However, my last few weeks have offered more than just a heavy dose of academia. Although I wondered if I would ever see the day, in the last week all of the ice and snow in Riga finally melted! Just last weekend the river that runs through the city was still frozen solid, but now it's completely melted and hard to imagine as the block of ice it recently was. With the change in weather has also come a change in the spirit of the city. After a stressful day during the past few weeks I would often head into Old Town during the day, where everything was much more alive than before. It's hard to pass through without hearing someone play an instrument, and some of the cafes have started to open up and pour into the streets. One of my favorite things about the change in weather is going to the market and buying some fresh food. Although it stayed open through the winter, now the doors are left open during the day and it's easy to get caught up in the bustling crowds while roaming among all of the shops and vendor stands. In one of the parks, there is also a fair that has set up, and walking by and hearing the music and screams from the rides brings me back to the county fairs I experience in Kentucky every summer. It's easy to see why everyone here has told me that I need to see Riga when it gets warm. The picture below is of the same park I have a picture of in January. It's an amazing place to take a walk in and to sit and relax when it's warm. A part of the park that I didn't realize until recently is the bridge you see below. Those are all locks attached to the bridge. It is a tradition for couples to put a lock on the bridge and throw the key in the river to symbolize that they are locked in love forever. It's these small hidden gems of Riga that makes me love exploring the city every chance I get.
What's more, in the past few weeks I've gotten even more acquainted with parts of the city and Latvian culture I had previously been ignoring. I went to the Museum of Occupation, which was a very educational and powerful experience. I learned too that, although not apparent on the surface, there still exists a big rift between the ethnic Latvian people and ethnic Russians. Being friends with both at school, I can tell the large differences between the two cultures that I originally didn't know exist. Also, my roommate did a study for his Economic Anthropology course, and it was easy to see from his surveys that many of the ethnic Latvian people are hesitant to trust some of the ethnic Russian people in the community. My visit to the Museum of Occupation made it clear to me why this distrust still exists. Many of the students my age are stuck between the two cultures, and therefore have to deal with mixed emotions about Latvia's occupation that are influenced by both their family and friends. The museum is pictured below.
Another part of Riga I've visited is the Baltic Times. I didn't realize until recently that the headquarters of it is very close to my flat. I've also traveled across the main bridge in town and explored a little bit of the part of town I had never been in. Though there doesn't seem to be too much across the bridge, I still found an amazing spot to take pictures of Riga's skyline across the water. I also ate at a neat noodle restaurant across the river, and plan on exploring the area a little more to see what else I can find.
I've tried to expand my experience in Riga even more by trying some new restaurants. I've found two good Russian restaurants (neither of which I can pronounce the names of), one where I had a chicken breast in a traditional Russian sauce, and another where I had some great plov, a rice-based dish with carrots, pork, and a tomato-based sauce. It's become normal for me to eat traditional Russian and Latvian meals, and although I still haven't learned to cook them, my diet has become based much more off of these foods that were strange to me when I came (such as kebabs, plov, and borscht). I've also eaten at a more traditional buffet called Metropolitan, one of my new favorite spots for lunch. I'm sure I will continue to experience new foods and go to new restaurants in the next few weeks. I also want to experience more of Riga's museums and go to an opera at the national opera house to get into the culture of the city away from school.
But going back to school now, the newest courses I'm taking are, as I stated before, EU Studies and Negotiations. EU studies is taught by the same professor who taught Macro, and he is one of the best instructors I've ever had. He has a great sense of humor and continues to make the course interesting. However, the course I really love is Negotiations and Dispute Resolutions. Each Thursday, we do a simulation where we negotiate some sort of offer with someone else in the class. We have done one-on-one negotiations and multiparty negotiations, and not only is it fun, but I've also learned that I have to adopt my negotiation styles to fit the culture of the opposing party. Each time I negotiate with a Lithuania, a Latvian, a Russian, or another exchange student, I get to see how different cultures approach similar problems. For me, this has been the most educational class I've taken at SSE, due in a large part to these new cultural differences I am constantly experiencing.
Over the next few weeks, I will start to travel and see more of Europe, but I know that returning to Riga at the end of each trip will feel like returning home. It is this ability to make me feel completely at home while still allowing me to experience something new every week that makes Riga such a great place to be.
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