Last class

As promised, here are some photos of my last class with my adult English class. Zane Vaļule, a grad student at Daugavpils University, taught the grammar portion of the class; I, as a native English speaker, taught the conversation portion. Here we are on the front steps of the university's Humanities Building. Note the flowers that were presented to Zane and me, which is standard Latvian (maybe even legally required) practice. Left to right: Jolanta, me, Zane, Vilmars, Marija, and Pavels.

The class was an interesting mix of both native Latvian and Russian speakers, and as the conversations developed, we learned fascinating things about each other: Pavels ran for city councillor of his hometown Krāslavas in the recent Latvian elections. Vilmars works as a forester for the Latgale provincial government, and Jolanta is a lawyer who helps monitor illegal forest cutting in the province. And so on and so on. Here's another one of us.

Many thanks to Gunnars, Jolanta's main squeeze, who came to class and took the photos. He too was delightful, and thanks to him and my students I now have the words to one of the songs that is sung for the festival of Jāņi (St. John's Day, or midsummer -- the biggest bash of the Latvian year). Stay posted for more on it because it all starts tomorrow!