Stay On Your Feet Kiddo

One week later and Latvia is still treating me well. Sure being an exchange student has been a pretty constant roller coaster of ups and downs, but my Uncle David told my mom something which I have learned to live by. He told her you have to push through the bad days because the truth is they never last forever and live in the good days because you never know when a bad day is right around the corner.
Oh yeah and keeping busy while in a foreign country away from everything familiar helps too, and with school and training in full swing I've been doing just that. I wake up early and take a shower grab a bowl of yogurt and granola and watch a little CNN. (that's another thing since being here I know a lot more about what's going on in the world around me, I've begun to pay attention I guess.) If it's not a Tuesday I head off to school with my first class starting around 8:10. After school I hurry home grab a snack (normally from my jar of peanut butter) and shortly head back out the door for practice. Normally I get home from practice around 6:30, grab a banana and hit the couch with some books and try to figure out what it was I was suppose to learn in school that day. Suddenly it's 8 and we are eating dinner...And the last few nights I've fallen asleep reading "The Human Blueprint" a crazy book about genetics as I'm taking my schooling into my own hands until I really know what's going on in class.
This last week I fought off a cold, actually the doctor told me no sports all week! At that I broke down, I couldn't do that, it was just a cold, I'm supposed to be tough right? In the end we worked it out, I kept an extra close watch on my heart rate, continued to load up on my vitamins...And promised to drink lots of fluids and make it to bed at a reasonable time. I have to say I followed the rules and I'm proud to say I've gotten over the sniffles of the snotty nose and such.
Saturday I ran a 5K race, I was pretty excited about it. It was a road race, but man it had some hills, a lot of hills actually...Okay so the last 1.5K was all up hill. (Great joy!) The night before I sat down and figured out what I wanted to run and my pace per kilometer. I figure 20-21 minutes would be ideal, and decided on 4 min K's. The race came and though it was quite the stampede I managed to make it across the start line with all my limbs. Until 3.5 K I was running just almost perfect 4 min K's...The town had forgot the race for that day and were at the time of the race laying new blacktop on half the road. Well it was a down hill and being klutzy little me I managed to slip on the curb and take a pretty good tumble banging up both my knees, and one shoulder. I got up and hoped not too many people had just witnessed what I had managed to do so gracefully and kept running. The ending didn't go as well as I liked on the last long hill and did put out the energy I normally do in a final kick to the finish. So I ended the race pretty disappointed in myself running almost three or four seconds over 22 mins. I ended up placing second in the oldest age group. I got a nifty medal and a pink towel and 5Lats prize money (about $10 us). Oh and I was the only person who required medical attention after the race because the doctor insisted that she clean my scraps and cuts that had caused blood to run all the way down my right leg. (It looked pretty good, though I didn't know I was bleeding until 5 mins or so after I finished the race) We finished the race in the center of the castle park where a small festival was taking place with Latvian choirs, folk dancing, crafts and plenty of food for sale.
Actually after the race my coach came to make sure I was alright and said, "I put you on fast roller skis with big hills and you don't fall down, I put you in a running race and you fall?" I nodded my head and said, "It happens a lot...Just wait until we get on snow..." For all you nonskiers out there, my group of lovely salties(Molly, Erica, and I) and I at least all face planted or totally wiped out once every practice, we got pretty good at it.

anyway...
We helped ourselves to some very traditional rye bread, potatoes, cabbage, and mushroom soup and sat back enjoyed the music on a nearly perfect sunny fall day.
After checking out the crafts and wears (mostly wooden spoons, silver things, honey, and lots of amber) I got to take part in my first Latvian folk dancing experience. I'm not exactly what most would consider graceful or a dancer, so it was pretty interesting and mildly amusing...probaly more amusing for anyone who was watching. Latvian folk dancing is very much like American square dancing, but with no caller (for all you faithful duck for the oyster fans) We danced for about a hour and a half, slow and fast songs alike. One of the last dances was like a polka expect after shaking for finger at your partner and a slap the girls ran about to their next partner...One of which was a little lost Japanese man who wasn't terribly found of the polka. Another dance consisted of shouting and running in circles and lot of spinning and clapping hands, oh and of course some good old latvian bum bumping? I have to say it was quite the experience but I'm not sure if it's a one time is enough kind of thing or not...We will see what other festivals I can run around at.
My other big accomplishments have been taking a nap on a Sunday afternoon, because all good Latvians like to sleep, eat, and dance. And my other accomplishment big accomplishment is, last night I made potato pancakes all by myself, I feel so Latvian it's scary. (but they were "yummy in my tummy" so nothing gets much better than that.
Oh and I am pretty awful at aerobics, okay that's because everyone else knows what is going on...I'm like the kid who can't clap on beat and instead claps on the off beat all by himself.

And one of the highlights of my week. I received a very lovely card from Deanna Perssons, I love getting mail...And unexpected mail is even better so I was pretty excited.

Tomorrow I run in some crazy schools track meet like thing...And I have no idea what to expect, my sports teacher at school told me I was running the 100M, 800M and high jumping...Can you say "girls just want to have fun..."?

That's all for now,
I miss you all very much.

Until next time