I am not doing well at all with my posting. Sorry! In the beginning of my trip my often-travelling friend Ilusha said that undoubtedly the posts would ebb away after the beginning, after I get sucked into local life and activities, work and socializing. So it is, it seems. I hoped to achieve the high bar set by another friend, Rita, who writes amazingly funny and insightful posts first from Madrid and now still from Boston, but that is not to be. However, for those who remain optimistic and happen to continue checking my blog, I offer you an update.
I have had a lot of visits and visitors over the past two months: first a trip to Ireland (Dublin and Dingle, a small and very musical town in a Gaeltacht region on the West Coast), then a visit from my mom and from a college friend, Amanda. Ten days after that - a visit from my friend Lena for my birthday, and ten days after that - a visit from the Pindrus sisters, Masha and Bella, on their way to Tallinn for the first time after emigrating 8 years ago (they took me along and I write now having returned after three days in Tallinn).
Also spring has taken over Riga, and it is lush and green, warm and active. The parks are full of people, the Old Town is filling up with tourists and various weekend celebrations, and local people strolling about. (The main streets are full of people, as usual - the city is small and people walk places, no matter what the weather is.)
My work is going well, in high gear (!) and nearing the end. I am currently finishing up interviews with patients who have not been adherent to their treatment regimens, as well as getting additional information from adherent patients whom I had interviewed earlier. Soon I will be completing the analysis of all of the data and focusing on writing an article, which will hopefully have a chance at publication in Russian and perhaps international journals.
I plan to finish my project by the end of June, then stay in Riga for the Song and Dance Festival in the first part of July, then visit Moscow (and maybe, maybe Finland before that), and be back in Boston on July 28!
I promise to follow up with pictures soon!
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
Saturday, March 22, 2008
New post!
Hello! I have reappeared in the world of blogging - apologies that I have been away for so long, hiding in diary-writing and being busy, procrastinating and travelling, feeling self-conscious about my writing skills and being unsure how to put into words what I want to say. But now I will try again!
In these past three months, I have been at times meandering and at times rushing through holiday present-buying, celebrating Old New Year (by the Russian Orthodox calendar) and New New Year, escaping to a village near Cesis (to a guesthouse with a sauna and spring-water pool, next to the forest and the river Gauja), presenting at work on my findings so far, visiting the U.S. for birthdays and silver weddings, rethinking my project (not big changes, just in terms of gathering more comparative and quantitative data, as well as a realization that I won't make any real difference, but can only write a good research paper), executing a very active cultural program in Riga while my grandfather visited, going to operas and concerts and plays, writing stories based on some of the interviews I did, going through the Ethics Committee review process again (successfully), preparing to go to Ireland...
Now it is Easter and Spring Solstice in Latvia, and I was invited to celebrate with the folklore music group I have been singing with, Saviesi, at the directors' family friend's country house near Ogre, southeast of Riga. In Latvia there are very many Latvian song and dance choirs, but there are also some folklore choirs, which, arguably, stick to more authentic, more grassroots, village-y folk music. Saviesi, I think, is the most relaxed of the groups - they (we) meet on Wednesday's at the Occupation Museum (dedicated to documenting Latvia's history under the Soviet Union) and sing folk songs from different parts of Latvia. It is just voices, throaty, unpolished, and sometimes (especially with my participation) a little bit dissonant, with no musical accompaniment. In fact, half the time is spent talking, rather than singing - mostly about how to sing the songs correctly, but also planning for various events and festivities, traditions and rituals. The people are artistic, intellectual, lively, friendly, calm, and love tradition and folklore. I got involved because one of the other Fulbright students, Whit, is studying Latvian folk music and he heard about it from Aija (below), and I was tempted by the promise of unpolished folk singing - which it is. And so this Spring Solstice celebration was very much in line with what tempted me in the beginning. We went to a house by the woods, in the fields - a wooden house, beautiful and light and fresh, with a sauna inside, where we steamed ourselves in waves - got in, got very hot, ran out, either to the pond outside or to the main room with the food and the singing and the talk. Sang, ate, cooled off, came back into the smell of birch-leaf brooms and the candlelit heat of the sauna. There was powerful, folky, fun, gentle music with accordion, violin, guitar and kokle (a traditional Latvian instrument, a little bit like a harp held on the knees) - all played by women. There were a lot of Latvian-Americans and Latvian-Canadians, and many of the other people there knew English, so it was easier to communicate and socialize than it usually is for me in a group of Latvians. And with those who didn't speak English I (self-consciously - though there's no need for that) spoke Russian. There were three German sheperds - one mom, one son, and an old lady, all incredibly quiet and friendly. The dog-mom, Dika, loves to play so much that when there are a lot of guests, she exhausts herself entertaining everyone who wants to play with her. There were fields and woods and ponds, first sunny and even green yesterday evening, and then covered with white, snowy and misty, this morning. We slept about fifteen people on the floor and beds of two rooms, and woke up to watch the (sunless) sunrise, wash our faces with running water for luck in this year, swung in a wooden swing overlooking the pond, with individualized verses sung for each of us, threw eggs over the swing (trying to catch them on the other side), and had egg wars to see how lucky we would be this year. It was fantastic. Here are the photo illustrations...
Preparations: dying eggs (the last one) with onion skins, parsley and daffodil leaves at Aija and Eriks' (Canadian-American-Latvians) apartment the day before, with Whit and his girlfriend Iben, visiting from the US.
The bench and steps to the pond in which we dunked ourselves, partially and screamingly, after the sauna. (I took the picture already this morning, when we awoke to celebrate the spring solstice, the first day when daylight is as long as the night, and found a white winter.)
Two of the hosts' very friendly (really!) German sheperds.
After the sauna, around the dinner table, singing Latvian folk songs (notice the violin being played on the other side of the table!).
This morning, having breakfast, with lots and lots of colored eggs.
Laimigus Lieldienas!
In these past three months, I have been at times meandering and at times rushing through holiday present-buying, celebrating Old New Year (by the Russian Orthodox calendar) and New New Year, escaping to a village near Cesis (to a guesthouse with a sauna and spring-water pool, next to the forest and the river Gauja), presenting at work on my findings so far, visiting the U.S. for birthdays and silver weddings, rethinking my project (not big changes, just in terms of gathering more comparative and quantitative data, as well as a realization that I won't make any real difference, but can only write a good research paper), executing a very active cultural program in Riga while my grandfather visited, going to operas and concerts and plays, writing stories based on some of the interviews I did, going through the Ethics Committee review process again (successfully), preparing to go to Ireland...
Now it is Easter and Spring Solstice in Latvia, and I was invited to celebrate with the folklore music group I have been singing with, Saviesi, at the directors' family friend's country house near Ogre, southeast of Riga. In Latvia there are very many Latvian song and dance choirs, but there are also some folklore choirs, which, arguably, stick to more authentic, more grassroots, village-y folk music. Saviesi, I think, is the most relaxed of the groups - they (we) meet on Wednesday's at the Occupation Museum (dedicated to documenting Latvia's history under the Soviet Union) and sing folk songs from different parts of Latvia. It is just voices, throaty, unpolished, and sometimes (especially with my participation) a little bit dissonant, with no musical accompaniment. In fact, half the time is spent talking, rather than singing - mostly about how to sing the songs correctly, but also planning for various events and festivities, traditions and rituals. The people are artistic, intellectual, lively, friendly, calm, and love tradition and folklore. I got involved because one of the other Fulbright students, Whit, is studying Latvian folk music and he heard about it from Aija (below), and I was tempted by the promise of unpolished folk singing - which it is. And so this Spring Solstice celebration was very much in line with what tempted me in the beginning. We went to a house by the woods, in the fields - a wooden house, beautiful and light and fresh, with a sauna inside, where we steamed ourselves in waves - got in, got very hot, ran out, either to the pond outside or to the main room with the food and the singing and the talk. Sang, ate, cooled off, came back into the smell of birch-leaf brooms and the candlelit heat of the sauna. There was powerful, folky, fun, gentle music with accordion, violin, guitar and kokle (a traditional Latvian instrument, a little bit like a harp held on the knees) - all played by women. There were a lot of Latvian-Americans and Latvian-Canadians, and many of the other people there knew English, so it was easier to communicate and socialize than it usually is for me in a group of Latvians. And with those who didn't speak English I (self-consciously - though there's no need for that) spoke Russian. There were three German sheperds - one mom, one son, and an old lady, all incredibly quiet and friendly. The dog-mom, Dika, loves to play so much that when there are a lot of guests, she exhausts herself entertaining everyone who wants to play with her. There were fields and woods and ponds, first sunny and even green yesterday evening, and then covered with white, snowy and misty, this morning. We slept about fifteen people on the floor and beds of two rooms, and woke up to watch the (sunless) sunrise, wash our faces with running water for luck in this year, swung in a wooden swing overlooking the pond, with individualized verses sung for each of us, threw eggs over the swing (trying to catch them on the other side), and had egg wars to see how lucky we would be this year. It was fantastic. Here are the photo illustrations...
Preparations: dying eggs (the last one) with onion skins, parsley and daffodil leaves at Aija and Eriks' (Canadian-American-Latvians) apartment the day before, with Whit and his girlfriend Iben, visiting from the US.
The bench and steps to the pond in which we dunked ourselves, partially and screamingly, after the sauna. (I took the picture already this morning, when we awoke to celebrate the spring solstice, the first day when daylight is as long as the night, and found a white winter.)
Two of the hosts' very friendly (really!) German sheperds.
After the sauna, around the dinner table, singing Latvian folk songs (notice the violin being played on the other side of the table!).
This morning, having breakfast, with lots and lots of colored eggs.
Laimigus Lieldienas!
Tuesday, January 1, 2008
Happy New Year!
Happy New Year! С Новым Годом! Laimigu Jauno Gadu!
May this year bring health, smiles, curiosity and (good) surprises!
Best wishes from Riga : )
May this year bring health, smiles, curiosity and (good) surprises!
Best wishes from Riga : )
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Photos from Dobele
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Little update
What I have been doing: getting over being sick (and unproductive) last week, doing interviews with past patients, meeting with medical sociologists (there are two in Latvia, and finally I found them!), dancing Latvian folk dances, singing traditional Latvian folk songs (as far as I understand, there are two types of Latvian folk songs: traditional - old - and less traditional - germanized, but much more popular ones), putting in order documents for my grandfather's invitation to Latvia (so he can apply for a visa for his visit in March), thinking about my findings so far (I could go on for a long time about them, but probably it is best to keep my ideas to myself for a little longer, until they settle and ferment and acquire some logic), doing laundry, making bliny and pancakes, planning trips to Cesis (tomorrow), Jurmala (on Sunday for a Ziemassvetki party - a pagan winter holiday which falls on the same day as Christmas; it is called the season of ghosts and every day a candle is lit for gods and spirits, and on the last day the candles are extinguished to represent an end to the unhappiness of the previous year!), and Dobele (where Lielberze TB hospital is located, which I will visit on Monday and Tuesday). And last week I was a little bit sick, then sicker, and luckily didn't have any interviews planned. I cooked various goodies and generally stayed home in the company of Valera, who is repainting and re-wallpapering and generally fixing our kitchen (the cabinets are now unexpectedly a deep and bright blue color). Also I got a small haircut from a friend of a friend (a St. Petersburg artist from my Latvian class), which was a lot less unpleasant than my usual hairdresser visits (they are usually like visits to the dentist), and met the American ambassador in a very formal and very short meeting with all of the Fulbrighters (which actually was like a visit to the dentist).
Saturday, December 8, 2007
More photos
More views of forest and water in Latvia (the lake and surrounding forest of the Ethnographic Museum)...
And lit by the setting sun...
Here I am feeding the swans (which is also what the people are doing in the distance of the lake photo from the previous post).
********
The first snow (it was already a few weeks ago, before the first snow in Boston, but now not so exciting...) covering my "courtyard." The apartment I live in (it is too much Yuliya Leonidovna's apartment for me to say "my apartment," but it definitely feels like my home) is in a relatively poor, industrial area. It is the next street after čaka, a street that functions like the metaphorical railroad tracks, and I live on the "wrong side of the tracks," one could say. So the windows in my room face the Staburadze factory, which makes various sweet goodies. I can see the ladies at their work tables putting cream decorations on the cakes, and taking smoking or tea breaks. And when you walk down the street, sometimes it smells sweet (though I can't smell anything at home, since it is cold and I keep the windows closed). Also when you walk down the street, often there are homeless people or visibly poor pensioners, and sometimes suspicious-looking bodyguard-like gentlemen getting out of their cars or smoking outside of the local gambling/computer game joint. Here is a slightly snowy view of the street with this gambling joint, Tallinas, which connects my street (Krāsotāju) to čaka.
Actually čaka is not at all so terrible, just aesthetically displeasing. It doesn't have trees, except for a small park at one point, and it has strip clubs, gambling places, boarded-up buildings, broken windows, and lots and lots of traffic. It isn't homey. Which was at first difficult to adjust to, especially after calm and beautiful, foresty and distant Imanta (the part of Riga where I lived for the first month). But now I am quite adjusted and Krāsotāju feels like home.
The last picture is of a residential area near the TB clinic where I work most of the time - typical Soviet apartment buildings and birch trees (hopefully to feed someone's Soviet or Russian nostalgia : )). Also after the first snow, with still some green leaves on the trees.
And lit by the setting sun...
Here I am feeding the swans (which is also what the people are doing in the distance of the lake photo from the previous post).
********
The first snow (it was already a few weeks ago, before the first snow in Boston, but now not so exciting...) covering my "courtyard." The apartment I live in (it is too much Yuliya Leonidovna's apartment for me to say "my apartment," but it definitely feels like my home) is in a relatively poor, industrial area. It is the next street after čaka, a street that functions like the metaphorical railroad tracks, and I live on the "wrong side of the tracks," one could say. So the windows in my room face the Staburadze factory, which makes various sweet goodies. I can see the ladies at their work tables putting cream decorations on the cakes, and taking smoking or tea breaks. And when you walk down the street, sometimes it smells sweet (though I can't smell anything at home, since it is cold and I keep the windows closed). Also when you walk down the street, often there are homeless people or visibly poor pensioners, and sometimes suspicious-looking bodyguard-like gentlemen getting out of their cars or smoking outside of the local gambling/computer game joint. Here is a slightly snowy view of the street with this gambling joint, Tallinas, which connects my street (Krāsotāju) to čaka.
Actually čaka is not at all so terrible, just aesthetically displeasing. It doesn't have trees, except for a small park at one point, and it has strip clubs, gambling places, boarded-up buildings, broken windows, and lots and lots of traffic. It isn't homey. Which was at first difficult to adjust to, especially after calm and beautiful, foresty and distant Imanta (the part of Riga where I lived for the first month). But now I am quite adjusted and Krāsotāju feels like home.
The last picture is of a residential area near the TB clinic where I work most of the time - typical Soviet apartment buildings and birch trees (hopefully to feed someone's Soviet or Russian nostalgia : )). Also after the first snow, with still some green leaves on the trees.
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