{"id":21451,"date":"2014-01-30T18:38:28","date_gmt":"2014-01-30T16:38:28","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/?p=21451"},"modified":"2014-01-30T18:38:32","modified_gmt":"2014-01-30T16:38:32","slug":"spice-up-the-winter-new-year-in-riga-style","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/2014\/01\/30\/spice-up-the-winter-new-year-in-riga-style\/","title":{"rendered":"Spice up the Winter – New Year in Riga-style"},"content":{"rendered":"

New Year, new day, new beginning \u2013 for a real AEGEEan there can be no better way how to start it, as taking part in a Winter University (WU). This New Year in Riga was specially spicy because 30 amazing participants from nine countries (Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain and Ukraine) took part in WU Sp(ICE) Matters: White Winter. They came for Black Balsam to mark the start of 2014 and discover the beauty of Latvia.<\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>Even if the weather played some tricks on us and Riga was far from a white winter wonderland, it did not stop us from enjoying some typical seasons\u2019 activities like ice-skating and diving into an ice-cold pond after a hot sauna. We even drove dog sledges in a misty forest and rang in the New Year watching the spectacular fireworks in the heart of Riga.<\/p>\n

AEGEE-Las Palmas member Kamal Vasnani admitted that this event was very special because he managed to try lot of activities he had never done before, but especially thrilling for him was balancing on ice. \u201cI was happy to overcome my fear of skating, and I think I made quite good progress. I even managed to do it on my own at some points, although most of the times I had the help of other people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Alina from AEGEE-Sankt-Peterburg stressed the festive, joyful vibe of Riga, but she relished also the time spent in nature. \u201cIf I have to name one activity I liked the most, I think it was the sauna, because it was so cool to be in the sauna and then jump into the lake and afterwards get warm in jacuzzi,\u201d said Alina. \u201cI think most of all I enjoyed the time that we spent in the guest house, I like all this nature stuff. And conditions were the best from all the places I\u2019ve been with AEGEE.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>We made sure that everyone who took part in this WU will know how to survive in the wild and also wink wisely every time someone doesn\u2019t know what to do with the traditional Riga Black Balsam \u2013 Latvias\u2019 most characteristic drink (by the way – Mohito \u00e0 la Latvian is a great idea). We learnt Latvian Christmas\u2019 and New Years\u2019 traditions and even performed a folk custom called \u201cmumming\u201d. What does that mean? We made traditional Latvian masks (horses, wolfs, haystacks and, yes, even death) in which mummers usually travel from house to house bringing a blessing to every place they visit.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis WU roused a lot of positive emotions,\u201d said AEGEE-R\u012bga president Lelde P\u0113tersone. \u201cI was able to laugh with joy and test my strength. I truly appreciated the participants\u2019 willingness to plunge into all the adventures together with us.\u201d<\/p>\n

Those days starting from 27th December till 2nd January were full of amazing adventures and discoveries. We \u2013 the organizers \u2013 want to thank all the participants for making this event so special. And remember: Riga will always welcome you back!<\/p>\n

AEGEE-R\u012bga wants so say a special thanks to the Fazer Bakery<\/em>!<\/p>\n

Written by Signe Apsite, AEGEE-Riga<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

New Year, new day, new beginning \u2013 for a real AEGEEan there can be no better way how to start it, as taking part in a Winter University (WU). This New Year in Riga was specially spicy because 30 amazing participants from nine countries (Finland, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovakia, Spain and Ukraine) took part in WU Sp(ICE) Matters:… Read more →<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":18,"featured_media":21452,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[5],"tags":[382,1930,348,948],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21451"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/18"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=21451"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21451\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21522,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/21451\/revisions\/21522"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/21452"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=21451"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=21451"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.zeus.aegee.org\/magazine\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=21451"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}