So, quite a bit has happened since the last time I updated. Snowboarding, firefighting museum, the TV tower (I know, doesn't sound too interesting :P ) and some other stuff. :D So the snowboarding...It's actually not hard at all. This is the first time that I have ever snowboarded. Two weeks ago (?) on a thursday, the Junior class went to the hill for snowboarding or skiing. The hill we went to was Riekstukalns (acorn hill?). (People call it a mountain...there's no word for mountain so they use Kalns for hill and mountain. Latvia has no mountains.) My friend Niks said that he doesn't know why the hill was named that cause he has never seen an acorn on that hill, not even an oak tree. So we got there and I was still undecided as to whether I should snowboard or not. (In Latvian its snovot, and so people say they go "Snowing") :D When we were in the lobby to pay for the equipment and get ready to go "snowing", they asked us (Par and I) If we wanted to snowboard or ski. I said "I don't know" and then instantaneously changed that to a "YES!! AHH!" They did a good job of talking me into it. :D I got my stuff, got dressed, and then when I had gotten the boots on, I felt like I was trying to walk after I biking 10 miles. It didn't burn or anything, it was just weird to walk in them. Then we went outside to the hill and then put on foot on the board and then proceeded to walk toward the lift like the undead. :D The lift we used was easy to use. Just stand there and put the little black bar behind your back. SO we got up to the top and then my friend Toms, my first instructor, helped me to learn how to find my balance and learn how to go down by sliding on the back side of the board (facing away from the slope and leaning backwards). This also helps you to learn how to control speed. Then when we made it down, we went up only half way with the other lift. It was just a green rope that cut off at some point because of a ditch. I was thinking, "What if someone didn't let go..?" Anyways, this time, Niks began to instruct. So he just had me do the same thing as what Toms had me do. But then we switched sides. I went down while having to slide on the forward side. (facing the mountain leaning forward) But yeah we progressed more and more to the point where I didn't need to hold onto anyone for support. Then we moved to a different slope. I was told that it was just longer, not steeper. So I agreed to it. The lift just to get up it was difficult...you had to put a bar with a circle on the end between you legs and hold on as it took you up. I fell off this thing 3 times before getting up. :/ When we got up, I didn't really take notice of the the slope. So we went and I found out that it was longer AND steeper. So I started a tad too fast. :P But I only fell twice. And when we had to go back up, it was the same lift. I fell three times, again, and then went to another lift in hopes of success. This one was designed for two people, so me and Niks went up with this one. When we were half way, snow caught up on my board and made us both fall. Then, as if to mock me even further, it hit me in the nose. :P So we walked up the steeeeeeep hill and went to the first one. :P haha It was fun. :)
I forget which day, but, my host-family, my neighbors, and I went to the TV Tower and the Firefighting Museum in Rīga. The first was the TV tower. It's 100 meters tall they said. :O And so we went in, *cough*camerabatterydied*cough*, ahem. Excuse me. We went up to a highh point, and took pictures of what you could see from that height. The ONE staff worker that we saw gave each of us a postcard with a picture of some place in Rīga for us to find. I couldn't find my place cause it was far away, but we could find every other place. One of them was the Saint Peter's Church, another one as a statue in front of the Saint Peter's Church, and the third, a church in Doma Laukums, not far from the Saint Peter's Church. :D So that was pretty cool to see the city from that point.
Then we went to the Firefighting Museum. It wasn't too far and on the way back to Kalngale so we stopped by it. We had to wear these little shoe covers on our feet and I could not find a pair that fit. It gets really annoying when you are walking then have to fix your shoe covers every 5 seconds. At some point, I got sick of it and just slid my feet everywhere. :P But yeah there were all these fancy uniforms that I thought could be used for the military dress uniforms. There were the old fire engines, their helmets and other stuff they used, and the bells.. Oh yes. They let us ring the bells and sirens. :D They weer kinda loud. :P Then there was this one room that had a shower looking area with old water pumps and hoses to put out fires. You were allowed to use those and shoot at a tennis ball to push it into a hole, or shoot into a target. It was pretty cool to use. :D Then, we were taken to a room with a TV where they had us watch a five minute video of how a house could room could catch fire in five minutes from a candle falling on the couch. The next video was a cartoon from Russia(?) and was about this dog, which joins the firefighting force. It was interesting to say the least. :D Then was Mickey's Fire Brigade! :D Funny little shows. :)
But on other notes, everything is going well. Getting grades in more of my classes, and they're all passing. Took a test in History, got an eight, and took a test in Economics, got a seven, then one in Chem. No idea what the grade was. But I'm passing all my tests and its all going great! :D
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