Tuesday, 10 June 2014

My childhood - Part 1

Alright then! It has been over a week since my last post, so, if I want for this blog to go as intended, I will tell you guys something about myself.

Some of you might already follow me on Facebook or on Google+(I don't really use Google+), so you probably already know what kind of guy I am, but for the others - let me tell you the story of my life.

For formal introductions - hello, my name is Rihards Zeila, and I am 21 years old guy from Latvia.
Most of my childhood I spent in the far-east of my country, changing my place of residence ever so often. Since my parents were young, and none of them had a secure job at first, we had to move from one town to another, looking for any kind of job opportunities. Those were the times, when Latvia had just gained its independence from the USSR - I was born a year after that(1992), so the times were though, since the concept of a country named "Latvia" only had started to develop, never to mention all the economical problems we had to face.
My mom was pregnant with me when she was in the last year of her Bachelor's studies as an Elementary school teacher, so she had to go to a lot of trouble to get her diploma and writing her thesis, while actually nursing me in the last several months of her college. After her studies she moved to the eastern-part of Latvia - Latgale, where she was originally from. One thing to mention is that the biggest city in the Latgale was Daugavpils with around 90 000 inhabitants, and, apart from that, the region was and still is filled with small villages with population of just several thousand. There she had to get a job without any previous job experience and with a child on her hands(me), which at that point wasn't an easy thing to do, but was not impossible.

Typical Latvian country house

My father had graduated from a technical school as a counting-machine technician, but actually couldn't do much with his education, because at that point of time people already started to use more advanced technologies, so counting-machine technicians weren't in demand. Because of that he had to take various contract-jobs in order to get enough money to provide for our family. In fact, he wasn't even in Latvia at the moment of my birth, because he was smuggling motorbike parts over the border, which at that time was quite profitable. Let's just say, that he was good at finding ways how to earn some extra cash.
This went on for couple of years - my mom working as an elementary school teacher and my father taking on various jobs all over Latgale, until we finally settled in a city of Rezekne - the birthplace of my mother, and later on my sister as well.


...To be continued

Tuesday, 20 May 2014

Welcome!

Welcome to my newly created blog! 

I have intended to use this blog as a source of expressing my thoughts, emotions and suggestions about various events happening in Latvia, and sometimes in my private life as well.
However, I don't want this to be a dry and formal blog, that only states some numerical facts. What I want is to share some of my own experience and impressions about this wonderful country. Not from governmental, diplomatic or news-like way. The information given here will be from the perspective of everyday normal citizen - me.
I have also compiled some information and created some pages to make things clearer for you. This covers:

  • Information about the country itself (Location, weather, state symbols, etc.)
  • Interesting facts about Latvian people
  • Some hints about our culture, habits and history
  • Descriptive photo and music galleries

To make a short introduction to the country I love, I can offer you the brief introductory video below. Directed by Ivo Kalpenieks, this video expands on Latvia's tourism slogan "The Land that Sings" by conveying the sights and sounds of Latvian nature, business and tourism. Riga's familiar Jugenstil architecture comes to life as the distinctive stone faces introduce each segment of the video.




I hope that you will enjoy the reading process as much I will enjoy the writing!

Also, if there is a topic you would like for me to write, do not hesitate to leave it in the comments section. Alternatively, you can reach me through my e-mail rihards.zeila@gmail.com 

Best, Rihards Zeila