6 months in Latvia

Today is the 26th of february.
On the 26th of august, I came to Latvia. Now I already spent 6 months here.
I'm proud, that I managed to do something as crazy as an exchange for already half a year.
I happy that I had so many great chances to see new things and learn new stuff, I'm happy that I met so many great people who I won't forget for my whole life.
I thankful that I have so many people back home in Germany who support me, who believe in me, and who give me strength.
I'm glad that I found a family in Latvia, where I feel home.
I have two homes, and that's a wonderful thing. I'll maybe never be fully home again, but that's the price I pay for knowing people in more than one place, for knowing a second country, a second culture.
It's only four more months until I'll fly back to Germany. I'm looking forward to this moment so much, but at the same time, I'm fearing it, because I'll have to leave all of this behind. There are some people who I'll maybe never see again, because they live far far away. Not only Latvians, Latvia is pretty close to Germany, but especially other exchange students.
I know how I grew up in this year until now, I'm a different person than I was when I went into an airplane to Latvia 6 months ago.
While being abroad, you have so much time to think about stuff, you have time to think about everything.
That's great, I think I'll never have so much time again, maybe when I'm a pensioner. 
Also, before I went here, someone told me that in the beginning of exchange, time goes by really slow, while later, when you start understanding the language better, know more people, and have more hobbies, time flies. I didn't really believe it first, but it's definitely true. While the first month in Latvia felt like a little eternity, the last month which I spend here passed so fast, it only felt like a week.
Because everyone usually asks this, I'll also tell a little about my language skills: they got a lot better in the last month. I can understand most stuff, I can have simple conversations, I can order food on latvian, and today in a bookshop I was able to ask if they have a book which I couldn't find (Haris Poters). By the way, right now I'm reading my first book in Latvian, "Meklējot Aļasku" (Looking for Alaska / Eine wie Alaska, it's my favourite book, and already knowing the plot helps a lot to understand unknown vocabulary).
I have hopes that until the end of the year, my language skills will grow even more.

I hope that you, wherever you are right now, also have a great time.
To all Germans, I'm incredibly happy to see you again in july.
I'll make the best of the time which I still have.
Have a wonderful day,
Annabella

PS: The picture which I've added is a picture that I took this month, I kinda like it. The beauty of this country is not only where you expect it, it's everywhere.

Tallinn

The last weekend all YFU Latvija exchange students spend in Tallinn, that's the capital city of Estonia. We had our middle seminar there.

We met on friday in the morning and drove to Tallinn by bus. It's not so far from Riga, the travel took us something between 4 and 5 hours. Even the bus travel was already cool, because we had lot's of time to talk with the other exchange students, because some of them I don't meet so often, it was great to hear how they're doing.

When we reached Tallinn, we went to our student hostel (Jugendherberge), it was called ''Alur'', and it was quite okay (not bad, really). All girls (13) had one big room together, what was a little bit exhausting, but also great because so there were no ''who-shares-a-room-with-who''-problems, and we had a communtity room were the whole group could meet. Also, during the weekend I had so many great conversations with different people, so I really appreciate our room.

After putting our luggage on our beds (lucky me got one of the two ''normal'' beds, the rest were bunkbeds), we went to an american diner / pizzeria called ''Pizza Americana''. There I ate the best pizza in my whole exchange year, maybe even one of the best pizzas in my life. Unfortunately I didn't take a photo. But if you ever end up in Tallinn, go to ''Pizza Americana'' in the old-town, Müürivahe 2 (and take pizza number 34 or 37 I'm not sure which one I had, but it was with dried tomatos, mozzarella, olives and oregano and it was simply amazing).

Then we went back to the hostel, and had free time for the rest of the evening. I was a little bit tired because I was sick the days before the travel, so I just stayed in the hostel with some other exchange students, and we talked and listened tomusic and that evening was cool, because spending time with exchange students is awesome.

On the next day, we had breakfast (Nutella bread with banana), and later played a little game, where everyone gets a paper with the name of someone else and then buy a small present for this person, to give it to them later as a surprise. So in small groups, we went buying this presents. I had gotten the name of one guy, and found an awesome cup for him, on the cup is a photo of Putin riding an eagle, because in all baltic countries, people love making jokes about Putin. I'll add this photo to this post.

After finding presents, we went on a city tour, where a young woman showed us interesting places of Tallinn. I took lot's of photos, which you'll also find in the end of the post.

Tallinn is a very beautiful city. Especially the old-town, all houses are colorful, different colors everywhere, and interesting architecture.

After that tour we had lunch in the restaurant ''Vapiano'', which I can also highly recommend, I ate pasta con pomodoro (pasta with tomato sauce and mozzarella) and I loved it. The special thing about this restaurant is that you get your food yourself (no waitors), but it gets freshly prepared, you see this process, Also, it was really delicious. 

When we all ate, we had a little free time to walk around in the shopping mall where Vapiano is located, and then went to a city rallye together with some of the estonian exchange students. It was cool to met them, they told some stuff about how their exchange years are going, and we did the tasks of the rallye (well, we did some of them).

Later, there was about on hours of free time with the estonian exchange students, which was great, because I already got friends with some of them. We went to a vegan restaurant, unfortunately the time was to short to eat something, so we drank a tea and talked. 

If any estonian exchange students read this: you're awesome ♥

So, after that hours we already had to say goodbye to the estonians, and went back to our hostel, where we had dinner. Chinese food which the YFU volunteers picked up somewhere, I think the place was called ''Chopstix'', it also was very good, and so much that I ate only half of it and the other half late at night.

After dinner we got divided into smaller groups and talked about how the exchange had been until now. We talked about problems, and great moments, life in the hostfamilies, school and much more. That group also was great, thanks to the great volunteers (quote: ''never forget: you're all beautiful'').

The rest of the night we spend in our room talking, eating chinese and sleeping. 

On the next morning, we packed our stuff together, had breakfast and went to the busstation to take our bus back home.

To conclude:

That was a great trip, I really enjoyed it. One week instead of one weekend would have been great, and more time together with the estonian exchange students. But still, I'm happy that I got the chance to see a part of Estonia. If you ever come to the baltics, go to Tallin, eat at ''Pizza Americana'' and ''Vapiano'', look around the old-town, drink tea, and have a great time.

have a nice day! 

Annabella ♥

Valentine's Day

On valentine's day, I went to an animal shelter with my hostfamily to walk with dogs there.
This shelter offers that possibility so that the dogs stay used to meet different people, and can get out of the area (cages or small fenced area) in which they live.
Firstly, we all got an instruction on how to get along with the dogs, and safety instructions (on latvian, but I understood most of it).
Then, we all got a card, which we can bring the next time, so that they see we already heard the instructions, and don't need to listen to them again.
After that, we all got a dog and went for a walk with them in the forest. My dog was big, but really nice and friendly. Some other people got dogs which were pulling all the time and barking a lot. My hostsisters dog was quite small, but always wanted to be first and he pulled a lot. Still, he was very cute and funny.

At all, there live around 300 dogs and 150 cats in that animalshelter.
There are working many volunteers, and I really appreciate their work, because I'm sure it's very hard work.
Also, it was great to see, how many people went there to take a dog for a walk.

When we got home, my hostdad got all women in the family (my hostmom, hostsister and me) nice flowers, tulips in different colours, and we ate cake.

After that, we (the women) watched romantic movies.
The first movie was with Aston Kutcher and I forgot the title (I think it was titled "Something like love"), and then we watched Titanic.
We all are very emotional, so we sat on the couch and cried for almost the whole movie.

That was a very nice Valentine's day.

I hope you have a wonderful day! ♡

Music makes happy

Latvia is the country that sings.
This a very good description of my second home.
Music is in Latvia extremely important, almost everyone plays an instrument, sings in a choir or dances.
And mostly on high levels. I play in an orchestra with young and older people, and everyone is playing very good.

In case you wonder why music is so important here: especially the singing is important to the Latvians, because in their folk songs old myths and stories are told from generation to generation.
Also: music makes happy. No matter if you make music yourself, or listen to it.
After I'm going to the orchestra in the evening, I'm always happy and in my head I'm still repeating melodies from the pieces we played.

You're not happy right now? Or stressed? Or bored?
Turn on the radio/YouTube/Spotify/whatever or take your instrument and play something, or just sing your favourite song.

I hope you have a wonderful day! ♡