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11-08-2010, 05:05 PM
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That fall you had on your snowboard sounds very serious. Just as well the helmet did actually protect you. do you still snowboard? You'd get on well with GONATIVE I bet. I shall look up Cesis on the net see if I can get some idea about it. I will be honest-- I know nothing about Latvia so thanks so much for telling us a little. 
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11-08-2010, 05:30 PM
dogsbody. the city is going to be Capital of Culture for 2014.
here are some pics. FOTO: Cēsis naktī : Diena.lv http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/p...um/1890066.jpg well as you said. you can simply google it. about the accident. i dont do it any more. it was time when getting badly hurt, which i did, didn't matter at all. i was so reckless - in my first year i already started doing tricks on Big Air. all the time up until that point with the rail i was lucky because i witnessed several of my friends with broken arms, legs etc. P.S Latvia in a nutshell. for 700 years we were basically owned by german landlords as white slaves - owned, sold just like black people. ~1870 we became independent. around 1900 latvia was among top in europe in terms of growth - had huge bacon, wheat, butter export. then came ww1. and then ww2 with occupation from germany, then russia ( with deportations and all the other extras that come with it) up until 1991 with the fall of CCCR. now its crisis and government sucks 
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11-08-2010, 05:35 PM
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Hello Noodle--It seems unusual indeed living in different parts of the world and having to adapt. Thing is that NOW-- I should think that with your varied language and culture skills that could be a real PLUS for you as a career? have you thought of writing a book about your life so far? what would you like to feel like-- really-- where are you happiest or have some sense of Belonging? It must be incredibly hard trying to adapt but also could their be bonuses because of all your experiences do you have siblings?
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11-08-2010, 05:40 PM
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I shall read up some more Ps well if it will be the capital of culture in 2014 that is a good sign. I must admit I like the look of the place-- well worth visiting I imagine. what was the education like where you lived in the country? Your English is excellent-- so you must have worked really hard.
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11-08-2010, 06:01 PM
study really hard ^^
no i didn't. i attended one of 14 national schools of Latvia (title is given if some 97% of schools students have levels of C,B,A) and i never had to study english to get along. even now i have only simplistic understanding of all the times - present perfect, past continuous etc. you could say i've developed a kind of sense of how to use the language - what time is used when and things like that when i simply see the text. english classes - didn't attend half of them and never did my homework teacher gave me 6 at the end of the 12th grade yet i scored at the very top at the exams.
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11-08-2010, 06:40 PM
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I spent my childhood between countries: America and Australia. Basically, I was born in Queensland, Australia - moved to Hawaii - moved to California - moved back to Australia - moved back to California. The most I've spent in either country is 10 years, which is right now. I don't really have a place to consider my original home. I have no original culture to refer to, just a mash-up of the things I've observed and experienced. I didn't have a problem adapting, but I never truly fit in, either. I have very nationally and ethnically diverse relatives and very close family friends of diverse origins... A Czech grandmother, Egyptian cousin, American aunty, Filipino uncle -- Indian, Chinese, Hawai'ian, Japanese, Maori, etc. -- rich, poor, medium class... I've grown to know many different lifestyles because of this. I stayed in several locations in Australia. Lightening Ridge. One of my grandmothers lived in a fairly remote, rural area. We lived with her for a while. The nearest neighbor was about a 10-minute walk away. The nearest town was about a 30-minute drive away. The community was fairly close. Everyone knew eachother. I loved the atmosphere. Every morning, you could hear nothing but nature; the birds. The air was cool and fresh, with a slight taste of eucalyptus. Almost everyone had a dog, so the dogs would roam around or hang out at people's houses. This one particular dog took to liking me, so she would wait outside our house and follow me around everywhere she could... my little guardian. It was perfectly fine to wander around freely during the day, as long as you were careful about snakes -- and large bodies of water. The town was known for its Opals, so my family and I would do some amateur opal collecting during our stay. We didn't find the 40 lb. monster we were hoping for, but we filled a few jars with pretty little ones, just for memories. Most evenings, the neighbors would gather at our place for some BBQ and beer. They were hardy folk, but friendly. This one man would catch the large, bearded lizards creeping about his property. He brought some to show me before he went out to release them. I lived in a USMC base in Hawai'i. K-Bay. My stepfather was a U.S. Marine, at the time. Our entire suburban neighborhood was made up of military families. It's safe to say the area was neat, and the people were generally very polite. I was a child model back then, so we would often drive to the big cities so I could wear fancy clothes and a big smile, say corny jokes, and take some pictures. It was a fun place to live. ... Though, they did have a centipede and fire ant problem in the area I was living, when I was there. I had pet rabbits... until a centipede found its way into their cage. And those dangerous critters weren't small... almost a foot long, from what I can remember. As a kid, you also had to make sure you didn't roll around on the ground, because once you had rolled over a fire ant colony, you'd be painfully informed. Of course, accidentally stepping on one was hard to avoid sometimes, also. I've lived in California for a little over half my life. Richmond. We had African-American relatives whom we stayed with for a while. The American mainland is considerably different from Hawai'i. It was here that I became familiar with the less innocent aspects of life: Of course, there's a lot of good things to be said about California, but, in terms of contrast in my experiences, this is a notable detail. It's a little more worrying strolling down the streets here. I'm familiar with a lot of good people, but also a lot of bad. I've heard gunshots outside my window, seen crime scenes with the bodies still laying on the floor, witnessed drugs being bought and sold... lol. It's not as bad as it sounds, trust me. I'm primarily referring to a certain area of America which is uniquely known for its crime; the less glamorous spots of California. And it is definitely possible to come here and not experience it. I was fairly well known at my school when I came here. I still had my Australian accent. Interesting enough, I also found that I was somewhat more athletic than most of the kids at my school. When I was in Australia, we would run a lot... and I was usually the slowest. However, moving to CA, I could outrun almost everybody. Oh, and is it strange to walk around with no shoes? lol ... Anyway, sorry for writing a book. I'm home, sick, so there's not much I can do. I left out a lot of details but tried to include as much as I could. The world is a beautiful place. I would like to believe I've seen some great things... some people here have traveled more than me, and I could only imagine what they've experienced. I definitely wouldn't want to live life not seeing what it was like in another country. People are people; the sky is the sky; the ocean is the ocean... No. You can learn a lot by just visiting and observing. It can also help you better appreciate where you came from.
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11-08-2010, 07:59 PM
Alright then... To continue... lol
The hurricanes aren't so bad, really... We dodge bullets with them for the most part... Hurricane season lasts from June first to the end of November, so we're almost done with it this year with no major storms to report *knock on wood*... Actually going below ground in a hurricane would be a bad idea, due to the amount of water they put down, not to mention that here in Florida because of us being pretty much at sea level and there not being a whole lot of ground between us and water it would be very rare to find a house with anything resembling a basement... What they do in the case of people whose houses wouldn't be safe for the storms they open up schools and other safe buildings as shelters from the storms... The storms are pretty much cells of low atmospheric pressure that gain good circulation, they are stronger when they have good, warm tropical conditions to strengthen... It is not typical to see storms before or after season for that reason, but there have been storms that occur earlier than June or after November (they are exceedingly rare due to conditions not being ideal for their formation and development.)... Pretty much the warmer it is, the better chance that a storm will form (water temp, anyway) as long as there is low pressure that can circulate, and no high pressure fronts or even opposing low pressure fronts tear away at it... I think so long as the immigrants take the initiative to learn english they can take jobs from locals... A lot of jobs that are posted in classifieds and whatnot want bilingual people, so long as those languages are english and spanish... So there goes my french and german knowledge not needed (and so much forgotten due to that fact) and i'm teaching myself Japanese why? lol...
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11-08-2010, 08:19 PM
I grew up in an urban environment-the capital city. Under the dictatorship at the time, one wasn't allowed to ride a bicycle on the street or sidewalk. That was relegated to certain areas of parks, specially designated for pedal-powered vehicles. The grass was off limits, so one couldn't picnic in the parks. They had to go to the forests in the outskirts of the city to picnic. Crime was lower than it is now for the paramilitary police was somewhat brutal with criminals. It was safe to walk the streets at night. Since it was all I knew at the time, I couldn't compare it with anywhere else. Now that I've traveled to many places, I still see this city as one of my favorite. Much has changed there with democracy. Can you guess the city? It's not in South America, if you were aiming that way.... It's in Europe, believe it or not.
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11-09-2010, 04:14 PM
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Please tell us JOHN. If you gave me a year-- it might help me guess.
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