I’m sure you have plenty of questions and thoughts about the European lifestyle, much like I did before venturing over here! Subjects like transportation, school and family life were at the front of my mind. Though I’ve been experiencing it for over two months now, I'm still asking myself the question "what is life like in Latvia as a local?" I sat down with a student at Latvia University to talk all about some aspects of life as a Latvian.
"My full name is Artūrs Nils Kalniņš. But to the English-speaking world, I'm known as Arthur."
Some Latvian surnames have masculine and feminine forms. For instance, the surname of Artūrs's sister is Kalniņa. Similarly, my main affiliate in Riga is Dr. Krams, and his wife is Dr. Krama.
“I currently live in a one-bedroom apartment, but this is just temporary for university. Growing up, I would spend the school year living in a larger apartment with my family. When we had breaks in school, we would always go to our holiday house near Jurmala.”
In the central part of Riga city, apartments comprise the top floors of nearly every building! As you make it out into the suburbs, stand-alone homes do become more common.
