What I Do

New places are always somewhat uncomfortable at first. I am in my new apartment for the first night. It's a nice place, in a good location right in downtown Riga, and currently I don't have any roommates, nevertheless, it is a bit unnerving being here in this strange place. The internet hasn't been connected yet so I thought the next few nights were going to be especially boring. But no! I'm mooching someone's wireless signal!

The Latvian countryside is interesting. This pancake-flat country's landscape doesn't have a lot of variance, but it is pleasantly pretty. I had to take an 90 minute bus ride out to a small city today for work. It's funny how many different random U.S. based firms exist out here. Today we interviewed a door and window manufacturer headquartered in Oregon. The interviews basically consist of us surveying them about their perceptions of corruption in Latvia. Once we have our research done, we will make up a report of the findings which will be given to our boss who will then use that info, together with other projects, to compile general reports for Transparency International headquarters in Berlin. The work is actually quite interesting and while there may not be much notoriety for TI in the normal world, the fields of political science and international relations all view it as very reputable and beneficial organization. So, while most people have no clue exactly who it is that I'm interning for and what it is that they do, it's ok. Basically I'm making the world a better place. I don't want to toot my own horn or anything, so we'll just leave it at that.

I found my new favorite place to eat today. There's this Russian dish called pelmeni which is basically just ravolli, Russian style. It is good stuff, and there's no better bang for your buck over here. This place is expensive! For those who don't know, the current exchange rate is 1:0.45. That's one dollar for 0.45 Lats. Everything is double here. So when I can fill my belly for 3 US bucks, that's stellar.