infinite in latvia

we started off our trip with a 15-hour train ride to riga, latvia.
and let me tell you what. riga far exceeded my expectations.
here are some highlights of the trip:

wandering the cobblestone streets and perusing the shops.

the beautiful riga cathedral.

and the view from the top of the cathedral was like something out of a movie.

locking our love and throwing the key in the river.

to symbolize our eternal and undying love and devotion of course.

exploring the latvian ethnographic open air museum.

imagine a viking village slash how to train your dragon village and voila! 

making new friends at our hostel.

if you ever go to riga promise me that you'll stay at friendly fun franks.

best hostel ever.

it was so fun to meet people from germany, poland, france, australia... pretty much everywhere.

it just makes me want to rob a bank and go visit all of them.

 only half joking. i won't actually rob a bank. i don't have adequate weapons.

riga had such a fun atmosphere and vibe.
and because of the fun friends we made and the experiences that we had it was one of my favorite places we visited.

on the last night that we were there courtney, marci, our new friend szymon, and i ended up wandering the streets at 2 in the morning.
there was seriously nobody else around;
it felt like we were the only people on the planet.

and i just had this moment where i thought
 i am in riga, latvia. i am surrounded by really awesome people, i'm traveling the world just like i've always dreamed. life does not get better than this.

and when i try to describe that night and those moments,
i can only think of the line from perks of being a wallflower
"and in that moment, i swear we were infinite."

life is a beautiful thing.


holla.

waddup russia

so i have arrived in russia! well actually it was a few days ago, 

but i'm just now getting around to telling you about it.

probably because it's really exhausting to blog. 

you know, sitting on your bed, having to type all sorts of letters and press all sorts of buttons. 

#first world problems.

 but the good news is that i seriously love it already.

it's amazing living in another country!

here are some brief bullety pointy type highlights and scattered thoughts from the past couple of days,

and then from now on i'll do much better at keeping up to date with things.

 

[1] overseas flights are especially fantastic when you are sitting next to an israeli man who tells you that since "you speak english so well you should probably teach him the language of love." sorry sir, i'm real busy reading my kindle at the moment.

[2] actually, overseas flights are really confusing to little brains like mine. 

because you're doing all sorts of fancy time traveling things.

[3] utah drivers have nothing on russian drivers.

we almost died twelve or one hundred times on the way home from the airport.

[4] i'm living in an apartment with marci, courtney, and megan.

i'm really excited to be living in an apartment.

minus the fact that we have zero food at the moment.

[5] i only got yelled at twice on day one by angry russians!

the first time was for paying at the grocery store in a large bill,

on a sidenote: these rubles are uber confusing. 

alla (our coordinator) told me that she was saying that i could never come to her register again because she didn't want to give me change.

really lady? it will take you like one second.

shortly after the angry checkout lady i accidentally hopped a blocked off area 

which is normal to do, right? nope. no it is not. then an angry security guard actually cusses you out.

[6] i like riding the metro. 

it just confirms to me that i want to live in a big city someday.

preferably somewhere where i speak the language though.

[7] americans are chubby and lazy.

or maybe it's just me.

these russians are all little skinny's.

probably because they walk everywhere. 

hopefully my body will take note of all of the walking i'm doing.

[8] i am loving the style over here. 

there are some very well dressed people.

like lots of these russian men sure know how to dress well.

and some of them are not even as hideous as everybody made them out to be.

[9] i could take a picture of every building here.

the architecture is beautiful.

and those are my thoughts for now.

i told you they would be scattered. 

and now that i have an exciting life, 

i'll be blogging all sorts of shiz so prepare to feast your eyes kids!

 [view from our apartment]

 [courtney and marci. cooool cats]

 [representing our asian heritage of course]

[rocking the soggy hair look. there's nothing better]

i like this place.

holla.