Since my last post, a lot has occurred. Saturday, January 22, I moved into my new flat with Valentin and Ivan. We spent the first few nights without internet, but I didn't mind too much because the school is so close. I'm very glad we made this move, as the flat is much more convenient than the dorms. Our flat is about a 2 minute walk to the school and a 10-15 minute walk to the Old Town. This is compared to a 10 minute walk from the dorms to the nearest bus stop, a 20-30 minute bus ride, and another 10-15 minute walk to the school. Being close to the school has allowed me to explore more of the city, and I've spent time with more students hanging out at their flats, which are all close by. A few pictures are below: the main room, the kitchen, part of my bedroom, and the view from the balcony leading off of my room.
After we moved into the flat, we didn't have time for much else than studying. Just last Monday, I took my first final. It wasn't too difficult, but it was long (we were given 3 hours) and covered the amount of material a course usually covers over a whole semester. In some ways this made the exam easier, as most of the material was still fresh in my mind, but in other ways the sheer volume of material we learned compared to the small number of lectures we had made it more difficult. During Tuesday-Thursday I didn't have any class, but I had a large project using WebGPSS that was part of a ten page report due Friday, so I was still constantly at the school. Between finishing my final and working on the project, I managed to find time to celebrate the end of the final with a group of students, finish my temporary residence permit application (finally) at the immigration office, and attended a Riga hockey game with some of the other exchange students and all of the compadres. Below is a picture of Valentin (my roommate from Germany on the right), Ivan (my roommate from France in the middle), and Rihards (one of our friends who helped us find the flat) at the game.
Friday after submitting my final project early in the morning, my next class started, which involves each group (this time 4-5 students per group) working with a company and writing a report on it's management structure and business initiative. I will meet with my group tomorrow to discuss which company we will study, but I believe they have already contacted one who has agreed to work with us and it is a Latvian company. Hopefully some of our interviews (we have to have 5-10) will be in English so I can be very involved in the process. After our first lecture, I left for Winter Symposium with Gerard and two other students from the dorms named Mindaugus and Thomas.
Winter Symposium is held by SSE every year and consists of staying in a guesthouse for a night with other students near a lake somewhere in Latvia. Students were scheduled to arrive Saturday, with games being held during the morning, and then head to the Zagarkalns Mountains for a day of skiing or snowboarding. I left on Friday because I had found a ride with Gerard a few weeks before and he was in charge of setting it up and running the event. We were allowed to stay there Friday night for free, and only paid 8 Ls (about $16) for Saturday night. It was a good turnout, with about 25 students showing up for the games, many more showing up for skiing, and about 35-40 total staying the night. Some of the Year 2 students who were there I already knew from soccer each week, and so it was easy to talk to all of the students. Ivan and Valentin also went up on Saturday. I had a terrific time skiing, and that night awards were given for the morning games and a small party was held. Once I upload pictures from this weekend, I will post a few to the blog and the rest to Facebook.
Also during the last two weeks, I signed up for a few international business competitions with Gerard and two other students (they are for teams of four), in which we will compete in late March or late early May depending on which ones we qualify for. One is SSE's very own Peak Time, a competition that usually hosts about 2,500 students from all over the world. We also applied for a competition in Germany and one in Lithuania, and since my other teammates are from Lithuania that trip would be expense free (as far as where I would stay and probably meals). We have decided that, in the case that we qualify for the competition in Germany, we will go as long as we find reasonable airfare and lodgings for the weekend. However, Gerard believes that SSE may fund a team if they qualify for such a competition, so I may get lucky.
That's a recap of my last two weeks. I'll keep you updated in the weeks to come!
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