Inese Dūka

Līgo extravaganza in (almost) Brussels

We indeed did go to the Midsummer's eve festivities, before having made 4 flower wreaths from the roses my mom sent accompanied with other flowers we picked on our way home from work. We did get to eat some Latvian cheese and sausages (unfortunately - cold) and there was Latvian beer (though we chose to stick with Belgian water). And there of course was Skroderdienas Silmačos. I must say it was highly interesting seeing colleagues in a slightly different situation than usually at work. I had forgotten that the play was full of singing, So hats off to the actors - they managed both the acting AND the singing quite convincingly! Of course where there are Latvians there was also singing. I guess for me that was the best part of the event - standing around a (improvised) bonfire and singing with others for hours. Though I must say that after an hour or so my voice gave out and I could only sing and almost not talk - my voice has become rusty from lack of singing… :-((

All in all it was a good event - so a big thanks to the organizers. A lot better than sitting in a pub with Belgian beer. But… I guess it was as good as you can do thousands of kilometres (2222 to be exact) away from home. But it is nothing like celebrating at home with your family…

P.S. What I actually wanted to say was… New pictures!!! We were so delighted by the lovely flower wreaths [that - may I humbly point out - I made… ;-)))] that we took lots of pictures!

Strasbourg - the Christmas capital

It was the first thing that I read about Strasbourg before I came here the first time in April. So all these months I have been pretty much looking forward to this visit. Especially since last month when I saw that the city is being prepared and all the light chains (have no idea what they are called in English...) are hanged on the trees. And I must say that my expectations have not been defeated. Of course, not all of the streets are as nice as I have displayed them here. But the centre of the city was really worth seeing! I totally agree with someone who said that it's worth seeing Europe in Christmas as back in Riga the city is far from tis decorated. A pity actually. Because we would also have the snow factor to our advantage... Well, at least - we had. A week ago. We'll see what will await me tomorrow once I'm back... But for now - let the Christmas feeling come!!

Discovering Latvia

It was time to get ourselves together and go for a ride once again. This time Arta and I invited Kristīne along and we headed east. After 36 hours we returned having left behind us a ride of approximately 750 km and 250 pictures. The latter can now be found in the subalbum Far East of the album There and back again. So far the pictures are without the stories behind them spelled out but that will come. In time. If not this week then next week when I’ll be in Strasbourg. Enjoy the beautiful Latvia!

Back to life…

It’s time to start living again after the translation of The Science of Influence has been handed in. The first thing on the list was putting all the pictures from Turkey on the net. This task is accomplished and the result can be found in this separate album. The pictures still lack caption but I am working on it. Then the second task should be trying to write something about the trip. I hope I won’t give up on this idea as the trip was actually (to my surprise) great and had nothing really to complain about. So, please, keep your fingers crossed that Pegasus might visit me soon and stay long enough... ;-))

BA Reunion

Yesterday evening it was time to praise modern technologies, more precisely the Internet. Thanks to the Friends part of the webpage www.one.lv we managed to organize a little reunion of our Bachelor course mates. Back in September 1998 there were 16 of us that started the English-Danish philology studies at the Faculty of Modern Languages of the University of Latvia. Last night there were 5 of us – Kristīna, Marija, Kristīne, Jolanta and myself. This was a special occasion as Kristīna had come from Israel to visit her family, so we just had to use the moment. As I said we studied languages so I guess it will come as no surprise if I’ll tell you the reason why there weren’t more present last night is that Arta, Evija and Agnese are in Denmark, Sandra is in Oslo, Aļona is in Paris, Olga is in Ireland, Jūlija and Valērija are in London. Alise and Ilva are still here in Rīga but I guess they didn’t have time to join our little reunion. Nevertheless it turned out to be a very pleasant evening where managed to cover many topics starting from studying all the way to giving birth. Judging from yesterday I can harbour a hope that perhaps more of us might like to meet in another 7 years. I’ll keep my fingers crossed for that. And for good luck for all of our girls wherever in the world they might be!

As you might have guessed last night I was accompanied by my new silvery friend and the result of this union you can find in the album Danes where you will find the sub-album BA Reunion. Still talking about pictures… If you happen to like flowers then I would suggest visiting the album previously known as Tulips. Now it bears the more general title of Nature etc. and there you can find pictures of flowers and other lovely things that have caught my eye. Very closely… ;-))) And the place to go for different kind of snapshots of people, things and events that I have come across is the sub-album This and that.

Business trip pictures

Just a quick note letting you know that I have made a new album devoted entirely to pictures taken on my interpreting trips to Brussels and Strasbourg. I don’t know how long this picture taking will last. Probably until I’ve seen everything and all the flowers stop blooming… I hope some of the pictures will inspire and give hope to my fellow countrymen that spring might be on its way. Even to Latvia… Cheers!