#ppl at my dorm went to a big party and now everyone is slowly getting sick

[abstract-moth]

for once I would like to be struggling academically bc my brain actually struggles to comprehend the material and not bc I have some dumb*ss sh*t going on in my personal life

#I got club stuff eating all my time #had to become the RA at my dorm #all my friends dropped out of my program so all those relationships are evolving #one of my best friends for the past two years is acting badly and I may have to stop being his friend #have to address some long standing medical issues #ofc my family issues have not gotten better at all #need to start therapy again and ik my therapist and I don't click but hey she's covered by insurance and I'm tired of looking #stupid beginning of the year bureaucracy to deal with #ppl at my dorm went to a big party and now everyone is slowly getting sick #president of my club is assigning me more work and the only solution is to tell her to do it instead but then SHE will have too much work #so I guess we both gotta suffer #plus I gotta lead my own team this year and get back to some assignments I told them to do #missed my German class 2 weeks in a row and have my first class tomorrow REALLY BEHIND bc I haven't studied German since May #also haven't been keeping up with French #and I really gotta do well academically this year #and probably find a job #and go to the gym #and not end up in the hospital again #university shenanigans #original post

[meffthetravelfox]

Learning the ropes AKA: I can’t believe I had to come to Latvia to drink beer out of a paper bag like a frikin’ American

This right here is a very important photo.  In Riga, there’s a lots of cats. And I mean LOTS. Just around our dorms there’s maybe 20 of them living. Next to our dorms is a panel house where lots of old ppl live and the ladies feed these stray babes and they chill with them on the benches. The ladies always look like they wanna curse me like how dare I feed their stray cats? 

First contact with the university. We had an introduction meeting on 1st of September. How ironic. They told us that one course actually has the first lecture that same day. They weren’t joking.  One of the speakers calls out the countries from which we came. When they say ‘Germany’ more than half the auditorium stands up. Yes, there’s lots of them.  We took a picture and the university photographer almost got run over by a trolleybus.  Getting actually registered at the Uni after the meeting takes ages. I can feel myself getting older. We stand in one line for almost an hour and then learn that we were supposed to go somewhere else entirely.  In the room where we fill out the forms there’s a guy from Japan. He looks lost and anxiously translates everything on his phone. I haven’t spoken Japanese for two months and so I let him suffer. (note: he’s still alive and well)

After desperately walking around a few streets we decided, that McDonalds might be a global evil, but at least it’s basically the same all over the world and so we lower our standards and get lunch there. The sauce has a sticker with Latvian, Lithuanian and Estonian. Beneath that is hidden the meme of that week.  We buy beer at Narvessen, which is a blessed chain of shops that has everything from tacky postcards to beer. They asked for our IDs, which is a first cultural shock, bcs apparently you have to show your ID everywhere - shops, bars, etc.  You also cannot drink alcohol out in the public: Like. You CANNOT.  Since it’s the 1st of September, there’s shitton of cops everywhere and we don’t feel like ending up in jail the first week of Erasmus, so we improvise.  I feel like a character in american movie. 

And this is a picture I took in Rimi, which is basically Latvian Tesco.  I couldn’t believe my eyes when I came to the beer aisle.

BUT WHY IS THERE NO RADEGAST???

I finally met my Erasmus buddy. She gives me and a guy from Valencia an Old Riga 101 tour. We end up in a bar, of course, and since in Riga there’s an unspoken rule that your friends will appear at the bar where you are, I make some Latvian friends. After more beer, I finally start to feel somewhat normal and recovered from my journey.  Tip: If you ever find yourself in a moment of awkward silence with a Latvian person, start talking about beer. They love beer almost as much as Czechs. 

I found my superpower - stumbling upon Czech and Slovak ppl everywhere. My roommate’s is that she keeps meeting ticket inspectors on public transport almost every day. 

The next day I found Tiger. It’s not IKEA, but it’s still a big victory.  In the food area of the mall I admitted defeat and got a tofu burrito. Because burrito and tofu are the same in latvian. Note: sometimes the words that sound familiar or the same aren’t actually what you think. But at least, you try out new things.

Latvians have a thing for their flag. I’m starting to think that paper bags for beer is not the only thing they have in common.�� The building behind the flag pole is really really close to it and it’s actually pretty tall. This flag is the biggest I’ve ever seen ok. 

The grand finale of my first weekend was very grand indeed.  First me, my roommate and another girl from Czech went to Old Riga to explore some more.  I fed some stray cats. This is my life now, I carry cat food with me everywhere in Latvia. The chances of making new cat friends are always very high. 

So Latvijas Universitāte has this thing called Aristotelis. Welcoming of the frist years and a party at the Uni. Sounds harmless. Bzzzt, wrong.  We sip a beer hidden in a plastic bag and wait for whatever is coming at one of the many squares in Old Riga.  First comes the distant screaming and slowly it gets closer.  Group of people dressed in the same way, waving flags and signs, screaming on top of their lungs something in Latvian arrives and takes position behind a lady holding sign with the name of their faculty.  This happens in various versions for the next hour or so. One faculty carries a raft with a girl. Another group has flower crowns and torches. I smell cult.  After all the faculties arrived, their flag-bearers start running around the space in the in front of the stage. Everyone’s hyped and chanting their mottos.  The mood is contagious, and the space reserved for exchange students is the only silent part of the square. I start singing national anthem. 

Speeches start and we are pleasantly surprised that they show English translation on a huge screen next to the stage.  On top of all this, there’s a moment when a guy in actual Aristoteles’ costumes comes in a veteran car and reads his speech from a piece of parchment. 

When we thought it’s over, it wasn’t. No. They know how to make first years welcome at the University. We march through the city and scream the faculties mottos. Exchange students try as well, but we’re mostly just staring in disbelief.

Sorry for the shitty photo, this is not a protest, this is a first year pride march.  What do protests look like in Latvia, I probably don’t wanna know.

For some reason parties in Latvia start after 10pm, usually midnight and they’re wild till the morning. The one at the Uni was ending sometimes before 6am. No, I wasn’t there. We happily spent the 7 euros for the entrance on beer from Rimi and had a tired party at the dorms. But how they managed to clean it up before the lectures, I have no idea.  Latvian magic. 

Bonus: meme of the week

#meff in latvia #p2 #travelling #erasmus #student life #baltics #riga