One Month Down

I've been here for almost a month now! ...Uh...what?! Considering that I've gotten a bit bored with watching movies and writing/translating transcripts for them, the month has actually gone by really fast. I feel like I've accomplished, well, nothing--is that what the real world of working folk is like? I go to work, come home from work, and feel special if I can stay awake past 10:30. I'm starting to get scared of what it might be like down the road if I get married and have kids--where's the energy going to come from? Where will the time come from? And if I want to do some traveling or relaxing...? I think this is what it's like. I miss school, I miss homework (all, respectively, to a certain extent. Let's not get too worked up about this), I miss...

My last day (until November 23rd) at the museum is this Wednesday, at which point I'm switching over to the second location of internshipping. I know even less about what will be expected of me than I did for the museum job. But I'm in the dark a lot, here. I found out almost by accident that today (Monday) was a day off for everyone at the museum because, oh wait, the electricity will be cut off to the whole building. I also found out that my supervisor jetted off to Georgia (the country) for something related to the museum, and will be gone for three weeks. I don't think the other two women in the office even knew at first where she was. One even said, "I wonder where she's disappeared to..." So...being an intern apparently means that you're at the bottom of the information food chain. Whatever. I found out by being a super-secret listening spy. Hehehe. That and someone finally told me after I had finished overhearing everything else.

Friday I had my first "conversation workshop" with one of the English learning center's clients. It ended up being a very nice and very nervous young man who was only a few hours away from his Fulbright scholarship interview. He wanted to run through an interview-like setting and have me work with him on Q&A for the interview. I think it went okay, and that his main driving point would have been his desire to get the scholarship, rather than his English speaking ability. All I could hope for was that I didn't make him fail the interview.

This past weekend I went to the Mikelu market (no clue what that would be in English) on Saturday and met up with family, then the other student working at the museum and some of her friends. Lots of walking around, a purchase of a dumb (but cute...) hat, and then lunch at Lido (a Latvian version of Country Buffet, but the food is 10,000 times better). A full day of walking around--the weather was unexpectedly gorgeous. Oh, yeah, before I went to the fair I went through hell to bring a couple of pairs of shoes to be fixed. I took the trolley to the store and everything was going good until the man told me how much it would cost to fix the shoes (almost 5 times more than I had expected it to be), and that they only took cash, and upfront. I had 5Ls with me, which covered only half of the cost. And as the man told me (half in Latvian, half in Russian, even though I CLEARLY told him, "I have absolutely zero comprehension of the Russian language") there was no ATM close by, I literally walked half way home to where the closest bank was. Then I walked back. And then I went to the fair and bought a dumb hat. Do you see how this is all connected??

Sunday I slept in a bit and then packed up my stuff. I moved in to the new apartment yesterday and then went back to the city center to babysit. Basically, I've been going around non-stop this past week. My feet hate me.

Today, since I had a day off, I went back to the English learning center and was egged by the Fulbright scholarship interviewee. But not really. I went back to meet with one of the directors to go over the programs they offer in greater detail. For now they want to give me some private students for one-on-one teaching (one of them will be the head director's eight year old daughter, who I met tonight, and who is overly excited for English lessons), just so I get some practice in before next year. Then I had lunch with another family friend from Minnesota (Ausma); once again, it was great to see a familiar face from the other side of the world, and get candy that my mom had sent me :P Yay, candy! Then I went home, tried going to a nearby shopping center to get towels but missed the stop because it has a different name when you're heading toward the city center, and went back into Old Riga and bought a month-pass for the bus system. Then I headed back home, found the right stop for the shopping center, got my goods, and finally made it back with enough time for a cappuccino (instant) and cookie-waffle-cream thing with the new roommie (Zane) before heading out to meet the learning center's daughter.

Take a deep breath, 'cause I'm not done yet.

Like I said, her daughter is way excited for English--she was actually asking her mom for just a bit more time when it was time for me to go home. She picked out her own English lesson book; it's really nice and I think I might get a bigger kick out of it than she will. Now I'm back in the apartment. I've had a lot to do these past days, including moving and learning the new route to the center. Lucky for me, the apartment is by the end station for the bus, and if in doubt, I can just get off at the other end station in the city center. The bus also goes down the street where my second place of internshipping will be. Hurrah for convenience!

It's kind of sad to be away from the first family I lived with--they had cats, you know. But I'll probably see them again soon, and I'm thankful that they let me stay with them and that I had the chance to get to know them. They're a fun family :)

Right now...I'm beat. Completely tired. I have actual dark circles under my eyes. In 60 minutes I'm going to bed. For real.

Pictures of the Mikelu market and the new apartment coming tomorrow. Be good until then.