blog. It wasn't until I got an SMS from Lena asking why I haven't bloged today. Lena and I are both having problems sleeping. I think its from the jet lag. I get tired right at 15.00 everyday. That's about 10 pm in the states so I guess my body is still set to that time. I wish that people could take naps in the middle of the day like in most Latin-American countries. A nap would be great right about now.

Macy Gray

On Friday night was the Macy Gray concert here in Riga. It was great. I have never heard a lot of Macy Gray's music, but her concert was nothing but funk. She even played a George Clinton & the P-Funk All-stars cover of One Nation Under a Groove. The definite undertone of the concert was peace and love with anti-war chants. The only problem with the concert were the mosquitoes that were noticeably affecting the performers. It is very rare that we get that kind of caliber of performer here in Riga, but I hope that her enjoyment and the large number of tickets that were sold will encourage other groups to come to Riga as well.

July 11 & 12

On Sunday, July 11, everyone went to church. Then Lena, my brother Davis and I went Mini-golfing. Davis won of course because he's good at all sports. It was Lena's first time golfing, she said that she had a good time. In the afternoon Mom had a party for me and invited all the Latvians. It was nice to see everyone. They were all really happy that I was doing my part for "The Cause" (Whatever the heck that is?) I don't think anyone wants to move back to Latvia, so they are happy that I'm here in their place. I told them stories of what's going on. They said that they read my articles, which is kind of scary considering I don't think some of them are that good. Others asked my opinions on the up coming Olympics. I did my best to make up something that would make the Latvian team sound hopeful. I still hadn't really looked into the Latvian Olympic team yet and was making it up as I went along. I got to play horseshoes which was really fun. I wish I had a place to play horseshoes here. On Monday Adams, Davis, Lena and I went to the Franklin Mills mall. I had reserved the day for shopping, because I know that Lena likes it. We walked around for a little, but Lena wasn't really looking for anything in particular so it was actually fun. That night we just went home. Overall on the trip I spent most nights catching up on movies and really just relaxing, because after all I was on vacation.

Kate & Andy's Wedding

On July 10 Lena & I attended Kate & Andy's wedding. It was really nice. Part of me thought that I was too young to be at a friend's wedding, but the majority of me knew this was going to happen when they met. They met at my apartment at college. It was a Thursday night which usually meant that there were many many parties happening on campus. I didn't feel like going to a party, and was bored so I called everyone I knew. Which wasn't a lot of people, but Andy, Meat, Kate, and Jess (who at the time didn't know each other) weren't doing anything so they came over to play a game of Asshole (A drinking game involving cards). Andy and Kate are competitive by nature and sparks flew right away. They got soooo mad at each other that they started playing a game of War (card game) against each other. Jess and I looked at each other cause we knew that something was going to happen between them. Anyway their relationship started over a game of war. Getting back to the wedding. It was nice to see some of the other guys from college. Everyone seemed to be doing really well. Lena and I got royally lost going from the church to the reception, but thankfully we didn't miss anything. The reception was great. Everyone had a good time. I'm really happy for Kate & Andy. They've already made the transition to being normal regular people. They are married, have a house, a dog, with good jobs. If they shoot out a few kids they will be done by my definition. Everything they have is what I'm working for. I wish them all the best and where ever I will be in the future I hope that we will stay friends.

Thursday (July 8) and Friday (July 9)

Well we arrived on July 8 in the early afternoon at Newark Airport. Dad and my brother Adams were waiting for Lena and I. We went home and rested. I made sure to not plan anything for the first two days of our trip just in case the jet lag set in. On Friday night we had planned to go into Philadelphia to go dancing at a club, but we thought that Andy & Kate's wedding was in the afternoon oinly to find out that it was at 10 AM and decided to stay in. I invited some of the guys I went to high school with for some catching up. Most of my friends have new cars and jobs that are going well, which was nice to hear. My parents put a new patio on their house so we sat outside on that and had a few beers. It was what I needed. I hadn't seen those guys in a long time.

I'm Back

Well it was a heck of a trip. The weather was nice most of the time. It was much warmer than here in Latvia although it is getting warmer here too. I have way too many stories, and way too much work to do to post everything in this one post. I'll break it up into different stories and post them seperatly, but I just wanted to let everyone know that Lena and I made it back safely.

Last Post

Well this could be my last post for awhile. If I do post it will be from the U.S.. If not, my next post from Latvia will be on July 22. There will probably be way too much to tell on that day, because of the extent of our trip. I will try to write down or take pictures so that I can tell all the stories when I get back, but who knows if thats going to happen. Anyway, Bye Bye for now.

Strange

I think my blog is acting a little funny. I can't seem to view the page. All I can do is post. I also can't remember if I posted yesterday. If I didn't, I'm sorry. I remember that I didn't have anything to write about in the morning, so I thought I would wait to see if I would have anything to write about later in the day. Actually now that I think about it I wrote about how I wrote two articles for the paper. I guess that's not really interesting, I have been browsing through other people's blogs and noticed that they post links to things they find on the net. I think I'm going to have to start doing that before I lose the three readers I have. Here's a link to my favorite author's website NeilGaiman.com. He's written a bunch of fiction books that are just great. I hope to pick up another one when I'm in the U.S.. He also blogs which is cool.

Articles

Today the sun is shinning in Riga and and its back to work after a weekend that felt too short, as most of them do. Lena and I didn't do much this weekend. We are slowly tring to get ready for our trip, but there is still a lot to do. In case anyone is following my writting there will be two articles in this weeks The Baltic Times. One is about two Latvian hockey teams that are going to play in Belarus next year, and the other is about the Olympiad that took place in Ventspils this past weekend. Today is also payday, which means its time for a haircut. I should probably post a picture in this site.

Rain

Yes, its raining again in Riga. Yesterday was nice though, and I got to sit out in the sun and have a beer with some colleagues. That was nice. In other news I watched Jeff Gordon win some kind of NASCAR race that was really confusing, because they looked like they were racing on a Formula 1 track. Thats what happens when there is nothing on TV. I've started planning our trip in the states. There are a lot of places that Lena wants to see, and that I'm really excited to show her. I hope its not raining where ever you are.

At The Depo

Last night for the first time in a very long time, Lena and I went to a concert at a club called Depo, where we got to see some local underground groups that Lena's been a fan of for years. Its an interesting place. It is exactly what you would expect from a hard rock club. Its small, dark, loud, smoky, and full of people wearing things you wouldn't see in daylight. I had a good time. It was nice to do something other than go to work and sit at home. I would like to go to a rock festival atleast once this summer, but all the good ones will take place while we are going to be in the states. Anyway, in other news a Hessburger has opened up in Riga. Hessburger is a Scandinavian fast food chain. I'm excited to try the burgers, but Lena and I probably won't get to go there until after we get back from our trip. Junk food is probably the biggest thing I miss from the states, besides friends and family.