Change Is In the Airformerly "Lydia's Latvian Blog."

So, I just spent the last hour going through my cabinets, fridge & freezer and bagging up stuff that fit into one of these categories:

• a.) stuff I am not eating right now & it will go bad before I can eat it, like cheese.
• b.) stuff I hope to never eat again. Have you read the ingredients on some of this stuff??? My named brand canned tomatoes had corn syrup in them!!!
• c.) food I just don’t want sitting around tempting me. Most of this fits in above categories as well, but sometimes Twizzlers & frozen pizzas sitting around are just too much for me to handle.

It came to 5 bags full of food, and honestly, it’s not all of it. Some things I kept that have a long shelf life (shouldn’t that be a sign to me?!) that I might want to occasionally indulge in later, but that is about 95% of the food in my house that I needed to get rid of.

I feel kinda bad unloading my, er, um, “not good food”, on my dear friend, Melissa, but I also know that it is still food and I shouldn’t waste it. Also, I understand that not everyone eats the same. If the reverse would have happened a week ago, and she had called me & asked if I wanted all of her food she wasn’t going to eat, I would have gladly taken it. So, Mel, enjoy! :)

Off to Whole Foods to get some more staples & to refill my fridge! :)

I can’t believe it’s been over a year since I last blogged. So much has happened in that time, but it would be way too much to tell all. The short of it is that in October we moved back to the USA and are not living in Denver, which we LOVE. we are both working and both going to school, so it’s been a crazy transition, but God has been blessed us so much and has provided for everything that we’ve needed.

On to the new…

Chris and I are studying (yes, still) for the Latvian driving test. We need to get a Latvian license… actually, should have about 3+ years ago, but now it’s imperative, at least for him. We’ve been studying like mad, which hasn’t been easy. We have a book of laws in English, a rough translation of said book, but 1-2 versions older, and a website of practice tests, all in Latvian. But, we can still take the test in English. Odd how it seems they don’t want you to since they give no help to study in English. (The rough translation we have was done by… someone and has been making it’s rounds through the English-speaking community. We’ll pass it on when we’re done.) We plan to take the test for the first time tomorrow, if for no other reason than to see what the English is like on there.

There are all kind of fun things in here, and we’re regularly told, by Ieva, when we’re taking the practice tests & she’s translating on the fly for us, “Remember, this isn’t America. The rules are not the same.” It usually means to choose the answer opposite of my gut reaction.

Some people have been surprised we’ve been stressed out about this. Well, after we pass, I hope to get some of the questions up here so you can test yourself, then you’ll understand. :) Here’s some laws I’m coming across…
60. The number of lanes designed for vehicles not requiring a railway are indicated by the corresponding pavement markings or road signs; if there are no such indicators, the number of lanes is determined by the individual drivers, considering the width of the roadway, dimension of the vehicles and necessary space between lanes of traffic. (read: if there’s no road markings to tell you how many lanes there are, decide for yourself. Confused yet?)

Continued a few days later:

Ieva and I are translating and writing down the 400 or so questions in our practice book that have no pictures to them. That was so we can study without her. Here’s my favorite of the evening:

What should the driver do in case of force stopping during the dark time of the day, outside of the built up area if you’re not able to drive off the drive way and one of your front or back parking lights don’t work? 

Why do I want to add “…when the moon is full, you’re wearing a blue sweater and there is a cow following you, but with no bell…” or something like that? This is nuts.

I have this memory from growing up… Actually, I’m not sure if it’s a real memory or just something that was just likely to happen and in my mind it is pegged to that day, but to me, it is real. New Year’s Day was the day to start new things, mainly focused around my dad. I remember cleaning out files in the file cabinet one New Year’s Day, using new files, rearranging them and remembering our trip to the office supply store a few days ago smelling the new paper and looking at all the new pens. Good times. But the one we always recalled kind of tongue-in-cheek was that it was the day that Dad sat at the kitchen table and read the new Tax Code, half under his breath and half silently, repeating various sentences because it helped to hear them read out loud as well as see them. I understand that.

Well, this year I didn’t clean out files (mine are still packed from the move), nor did I read Tax Code (I think it would have accidentally slipped into the fire I was stoking). No, this year, while watching the temperatures drop (they’re down to 9F right now) and snow pile up, I started to dream about my garden. I’ve been container gardening for a few years but this year, since we have a house & a yard, I’m dreaming of a big garden full of all kinds of yummy veggies, some which are not very popular here in Latvia. Today I made my final seed list and sent that off, as well as figured out my calendar of what to do when. (Ok, I’m a bit of a nerd, but if you read the first paragraph, I think you’ll admit that I come by that honestly.)

My list looks something like, “5 Weeks before Last Frost: Start tomatoes inside. 2 Weeks before Last Frost: Plant carrots, lettuce & spinach, transplant cauliflower…” I have 12 weeks of plans, from 10 weeks before the last frost date through 2 weeks after the last frost date. The only thing I need to know now is… what in the world is the last frost date for western Latvia?

Now, before you tell me to “google it”, let me tell you that I tried that. After a ton of searching, I did discover that we are in European Hardiness Zone 5, but that doesn’t help. And it’s not like we have a county extension office to call and ask. Grr. Somewhere I heard something about April 1, but I really didn’t think that was accurate. So, I started checking for Ohio last frost dates, which confirmed to me that there is no way our last frost date can be April 1, when back in Ohio it’s at least in late May. Google has failed me. Bored, I started looking through other places in the US at their dates. I always like to look at Alaska, since we’re similar in latitude, even though we have different weather patterns. Juneau is May 15th, with their first fall frost at September 15th. Ok. Then I glanced up the list and started laughing. I’ve always wanted to go to Barrow, Alaska, just to say I’ve been there. Glad I’m not trying to start a garden up there. Last spring frost date, July 24. First fall frost date: August 5. HA! 12 days frost free! Wow, even my Sub-Arctic Plenty tomatoes need 49 days! I guess the greenhouse comes in handy up there. :)

Anyway, I know I need to try to track down someone around here who would have this local info, though I think most of them just know when they do things “Tomatoes go in the greenhouse on this date. Peppers go in on this date”, etc. It’s always like me to shake things up. Wait till the locals get wind of the plan I have to experiment with Square Foot gardening and not plant in long crazy rows!!!

Gotta put wood in the fire. It’s down to 8F now. Stay warm, and happy New Year!

Winter has truly arrived in our corner Latvia. Yesterday we were very excited to wake up to about 1 1/2 inches of snow on the ground. It was so pretty. Everything was white and clean, as opposed to the dirty, disgusting mud that we’ve had for a few weeks. I took some pictures around the house, and this one of one of the apple trees was my favorite. I love winter.

This morning Chris woke up around 7:45am and told me we had no electricity. That’s not good since we have an electric pump for our water, so no electricity means no water. Hmm. We called around and it wasn’t just us, but it seemed to be at least our immediate area. It’s been flickering off and on all day. The other thing we found at 7:45am was that we got about another 5 inches of snow, so we’re at around 6inches or so on the ground, and it’s still falling. I guess we missed the forecast last night. I knew it was supposed to snow, but someone said our area of the country was forecasted as “strong snow”. Yup, we got it. So, of course I had to go out and take more pictures. Here’s that same apple tree, 24 hours later. (Maybe I’ll send this picture in to The Weather Channel.)

We were also very bad ants. We were not ready and prepared for this, and so I will publicly say, “I’m sorry” to my Dad for not listening to all of his warnings & lessons growing up and therefore not being better prepared. We have learned our lesson and now have water stored (for the time being at least), have 2-3 days worth of wood in the house (we had nothing this morning), and Chris is cleaning off the car to go to town to stock up on some food items. We’ll also make sure to have a minimum of 1/2 a tank of gas in the car. We have truly learned our lesson.

The power is back on, though it keeps flickering. Chris just came in to tell me that the battery on our car is dead. Hmm. We had sold our car when we went to America last year, and by some strange series of events, we ended up buying it back. What we didn’t know at the time was that it seems the guy who had bought it from us parted out all the good parts (battery, jumper cables, jack, etc) and put junky parts in there instead. When we get a jump from a friend today, Chris will go to town and also buy a new battery. In the meantime, we’re seriously praying for an SUV. Right now I’m hoping he can get out of our driveway.

That’s the latest from our neck of the woods. Stay tuned for more exciting winter weather! The forecast is for snow for the next 10 days. Woohoo!

It’s been a long road but I’d say we’re about 80% moved into our house now. In some ways I think that’s a pretty good accomplishment, and yet… those remaining boxes are like a stone in my shoe. So annoying. I just want to finish it!!! Part of the problem is I need to find some storage solutions for the rest of it. Something like a buffet or china cabinet for many things. And then there’s all of Chris’ office stuff that will go to his office at the base when he’s finished with that.

And even with things that are unpacked but just not put away, there are hold ups. We’re at the stage now that everything we need to do will take at least 2 or 3 steps. For example: We need to re-hang the curtains in the office. Before we can do that, we need to buy some kind of glue/plaster to fix the curtain rods so they don’t come out of the wall again. To do that we need someone who know how to do this stuff AND speaks Latvian to find the time to go to the store with us.

But don’t think our lack of settling has meant that we have no visitors! On the contrary. Since we moved in a little more than a month ago, we’ve had about 15 different people here, 2 overnight and 3 for a long weekend! Don’t get me wrong, we like having people over, but I can’t wait to finally have our “Come see our house” party when people can finally see everything done.

It is happening slowly, though. I went to a second hand store not long ago (a friend owns it) and scored an awesome Secretary desk from the 1940s… for about $35. It looks really good in my bedroom. The same day I finally got my stove! There’s an electric cook-top in the kitchen now, but I not only hate cooking on electric, I always burn things. And we had no oven. Not good. Our new stove is gas on top and has an electric oven. Beautiful! Just gotta get the gas hooked up now. Gotta figure out when Janis has the time to go with us to buy the tank… and on it goes.

So, anyway, here are a few pictures from the inside of the house. Hope you enjoy. :)

Remember, you can click on the pictures and they will get larger. :)

Sorry it’s been a while since I’ve written anything. Moving will do that to you! And right now, I’m also without internet at our house, so that just complicates things further. Anyway, last night we finished moving the last of our possessions out of our apartment and into the house. This process of moving has taken 2 weeks and we’re both DEAD TIRED! But, I know many people have been asking for pics, so here are some of the outside of the house. More of the inside to come.

 This is the back entrance to the house – but the entrance we use. We live on the first floor while some other staff live in the 3 bedrooms on the 2nd floor. In the spring/summer we hope to put a nice deck off of this door way.

Every farm/homestead has to have a barn!

Front yard, complete with a pine tree hedge and a BBQ pit/oven for making “shashlik”.

Front entryway… complete with stained glass windows. :)

Next time, pics from inside. :) So, who wants to come visit?

Living in a foreign country means that our lives are often very different than many people’s lives. I mean, sure, life in Latvia is different than life in the USA; things are handled differently and often much slower, but it’s more than that. Often our lives are still quite different from the other people who live in this country. There are some things that I can’t bring myself to do by myself, without a local to help me, mostly because of the language difficulties. I can shop by myself, pay bills and do a number of other things equal to the level of my language abilities. But, there are lines to be drawn. I don’t like going to the bank on my own… well, it depends on what I have to do there, but today I discovered that we are perfectly able to go and receive a Western Union Money Gram on our own. Woohoo! But there are other things, like, I refuse to go to the doctor by myself. It’s just way too important to know exactly what they’re saying. And I also will not go to get my hair cut alone. Again, it’s just way too important to be able to communicate very clearly. Thus, I have not had my hair cut in over a year, partially due to stubbornness & lack of language help, but now this longer hair is starting to grow on me (no pun intended). I think when Ieva gets home in a few weeks we’ll go together.

Chris doesn’t like to get his hair cut on his own either but he can’t go as long as I can without a trim. Often Andis will take him, which is fine, but it just hasn’t worked out lately. Chris has been mentioning lately that he really needed to get it cut and then, the other night, he asked me if I could cut it. HA! I told him, “No! I’ve never cut hair before!” He dropped it, but I couldn’t. I started to think about it. I started looking at his hair, and noticed that I could see how the hairdresser had cut it last time, and I started to think, “Hey, maybe I could do it.” Then I got excited, and told Chris I’d like to try it. That’s when he got nervous. So, for the the next few days, I kept bringing it up, and he kept having a reason for me not to do it. “I’m too tired,” or “We have a meeting tomorrow, so maybe not before that.” It all just sounded like excuses to me. I kept trying to encourage him that maybe I had a hidden talent for cutting hair that I don’t know about, so I really should try it! It didn’t work. It didn’t even seem to appease him when I said I looked on the internet for some instructions on cutting hair. I mean, come on, he learns all kinds of stuff about computers on the internet, so why wasn’t it feasible for me to learn to cut hair online? *wink* So, this evening, we were eating dinner and I announced that tonight I would be cutting his hair. Maybe he was resigned to the idea, or maybe he just didn’t have any ready excuses, I mean reasons… but tonight was indeed the night.

I admit I was a bit nervous, and there were a couple of times that I was glad he couldn’t see my face behind him as I cut some spots a bit shorter than I intended… but 1 hour and 15 minutes later, Chris declared that it was “not too bad, especially for the first time.” I think that means there will be a second time. I wonder what he would look like with a mohawk…

My cat, Saulite, is usually a very sullen, quiet, boring cat. She sleeps constantly (except when we’re trying to sleep) and usually on the back of the couch. She doesn’t meow, but kinda squeaks. She’s not very energetic, either. Not usually. Occasionally she’ll come out of her litter box and run, like she’s trying to escape something. We have come to learn this is her way of saying, “It’s gonna get stinky, so I’m getting out of here.” Nice.

This evening we were just finishing up putting together our taco salads, and Saulite came out of her box, not running, but more like a bullet out of gun… she was just a flash. And then she came back, every muscle in her body, tense, stared up at us as if to say, “Trust me, get out while you can!!!” and bolted out again. We laughed and laughed. Then went into the living room to eat.

Twenty minutes later I went back into the kitchen…. OH MY WORD! I didn’t know a little cat could make so much stink! That was one of the WORST smells I have ever smelled! No wonder after she ran out of the room, the second time, she went and sat by the open window… “Air, give me air!”

Oh my.

…but come on… I mean, really. I understand that prices go up. I don’t have a problem with that, in general. But sometimes it crosses the line of sanity.

Chris and I were at the grocery store the other day. I like to shop slowly, on occasion, as you never know when something new may have arrived. This was one of those days. As I stood surveying the ice cream freezer I saw something very exciting… Belgian Chocolate flavored Haagen Dazs ice cream! This was a first in Latvia, for me at least. I looked through all the signs on the cooler trying to figure out how much it cost. 4.50Ls for 1/2 liter… ok, that seemed expensive, but I wasn’t sure just how expensive it was. We passed after drooling for a moment and came home. That’s when my math whiz husband did all the conversions and figured out that it cost the equivalent of $72.42 per gallon!!!! THAT is insanity! *sigh*

We bought chocolate chip cookies instead.