Latviešu Valoda Apliecība/ Latvian Language Certificate

Today, 10 months after I arrived in Latvia, it was my last lesson of Latvian Language. Although I still have a lot to learn I am happy of what I have achieved and I hope I will keep on learning more and more!! At the moment, I've got the level A2 :)

Thank you very much to my teacher Jolanta and to all the people who have helped me to learn this language!!

Living the forth season

Something Latvians are really proud of is their seasons. At the moment I have lived in Latvia almost 10 months, so I have experienced the Latvian Summer, Autumn, Winter and Spring, and I can understand why they are so proud of their four seasons, each of them is completely different from the others.

Spring is wonderful! I love Spring! Why? Because after having a long and cold winter (OK, this winter was quite warm for Latvia but it was cold for me anyway), with long nights and gray days, Spring arrives full of brand new energy and colors. It was lovely to see how the leafs were starting to bloom on the trees, how the country was getting its own particular and beautiful green, how the birds started to sing all day long, the first butterflies, the day getting longer, the sun warmer, the mosquitoes starting to bite your skin (this is my favorite, I am now an expert), the flowers blooming, the air getting full of charming smell, the waterfall increasing its hight... It is magic!

One thing I like very much is a tradition Latvians have: there is a kind of plant that makes really beautiful and small flowers of four petals, it is called Ceriņi. Sometimes, the flowers have more than four petals, and it is said that when it has five petals, you have to make a wish and eat that flower. I have found some, let's see if my wishes will become true!

Another thing I really like from Spring is that it is the season to start planting and growing vegetables in the garden. Although I am living in a fifth floor flat, I managed to have my own little garden: Klaudijas dārziņš! :D

Paldies Kristine

Every day, when I arrive in the Youth Center, I go to my office and there is Kristine. I think I could say that Kristine is one of the most responsible person that I feel good in my project, she is the closest person I have in the Youth Center, that's for sure, and she is the one who has always taken care of me, from the beginning of my EVS until now.

When I arrived, in August, there was not many people in the Youth Center because almost everyone was on holidays. So it was a little bit hard for me because I didn't have a lot to do and I didn't know anyone. Moreover, in the Youth Center nearly no one spoke English, except for Kristine, so she always tried to make me feel comfortable, give me things to do, asked me how I felt and what work I preferred. She also introduced me to some youngsters of the Youth Council, so I could start to have friends; and, she gave me tasks in all the events we organized so that I could feel useful.

Every time I have been sick, I have had any problems, she has done all her best to solve it. Every time I didn't like something in my project or when I wanted something new, I just needed to talk with her and together we always figured out a solution.

Thanks to her, I have felt better in my project, in the Youth Center and in Latvia. She has really worked hard and worried a lot in order that I felt good, I have been lucky to have her as a boss.

I want to say thank you to you Kristine, thank you very much! Working next to you has been a pleasure!

LIELS PALDIES!

Lielā Talka koordinatoru konkurss 2014 - Kuldīgas novads

Each spring, in Latvia, there is the BIG CLEANUP, a day when the citizens from Latvia go outside to clean the country. The motive of this year is: "Clean Baltic Sea starts in your bathroom" (Tīra Baltijas jūra sākas tavā vannas istabā). Here you have the promotional video we made in Kuldīga. :)


Cada primavera, a Letònia, hi ha LA GRAN NETEJA, un dia en el qual els habitants de Letònia surten a fora per netejar el país. El lema d'aquest any és: "Un Mar Baltic net comenca al teu bany" (Tīra Baltijas jūra sākas tavā vannas istabā). Aquí us deixo el vídeo promocional que hem fet a Kuldīga. :)

BAD LUCK.

I don't exactly know why but in some ways I have not been very lucky in Latvia. I have never, NEVER, been stolen before but on Monday it was the second time since I live here. The strange thing is that I thought that it is not something that happens often here... anyway, it happened twice to me!

The first time was in Rīga, I was in a city bus when I got stolen my purse, with all the documents and credit cards (and the purse was so beautiful, I loved it!!!).

The second time was on Monday. I was in the ballet lesson, with the dancing group “Focus” that I have joined here. After the lesson one girl couldn't find her mobile phone, then another girl couldn't find the key of her car, she went outside and the car was gone! Then they asked me to check if I had something missing. And yes, I had my Spanish mobile phone stolen and not a single coin or banknote in the new purse (this time they were quite nice and at least they didn't take my documents again).

Sí, this is what happened! We called the police and through the GPS of the car they could know that it was in a very close village called Pelči. The police and the girl whose car had been stolen went there. I went, together with the other girl who had her phone stolen, to the police office to write down everything that had happened.

Yesterday I got to know that the car was found in the middle of the forest, full of mud inside and outside. About the phones, there are no news.

Mmm... és primavera!

YES! After a quite warm winter, the spring has arrived! The spring, full of light, energy and colors! It's so nice to be outside; it is warm but the air is fresh... so fresh! And the sun shines very much, it hits your skin, it makes you feel so alive, so comfortable! The sky is blue, pure blue, and the birds sing beautiful songs... The flowers are starting to grow and now you can see the “snow clocks” (sniegpulkstenīši) in every corner.

It's just perfect to go outside, walk, run, climb a tree or just relax on the grass by the river. The days are longer and brighter, the sun is higher. And, during the sunset, the sky becomes wonderful: pink, orange, red, yellow, blue... all the colors combine in a gorgeous painting.

TIME FLIES

Time flies! Almost 7 months in Latvia... 7 months!!! I just can't believe it. I remember so good the day I left: it was 31^st of July and my plane had left at 5 o'clock in the afternoon, so I had to have lunch early (what early means for people from Spain, here I have learned that early and late are two VERY INACCURATE words). My family and my friends came with me to the airport, it was hard to say goodbye. Then I had to stay for more that 3 hours in the plane but I was not as excited as I thought I would be, I was sad to leave everyone there.

Now, 7 months later, I feel that Kuldīga is my second home. My life is here; I have my friends, my flat, my job, my hobbies... I am happy, very happy! Of course it is not always that I am shining of happiness, I have my bad moments too! But I feel good here, and I guess that is what really matters.

Last week we had the midterm training for EVS volunteers. It was a lot about reflexion and looking into oneself. I liked it very much and I realized many things! One of them is that I have changed a lot since I came here (actually my life has changed completely so of course I have changed too). In the training we had to draw a time line from the moment we arrived until now, with all our ups and downs. I think my drawing looked very good, it started quite down but it just went higher and higher, with some small downs in between. One of the reasons of that is because I feel that everyday I get more and more adapted to this country, my Latvian skills are improving and communication with native people is improving as well.

Another thing we had to do in the training was to think how we can improve our projects. It is easy that by this time the EVS becomes monotonous, we don't have so much initiative as in the beginning, nothing new really happens. But the trainers we had have much experience and they know that this usually happens so they asked us to think of a project, something we can do in our last months because yes, more than a half is already gone. I don't know from where I had the idea but suddenly I realized that there is something that I am missing very much: theater. I gave up theater 3 years ago, and I miss it very badly, very very badly! So I thought that we could organize a theater festival in Kuldīga. I have many ideas for it in my head, but now I need to talk about it with some people and find someone who helps me in the organization. But I am really excited about it and I hope we will manage to carry it out.

And at the moment this is not the only project we have in mind. In the Youth Center we are planning to organize a youth exchange for next summer and with Zura we want to organize one event that will involve the participation of many other volunteers in Latvia, plus, we want to make a dance combining Georgian and Spanish dances. So actually we have many projects in mind, all of them look good, all we need is to work hard so that we can enjoy a good result!

Tiksimies vēlāk,

Claudia.