November 13, 2010

On Monday, my class went on an excursion to a place where there was a battle on Christmas Eve, if I remember correctly. The entire excursion was really fun and at one point, the tour guide person dude asked me my name in Latvian, but I couldn't answer. Nor did I understand what he said. It was so basic that I should have understood, but no... :/ Anyways, at one point, we all put on WWII gas masks and had a small competition of the Latvians against the Germans. I was on the German team. The competition was to put on the gas mask, and then run through a little course and beat the other team. Nobody knew who won. In the latter part of the excursion, we took torches and walked a good little time into the swamp to a monument. The monument was a large wooden sword and though nobody translated this part of the excursion, I know that it was something really important, cause there was no laughing and atmosphere had a sense of import to it. After the man finished speaking, a bunch of  fireworks shot up from behind the monument. It was cool.

On Tuesday in choir, we were given a song in English to sing!! It was the "One Horse Open Sleigh". I got all excited, then the choir teacher said, "now we will translate the lyrics to Latvian." while looking at me haha. Then he wondered if I could say a certain word in Latvian. I found it was similar to the word "Šķiņķis", which means ham. It's also my favorite word in Latvian, it's just fun to say! But its still fun despite the fact that its translated to Latvian and not in the original melody. The other song we were given is called "Ak Svēti Nakts" and it sounds like a really calm song.

On Wednesday, the people in my class wanted me to bring my football (not soccer ball :P) to sports class so we could throw around a bit. Not much happened on Wednesday...It's a lazy day. Classes start at 10:00 for class 11E and it's just really short.

Thursday, the choir teachers weren't there because they were in New York for their job. They both sing in a professional choir, go figure. So no choir that I knew of. So I hung out with Artūrs and threw the football with another guy from our school, Rihards. We went to the park, it is like Central Park, except small, and in Rīga. That's what I think of it at least. When we were there, there were these seventh graders who were REALLY annoying. They kept repeating everything we said, and I noticed that right when the National Guard went to the top of the hill, they left, immediately. Artūrs threw the ball off the hill once by accident, so did I, and we had to chase the ball down the hill having to jump down a couple places cause the hill was made more or less like a terrace. It was fairly close to the moat (yes there is a legit moat!!) So we ran to get it before the ball bounced into it. But it never did. It was a fun day. :D

Friday was band practice day and I also had to give a presentation in the freshman English class. It went well and this one kid, who was very curious about America and Thailand, asked many questions, as you can imagine. During band practice, I had the four-string fretless bass that my neighbor let me borrow. The practice went well and afterward, me and the drummer, Nils, I think, had a good jam session and it was set at a fast pace. So it was really fun. We have a concert on the 17th of November and I am excited. :D It's going great.

:D