2012 in short ^^

Hi everyone! :)

Today I finally decided to sum up all this year's events - thanks to Ksu for the idea :) Last time I did it in 2009, when I didn't have this blog, just a personal one, and then half of the events was related to F1. Today I'll try not to write much about it :D So...

January.

This year I finally started outside Latvia - in Tallinn, and first day of the year I also spent in Estonia, this time - in Rakvere :) Of course, then I had the craziest session in my life at university with many hard exams (like biochemistry), but, as I'm an optimist, I passed everything. And I was crazy enough to buy a ticket to Nightwish concert in Helsinki! Finally visited a zoo, was at Evita's birthday party and met many new friends, and our Team Drosera got to the finals of world's Biomimicry Design Challenge.

February.

This was a month of traditions - I went to Jelgava to see ice sculptures, as I do it every year, and me & my girls also went to many parties, as we usually do it in winter. For the first time I was at some Latvian TV show to support my friend Linda (before I just sat in the audience, doing nothing). And event of the month (maybe even of the year) - our biomimicry team got 2nd place in 2011 Biomimicry Design Challenge! I never thought something like this could ever be a reality!

March.

It wouldn't be an interesting month at all, but everything was decided in January - and in March I went to Helsinki to make one of my dreams (seeing Nightwish live) come true. In Finland I met two awesome girls I knew before just through our blogs - Katja and Ksu, and also Katja's husband :) One more event - F1 season started finally, and Kimi Raikkonen joined Lotus F1 team, so I became much crazier about F1 than in previous years ^^ And I bought myself an mp3 player I wanted for a long time.

April.

The month was crazy, as I was dealing with my course work, but also full of events. We celebrated Easter and I had some holidays finally, tried Ksu's strange recipe of dumpling soup, started my velo-season and followed one more tradition - went to take photos of windflowers (and for the first time I climbed up such a high and unstable tower) ^^ And on last day of April me and Dad saw Jackie Chan in Jelgava - one more thing I never thought would come true sometimes :D

May.

As always, this month is full of learning and nothing else, but I finally wrote and answered my course work (which is a big event) and did many other things for university that seemed unreal. And it was a month of hockey - of course, I hoped that Finland will win again, but they were just 4th... And I was at the zoo one more time, as we had a lecture there and also at botanical garden :)

June.

First two weeks I spent sleeping, and then started my planned trips around Latvia by my bike - this time I drove from Valmiera to Cēsis. The nature and cities are beautiful, but roads are for better sportsmen than me :D I also was in Roja finally (last time I was there in 2009), went to my friends graduation (they got bachelor's degree) and celebrated Jāņi with girls from my school, as always :)

July.

It was the month that I didn't spend at home at all - maybe just 2 or 3 nights :D First we had a field practice in Taurene with my biologists for two weeks - even though we had to learn there, we spent a wonderful time, drinking milk, eating strawberries, petting bats and running around with GPS or watching birds. And I discovered many new places, as I went there by my bike ^^ Then I celebrated Sea & Fishermen festival in Roja with my friends and family and went to Helsinki to meet Katja once again and see Finnish nature and other places I haven't been to ^^

August.

It also started not at home, as I went to one more field practice with my biologists - this time at Kolka ^^ I spent there 1,5 weeks, we saw many other places, not just Kolka, and some of us helped to organize Insects Night once again. My friend Žanete turned 21, so me and my friends from school went to Sigulda to celebrate it, some days after had a bike trip to Garciems and went to Brainstorm concert. And I did one more thing I wanted - went to Bolderāja by my bike, setting a personal record - 63,27 km in one day :) I was at Roja once again, collected some data for my bachelor's work with my teacher, went mushrooming and was at the zoo for the third time to see Gentoo penguins ^^

September.

New study year I started at Kolka, as every year there is an event Night on the Cape for 1st course, and we organized everything and had some fun, of course :) I was at the zoo once again at the Giraffe Day :D Lectures started at university, so there were many things related to them - going to zoo once again (:D), going to botanical garden, going to the forest to pick mushrooms... Went to Daugavgrīva Fortress once again by my bike, took part in a Latvian TV show `Precamies`, worked at mushroom exhibition at Museum of Nature and met Latvian racing driver Haralds Šlēgelmilhs ^^

October.

Finally I started attending Finnish language courses I wanted for such a long time ^^ Of course, continued driving around by my bike, taking photos of awesome fog, sailing ship `Mir` and birds, lake Baltezers (one more thing from my `must go there by my bike` list) and many other things. Was at many great parties like Biologist Night, and celebrated my 21st birthday with so many people and great events I couldn't even dream of :) And took part in this years Biomimicry Design Challenge. And got first snow ^^

November.

It also wasn't an interesting month, so I tried to remember, how to draw and started writing about my previous trips here :) Followed a tradition of visiting Candle Night at the graveyard and had some great parties again. The show I took part at was finally shown on TV, Kimi Raikkonen won his first F1 race after his comeback, I finished my Finnish language courses and got 1st level and also F1 season finished finally, with Sebastian Vettel becoming a world champion once again :)

December.

Last month of the year started with taking part in a movie about economics of Latvia, that was filmed in my faculty. I got a Christmas card from Ksu and it started snowing finally here, almost all month was full with snow ^^ And I was at two Christmas balls - first with my friends from school, then with friends from university, finally had a chance to dance ^^ I also bought myself a Christmas present - long awaited Nokia N9. At Christmas I visited my grandma, then took photos of Christmas trees and yesterday went ice skating with my friends (post about it coming soon). And that's all, I guess ^^

And some more things to sum up.

• Wish of the year: To become crazier and not to be afraid of meeting unknown people - done :)
• Band of the year: Ensiferum - didn't listen to them before and it was my mistake.
• Album of the year: Nightwish - Imaginaerum - I don't care that it was released last year, every song from it reminds me of something awesome this year ^^
• Song of the year: Nightwish - Escapist.
• Place of the year: Riga zoo, I guess, I was there 5 times :D
• City of the year: Helsinki ^^
• Book of the year: Jules Vernes `The Mysterious Island`. It couldn't be any other book.
• Person of the year: Kimi Raikkonen ^^ This year he proved once again that he's awesome :)
• Colour of the year: black.
• Extreme of the year: climbing up the tower for monitoring forest fires.
• Food of the year: our special field practice soup (from everything you can find) :D
• Movie of the year: I will name `Hobbit`, even though I haven't seen it yet.
• Feeling of the year: happiness when wishes come true ^^
• Language of the year: Finnish ^^
• Best month of the year: July and August, I couldn't choose one.
• Tradition of the year: girls evenings at folk club `Ala`.
• Gift of the year: mobile phone ^^
• Goal of the year: to drive more than 1000 km on my bike. I did 1117 km this year ^^

I guess, my year was quite good :) So, what was yours? ^^

Have fun and take care in 2013! :))

Photopost: Christmas in Riga (35 photos)

As its Christmas Eve today, I finally went to the city centre to search for some Christmas trees :) There are many of them, as Art Academy of Latvia organize an event called `Way of Christmas trees` or `Ziemassvētku egļu ceļš` in Latvian. There are many different objects, but I didn't take photos of all of them, as it was very cold and we have a snowstorm today. Look what I've got for you :)

The Flying Tree (author: Studio des Fetes Latvija) / Christmas tree at Esplanade park

And also at Esplanade park is the Kingdom of Rabbits! ^^ There are 46 cute rabbits there, many houses for them and you also can feed rabbits with carrots and special cookies :)

Snow in Riga ^^

Heey! ^^

Finally I found some time and took some new photos to write a post here :) I never thought this study semester would be so hard that I won't have some time to post something here. But it seems that last few weeks always are crazy - I have two exams next week, have to write an essay about birds, do a homework about cluster analysis and analyze a scientific paper once again. And I'm totally ill now, we have to hand in our biomimicry project until 16th of December, tomorrow is a big Christmas ball to which I must go with my friends, and on Sunday Linda will celebrate her birthday, so I can't stay home. But you know, I love to complain about lack of time - it becomes a bit easier for me if I write everything here :)

First of all - once again, thank you, Ksu, for a cute Christmas card that arrived last week! Your wish (you know which one ^^) made my day! I hope it really will come true sometimes :)

Last Saturday I walked a bit around city center with my camera and took some photos. I really must find some free time and walk around there longer, taking photos of Christmas trees :) I did it in 2008 already, and now it's time to do it once again.

This is at the Bastion Hill's park :)
And these are photos from my mobile phone :)

The city canal. The clock you can see on this photo is at the main railway station of Riga :)

Christmas tree near the Congress House and Christmas decorations on Antonijas street.

And yesterday was the `magic date` - 12.12.12. :) How did you spend it? I even woke up earlier than always to take this photo:

And that's all, I guess, for today :) Now I just must survive until the evening of 18th December and then I'll have winter holidays ^^
How are you doing, my dear readers ? ^^
Have a nice day and enjoy winter!

Budapest, Hungary, 2009

Hey! ^^

Finally I'm here with a post about Hungary, where I was in July 2009. As you know, I'm a big formula-1 fan, and every fan must attend at least one race. My choice was Budapest, as it's one of cheapest races and it's quite easy to get there. And also everyone who was there says the city itself is very beautiful. I spent in Budapest just 4 days (and 3 of them I spent at Hungaroring), and I haven't many photos and also didn't walk around the city very much. So my first advice for you - if you have a chance to visit Budapest, spend there at least a week to see everything :)

View from a plane

We started our trip at about 11 a.m., took a plane to Prague, and then to Budapest, so we arrived there just at the evening (by the way, almost all photos are taken at the evenings). But as it's quite easy to get to the city from Ferihegy airport, we managed also to walk around a bit.

Me on TV :D

Hey! ^^

The aim of todays post was to put here a link, where you can watch the TV show `Precamies` that I was in some time ago. Yesterday it was finally showed on TV :) For me, Linda and the rest of our friends, of course, it was so fun to watch it :D

The show you can watch here. I really don't know if it's possible to see it, if you're not from Latvia, so please let me know if it's not :) If so, I made some print-screens of this video for you:

It's Linda, Samanta and me.

I was talking something there :D

In our room :)

And I also applied for filming in a video about economics in Latvia, as they will film it in our faculty of biology :) We will have to `pass an exam` this Sunday :D
And yes - I think many countries got some snow this week ^^ It's so white around, but I guess it will melt soon... But today I took some photos :) On my balcony some grass grows, and today it was covered by ice and looked so beautiful :)

Have a nice evening and enjoy the snow ^^
P.S. I still remember about my promise to write a post about Hungary, so hopefully I'll do it this weekend :)

Party, Candle Night & Elephants

Heey! ^^

I decided to write this post to show you some photos :) Today I finally told this presentation to the teacher from Sweden, and again I realised how much I don't like talking in English :D But I hope it was ok.

On Friday my friend Sandra celebrated her birthday (which she will have on 28th of November). We went to folk club `Ala` (or `Cave` in English) again (I think I could live there) and spent a nice evening :)

Sandra's home-made cake

Me, Sandra and Evita

And yesterday, as it was a Candle Night (I wrote about it here also in 2010), I went to graveyard. I guess, you already know that I'm a bit weird girl, but one more thing I really love is walking at a graveyard. It's such a peaceful feeling there, fresh air... Yesterday there also was a fog, so everything looked like from a bit scary fairytale ^^

And about elephants. More than a week ago in Riga five elephants, who arrived for a show to Riga circus, were walked around streets. I didn't read about this event earlier and went shopping that day, so just at the evening I found out about them... I wish I was there, as I love elephants so much! One of my first childhood memories is related to elephants - when I went to the zoo and our two elephants were inside, it was possible to reach them. I always took apples to the zoo and gave them to elephants, they took it with their wet trunks... So cute!

Picture from delfi.lv. If you want to see more pictures, click here.

And yes - yesterday Sebastian Vettel became three times World Champion in F1 ^^ The race was really crazy, sometimes I didn't even understand, what's actually happening, but I love races like these ^^ Also Raikkonen did a funny mistake - he wanted to return back on track, using some other way (he did it so in 2001 already), but this time the gates were closed :D

And a team radio from Abu Dhabi. `Just leave me alone, I know what I'm doing!` Kimi is a legend! I'm so glad to be his fan ^^

Have a nice evening! ^^

Hey!

While it's not time yet to go to my Finnish courses, I'm trying to translate a crazy text about Elias Lönnrot (author of Kalevala) & decided that I must write something here :)

Two weeks ago I went to my grandma's friends house, as they have a new dog called Bella and I really wanted to see her. Spent a nice evening there, but the puppy was so crazy that I couldn't even take normal photos and was totally tired after just one evening and a football game with her :D

Isn't she cute? ^^

And last week I finally went shopping. Bought a blouse, boots & a knitted dress (that's called `I don't wear dresses` :D )

This week is a bit busy for me because of many homeworks and on Monday I'll have to tell about an article at ecology lecture in English, as its author from Sweden will arrive... Why he's not from Finland? :D Also I have to find some information for this years Biomimicry Design Challenge... I'm not in a team this year, but two girls who are don't even go to meetings.
And this Friday my friend Sandra will celebrate her 21st birthday, so it's gonna be fun. And this weekend is also a final race of this year in F1. I hope Sebastian Vettel will become a champion again (it will be three in a row for him, but still I would like it more than if Alonso becomes a champion).

And finally my this week's song. I'm totally addicted to slow ones right now. And I really love lyrics of this song.

Have a nice evening, my dear readers! ^^

P.S. I hope next week I'll have time to write about another trip to some country. So I let you to choose the country (just name it and if I was there, I'll write about it ^^).

P.P.S. The show `Precamies` I was at some time ago will be shown on TV on 29th of November. I hope it will be published online, then I'll post a link here :)

Karelia, Russia, 2008

Heeey! ^^

A week has passed since my last post, and today I'll take you to a little excursion around Karelia. If talking about nature, it was the best trip ever in my life. Such an awesome northern nature, many lakes, cliffs, waterfalls and forests... I can show these photos forever, I guess :) And the post will be really long (I just don't want to divide it into two or more posts).

Vyg river

We went to Karelia in August 2008 with a group of people by bus. It's the best way to explore this awesome part of Russia. First we went to Novgorod, and our first stop was Alexander-Svirsky monastery. We visited many churches during that trip, and in all of them girls had to wear dresses, and I looked great with a dress, as I didn't take my jeans & sweater off :D. We had an excursion around monastery, drank some holy water in a chapel and saw many photos on the wall.

Alexander-Svirsky monastery

Crete, Greece 2007

Hi, my dear readers! :)

As it's November already and it's not a nice time of the year to go somewhere and take photos, I'll tell you about another countries I have visited in my life (and show photos, of course). I hope there will be enough posts for long winter evenings ^^ All of them I'll put under a label `journeys`.

Sunset from the hotel

And today I'll tell you about my 12 days trip to Crete, Greece. I was there with my family in August 2007 and although I don't like hot weather and trips to countries where everyone just swim and sunbathe, it was really awesome!

View from a plane

So, take a plane and join me!

♥

Heeey! :)

I just understood that if I'm not taking photos, I'm not writing here at all for weeks, even if I have some time. Maybe I should show you some old photos, for example, from another countries which I have visited some years ago? By the way, I just also understood that in last 4 years I've been only in Finland and Sweden (even though I have a chance to go somewhere else) :D

But in this post I wanted to show you my todays drawing. I was trying to remember the times I really could draw many things (maybe I had more time then, but now I don't draw at all).

It's Kimi Raikkonen, of course ^^

I think now I can only draw racing cars (and just if I have a picture in front of me). But still drawing the front of the car & front wing makes me crazy.

Have fun and take care! ^^

First snow ^^

Finally it was snowing this night in Latvia ^^ Not much snow outside, but well, that will do :)

Yesterday after Finnish courses I talked with my teacher a bit about life in Finland, Finnish language and so on (she said it looks that I'm so much interested in it, well, I am, of course ^^). She also asked me, do I listen to Finnish music. `Yeah, of course` - `But Finns are so popular with their metal!` - `I know, it's the only style of music I listen to` - `No way, you listen to metal?!` :D
P.S. I wrote this post at 9 a.m., now it's 11:40. And much more snooooow ^___^

Have a nice day! :) And enjoy the winter - those of you, who have it already :)

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower.

Hi! ^^

Finally I'm here :) October is usually so full with different parties and other celebrations that it's almost impossible to find time for anything else.

First of all, on 11th of October was BioNight. Again it was in a club Black Friday (which reminds me Amorphis concert, of course). But we had much fun, although I didn't get any sleep, as I went to grandma and then with the first bus home (to watch F1 practice in Korea :D )

A photo from that evening (teacher asked me not to put the rest of them anywhere :D ):

Me, Evita & Sandra.

On 17th of October it was Kimi Raikkonen's birthday (I always have to mention it ^^), and I went to talk with our group about Biomimicry Design Challenge again. This year we found some more people, who want to participate there and I won't be in this group, but I'll help them as much as I can :) And that day was also a great weather, so I took some photos in Kronvalda park.

Pushkin's monument

My faculty on the left :) And aren't trees in our park beautiful? ^^

On 18th of October it was my birthday, and all day I was in such a bad mood (it's a tradition, I think, that I always cry on my birthday and don't want anything). Even on Finnish course I didn't want to do anything. But then came 19th of October and I had a party in folk club Ala (first time when I had party with friends actually). Invited about 15 friends, but at the end so many biologists came and also some other people, one girl even had two italian friends with her, so the evening was awesome ^___^ And I also got many great presents, like F1 calendar, t-shirt with me & Kimi, movie about me (I'm always the one who has all photos and makes movies about everyone), gift card at music shop, liquorice from Finland (Unda said that I'm the only one she knows to like liquorice ^^) and many other gifts. And almost all greeting cards were written in Finnish ^^

Žanete, Evija, Gerda & me (they didn't want to be in this photo, but I'm evil and I'll put it here, too :D )

Zane, me, Sandra & Evita (and you can see my t-shirt ^^). I was supposed to wear it all evening, but as I was wearing a dress, I could take it off :D (btw, it was the first time for many people to see me in a dress :D )

And the next day, as it was very warm, I went to Baltezers by bike. Drove about 45 km that day and took many autumn photos.

There were so many mushrooms in Baltezers ^^

And many flowers still blooming. This one is Impatiens glandulifera.

Beautiful park near Baltezers church.
And the sunset was so beautiful that evening ^___^

Baltezers canal

Somewhere near little Garciems airport.

And that's all for today. This Saturday I'll celebrate my birthday again with some relatives, and many news say that it will be snowing then ^^

Have a nice evening! ^^