Of culture

There's a puzzling term in 8 key competences - the base of a large part of non-formal education theory - called Cultural expression. Also they speak of Sense of belonging in context of, for instance, active or european citizenship. I didn't give weight and couldn't understand for a long time what these interesting people are talking about.

And it was worth it - leave home for 3 months just to get to know myself.

I've never given a lot of worth to my personal culture. I even had doubts it existed - I'm simply russian, just in Latvia. I started having some questions when I was in Russia for the first time. Why don't we understand each other? How can they tell who's local and who's not?
I also got something from a week-long russian-speaking camp in Saints-Petersburg. I was mistaken for a local a few times, but I had someone to compare to - representatives of Russia, Ukraine, Belarus and russian-speaking minorities of the Baltic states. It was a wide specter of slavs, actually. And it was marvelous experience as I realize now.

I am a part of a small, on a world's scale, part of society - russian-speakers of Latvia. To foreigners I'm totally russian. To russians I'm totally european. What am I then?

I listen to Brainstorm / Prāta vētra in 3 languages, but I especially love them in latvian, because the lyrics are more sincere;
I don't understand blat and vodka;
I speak milder russian, but I don't pronounce latvian long-vowel nuances;
I jump in joy at the sight of signboard in russian in any country of CIS and I use metro even if I need to go just one bus stop;
I drink estonian liqueur and swear in lithuanian because latvian doesn't have swear words (neither does lithuanian, but that doesn't matter much);

Anyway, you can see all of those things. But the feeling you can't see. I want to speak latvian, I want to listen to and let others hear Prāta Vētra, I want to tell stories about small streets of Old Riga and about cape Kolka, which I visited just twice. I want to go to my shallow sea, which is really a gulf, but that fact doesn't matter!

I make jokes about my proud pigmy-sized kingdom and love it dearly.

I'm not russian living in Latvia. I come from Latvia.

Holidays

Spent a week in Latvia. Had 2 reasons - get a new visa and work on my university. Also got a lucky chance to participate in an exchange evaluation seminar from National Agency of Latvia. Got an impression that Latvia still has small experience in youth exchanges and Non-formal Education. Can't wait to return for good and get to work...

All in all my visa was ready in a day. Looks like a letter from Minsk City Executive Committee cancels all kinds of bureaucracy and stalls. Now I have 90 days during a year to get a temporary living permission. My EVS still counts 9 months.

My university didn't work out that well. I finished the theoretical part of my thesis, but I'll have to write the practical part in Belarus. Didn't write an application to reinstate also. If I don't get it till end of May... There's always next year. :)

It's interesting that in a week I got more calls from friends than in previous half a year. Turns out I've got a lot of them.

Experienced mentors advise not to stall home if the project is not over. So I got some summer clothes, 2 cans of home-made pickles and I'm going back.