T.G.I.F in Riga

Last evening we met the office couple (the Gublers from Cedar City UT) and went to T.G.I.F. for dinner. It was great to see a menu in English and to recognize the food items. I ordered chicken fajitas. You'd think that would be a safe item for me to choose. Well, in Latvia they drizzle chocolate on the plate and over the top of the fajitas. For those who may read this and don't know, I do not eat chocolate period. Fortunately, Sister Gubler offered to trade me. She had considered ordered the fajitas so I didn't feel bad about trading. She had ordered tomato basil soup which was delicious and she said the fajitas were good but that the chocolate didn't add anything to them.

So, if I go again, I will have to stipulate that they not add chocolate to anything I order.

The office missionaries at the MTC

This is the group of missionaries with whom I learned the computer programs at the MTC. One couple went to Africa, one to Argentina, one to Louisiana, one to Texas, and one to Tennessee. The single sisters went to Indiana, California, Nebraska and me to Latvia. They are a great group of men and woman. Two of the women had little or no experience on the computer but in four days learned enough to go forward.

Here's some mission pictures

I finally used the cash box (ATM)

Cash boxes are located all over (maybe no more than ATMs in America) and I used my missionary debit card to get some cash. It's so strange to live in a cash society. There are no checks and, although I'm told some business establishments will accept credit or debit cards, I haven't seen one used yet. You can choose which language in which you want to communicate, so that's very helpful.

I have been told that you never hand money to a clerk. There is a plate and that's what you put your money on, and that's what the clerk puts your change and receipt on. I didn't know that until after I had handed the clerk money yesterday. Then, the 2nd store we went to, I forgot and handed her money. They did accept it, but it is not the way things are done here.

Living in a strange land

It was a beautiful day yesterday--well, overcast, but not cold. We went to Rimi's Hypermarket for groceries. We walked to the office (about 4 short blocks) and then to the bus stop, a long block away. Another couple of blocks from the bus stop to the market but only a block back to the bus stop home.

Anyway, we wanted to buy crackers and Sis. Harper knew where they were the last time she bought them, but they were not there this time. We walked all over the store but couldn't find them anywhere. Finally, I asked a young clerk if she spoke English and she said a little. I asked where we would find crackers. She thought I meant cookies and my explanation for crackers--with soup, salty, didn't help. We finally found some in the bread department, but they weren't the kind we were looking for.

Today at Church, we again had the young missionaries serve as translators for us. They are very good and I'm thankful for their language skills, but it seems to me that Latvians must say about 5 words for every English word. I can pick out certain words, but can't put them into a context.

As I have mentioned before, the people are quite dour. No smiles as you pass them--in fact, most of them don't acknowledge you are even there. On the bus yesterday, I had my first "friendly" experience with a Latvian (or was she Russian?) woman. It was standing room only, and then a woman got up from her seat and exited the bus. The woman she had been sitting next to, motioned for me to come and sit down. I did so, and said "paldies."

Then, this morning, as we neared the train stop, we could see our train coming and no one was at the stop to get on, but the train "driver" (he's not the conductor, I don't think, but don't know what you call the one who drives the train), stopped and waited for us to run to the stop.

Small things, but nice.

Public Transportation and The Inspector!!!

There are four modes of public transportation here in Riga: bus, auto-bus, trolley and train. I've ridden all but the auto-bus, which is a van that you can take more directly to your destination, as opposed to getting on at a bus/trolley/train stop and getting off at a bus/train/trolley stop. Each time you get on one of these conveyances, you have to have a ticket punched in a "time-clock" machine. Twice now an inspector has come on board. Both times have been a woman. She boards, puts a ticket in the time-clock, and then flips out her badge and begins checking everyone's tickets to make sure they have punched them.

So far I haven't seen anyone confronted who did not have a ticket punched, but once I saw a young woman punch her ticket just as she got off. I asked Sister Harper about that and she said the woman thought the inspector was getting off at the same stop (and hadn't gotten to her to check her ticket) and didn't want to be stopped outside the bus with an unpunched ticket.

Another time a young man had been on the bus and hadn't punched his ticket. He saw the inspector boarding (perhaps noticed her badge under her jacket somehow, or maybe just thought she looked like an inspector. Anyway, he came and punched his ticket just ahead of the inspector and got by with it. Apparently, some take a chance that there won't be an inspector board the bus while they are on, and they don't punch their ticket.