School's Out

Yes, that's it with my teaching in Latvia - final grades are given, normal lessons are over.


Next weekend: Stockholm.


In 10 days I'll already be back home. It was originally planned that I'd also be in Latvia in June, but as it turned out, that exam time is really summer break already, most exams are earlier (my last will be on June 4 - oral Spanish exam).

Strange as always:
On the one hand, I am more than happy to get back to Austria. On the other hand, I feel as if I had only just come here recently, and could happily return soon. Should the applications for going to East Asia work out, I'll be more than happy to leave Austria again, too.

Still, except for the Bergmarathon (and the things I'm working on, as usual), I don't yet know what I'll be doing this summer, let alone after that - it depends on the lecturer/scholarship applications, first of all...

Getting back there

My sojourn in Latvia is, slowly but steadily, drawing to a close...

Health and Running

The cold that prevented me from running in the Riga Marathon is still with me, but losing its grip on me ever more. So, I'm getting back into running - and actually, except for its effect, feeling better than I had before the forced time-out. I'd certainly like to be in top shape for Stockholm...

University and "my work"

Yesterday, I had the written Spanish test (oral will be early in June). No idea how it went ;-) Still, shouldn't I get to East Asia, I'll enjoy going on with that.
Russian test will be on Monday, and it will certainly not go all that well... and I don't care quite that much; I want to learn more of the language, but now it just didn't work out well enough.

Considering how things are going in the world - oil hitting $135 a barrel, food becoming ever more expensive - I feel that I really need to get back into and on with my sustainability/positive ecology work. This had recently been in a time-out too, as school in Latvia also winds down, and lots of work have had to be done.

Work - Teaching and Jobs

In that context:
Yesterday I also signed the paper that the school needs to make the end of my teaching there official. Sounds like I could easily go on, but "No, thank you..."

The Latvian phrase used in that amused me a lot, though: atbriivot mani no darba - translating it literally, it would be "free me from that work"... I certainly did not hate the teaching, but I do feel like I'm being set free. At least until it gets essential that I find my next job...

Recently, I saw a sort-of prediction that the present generation will have 10-14 different jobs during their lifetime. It depends on how I count, but I think I'm at job number 5 or 6 already (and that's counting them so as to get a lower number).

Tough luck - Riga's off

Riga Marathon would be tomorrow.

Except, three days ago my throat started scratching again, since two days ago it's quite a serious cold. So, even though I hate having to do that, I'll leave it be and rather not run (or run, but only for training, not in the marathon).
Before I go crazy and try to run anyway, I'm rather saying that now already. That way, it's off my back, official, out of mind... Reminds me of why I dislike such events. - It makes it necessary that everything is all good at exactly that time, as if you couldn't have a bad day, run into trouble, or some such...

There's still Stockholm, which was a lot more costly and somewhat difficult to organize, so I'll switch my sights to that now.

The end of the week (yes, those same days I started getting sick) was the Students' Research Conference at the Pedagogical and Psychological Faculty:
Presentations of the research done for the course in Academic Writing, and by students from other places (Hungary, Slovakia, Romania, Serbia, Turkey - and I'm forgetting something). Quite nice as an introduction to what scientific conferences are like, very nice socially.
Finally, I could give a presentation again... I still love doing that, and apparently it shows (feedback was typically along the lines of "there's a good presenter" - I'm not totally happy with how it went, of course ;-)

So, I've been getting my credits for several things - those same things credit points for which seemed rather unsure - and will also be getting the second semester of research writing done.

Next up, Spanish test: next week already; Russian, the week after.
This second week from now is also the last week of teaching; and on the weekend, it's over to Stockholm for the marathon there. I seriously hope not to run into trouble with that, but to run in it!!!

Thoughts on Portugal

After having come back, I must say that Riga has also become very familiar.
There is something somewhat less homely about it, though.

Photos are still to follow; but I am currently in no mood to write. Quite a bit to do, and psyched about the upcoming marathon(s), so I am taking a time-out from blogging until after the Riga Marathon (May 18).

I wrote the following May 8, the second day in Portugal:

May 7: airports, flights, and the same again… Riga to London Stansted to Porto
In 2000, I traveled for a few weeks along the Mediterranean coast from Milano to Granada; this day, I did the same thing in a single day, along the North Sea and Atlantic coasts of Europe.
Somehow, it makes me realize that Europe - not necessarily if you compare it only in area, but certainly if thinking of cultural diversity - is not all that small.

It's interesting what you can already notice from the air:
Lots of forest in Latvia, comparatively few fields; lots of small fields, trees along just about all the roads, many spread-out settlements or single houses among the fields, in England; densely settled areas in/of Portugal, many woods, but also quite a few fields, shaped to follow the many hills.

Porto (and the area as we approached it) looked nice already approaching. I had not realized how much I had missed hilly to mountainous areas, and the way Southern villages and towns meander along them.

The light rail in Oporto proved very nice, too, and the entire city felt rather familiar (including, or in spite of?, the drunk who was at the stop where I had to wait for the train to change to).
I had some idea how to get to the Youth Hostel where I would be staying the night, and there were city maps at all the bus stops, and the information on the web had said that it would be three kilometers from my metro stop. So, I thought that I'd walk.
And I did. Oh boy, did I.
The roads are definitely meandering… It took me a while to really get my bearings, and for a while I thought I would be joining some bum in a doorway. In the end, I did find the hostel (and still in time to check in), had a quick shower, and dropped into bed. And still, I thought that what I saw of the city was very nice, walking along the Rio Douro in particular.

May 8

The next morning, I decided to walk again. Along the Rio Douro, then the road along the Atlantic coast. I just had to walk down to the water, too - I think I had never before been on the coast of the Atlantic at the edge of Europe. A very different beach from the Baltic sea: many more pebbles in the sand, many rock outcroppings, tidal pools, sea life on the rocks. Plus, it was quite windy, with waves breaking, and the salty sea air in the face. This smell of it alone, and especially, is very different from the Baltic Sea; and another thing I had not noticed I might be missing - but actually it felt that way. Then, through the Parque de Cidade (city park) all along the road leading back to Casa de Musica and the metro. I was exhausted enough by then that I decided to immediately go to the train station and to Aveiro.

In Aveiro, a similar situation: Looking to find the hotel, I got a little sidetracked and ended up seeing a lot of the city (in this case, especially of the university campus) - a lot more, still carrying my "doctor's bag"-style suitcase, than I wanted to walk today.
Of course, after finding it, dropping off my bag, checking out my room (having a shower again), I went out again and went at least as far as I had walked when I was looking for the hotel. At least this time, I found the way back easily ;-)

Portugal is somehow strange. Or rather, what's strange is how familiar much of it is. Admittedly, more familiar and more comfortable than Latvia. Being able to use the Euro again, by itself, is a nice touch. The language issue continues to confound me, though. On the one hand, it is very familiar - especially in writing, much of it is or seems understandable. The spoken language, however, is very different from Italian or Spanish.
Anyways, I'd almost think that I shouldn't have gone to Latvia - except that I don't do regrets like that, and I'm too aware of the problems that also, always, appear. Going to Spain or Portugal if I do the second year with Campus Europae does seem like a very good idea again, though.

Two nights in a single, nicely quiet, room in a hotel now… I'll have to see if I get up early and go out running here, or if I need to set an alarm to make sure I get up before noon...

[As it turned out, it was something between those two: I had walked so much, my legs hurt anyways; I still didn't sleep longer than 7 or 8 - which I consider rather long, actually (although I was usually up until 11 or 12, since we had late dinners and continued to talk in the group).]

Back from Portugal

Just a quick note: I was in Portugal the last few days for a Campus Europae (PR) meeting; I think it was productive, all the walking I did was rather exhausting (for miles, and much of it with my pack in my hand), the food was great, the country is very interesting, bla bla, and so on, and so forth...

A real blog post about it, and an upload of pictures from there, will follow soon(-ish).

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...

Training Update

In two weeks, the Riga Marathon is on...

4/29: On sick leave from school because of my sore throat, just went out for a walk to take some pictures and get some fresh air while not having to talk... and to record it so I could have it in the training analysis and see what it does:
Well, I suppose it was some 8 km (didn't measure the indoors parts), two hours, an average HR 0f 98, and a training effect of 1.3.
(I think I recently measured my HR while working on the PC and lying in bed and it got a similar training effect ;-)

5/1/2008: Parkour Jam session
I did not do too much - or so it seemed in comparison - but some muscles were pretty sore the next day(s). Parkour does that to you... it's much less like running, more like strength training, plus climbing, crawling, jumping.
Time recorded: 2:24.37,9 - then the memory was full because I had not deleted recent data.
HR avg: 122 - values between 44 (that's because the belt often lost signal) and 204 (that's when I was really doing something).
Training Effect: 2.3 - "maintaining"

5/2/2008: 01:01.02,5 - 9.62 km - 6'21 min/km - HR avg. 153 - TE 3.2

5/4/2008: 01:55.15,9 - 18.81 km - 6'08 min/km - HR avg. 162 - TE 4.1

Beach Panorama

Come, stand on the beach with me...

(but careful, please: the image is 1.3 MB big!)

(Click on the image above to view the full-size version)

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May 1

Still going to bed late, when I'm already very tired, but getting up around five in the morning. 8am may have been the latest I got up so far this year, usually it's with sunrise and early morning birds. I am sure I should work on going to bed earlier, but there's just so much to be done. Getting up that early, I like that all too much, and usually I am up by then even when I do not set an alarm. Whatever....

Yesterday, May 1, I went out with a number of Latvian traceurs (and similar people, it seems). Went to Mangalsala, at the estuary of the Daugava. For one, to some rather destroyed military fortifications, and secondly to the beach. Practicing flips, let alone on sand, seems a great idea, but isn't quite my thing (with contact lenses? - the day before, it was very windy after warm and dry days, dust was blowing everywhere... fortunately, I only did some quick shopping and came back, but even so it was not good for my eyes.)
Took some photographs to stitch together into panorama views of the Daugava where it meets the Baltic sea, and of the sea's beach close-by. Will be online soon, I hope.

Wandering the sand beach barefooted, running a little on the beach and the dunes at its inland edge was extremely beautiful.
I got some more photographs for my series of sports self-portraits, and I think they turned out very nicely. This "Move Free"-series is starting to really become a series, and I am pretty happy with how it is progressing...
It's one of those things, aside of the academic work that needs doing, that I love doing (like sports, also) because it gives you a more immediate feedback on your action; writing seemingly takes forever, getting stuff to a publisher or into a journal takes its time again... it is psychologically more exhausting than a marathon is physically.
Or so I think, and I'll see soon enough.