Our last days in Riga, and first days in Knoxville…

Hey everyone! I hope you are all doing well! Sorry, it has taken us so long to post. We have been just a little bit busy though 🙂 Well, just four weeks ago we were flying into Omaha. It feels like our time in Riga was all a dream (and a fantastic one). Our lives have been a blur the past few weeks. It was so good to see family and friends and get to spend a few days with everyone back home! Our moms and sisters traveled with us to Knoxville to help us unpack. On our way to Knoxville we stopped in Missouri to stay with Jordan’s oldest sister and her husband. They are always so hospitable and have such a lovely home 🙂 The next morning we sidetracked to Hermann, MO, one of our favorite places in the U.S. Hermann was founded by German immigrants and sits on a bluff overlooking the Missouri river, so it is really picturesque. The climate and topography make it a great area for vineyards, so Hermann is most famous for its number of wineries and B & B’s. We also think it has one of the best bakeries in the States, so we always stop to get a doughnut or European-style sweetbread. From Hermann, we stopped in Kentucky to stay with some family friends and had a wonderful evening chatting with everyone. The next morning we finished our long trek to Knoxville and started unpacking almost immediately. We had enough help that we were able to get our POD unloaded in just a few hours, so the next day we were able to take everybody up to the Smoky Mountains and enjoy a day of shopping at the outlets 🙂 Time flies when you are having fun (but not while you are driving across the country), and before we knew it, we had been back for a week, our families had departed, and our new lives in the States had to begin. Jordan started his teaching duties at UT right away and was welcomed back with a stack of 80+ midterms to grade. I had a little bit of training at the clinic the first week, but didn’t officially start until the 2nd week. We somehow managed to get completely unpacked and settled within the first week. I think it was because we knew if we didn’t get it done right away, we probably would never find the time.

So, here we are, back in Knoxville, as if our lives had never really changed. I guess that’s what we get for moving around so much — even a transcontinental move doesn’t seem like a big deal. It doesn’t take us any time at all to adjust anymore. We are still quite lonesome for and nostalgic about Latvia, but we are trying to find similar things here to help us adjust. I try to come home every evening and go for a walk, and Jordan has even gone with me quite a bit too 🙂 (he usually doesn’t have the time). Walking up the hills is definitely quite different than walking the city streets of Riga, though! Probably the biggest adjustment has been the change in grocery shopping. We were quite disgusted, to say the least, with the difference in the quality of produce (things were a lot fresher, cheaper, and of higher quality in Riga). I’ve had to cut back on my daily red bell pepper consumption (I paid less than 3o cents for a red pepper in Riga, as compared to almost $2 here). We also were overwhelmed with the enormous selection of everything. In Riga, there were just one or two things to choose from and here there are like 10 options of the same, crappy thing! Do we really need that much choice? It just complicates things! I have also been surprised at interactions in public space. I don’t think I have gone out yet without having a stranger start up a conversation with me. I just didn’t have that happen hardly at all in Riga, so I have had to get accustomed to that again. The other major life change has been working 7:30 to 5:30 Monday through Friday. I haven’t worked those kind of hours since summers at the Buckle warehouse over ten years ago!! I know, I sound like such a whiner, but Jordan and I definitely enjoy our flexible lives, so this new schedule has been a really hard adjustment for me. It will get better though! Other than that, I do really like my new job. The people I work with have been so nice and wonderful to me, and it feels good to be taking care of people again! This last week was my first week of seeing patients and it started out pretty rough, but by Friday things were running smoother and I was starting to feel a little more at ease!

Well, we just wanted to share some stories and pictures with you of our last few days in Riga and, now, of our first few weeks in Knoxville. So, the pictures below are just a summary of the harvest celebration in Riga, the weekend before we left, in addition to a few other pics of things we saw daily, but never stopped to take pictures of, and then our hiking trip last weekend in the Smokies. Hope you enjoy!!

These are pics from the fall harvest festival in Riga the weekend before we left.

This was some kind of creature made completely out of carrots!

They even decorated Roland!

You can't see them, but there are bunnies hopping around everywhere in this little petting area. And check out their house. That is the coolest bunny house I have ever seen!

The cute floppy-eared bunnies at the harvest celebration.

More vegetable creations at the harvest celebration.

A vendor booth at the harvest celebration.

Eating at our favorite Japanese restaurant. They had it set up so you could sit on the floor and there was a screen to separate you from the other diners, so it was always intimate and relaxing.

They light up some of the art nouveau buildings at night, so we enjoyed walking around late at night because sometimes they were even more impressive to see in the dark.

Here we are on a bridge in the park in Old Riga, near the National Opera House. It is tradition for couples to engrave their initials on locks, which they put on a bridge on their wedding day. It’s a big occasion for photos, particularly when the couple throws the key into the water. Well, since Jordan and I spent our 5th wedding anniversary in Riga, I had my dad engrave a lock for us so that we could leave our mark on Riga 🙂 So now we want to challenge all of you to go find our lock. Good luck!!!

Here is a very prominent Soviet building near the center of Riga. We went here on our last day so Jordan could buy some important history books related to Ulmanis times.

Here is the powder tower in Old Riga. There are even cannon balls still stuck in the walls of it.

This is a narrow street that passes the original city gates of Riga on the right.

We somehow managed to find time the last day to sit and enjoy some of the best cappuccino in Riga and enjoy the view in the Art Nouveau district. Check out the cool espresso art!

So this is our $50 fish and chips! We spent a night in Dublin on our way back to the States and decided to venture out to a little village just outside of Dublin. We wanted authentic fish and chips, and were recommended this specific restaurant. Had we known it would be that expensive, we probably would have picked something else, but you can’t be in Dublin and not get fish and chips! It was mighty tasty though!

One thing we definitely missed about Tennessee was the Smokies. So, last weekend we went hiking to see the beautiful fall colors.

This was at Grotto Falls. We actually walked behind the water fall!

It is crazy how fast the leaves are changing, and actually a lot of the trees had lost their leaves already.

More pictures from our hike last weekend…Jordan climbed down to the water and out onto a log in the middle of the ravine to take this pic. Of course I was yelling at him to quit being such a MAN!

Jordan is so happy to have his full kitchen back. He is a baking fool again! This is homemade German beef rouladen with homemade German spaetzle and butternut squash. It’s just a thin cut of beef rolled up with mustard, celery, carrots, onion, and pickles, and then simmered in a wine and beef broth. Yes, it may sound like an interesting combination, but it is so tasty!

This was my first loaf of banana bread that I made all by myself! We bought a bunch of ripe bananas, so I made two loaves last weekend and took one to the nurses at the clinic as a pre-apology for any chaos I would create on my first week of seeing patients 🙂