Ahh travel

So it's been a while..but I had an interesting moment today (and most days).
So I don't have any money because I bought last minute tickets to Cyprus and thusly havent really eaten anything but potatoes and onions. But thats not the point. The point is I had to take the bus to the airport here in Riga in order to conduct an interview with a director at the Post.
I scrounged up enough pennies for the 40 santims it cost to get there. But realized i had NO money to get back at all. And the possibilities of sneaking on the bus were nonexistant. SO in rummaging around in my messenger bag and found two very wrinkled US dollars. "AH HA!" i thought..i could walk into the airport and go to the currency exchange! Which I did. And got 82 cents out of it. The dollar blows.
Anywho. Then I asked where the Post office was..and the woman was like "why didnt you get off at the right stop for the post office? This is the airport? Didn't you think about this!?" But thats the kind of tone I've grown accustomed to. So she finally pointed me in the sorta right direction. Through some bushes. and a swamp. and like a sandpit. It was a good time. And about an hour later I arrived slightly scratched and dusty..and sandy, to the post office. Where I had an interview. Then I rushed to get back to town, only to find that the like 9 presidents in town for the Baltic Summit were leaving..so we had to wait for like 5 presidential motorcades to whiz by. seriously. what a day. But on the brightside I have 30 cents!

Luckily...

Well fortunatly I have my own computer here in newspaper land. The unlucky thing is that they changed the locks on the doors of my office and I cant leave to go home. of all the random times to change locks and not tell anyone. Oh well. I could do with some blog updating time.
There is nothing more gorgeous than an eastern european winter, provided there is snow. Which there isnt right now. Just cold. But that all the more reason to enjoy hot beverages, alcohol and the company of others. And hanging out in sweaty dance clubs turns into more of a pleasently warm experiance, rather than an unbearably hot one.
In other news: There is an Uzbek restaurant in town which I am so going to check out.
I thought about going down to Kosovo for the independence announcements..but it didnt work out. It will be interesting to see Russias reaction to the decision and the impending economic whatnot thats sure to follow.

Riga, Latvia!

Weeelll So i'm back in Latvia again, working at the Baltic Times and teaching english, among other things. As its been one week, i've already lost like 7 pounds eating nothing but sausage, dairy products and fried potatos. It's really quite heavenly.
Last night I saw a production of Lolita in Latvian, and can now understand why many in Latvia chose not to do drugs. Watching the play was much like an acid trip. IN a good way. In a way that included live sheep walking out of closests with indians in very small loin clothes..in LOLITA. I'm not sure Nabokov would approve.
All in all its good to be back in the land of relatively unsmiling people (save for the few that are very smiley and totally awesome), Fried delicious foods, and a work ethic that rivals france.

Bosnia!

Sorry I havent written in a while, but there has been more happening than i could keep track of! I'll start with my first impressions of Sarajevo, which i'm sorry to say werent quite that great. Perhaps because everything was so shot up and it was constantly raining. But when there are sunbreaks the city looks better. It was ruled at different points in time by both the Turks (Ottoman empire) and the Austro-Hungarian empire. This leads to very interesting architecture on the main street. Every Balkan main city has a main pedestrian street and this one is no different except that the stores are more pricey for whatever reason, and the architecture is Austro-Hugarian..Austro-Hungarian and then BAM Turkish! Which makes for an interesting walk and an even better cup of coffee. There are many parks in which old men play chess with giant chess boards and I must say i too have become sucked into the chess phenomenon and our group of 20 students has now bought several boards and we play constantly, which is something to take our minds off of the fact that if we trip over something whilst walking to the club its usually a grenade hole. which is quite sobering.
But to take my mind off the constant staring and sadness that seems to envelope srajevo, some friends and I took a (looong) bus to Zagreb, Croatia! What a great city, my favorite by far of all the ones i've been too. theres just so may different people, good food, people dont stare you down as if you're an alien, and everything is just so..well european i guess. I am considereing going to grad school there as the tuition and food is craaazy cheap and there are lakes and biking to be done (see pictures)
Then two days ago we visted Srebrenica the town in which the mass genocide happened. We travelled with Bosniak (bosnian muslims) students to this town to which they had never been. Bill Clinton visited in 2003 to open up the memorial and hopefully bring people back to this town in which they have nothing left. Nearly everyone in Bosnia lost someone there in Srebrenica and its hard to understand the horrible things that people are capable of doing to each other. Even so recently. One can read about war and history all they want. but actually being there, in the building where things happened, eating lunch in the hills where 6000 men tried to escape execution and maybe 1000 survived, is quite different. Something that stays with you for the rest of your life. I suppose going into the program i knew it would be hard to see all this and to hear peoples stories, and i couldve chosen to go to greece or italy to study, but I dont think i'd trade this opportunity for anything. Its hard, but good to learn about these things that in the U.S. we really cant even begin to fathom. You learn the extent of human compassion, but also about the amazing elasticity of the human spirit. The lively music and constant singing in the streets is the sign of a people who wont be brought down by anything. It might be nationalism, it might be pride, but for now life is stable and they are happen, and the music stays with them.

Blagaj!

we had an awesome day today, me n christine (my roomate) we went to blagaj and heres the high lites:
took a bus and got off in blagaj (not really a high light but a fact)
went to a turkish house and toured around but had to have the muslim ladies wrap head scarves around our heads so we would be like..kosher or whatev. theen we drank from the river there behind the house, which is the source of the river. seriously best water i have ever tasted and it didnt make me sick ! then we hiked up this mountain (after this kiosk guy said we probably couldnt make it because we didnt look ¨conditioned˝ and got to this Illrian fortress on the mountain there. cool times. could hear the call to prayer there too. then we walked back down.
THEN christine spots a girl in a latvija shirt! so naturally i had to like follow her and the guy she was with to hear if they were speakin latvian..they SO were! and i was pumped and so we talked for like a while and they took pics. it was a couple our age and then the guys uncle who was sorta a chaperon on their 8 day trek through the balkans!
-THEN i realized that i lost christine and went down to the kiosk where we were going to tell that guy that we totally made it up to the mountain fortress. and she was there eating an icecream cone and like swingin her feet and stuff and then the kiosk guy who like was a coppersmith too made us bracelets with our names on them! and then we ate some amazing trout and the kiosk man came with us to show us exactly how bosnian men eat fish. basically it was like the proper way to debone a fish. it was a good tasty trouty time and we had some more river water! then we realiyed that our bus didnt leave until 7 soo us n kiosk man who's name was hussein went to this cool spot down by the river and played cards and drank this amazing soda called cockta! tasty stuff. i shall bring some back. oh and then hussein sees this guy from across the river, yells at him and says to us ˝he owes me a cell phones from 2 years ago˝and we're like uhh k? so the guy comes over and i expect this like big beefy mafia lookin guy...no. its like a 13 year old. but he had husseins (totally pilfered) cell phone. so everyone was happy. it was an interesting time. and i sorta got sunburned. but all in all it was awesome and i returned home to some amazing grilled chicken that the boys in our hotel made for us. delish!

Flickr

This is a test post from , a fancy photo sharing thing.

Mostar, Bosnia!

So today after a very comfortable three hour bus ride, we ended up in Mostar, Bosnia! Thus far i think its one of my favorite places. Although every place is sweet in its own way, belgrade for the safety, nightlife and people, dubrovnik for its amaying location and beaches, Mostar is awesome because it seems so like real n things like..they actually still hand make turkish coffee pots and shoes and they sell like guns and stuff from the war which isnt that awesome but its still a pretty traditional society. Although its divided in terms of one side of the river is bosniaks (muslims) and one side is the catholic side, its still a very cool place. i mean i have only been here for six hours but thus far its very nice. In terms of accomodation, we (me and 5 other kids) have pretty much a whole hotel and bar to ourselves, because its not summer and there arent any tourists here now although the weather is totally gorgeous now. The hotel is on a river and has free internet and its just beautiful. we had some amaying local food of trout and cutlets and fish soup, toured the famous bridge that (up until about 1993ish i think) was 500 years old and pretty much acted as a bridge to the two different sides of town. buuuut it was blown up in the war..so that sucks. but the European community rebuilt it and all that so it looks much like it did before. Its also nice and interesting to hear the call to prayer rising lyrically above the city as well. we happen to be on the muslim side of things, which is cool, it just means no alcohol, and let me tell you, i think i am pretty much done with that liquid substance for the remained of this trip. havent gotten out to meet any of the locals yet, we're just chilling here in our pajamas at the bar playing some cards and having some good clean fun!