Keep calm and challenge accepted

I have just finished two dancing lessons, the first one with the students of the 5^th grade and the second one with the ones of the 2^nd grade. It was crazy!

Yesterday night, when I was going home with Zura, he told me that he would go to Rīga today and that I wouldn't have dancing lessons. We called the dancing teacher just to confirm it and she didn't pick up the phone. Finally, we managed to contact her at half past ten, before going to sleep. She said that she was injured and would not be able to do the lesson so that I had to go there and do it myself. PANIC! It was 22:30 and the following day at 8 o'clock in the morning I would have two lessons that I wouldn't have been able to prepare. At the first moment I was really scared but I realized that this wouldn't help me and I was so tired that I wasn't able to prepare anything, so I decided to go to sleep.

But the reality came back again when I arrived in the Youth Center and faced the 5^th grade students. While walking to Youth Center I had thought of some exercises but when I arrived here all of them disappeared! Luckily there was the pianist, a very kind woman who helped me a lot, who doesn't speak English at all (of course, let's make it easier!).

We started very punctual, doing some warm-up. My intention was to do it very slow and long, including all the parts of the body, because I can't teach Latvian nor Georgian dances and we couldn't do any Catalan dance because I didn't have the material but we had to fill the lesson with something. The problem was that after four exercises I didn't know what else I could do. So the first idea that crossed my mind was to practice the dance they had already started with the Latvian teacher. But this was not possible because the pianist didn't have the score! Luckily she remembered some notes and we practiced the basic steps of the dance during the rest of the lesson.

Then the students of the 2^nd grade arrived with their never-ending energy. After calming them down as much as we could (it's quite impossible for them to be quiet) I was able to do a better warm-up than with the first lesson, although I also needed the help of the pianist to finish the lesson.

And now, after this small disaster I did in the first two lessons, I am going to think of what I can do with the students of the 4^th grade who will arrive in one hour.

Keep calm and challenge accepted!

With Linda in Penkule

I have a friend, I have a really good friend: Linda.

Linda is crazy. Linda is crazy and great. Linda is crazy, great and one of the coolest persons I've met.

We met each other just when I arrived in Latvia, we went together to Laba Daba, a very nice alternative music festival where we did some recycling workshops with my organization (Radi Vidi Pats). Since then, I can't say I meet her very often, but I can definitely say that meeting her always means having a great time.

This weekend Linda invited me and some other friends to spend some days in Penkule, her hometown, because next week she is leaving to Bosnia, where she will stay one whole year doing an EVS. I'm really happy for her because doing an EVS is a great experience but at the same time I'm so sad that she has to leave now, just after we met. Thus, I decided that this will be a great opportunity for visiting the Balkans!

Anyway, I arrived in Penkule on Friday morning after my first hitch hiking experience (accompanied by Linda, of course) where Miroslav, one Serbian EVS volunteer, was already waiting for us. Penkule is a very small town with a wonderful tree-arcade entrance and exit; it just has one main road and two or three streets. There is one school, the sports hall, a kind of town hall, the post office and library building, the culture house, the bar and the shop. But also people, movement, activities, trees, forest, colors, animals, gardens, apples, goats, cows, a lake. Linda is in love with this little town, every time she speaks about it her eyes start shining and you can feel all the emotions and memories that fill her heart, it is really moving.

Linda hates cooking but I don't know why we spent such a long time in the kitchen these days: cooking lunch, baking apple cake, making pancakes, crème brulée that ended up being lemon cream, apple cake again, apple juice, croissants, apple juice, Serbian soup, steamed vegetables, apple juice, etc. At the end, we were really proud of all the results (specially the apple cake, it was delicious!) and we had many special moments in the kitchen.

One of this delicious apple cakes was made for a very important event that happened on Saturday: The Big Clothing Day 2. This initiative started by Linda consists in bringing all the clothes, shoes, bags, accessories, books or even electrical appliances that we don't need anymore so that someone else can use it. I brought there one jumper and one T-shirt but I got so many cool things, I'm very happy! I got skirts, dresses, T-shirts, trousers and even a coffee machine!

On Saturday evening Frans arrived in Penkule. He is a Belgian guy who is already doing his second master in Rīga being only 21 years old. With him at home there were 4 different nationalities in just one flat, awesome!

But what I haven't explained yet is the craziest thing we did 3 times. As I said before in Penkule there is a lake and as I also said before being with Linda means having a great and crazy time. Yes, it's not difficult to guess what we did; we went swimming! The best thing is that I didn't even go swimming on October when I was in Spain and now I do it in Latvia, where it is so much colder! But I have to say that it was great, I loved it! And, although the water was cold, we took very warm clothes and after swimming we weren't cold at all. By the way, if someone wants to do it my advice is to scream, scream, scream and scream when you get in the water, it really helps! And drinking some tea afterwards is also a very smart choice.

We were having a really nice time with Linda, so we decided that I would stay one more day there. Since Linda's mother works in the primary school of Penkule, we thought it would be a good idea to go to there and practice some English with the kids, it is always good for them to practice with foreigners. They responded very good, they were really interested and they even asked me to sign their notebooks! I really liked that idea of going to the English lessons and I think I will talk with the schools of Kuldīga if they would like to do the same once in a while.

Sadly, after swimming for the last time, I had to pack all my things and get ready to leave. Linda and her mum were so kind with me and they gave me a lot of food to bring home. I was so happy after this great great weekend! Linda is just amazing! And I already miss her, so I will definitely visit her in Bosnia, yes!

Linda, thank you for everything, liels paldies par visu!