Latvia's Independence Day

May 4 was "Latvijas Republikas Neatkarības deklarācijas pasludināšanas diena."
On May 4, 1990, Latvia was declared an independent republic. Again, actually.



It was a holiday, with the accompanying celebrations. A bit of choral music at the Freedom Monument is what I had gone out to experience - not quite my thing, but there is some nice singing. Watching people is great, too: Some were joking about that republic and anthem and the whole issue, some were probably just out for the walk, quite a few looked like they would gladly take the music as reason to dance, a few sang along with the choir.

I don't usually care much about national celebrations, but this did get me thinking:
My pupils at school have only lived in this independent republic, but had I been born a Latvian, I would have spent my childhood and school years in one of the USSR's republics...

Moreover, I have some memory of how it was when the Eastern bloc collapsed, we suddenly got many Eastern Europeans (with pretty bad cars, most noticeably) on our streets - I grew up only a few kilometers from the Iron Curtain, so all that was close.
Yet, I still had some of the Iron Curtain/Eastern Bloc-mentality in myself (of how they would have to be backwards, still struggling, whatever...). That was around the same time that Latvia declared itself independent.

For breaking through this alone, as I had intended, coming to Latvia was a good thing.

Today, I was back at school; now, I need to finish packing.
Leaving for Portugal - Campus Europae PR task force meeting - tomorrow.

I can't say how it will go with blogging, I'll only be taking my old subnotebook which does not have WiFi and don't know if I'll (want to) have much time which to spend with the internet. Going cold turkey for at least a few days may do me good, actually...