Latvian Nature - Video

I made a video with clips from the latvian nature, in a forest, and in the end of the video a few clips by the sea.
I filmed the whole video during easter, and yep - we still had snow. On monday, (the day after easter) spring came and all the snow is gone now.

In case the video isn't starting when you click on it, here is the link:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bRge9mi4BPU

Have a great day!

Second Hand

I'm back. In the last weeks, I did a lot of stuff, so I just kinda forgot keeping this blog updated.

Right now, I'm cutting a video about latvian nature, I filmed a lot this easter, in a forest as well as by the sea. I'll upload it here as soon as I finish.

I also visited quite a lot of museums and other touristic places during our spring holidays (which were already two weeks ago). I'll write about that, too, when I'll find time.

After this little information, I also want to write about a topic in this post, which is important to me. It's not really about exchange, but it's something which I discovered during my exchange.
I'm talking about second hand shopping. In Latvia, there is a second hand chain which is called "Humana". There are also some others, but Humana is definitely my favourite.
There are several aspects why I like and support second hand:
> "recycling": clothes don't just get thrown away if their owner doesn't like them anymore (because why should something be produced new, if I already exists), here I also see the environmental aspect
> being unique: yesterday I bought a anorak/wind jacket, which I guess comes from the 80ies, so I'll always be the only person wearing that jacket, because it's not from H&M or somewhere like that
> vintage: I love vintage clothes, and there is a special "Vintage Humana", they have clothes from different times
> DIY (do it yourself): I love cutting big men t-shirts to tank tops and jeans to short pants for the summer, here it would be a waste of money and clothes to buy new stuff just to destroy it - I just buy that second hand

If you're interested: I guess there are second hand shops almost everywhere. Be creative :)

If you're not interested: the next post will be about my exchange again ;)

I hope you have a wonderful day,
Annabel

Btw: the jeans jacket on this picture is second hand :D

Ilmārs Blumbergs // Pēteris Sidars // Aboriginal and Papuan Art

Yesterday, on sunday the 6th of march, I went to two museums with my hostfamily. 

The first museum was called ''Arsenāls''. There, we visited two exhibitions.

The first one was from the artist Ilmārs Blumbergs, he passed away this february. His last exhibition in Arsenāls was called ''Es nemiršu'' that means ''I won't die''. The name of the memorial exhibition which we visited was ''Visu laiku snieg'', which means ''Snowing all the time'' and it was incredible. It's a series of 35 paintings, which describe a part of Latvian history, beginning with the deportaitions of many Latvians to Siberia during and after WW2, Blumbergs' father was deported, too, until the restoration of the Latvian independance. I liked this artwork a lot, and I'll put my favourite piece in the end.

The second exhibition at Arsenāls was called ''Tveramā kustība'' that's ''Discernible motion'' by Pēteris Sidars. That were different types of 3D art pieces. I don't really know how to describe them, so I'll put some pictures in the end. To be honest, I didn't really like this exhibition, maybe I'm not understanding enough about art to be interested in a big hill of pipes or a colour splash.

After that, we went to another museum, ''Mākslas muzejs RĪGAS BIRŽA'', the ''Art Museum RIGA BOURSE''. That was the exhibition in which I was the most interested, and i'm glad that we went there. It was about Aboriginal and Papuan art. I'm quite interested into Aboriginal art, I think it's very fascinating. (At this point: Greetings to my aunt (my mom's sister) and her daughters with their families, they travel around the world a lot, and because of them I first heard of the Aboriginal culture.) So when I read that there will be this exhibition, I really wanted to go there, and it was great.

There were a lot of Aboriginal drawings, they have a special ''drawing style'', I'd call it dot-art, you'll see what I mean. There also were different kinds of weapons and music instruments, like drums and didgeridoos.
I didn't know a lot about Papuan Art before I went to the museum, but this pieces also were fascinating. Most of them were masks and sculptures.
I loved that exhibition so much, I took a picture of almost every single exhibition piece, and I'll add many of them to this post.

Picture explanation:
1st picture: Artwork by Ilmārs Blumbergs
2nd-4th picture: Artworks by Pēteris Sidars
All other pictures: Aboriginal and Papuan Art
That you can distinguish between Aboriginal and Papuan Art: The drawings are (almost) all Aboriginal. Everything with dot-art is Aboriginal. The masks and sculptures are (almost) all Papuan. Aboriginies did (with exception of a few tribes) not make sculptures at all. Also, I tried to photograph the Aboriginal pieces first, still it might be a little bit mixed.

I hope you have a wonderful day!

Greetings,

Annabel