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! :))

Riga Zoo: Video & Photopost ^^

Hey! ^^

Today I'll talk about Riga Zoo again, as I was there yesterday. I went there to see penguins :) We usually don't have penguins at our zoo, but this time 17 Gentoo penguins spent 3 weeks here on their way from Edinburgh Zoo to China (they will leave Latvia tomorrow morning). But I also took photos and some videos of other animals (as weather wasn't good for taking photos, as it was too dark). So enjoy ^^

Penguins ^^ So fat ^^

Valmiera - Cēsis

Hey! :)

Finally I'm writing a post here again, and today I'll tell you about my little trip from Valmiera to Cēsis (about which I wrote in previous post). And show some photos, of course :)

First of all, we went to Valmiera by train, and spent there few hours. The city is very beautiful, by the way.

Gauja river

Me on a bridge

Beautiful view

Kazu krāces (Goat's rapids). I don't know, why they're called like this, but the view is beautiful again :)

A church.

After some time we stopped to eat. I had a cycling route guide (through North Latvia and South Estonia), where was a description of this route. I thought that there will be a normal road. I was so much wrong :D

At first we saw some cows, but I thought that this road through a meadow will end soon. Well, it ended, but then we had to drive through a forest. With sand and many tree roots. About 40 km between these two cities isn't a big distance for me, but just if there was a normal road :D

Cows ^^

Nice colors :)

After some time we got to Sietiņiezis rock. It's a very beautiful cliff near Gauja river.

That's why it's called `Sieve Rock` - wild bees make holes in it :)

And after some time (about 8 km) we were at Cēsis finally.

Cēsu castle. I saw a bus with tourists from Finland there :)

And that's all for today, I guess. I want to finish reading `Twenty Thousand Leagues Under the Sea` finally :) Started reading it just because I love `The Mysterious Island` (third book of this trilogy) so much, but never read first two (just started and didn't like them). And you know - this book is also awesome :) Just about 50 pages left, and then I'll start reading `In Search of the Castaways`. Hope I'll finish it until field practice in Taurene, which starts at 2nd of July.
Tomorrow I'll maybe write about something else, as I have some other photos to show you :)
Have a nice evening! :)

A nightingale in a golden cage

It's almost 1 a.m., and tomorrow I must get up early and go to my faculty... but I'm still reading a book. This book really is an addiction, I don't even count how many times I read it before.

Just finished reading 2nd part. Now the question is - to start reading 3rd or go to sleep finally? :D

P.S. My this week's song. It's awesome! And so is the video (although I've never seen Lord of the Rings).

P.P.S. On Saturday I'll finally go by my bike from Valmiera to Cēsis - I have this idea for few years, but always thought that it's far a bit. And I'll have to get up at 5 a.m.

Have a nice day night :)

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas for everyone, who is celebrating them on 25th & 26th of December! :)

As always,it's some kind of thinking time for me. I always disappear from Twitter and other web pages and start to think about life. And this time, as I was cleaning one of the rooms and found many books from my (and also from my dad's) childhood, I'm reading them. And you know what? Reality doesn't exist for me then, I just want to return back to a time when I was 4 or 5 years old. Then there were no problems, no violence aroud, no thoughts about future which scare me too often, nothing, just friends and happiness. Two things that I miss too much sometimes.

Now I just like a thought, that finally I won't be celebrating New Year in Latvia, maybe it's a chance to change everything and 2012 won't be as all the other years.

And I also hope that normal winter will come soon. Today it was +9°C. What a December.

Have a nice day, my dear readers! ;*

I'm just totally in love with freedom.

If you asked me what's my favourite book, I would think a bit, because I like many books, for example, Jules Vernes `Mysterious Island`, James Hadley Chase `Figure It Our For Yourself`, Stephen King `Pet Sematary` or Mikhail Bulgakov `The Master and Margarita`. But I would had an answer. It's definitely Jack London `The Call Of The Wild`. I remember like yesterday, that I was approximately 3 years old, sat on the floor in a living room, and my grandma read me this book. This book was really old and was written in an old Russian (I remember that male nouns were with the letter `ъ` at their endings, but also other words were a bit weird), so I couldn't understand everything even when I learned to read, but I asked my grandma to read me this book very often. Then I just liked that it was about a dog. Later I read it in English (also many other books of Jack London, he's an amazing writer), and now I love it, because, in my opinion, it's about freedom. About freedom and love.

There are three kinds of people, if talking about love, in my opinion. First ones live their lives without any idea what the love is. Those, who hadn't sunny childhood, and therefore they don't feel like part of this world and people around. The others know what love is, and they can live all life with their beloved person. And there are people (and I'm definitely one of them) who understood true meaning of the love, but can't accept the fact that they will be together with one person for the rest of their life. And they can't accept that they will never be free again, this freedom means much more to them than love, it calls them, away from everything common at least for a while. It makes them understand, how wonderful it is to live without any rules, like they want, not somebody else. Of course, leave everything and follow this call can only few of them. But when these invisible links tear, the border between an individual and freedom falls, and it's possible to get free forever. Like main hero Buck did it.

But if you asked me what's my favourite movie, I could think for an hours and still don't have an answer. Until yesterday. But now I have a movie which I like very much, and it's called `Into The Wild`. A movie about a guy who, after graduating from university, leaves everything and goes to Alaska to live in the wilderness. I don't know any movie which is so close to my inner being. I don't have so much courage to leave everything and enjoy freedom like main hero of this movie did (and it's based on real story), but it's the thing that I want the most somewhere deep in my heart. Of course, movie doesn't end well, showing what can happen if you don't think about future and just follow your crazy dreams. But maybe it's better to die on your feet than live on your knees.

If you've seen this movie or read this book, please let me know what you think about it :) Or tell me about your favourite books / movies :)
P.S. I'm always in that `thinking about life mood` at nights, and now it's 1 a.m., so this post is a bit depressive :)