Trashmen walking, Russian poetry, Bagels... (6-10. April)

Some weeks in JACis are more eventful than others. Last week was one of those: Baking, running and presentations left us few minutes to breathe, but aforementioned weeks are also especially satisfying.


Because of Easter Monday, our week started off on Tuesday. Moritz prepared Bagels, an "American" specialty, originating from Polish jewry. There is an equivalent to these breadrings in many Eurasian cultures, for example Russian "bublik", Lithuanian "riestainiai", Finnish "vesirinkeli" or, more commonly known to us, the Romanian "covrigi" and the German "Bretzel". The breadrings are made from a dough of wheat and yeast sweetened with sugar, then they are boiled in water and baked in a normal oven. We ate them with butter spread on top, but other ways to serve a bagel include cream cheese and salmon, turkey or chicken or cold steak. It took almost all day until all the dough was turned into Bagels. They were a real treat.

Wednesday the next big event followed, as we joined a talk/event on the life and works of Russian author Boris Pasternak, who received the Nobel prize for literature in 1958 for his novel "Dr. Zhivago". He also translated Goethe, Schiller and Shakespeare into Russian. The event was dedicated to the commemoration of his extraordinary life story and the analysis of his works. Moritz read the poem "Winter night", the motifs of which laid the foundation of the biggest part of the event, the analysis based especially on the word "sudzbyi", meaning "destiny" or "fate", which is a reoccurring trope or symbol in Pasternaks writing.

Thursday, Paul and Clemence participated in a trash run. Two days prior, the team members worked very hard on costumes. The teams met at the city council to hear a presentation on the rules of this competition. The teams had to walk to three different checkpoints, which had to be reached at a certain time to answer question on garbage and recycling. Two big orange bags had to be filled with trash. Afterwards, the bags were weighed to determine the winners. There were three prizes: The team with the best costumes, the most efficient garbage collection and the team with the most correct answers. The participants received a diploma and a bag from recycled material.

Friday, two very important events happened:
Moritz went to a "Erasmus +" Event with Vija, where there were very interesting talks on the different E+ events in Rezekne, including JACis' big project "Connected by rivers". He also held a presentation about our project, "Volunteers United". You can see the presentation by clicking the following link: (http://prezi.com/bpih12xs4n_r/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy )

Clemence participated in a competition about Latvian folklore. In the morning, her team rehearsed vividly. In the early afternoon, the team went to Rogovka, where the competition of folklorist dance, music and theatre took place. All the afternoon, people danced and in the end, there were different prizes, of which Clemence won two, one being the qualification for a big event in Riga in summertime.