Fun, Frustration, and Food

Over the weekend I had a great time learning more about the culture here in Riga. Friday began with a double lecture, of which one was to learn WebGPSS systems (a popular simulation model for companies such as IBM). This week, all of the lectures are over these systems, and our assignments use a WebGPSS program. The weekend became more exciting Friday night, as all of the exchanges were invited on a pub tour. This is basically what it sounds like, though it began with meeting at the school and a few fun ice-breakers (they actually exist) before checking out some popular bars in and around Old Town. We also went to one of the student's flats to meet up with more students, and fortunately this allowed all of the exchanges to feel like just another SSE student through the night.

The next day, I slept late and at about 1:00 went into Old Town with Valentin (the German student) and Ivan (the French student) to look for a flat. The one we were shown was terribly overpriced and one room had a hole in the roof. This surprised me and frustrated us because we had searched the whole week before and thought we had found a decent flat for a good price (this wasn't our first or last disappointing visit). However, since then I have spoken with the Student Association at SSE and they gave me the number of the person who runs the apartment building where many of them live. Because of their help, we should find a good flat close to the school very soon. The dorms are not a bad place to live, but at night we often have bad internet connection from the amount of people getting on at the same time. On top of this, it is simply a huge inconvenience to take the bus whenever we want to do anything. However, living in the dorms for the first month has allowed me to meet some great students (thus allowing me to meet more people in the flat that we may move into). I would suggest anyone studying at SSE into the future to at least give the dorms a chance for the first month.

Saturday night I took it easy and had a good time just hanging out with a lot of the other students on my floor, despite hearing about UK's double loss. Sunday, I tried to begin my Managerial homework that was due Monday morning, but I found that the program I needed to run WebGPSS does not work on Macs. Because of this, I spent most of the day going all the way to the school to do the assignment, where I couldn't get the program to work either. I was lucky enough that by the time I got back to the school one of the other students allowed me to use his computer to finish the assignment. Today, I figured out how to work the program at school and finished the assignment before coming back to the dorms. These assignments are completely different from our work last week, although I believe the real-life simulation problems are something that many managers will have to do on the job when making economic decisions (how changing an input will affect an output). The switch in subjects has just made the course more exciting, and it is refreshing to do different work every so often.

On another note, I realized that I haven't spoken much on the food in Latvia, besides naming a few places that I have went. Most of the time, I eat breakfast and dinner at the dorms (we have close to a full kitchen and an oven is downstairs), which usually consists of eggs, pasta, or pelmeni. Pelmeni is a popular food here that is tasty and easy to make, consisting of meat (usually sausage) wrapped in a thin dumpling. It is similar to tortellini, but much more filling. I have eaten at Cili Pica a few more times, and have had some Latvian pasta as well as more of their unique pizzas. In the grocery close to the dorm there is also a very good sushi restaurant that some of the other students and I discovered. I ate there today, and was impressed at the quality of the food at a low price (it was similar to a high-scale American sushi restaurant). For lunch, I usually eat at the school, which has had wonderful food so far including chicken, a type of beef stew, potatoes, salad, etc. The food is not to different to what you can find in the US, but it is usually prepared differently, and in my opinion, prepared better. There is a Russian restaurant called Bufete close to the school where you can also get a full meal - such as soup, rice, some type of meat, about 3 types of sides or vegetables, and a drink - for about 2 Lats (roughly 4 dollars). I have done my best to avoid American meals, though I have been to Hesburger once (the Swedish version of McDonalds that many Europeans claim is better). Basically, the food here in Riga isn't anything to worry about if you are considering study at SSE Riga, and if anything should be a reason to visit.

That was my weekend of fun, some slight frustration, and really good food. Over the weekend, I have become a lot closer to many of the students from school and a lot of the exchanges, and this has made me glad that I chose somewhere away from other Americans to study abroad. I'm not saying it wouldn't be great to study with another student from the States, but I feel as though the diversity of nationalities has really allowed me to become close with students from all over the world and understand the differences in culture. It really makes me want to travel to other parts of Europe, and I will likely have to chance to go to some people's homes during a long weekend or one of the breaks. So that's it for now, but I'll be sure to post more soon. Also, I'll work on taking more pictures and uploading them here.