Of Hotels, Beaches, and Books

*singing to self* “I’ve still got sand in my shoes…”

And I mean that literally.

I actually got to go to the beach today. Yay!... but then, it was only just. I spent about 6 hours cooped up in a small hotel room. Allow me to explain:

We had a “codel” (congressional delegation) come in this weekend. Normally, we’d’ve taken the day off, it being Memorial Day and all, but when senators decide to visit town, you roll out the red carpet. So roll we did. Part of this red carpet business was to set up a “Control Room” in the hotel where they were staying. There they could access email and news via computer and get assistance in all manner of things – changing money, finding the pool, making their door key work, getting their dry cleaning done, whatever. Eager to help out with the delegation, I volunteered to take a shift for a guy who was needed elsewhere…

So, I got to be at the hotel this morning at 0700, which meant being at the embassy at 0620, which meant waking up at 0500… yeah, not necessarily my most relaxing Memorial Day ever, but worth it. We (a Latvian embassy worker and I) got the pleasure of staying there until 1400 – which is about when the senators were supposed to leave Latvia – they left the hotel at about 0930. This all added up to a long time of sitting in a little room with really nothing to do.

The most significant thing I did all morning was to watch the senators’ baggage as it sat in the hall. They were taking it downstairs in loads and didn’t want any of it “walking off.” So I stood in the hallway with the Latvian equivalent of Randy Long and watched the bags. To pass the time, I had him teach me how to say, “You touch it, you die,” in Latvian. (Which happens to be something like, “Ietanet, miret,” in case you ever needed to know.)

Fortunately, this hotel was a nice, beach front one in Jurmala – a Latvian resort-ish area and near Riga. An American coworker of mine who knew the town was kind enough to get me out of the hotel and show me the main street and the beach. Walking down the street and looking at the little shops was a joy – it is smaller, cozier, naturaller, and shorter than Riga. Though the weather wasn’t exactly beach weather (cool with a stiff breeze – enough that I was glad I was in a suit) it wasn’t bad. We walked back to the hotel via the beach. In order to get the true beachy feel, I took off my loafers and rolled up my pants legs. The damp sand was packed and easy to walk on and I did make sure to stick my feet in the Baltic (or the Gulf of Riga, if you want to be really picky). It was cold. …It was, incidentally, in putting my slightly sandy feet back in my shoes that the sand got in there. I don’t know if I’ll ever get it all out.

That trip, however, only took about an hour and left me with about three to go. I kept myself occupied by reading Starship Troopers (which I had brought with me). This was a good thing, because I had three hours to sit and contemplate the fact that I had gulped down a banana and some orange juice at 0545 and had some coffee at about 0930… and to kick myself for forgetting the granola bar I’d meant to bring. I was rather hungry, with not enough money on me to spend in the ritzy café downstairs. …But I am digressing…

Starship Troopers. It’s a good read and I’m about halfway through it now. The political philosophy behind it, however, tends too far toward conservatism to sit well with this mostly-libertarian (or “classical liberal,” however you’d like it). I would read along and, at intervals, lift my head from my reading and let the book sit in my lap while I contemplated it. (Incidentally, this is how I read most books. I think it’s why I’m such a slow reader. Anyway…) These contemplations mostly consisted of internal philosophizing and argumentation that I didn’t want to foist on my Latvian comrade. So I read and mentally argued, read and mentally argued.... And this kept me thoroughly occupied for the three hours. I even had the joy of finding the following quotes – two sublime, one ridiculous, but of personal interest:

On truth:
“Basic truths cannot change and once a man of insight expresses one of them it is never necessary, no matter how much the world changes, to reformulate them.”

On value:
“The best things in life are beyond money; their price is agony and sweat and devotion … and the price demanded for the most precious of all things in life is life itself – ultimate cost for perfect value.”

On… yeah :):
“We can be selective, applying precisely the required amount of pressure at the specified point at a designated time – we’ve never been told to go down and capture all left-handed redheads in a particular area, but if they tell us to, we can. We will.”
I kid you not. Guess he’s never met a left-handed redhead, huh? ;)

On that note, I shall close. May you all have a blessed Memorial Day. …I better go shut some of my windows, it’s getting rather cold.

Say What?!

These boxes are all over the city, oddly enough. I have to smile every time I see them, 'cause they remind me of something out of a weird science fiction story:
"Don't like your childhood? Have bad memories? Well, just leave your past in one of our convenient drop boxes and we'll get you a new one in no time!"

Unfortunately (or fortunately?), fiction is stranger than truth in this case. The actual truth is that the word is something like our own "post" and means something akin to "mail."

I still like my original interpretation best :).

My Not-So-Humble Abode...

This is just to give you an idea of where I'm living. Pictured is my living/dining/desking space. (For the nitpickers among you: yes, it's two pictures, shoddily edited together. I just had to get it all in somehow...)

First Impressions

*sigh* Well, I’m here :). And, happily, I’ve finally gotten the chance to sit down for a moment…

My flight was long but uneventful – the in-flight movie was good (Lemony Snickett) and the food was even tasty. No complaints there (except maybe for the fact that the flight cut my chance for sleep down to four hours… but I’ve done that before :)).

After I arrived yesterday afternoon, my day was filled with dropping my things off in my apartment, persuading the waitress at “Double Coffee” to give me ice with my chai, walking to the embassy and getting acquainted with the duties/people/funny staircases there, going to my boss’s house for dinner, getting back at 8:30 to fiddle with the technology available (TV and DSL) and mostly unpack, figuring out the optimal way to use my European-style shower-that-is-not-a-shower, and finally falling into bed at 11 and sleeping very soundly :).

Today was a little quieter, consisting mostly of work-oriented stuff. I got a nice security briefing from our chief of security (who is called, interestingly enough, Mike :)). We did take about a two hour lunch break to go to a lovely little Italian restaurant, mostly in honor of the president’s recent successful visit and partly so that I could get to know folks. …Currently, it is raining. Hard. Not the “plish, plish” sort, but the “ker-plosh, ker-plosh” sort. The “slotted sea” sort. (This is why I am blogging instead of exploring.) My walk home was, of course, a very wet one, despite an umbrella, and I am now happily relaxing and drying out. Fortunately, when it does stop raining, the place stays light until about 10, so I should be able to get in a good five hours of fun after work most days.

I think I will be able to be very happy here – both in my apartment and in this city. My apartment is hugely spacious and well furnished. The State Department provided a large trunk for whoever lives here, filled with linens, hangers, towels, cooking utensils, flashlights, etc. Also, my boss and his family put some basic items in the fridge for me: milk, juice, eggs, bread, cheese, and a couple very tasty Braeburn apples, one of which acted as this morning’s breakfast.

The city itself is also lovely, though in a different sort of way. Its buildings are almost all old and ornate, but in varying states of restoration – Soviet communism didn’t do much for upkeep. It is, somewhat surprisingly, cosmopolitan. Not in the way that Washington or London is, but it is, for example, solidly trilingual. Every menu I’ve seen has been printed in Latvian, Russian, and English. …Actually, it reminds me a lot of Rome. The street sounds are similar and, like Rome’s, never ending. Even its smell seems more like Rome than other places. London has a clean smell, but mixed with cigarette smoke and fish and chips. Washington has almost no smell at all. German cities seem to fall somewhere between the two. Riga, though, has an “old European city” smell – kind of car-ish, kind of weirdly sweet with an acrid “after smell.” In the rain, the park that lies between me and work smelled very earthy and pleasant. It made me happy :).

Anyhoo, I think that covers the basics of my first bit of time here. I ought to go unpack the rest of my stuff and look into procuring some dinner…

Preparation and Relaxation

Ah, the joys of living…

The past couple of days have been devoted, at least in policy, if not practice, to getting ready to go to Latvia. The trip to Birmingham to see extended family one last time has been made. Mom has, kindly, washed up the mountain of laundry I brought home (which really amounted to just about every piece of clothing I own). Dry cleaning has been set aside to go to the cleaners. Dad has ordered me some euros from the bank. I got a booster vaccination for hepatitis A/B and have acquired a round of typhoid pills. A dress I bought that needed to be altered has finally been dropped off at the tailor’s. Mom and I spent the late morning shopping for various items: a nice wooden cane to make getting about and travel easier, contact solution, ibuprofen, and some replacement hair implements. I sent one last email to my soon-to-be coworkers telling them what time I was getting in and asking about phones and internet connectivity.

Now one large job stares me in the face: unpack everything I brought home in order to pick out which bits need to be repacked for Latvia. So I am sitting here in the living room blogging. Such a job should not be completed on an empty stomach, I think. It should probably wait ‘til after dinner. :)

Not that I’ve worked all the time (or even most of the time), mind. Y’all know me… No, I’ve found time to visit the jewelry store where Daniel works and get some information on the newest and coolest in watches. I’ve finally watched Napoleon Dynamite (though I don’t know that that’s something to be proud of :)) and Zoolander (which, I have to say, I found highly funny). I went to a shower/reception/tea thing in honor of the graduation of a young lady and got to see a lot of high school friends there. I went to my mom’s worldviews class and saw more old friends who were also visiting. I’ve spent time laughing and talking with Luis, a Panamanian fellow from our church who’s staying with us for a little while before he returns home. Daniel and I stayed up last night to start a co-op game of Splinter Cell… a game which I think I will enjoy, now that I don’t get us killed every five minutes :).

So, that pretty much sums up life currently. Which is, not surprisingly, like life most of the time :)…