Qeshu, qeshu, qeshu se do t'jetë vonë... :)
Pasmaidi, pasmaidi, pasmaidi, savādāk būs par vēlu
Smile, smile, smile, otherwise it will be too late
Today I got up at 6:30 to go earlier to the department and print out my assignment for 8:15 o'clock seminar. Moreover, the seminar was in a very strange place, old house with many cats. When I found it, I realized that the seminar is only on Monday. But I petted 2 beautiful, sweet, fantastic, lovable, purrrrrable katter, which was really worth getting up so early for. And again, I love mornings, especially such empty ones, not stressful ones.
Friday, November 21
Stockholm igen
Uppsala Association of International Affairs today organized a visit to the R. embassy in Stockholm which was attended by a dozen Swedes and 2 Latvians: me and S. Nobody really knew what to expect from that because there was no certain speaker, topic, reason or whatsoever for the visit. So today's word naturally came in Russian - попослиться. I am not sure that it can be found in dictionaries (quite sure about the opposite), it should not be pronounced in the presence of high officials and inside the institutions, but it more or less means visiting the institution, official or посл and being at their close proximity. The word owns its credit to a certain female Jewish friend of S.
The embassy in Stockholm is in a huge building near the waters (everything is near the waters in Stockholm) built in the typical socialist style of late 60ies or 70ies. The big banquet hall where we were seated has beautiful crystal lustres and a lot of light (the day was beautiful winterly sunny). We were surprised by the respect and importance attributed to us - simple students. Also about the informal atmosphere: tea, coffee and cookies were served and we were sitting with 7 officials around the table and asking questions.
After the visit I drank some tea and ate our home made sandwiches with S. and said good-bye to her and good luck to her when she boarded the bus to Arlanda. Then I met T., had some cappuchinos, a quick walk through a Vintage shop (second hand for X-mas) along the Drottniggatan and a nice talk in English+Macedonian+Swedish.
What could be my Swedish word for today... lat att tänka på... Jag är så lat. Lazy to think about it and lazy to study Swedish tonight.
Aah, now I remembered one new word from today - remsa or klipp? (equals strippenkaart in Dutch). That is the the strip ticket for many trips with many rows and the driver stamps 2 rows for 1 zone, 3 rows for 2 zones, 4 rows for 3 zones...
Klipp from where? Göra ett klipp = make a great deal. Maybe.
The embassy in Stockholm is in a huge building near the waters (everything is near the waters in Stockholm) built in the typical socialist style of late 60ies or 70ies. The big banquet hall where we were seated has beautiful crystal lustres and a lot of light (the day was beautiful winterly sunny). We were surprised by the respect and importance attributed to us - simple students. Also about the informal atmosphere: tea, coffee and cookies were served and we were sitting with 7 officials around the table and asking questions.
After the visit I drank some tea and ate our home made sandwiches with S. and said good-bye to her and good luck to her when she boarded the bus to Arlanda. Then I met T., had some cappuchinos, a quick walk through a Vintage shop (second hand for X-mas) along the Drottniggatan and a nice talk in English+Macedonian+Swedish.
What could be my Swedish word for today... lat att tänka på... Jag är så lat. Lazy to think about it and lazy to study Swedish tonight.
Aah, now I remembered one new word from today - remsa or klipp? (equals strippenkaart in Dutch). That is the the strip ticket for many trips with many rows and the driver stamps 2 rows for 1 zone, 3 rows for 2 zones, 4 rows for 3 zones...
Klipp from where? Göra ett klipp = make a great deal. Maybe.
Wednesday, November 19
Blogging for language studies
Yesterday I found a really nice blog (click HERE to view it) called How to learn Swedish in 1000 difficult lessons
I hope the guy does not mind if I steal his idea (as I make a reference) and start my list of Swedish words. The word of past 3 days was snorar (puņķoties...have a running nose). Today I feel much better. And today's word is lämplig - suitable. särskilt lämplig - particularly (nu veeery) suitable. Īpaši piemērots vai īpaši atbilstošs. I should not forget my mother tongue either.
I hope the guy does not mind if I steal his idea (as I make a reference) and start my list of Swedish words. The word of past 3 days was snorar (puņķoties...have a running nose). Today I feel much better. And today's word is lämplig - suitable. särskilt lämplig - particularly (nu veeery) suitable. Īpaši piemērots vai īpaši atbilstošs. I should not forget my mother tongue either.
Wednesday, August 27
Sverige, jag är på väg!
One of my first posts in this blog was named "jag ska inte flytta till Stockholm", now one year has passed and I am still going to Sweden. Not exactly Stockholm, but neither far from there.
It is hard to tell what has changed during this year in my life, what new things I have learned during my EVS. Now I need to write a report, so I need to think about it. It is really hard to keep a track of ones progress, yes, I progressed in Macedonian and also Albanian, I learned more about the Youth in Action program and different other opportunities and organizations... but it is much harder to tell if I have progressed as a personality, am I really better dealing with different people, am I really more open-minded and tolerant or did I even acquire more prejudices and strengthened certain stereotypes? I am also aware that I have digressed in certain ways. I had too much freedom and too little feeling of responsibility. I am a bit afraid how I will deal with really serious assignments and, especially, managing my budget.
It is hard to tell what has changed during this year in my life, what new things I have learned during my EVS. Now I need to write a report, so I need to think about it. It is really hard to keep a track of ones progress, yes, I progressed in Macedonian and also Albanian, I learned more about the Youth in Action program and different other opportunities and organizations... but it is much harder to tell if I have progressed as a personality, am I really better dealing with different people, am I really more open-minded and tolerant or did I even acquire more prejudices and strengthened certain stereotypes? I am also aware that I have digressed in certain ways. I had too much freedom and too little feeling of responsibility. I am a bit afraid how I will deal with really serious assignments and, especially, managing my budget.
Monday, August 11
Support Georgia
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As we know a stupid, unfair etc. war has broken out in Georgia. Well, no war is smart or fair. ACTUALLY NO WAR MAKES ANY SENSE AT ALL. There is no right, no wrong, no winner, only losers. Break the weapons, talk to your neighbors, fuck the state, FUCK THE SYSTEM!!! Why once in time, Russia could not forget its ambitions about being a superpower, being the most feared, the strongest, the biggest, the greatest and start thinking of bringing peace, not despair and new scars. But I guess that's wished a bit too much.
We here in Latvia know how it is to live next to Russia. That's why I admit I am subjective and I try to listen more to different views. Last weekend I was near the lake, with my mom's ex-coursemates, geographers. And of course we started to talk about Georgia. They have all been there during the study times and some also later. They know the ethnic cocktail, tensions and hot blood there. One lady's husband is Russian and he started to give a complete different perspective on what is going on in Georgia right now. About the poor Osets, who are being discriminated and mistreated by Georgian state all the time.
And that brings us to the third - how much we are being manipulated by what wind blows in the international politics at the moment and where we live, what we listen to... Of course, nowadays with the high-tech and the Internet it is harder and harder to hide the truth. But we never know the real story and facts are being picked out of the context and fed with an appropriate sauce. That's the story about my mom's colleague's husband who is probably watching the Russian news and is being fed a completely different menu. The media is very powerful. And we know very well how Russia uses their controlled media in their dirty politics. But one must be stupid or insane to believe a wolf dressed up as a lamb. Russia as a peace-keeper...still bombing Georgian territory after it announced the one-sided truce.
And that brings me to the fourth point. How the society of Latvia is now being split up on this issue. Mostly Latvians support Georgia and Russians back Russia. There is a nasty war going on on the news websites and the special website: Latvia for Georgia It is rather worrying... Russians, please open your eyes! It's not about backing whatever the government does in Russia, you may be Russian and denounce their actions.
Your brother may be thief and alcoholic, it sucks but you cannot close your eyes on it. You don't need to be like him!
As we know a stupid, unfair etc. war has broken out in Georgia. Well, no war is smart or fair. ACTUALLY NO WAR MAKES ANY SENSE AT ALL. There is no right, no wrong, no winner, only losers. Break the weapons, talk to your neighbors, fuck the state, FUCK THE SYSTEM!!! Why once in time, Russia could not forget its ambitions about being a superpower, being the most feared, the strongest, the biggest, the greatest and start thinking of bringing peace, not despair and new scars. But I guess that's wished a bit too much.
We here in Latvia know how it is to live next to Russia. That's why I admit I am subjective and I try to listen more to different views. Last weekend I was near the lake, with my mom's ex-coursemates, geographers. And of course we started to talk about Georgia. They have all been there during the study times and some also later. They know the ethnic cocktail, tensions and hot blood there. One lady's husband is Russian and he started to give a complete different perspective on what is going on in Georgia right now. About the poor Osets, who are being discriminated and mistreated by Georgian state all the time.
And that brings us to the third - how much we are being manipulated by what wind blows in the international politics at the moment and where we live, what we listen to... Of course, nowadays with the high-tech and the Internet it is harder and harder to hide the truth. But we never know the real story and facts are being picked out of the context and fed with an appropriate sauce. That's the story about my mom's colleague's husband who is probably watching the Russian news and is being fed a completely different menu. The media is very powerful. And we know very well how Russia uses their controlled media in their dirty politics. But one must be stupid or insane to believe a wolf dressed up as a lamb. Russia as a peace-keeper...still bombing Georgian territory after it announced the one-sided truce.
And that brings me to the fourth point. How the society of Latvia is now being split up on this issue. Mostly Latvians support Georgia and Russians back Russia. There is a nasty war going on on the news websites and the special website: Latvia for Georgia It is rather worrying... Russians, please open your eyes! It's not about backing whatever the government does in Russia, you may be Russian and denounce their actions.
Your brother may be thief and alcoholic, it sucks but you cannot close your eyes on it. You don't need to be like him!
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