Valodas Mācišanās

The last few days have been a little bit busier.  Thursday and Friday were so unbearably hot, but Saturday and Sunday the weather was perfect!  It was a little hot in the sun in the daytime but there was a nice breeze that kept things cooled off.  When it was so hot, I felt so bad for the singers and dancers who had to wear those warm folk costumes all the time and sing and dance in them.  During their rehearsals, so many of them fainted from the heat.  I couldn't believe how much inner strength and pride these people had.

On Saturday, we went to a big orchestra concert in Dome Square that was part of the Song and Dance Festival.  There were so many people there watching the bands and orchestras.  We listened for awhile, and then went to a cafe to sit for awhile.  Later, I met my friends from Eau Claire.  We did some shopping and then Egija and I walked around Vecriga.  We went into a bar called Ala and found a bunch of the singers from the festival singing traditional folk songs.  I was so surprised to see this, because the singers had been singing all day.  I would've thought that after a full day of singing and hearing the folk songs, they would want to hear anything else or do something else.  But no, after they were done singing at the festival, they just went to the bar to sing some more.  I have never seen such a strong love for one's country and traditions.  To me, it is so beautiful.

Good friends in Vecriga

Later that night, we met up again with Liva, and had a little bit of food at Ezitis Migla.  I had potato pancakes with jam and sour cream.  So yummy.  After eating, we met again with Laura, Rūta, Justin, Ruta's brother Kristaps, and his girlfriend Andra.  We went to the bar across the street and it wasn't very crowded.  So we all sat down in an empty room and just chatted and drank beer.  Sitting there with amazing friends made me feel so happy.  Good friends and good beer in the best city in the world, how could I not feel elated?  That was such a good night.

Song and Dance Festival parade

On Sunday morning, Liene and I left to go to Brigita's house, where we met up with a bunch of other people to go to the parade for the Song and Dance Festival.  The parade was fun at first, but it was mostly just people walking by representing all the regions of Latvia.  The parade included everyone who participated in the Song and Dance Festival, so needless to say, it was an insanely long parade.  We stood there in the sun for three and a half hours, because we had to see Ruta, Lauris, and Emily at the end.  Riga was the last part of the parade.  When we saw the sign for Riga, we waited.  And waited.  And waited.  No sign of Ruta or Lauris.  All of a sudden, after so long, we heard "Čau!"  and saw Ruta and Lauris walking by.  None of us had noticed them and no one was able to catch a picture.  We freaked out because they surprised us, and laughed.  After the parade, I was so exhausted because the sun had completely drained my energy.  I ate some food and drank some water, though, and then I was feeling much better.

Ligo concert

Later that night, Ruta, Lauris, Sanita, and I went to the Ligo singing concert.  This is the biggest and final concert in the entire festival.  It was seriously insane.  There were 18,000 people singing all at once, and even more watching.  It was such a beautiful thing to hear and made me so proud that this is where I come from.  The song and dance festival is such a big deal and there is nothing else like it in the world.  It's like the music olympics of Latvia.  So crazy!  Once most of the concert was over, we left and came home to watch the rest on TV and get some sleep.

While I was out with my friends on Saturday night, we were talking about Latvian traditions and they were saying how much they hate amber, because it is everywhere here.  Until now, I have always felt a little sad that I did not grow up learning all the traditions and folk songs and the language.  However, now I am finding that this is so much more special to me since I am discovering it for myself.  I am making the effort to find out who I am and where I come from.  I am learning the traditions for myself rather than having it forced upon me.  That makes me love it so much more.  Granted, if I had learned the language when I was young it would've made it a lot easier on me now.  Oh well.

Vecriga

That brings me to the big question everyone keeps asking me: How is the language learning going?  The simple answer would be that it is hard, overwhelming, and emotionally taxing.  My friends are speaking Latvian most of the time, and I usually try to listen and understand, but after so long of listening and thinking, I start to feel so so tired and end up just zoning everything out.  I know that being immersed in the language is the best way for me to learn it, but it is so hard when I am working at it the entire day.  Sometimes, not understanding anything makes me feel homesick and emotional.  However, I luckily have some experience in this language learning thing, and I remember that this is exactly how I felt the first few days in Spain.  So overwhelmed and tired out.  But Spain got so much better.  So, I have hope that it will get better and I will start learning quicker.  I just have to give it some time.