NSLI-Y 2025 Latvia – Week 5
Welcome back to our adventures in Latvia! We can’t believe we’ve finished our fifth week of the program, and only have one week before we return home! This week’s blog is written by students Orion and Rowan, who stepped up to share their experiences from this past week in Riga.
Привет, приветствия из Риги! Hello, greetings from Riga. This is Orion and Rowan, and we are excited to share with you how Week 5 of NSLI-Y Riga is going thus far!
Our entire cohort has greatly improved our Russian language skills, with a lot of help from our wonderful Russian teachers and overseas partners. On Monday, we had our Russian language instruction from 9 AM until 1 PM at a local university here in Riga, an hour of lunch at a delicious Latvian restaurant nearby the school, and our RD meeting. In our RD meeting, we learned about the collapse of the Soviet Union, where Dr. Dreeze passionately explained the nuance surrounding the dissolution of the Soviet Union and how its history has affected the geopolitics and ethnic politics of the Republic of Latvia.
On Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon, our cohort had the afternoons free to explore Riga. After language classes, one group of students went to the The Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia, where they explored the rich culture of Latvia. At the Ethnographic Museum, Silvano, Casey, Evie, Xavier, and Zoe learned about the artisanal history of Riga when potters, weavers, blacksmiths and woodworkers kept the ancient city thriving. Another group within the cohort browsed the buzzing Central Market where local merchants, farmers and fishermen gather to exchange produce, souvenirs and seafood. Michael, Veronica, Amayah, Daxton, and I (Orion) practiced our Russian when sampling an assortment of chocolates, fruits, and seafood. They were amazed by the freshness of the goods at the market and the affordable prices. In addition, many students blew off some steam by trying their hand at bowling in Latvia. On Wednesday morning, we had the wonderful opportunity to hear from two U.S. Foreign Service Officers stationed at the U.S. Embassy in Riga. The two FSOs discussed their journey into the foreign service, what they do from day to day for their job, and answered all of our questions.
On Thursday, our cohort had the incredible opportunity to visit the Latvian Presidential Palace – an honor not many students get to have! On the tour, we visited the many rooms of the presidential palace including a “fan favorite,” the presidential gift room, where gifts from foreign countries to the Latvian President are kept on display. We were excited to see the jersey and shoes of NBA power forward and center Kristaps Porziņģis’ jersey. Other interesting gifts were a bowl from Barack Obama and a plate from George W. Bush!
On Friday, we continued working on short films that we’ve been making in small groups with our peer partners. Making these short films have put our acting, filming, and, of course, our Russian skills to the test. During our next and last peer partner meeting, we will show our final short films. We are very excited to show off our skills, everything we’ve learned, and watch our peers’ films! Each group of students has been working very hard on their respective movies, and we are very grateful for our peer partners for providing us with support at all steps in the process, especially the Russian language scriptwriting.
On Saturday, we were treated to a tour of the Lāči factory and a bread making workshop. We learned about the importance of bread in Latvian culture and about the 32 year history of the Lāči company and its bread. During our tour, we saw how Latvian rye bread (and the many snacks that it used in) is made. We also tried our hand at baking our own Latvian confections, including cinnamon rolls and pizza using Lāči’s all-natural yeast-fermented dough. Our baked goods were очень вкусно! In our remaining time at the factory, we climbed the world famous Lāči Tower and talked about our plans for our final week in Riga.
During the rest of the weekend, our cohort explored different parts of Riga and even different parts of Latvia. We cannot believe that we are approaching our last week so quickly! We are sad to be leaving so soon, but we are also excited for what is left in store for us during our time in Riga, Latvia. We can’t wait to tell our families and friends back home about our adventures this summer!
Michael throwing down a strike at a local bowling alley!
Xavier, Evie, Silvano and Zoe enjoying the ethnographic museum.
Michael talks to Veronica about the artifacts at the President of Latvia’s gift room. Daxton in the background.
The cohort inside of the Latvian Presidential Palace.
Michael “locked-in” on making his dessert at the Lãči bread factory.
Astrid, Evie, Xavier and Zoe inside of the Presidential Palace.
Group photo of cohort and other Baltic Center students after the talk by the visiting FSOs.