First three days in Valmiera

Dear readers,

The opening of the school is a big celebration here in Latvia. In Latvia the 1st of September is an old tradition of celebration therefore during the opening there was a lot of dancing, music etc. Also they opened a new building and therefore there was a parade with all kind of music from the main school to the new building.

But before the opening of the school, all the exchange students had an hour whereby we got some information regarding school. Just a small introduction of all exchange students; Irakli from Georgia, Fazilat from Azerbijan, Noëlle from Spain, Tatev from Armenia and Robin from Belgium. For this semester there is a total of 6 exchange students. (In follow up stories I will probably call them by name.)

After the opening we were free. All the exchange students went to Bastion to have lunch. Bastion is a restaurant which is opened from 8am – 8pm and it is like a buffet. You take what you want and then you pay. Since it is cheap, lots of people are there.
At night we went to a party organised by school at one of the two nightclubs they have in Valmiera.

On Tuesday, 2th of September, I had ‘’English in Tourism’’ class at 09.45 till 11.15. In the class we had to make groups of 4. In this group of four student we had to find 5 things we have in common. However they could not be obvious such as ‘’We all live in Dorms, We are all girls, We all have blue eyes etc.’’

Our list consisted of:
-We all use social media such as facebook.
-We all had a pet once in our lifetime.
-We like candy.
-We are all from the Europian Union.
-We all speak more than one language.

Then we saw 10 touristic attraction around the world, with your group you had to guess what it was/when it was made or erected. We saw the Big Ben of London, Big bells of Moscow, Immortal Army of China, the Mona Lisa of France, The Sagrada Familia of Spain, Pitchuv of Mexico etc.

Then we had a crozzword puzzle (kruiswoord) which gave some explanations and we had to guess the word. For example: A list of things to see. Answer: Itinerary
And then class finished.

I walked home together with Noëlle. At around 2 o’clock Robin and I went for a walk and arrived at school at quarter to five. At half past 5 we had Latvian class.
In Latvian class we were just with 5 people and a teacher. In this class we saw a movie and later we had to discuss with who you are sitting next to what you have seen. After that we would discuss them with the class and we got to know quite a bit about Latvia and there traditions.
After Latvian class we went to Bastions for dinner and around 9pm I arrived home.

On Wednesday, 3rd of September, the exchange students had a meeting with Liga about school issues and practical information. Afterwards we got a really boring meeting regarding Library information. After this session we had Latvian Language and Culture class. Today we learned ‘’Where are we from, who we are, if we are students/married etc and we learned the most important verb – TO BE!

Or not to be.

For now, see you for my next story.

Joëlle