Feel free to Laugh

Well, welcome to my Pictureless blog. I would like to put a picture on there but because everything is in Latvian im not too sure what im doing and i only got this far with lots of help.
I was'nt going to write a blog at all, one of the main reasons for this as people who know me well can agree to is the fact that I can't spell. I like to think this is because I dont feel I have to adhere to the rules of spelling that at I'm an individual and that don't have to follow the crowd with correct spelling and proper grammer an all that. The truth is I'm just not that bright.

I've decided to write a blog because........well because I'm in Latvia and itš all very surreal and funny and i have to share this experience with my friends and family so that they can laugh at my misfortunes.
If you don't know I am currently in Latvia for ten months doing volunteer youth work, after i came back from India I was restless and I needed one more adventure, I applied for a placement on the EVS scheme and three weeks later I'm in Latvia changing my opinion about how blogs are a waste of time.
My tale starts at the airport, where the first surreal moment of the adventure happened. I met Tom Waits. Now if your not sure who he is, thats fine but for those who do I hope you can understand my excitment. For those who dont know who he is, he is an American singer/āctor who has made some seminal albums in his time and stars in one of my favourite films of all time "Wristcutters: A love story"
Now by living in Plymouth, you don't really get the chance to meet many famous people, before Mr Waits or for his friends Tom, the most famous person i have seen was Bobby Zamora the footballer for Fulham and even then I was awestruck and blurted out a nonsensical remark about football. So meeting Tom was strange the first thing I said was "hey i dont want to desturb you......but i love your work" i got a nod and a thank you and that pretty much made the trip worthwhile.....welll until the palne landed.

What do you picture in your head when I mention Latvia, is it cold, grey, dull, well your mostly right, its peacefull too and with some nice sights so far and soon it will be snowing which will make everything look less grey and more.......white i suppose.
The first thing i noticed about the language was that they all sounded like the characters from the computer game "the Sims". They are direct in how they speak but they are also friendly with a dry sense of humour. I was picked up from the airport in Riga and then had to walk to one of the volunteers apartment. This was made a little more difficult as i was wearing a heavy back pack and dragging a suitcase that weighed 22 kg and then i found out that the appartment was on the fith floor of her building.
The houses in Riga are small and quaint, you can tell that these are hard times for Latvia and they are also sufferring from the world wide recession at the moment. There are rough areas with many direlect houses but you can find an area like that in any city ( especially in Plymouth). I tried latvian tea, im still not sure what was in it but it tasted good i think it was peppermint and had pasta for supper than off i travelled to meet one of the project co-ordinators who was driving us to Gulbene where the project is which took three hours in the car. Before hand i had to ask her to use the toilet which she replied "you go toilet Latvia style"which meant pissing next to a tree, even thousands of miles apart english people and Latvians are not too different after all.

I have written far too much for the first part, the second blog will be about my tiny apartment with a shower that smells and my flatmate and the other oddballs and freindly people i have met so far, plus the raido staion that palys cover versions of old classic songs yesterday i heard "hit the road jack"in Latvian very odd.
I hope all is well England and look of out for Blog 2 titled "thank god for the Brian Jones Town Massacre"
From Sonny Short