Rigalaxin'

WE'RE HERE WE'RE HERE WE'RE FINALLY HERE!!! I feel like I have been internally screaming since I landed in Riga. Gable and I reunited at the luggage claim after our flights with hugs and squeals that we tried, and failed, to contain. Two of our favorite people in the universe came to pick us up from the airport and after lots of jumping and hugging, Valters and Tabita took us to our home for the next few days. Tabita and Lelde have been kind and gracious enough to let us take over their cozy apartment. Needless to say, it feels like home. After a marvelous trip to Pelmeni (we have literally been waiting all year for this food) we made it back home, spent some time catching up, and finally went to sleep at a peaceful 3 am.

Thursday was a super special day to be in Latvia, it's a national holiday celebrated each year all over the country called Johns Day. Johns Day is a mid-summer celebration that falls on the name day for Janis (John). Every year this day, it's a popular tradition to go to the countryside and spend time with friends and family - and jump over bonfires apparently? I don't know, Latvians are crazy. But since we didn't have a car, we got to spend the day in Riga at a huge celebration by the river. We got to wear handmade "flower wreaths" and watch and listen to traditional Latvian dancing and singing, it was beautiful and made us feel like real life Latvians. No big deal or anything but we even were mistaken as a Latvian by some random dude - highlight of our lives. We obviously spent the rest of our day going to our favorite spots in Riga, Egle (our favorite beer garden), this new AMAZING gelato place behind the Blackhead building (we may or may not have gone twice in 1 day...), and we wandered around Old Town looking through little market vendors and shops. 

Today, we had a lot of time to hang out and Rigalax... get it? Relax... Rigalax... I know, it's genius. We have a huge 2 weeks ahead of us, so obviously if we have the chance to sleep until 11, we will, and we did. But we finally woke up and wasted the day away in Old Riga, took a nap in the park next to the lock bridge after we found the Camp Hope Locks, and met up with Tabita and Lelde for dinner at one of our favorite spots. After relaxing by river and getting more gelato (zero regrets) we went to the airport to pick up a new roommate!! James is from England and we first met him around 2010 and he has been doing camps with this Latvia crew for years-aka a veteran. His first night in Riga looked a lot like ours-moving in to our sweet new home and a walk to Pelmeni. One of my favorite things about these trips that we have taken is the relationships we develop with all the people we work with from all over the world so it's so cool to have had the opportunity to catch up with an old friend (even if he does complain and make fun of us relentlessly).

Tomorrow we get to go to the airport and pick up the rest of our team! When Amy posted that the group was about to leave, we were giddy with excitement. We love these people and we love camp and it all starts TOMORROW!!