Arrival!

I am here safe and sound and am busy learning and soaking everything in. The people I have been meeting are great, and I look forward to getting to know them better. At this point in time I am mostly tagging along to see how things work here, and to observe. Eventually I will become more active in ministry. I arrived on Friday afternoon after 4 flights finally ending in Riga, and was greeted with hugs and smiling faces of the mission team that I am joining here- Pastor Mark and Rose who are career missionaries here as well as Kathleen who is also a DCE intern. I learned one Latvian trend already within the airport-it is that there is always an occasion for fresh cut flowers (they are very common to get for special occasions, or just because!) It is a beautiful practice!

Thus far I have...

*Eaten some Latvian food a few times, and thus far have not had anything that I don't like.

*Learned usage of "Thank you", "Yes" & "No"...and I'll work on building a larger vocabulary.

*Successfully purchased groceries! This may seem like no big deal, but with the help of Rose and Kathleen, it was easier than I thought it would be... though I did play it safe, and stuck with staple items.

*Gone to the Harvest Festival (held right outside of my temporary apartment!) and seen traditional Latvian dances, heard various types of traditional music, and seen some of their local handicrafts.

*Gone to Church! We have an English service at the Dome Cathedral, which is great! Pastor Krause leads it, and the rest of us help with set up (i just watched this time) and take down. Afterward everyone at the service is welcomed to join us for lunch out somewhere inexpensive and have good conversation, learn about each other, where we came from and how we ended up in Riga. Today we went as a group of 11!

Riga is a very beautiful city, and the weather has been abnormally warm. Tomorrow it is supposed to get cool again, which will be normal. I have really not done too much exploration of the city as of yet. This is a VERY musical place, in fact right now, outside my window there is a young man playing Greensleeves on an accordion!

I must quit writing for now, I am headed to a BBQ. I look forward to sharing more, and photos will be added (hopefully) by later today!