Again, time has gone far too fast! I think it safe to say though that spring is the busiest time here in Riga. I don't know what it is or why, but it seems like as soon school starts again after the holiday break in January, I blink twice and it's already nearly summer!
This year has proven no different! In fact, I think this year may just be even busier! Here's what kept me busy a few months back:
JANUARY
Like I said, we hit the ground running in January! I do believe I left for break with a nice tidy desk. However, I won't say I had lesson plans ready for when I returned. Which means in no time at all my desk looked like this again
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It was still plenty cold and dark. We also got a few good snowfalls! This year, the school started to pile the snow in the field area. This picture is showing the fourth tallest hill in Latvia (flatvia). It reminded me of when dad used to push all the snow together in the yard and we would play on it for days!
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| 4:15pm |
The students absolutely loved it! Temperatures dipped at one point and we had a solid week of negative 10 or lower temps! I spoiled my little punks by letting them stay inside those days, and then it took nearly two weeks of debates to get them outside again. They STILL ask if they can stay inside....
Our unit was about global issues and collaborating to solve problems. It was one of my favorite units last year, but this group of kids is SO different. They aren't very big on thinking of other people much less wanting to help them.
Of course, despite our many attempts to find
some kind of service activity for the students, we found nothing. But this year, the Amazing Ita (my fantastic assistant) was all over it! She found a church that hosted a Thursday afternoon soup kitchen and we were able to take the students. Thankfully, they only wanted half of the kids at a time- 12 is still plenty! So Ita and I got to visit the soup kitchen twice. The trip definitely received mixed reviews from the students, but I am proud of them for getting out of their comfort zones and trying something different.
(Except for the one student who didn't go because his parents allowed him to stay home that day. #raisinggoodhumans)
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| The lovely Ita |
In the midst of our 'take action' 'make a difference' 'help others' 'share the planet' unit, there was a women's march here in Riga! It was a sister march connected to the other hundred or so that took place around the world in late January. I dusted off my crochet needle and bought the fluffiest pink yarn I could find
(in an attempt to hide any mistakes).
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| ISL at the march |
It took a few hours, but I created my own hat to sport for the march! It was so interesting to see all the media buzz around these marches. It was also wonderful to see the diverse community that came out for the march here in Latvia. People came in from Tallinn, there were Americans, Latvians, Russians... I marched along with Ita and we chatted about women's rights here.
A good portion of the rest of January was spent catching up on Grad school. I don't talk it about much on here, but I am still jumping those hoops, shelling out the money, and being challenged along the way. Even if that challenge is just managing my time.
There was also a hockey game! Dinamo came out strong and for a bit, I thought they might win. Then the third period came about and their 3-1 lead quickly became 3-3. And in the last minute, the other team scored. Sad, yet somehow unsurprising. Poor, Dinamo...
That same weekend, I visited this dear girl again.
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Lulu and I snuggled to hide from the terrible cold. And she also sat at my toes begging for yet another round of apartment fetch as I tried to complete more grad school stuff. It was hard to stay focused on work with that little face though!
FEBRUARY
Finally, to the relief of all of us, the global issues unit wrapped up and we moved into Media. The punks (the most PG appropriate name I can 'grace' this bunch with) were far more into the media stuff. In this photo, they are trying to write a news article about the crazy cold temps we had. I say trying because they had one pen and about 17 of them (there was a
nasty sick bug that bounced around for a while. Full disclosure, I wasn't sad about the absences).
We had a spirit week that led us up to Ski Break in mid-February. Although, I really don't think anyone needed help getting excited for that! We were all ready to escape the dark and cold!
February offered Ski Break! Our week off aligned perfectly with Rorey's break, so she and I rendezvous in the beautiful Portugal. We spent one night in Lisbon and then trained up to Porto. We didn't know much about it other than every time we mentioned Portugal, people said to go to Porto! And we soon saw why! We had planned on heading back to Lisbon at the end of the week for a bit, but Porto hooked us too, and we ended up leaving on the late train.
Coming from Riga and Moscow where we were both dealing with cold, snow, and lack of sunshine, we spent most of the week simply soaking in the sunshine and catching up! I so miss having Rorey next door at the school and around the corner in the city.... it's just not the same without her here. It was so nice to see my sister/friend again. We decided the ski break reunion is a new Must-Do tradition!
