We took a weekend trip to Lithuania, where I got to see the cities of Kaunas, Vilnius, and Trakai—and while I love traveling, sometimes it leads to unfortunate outcomes, like getting sick. Suddenly, feeling tired after our trip to Lithuania had a bigger reason behind it: I had caught a cold. Luckily, I was prepared and my program offers really great support. Planning for illness starts before you leave for your host country. You need to consider your personal needs: Do you get sick often?...

Daugavpils has exactly five trains, and all of them go to Riga. Riga, the capital city of Latvia, is around three hours away from Daugavpils, which was the perfect amount of time for an early morning nap ahead of a fun day trip. Although my program has a planned excursion to Riga, I, along with two of my new friends in my program, wanted to take a trip on our own to explore the city in our own time. We bought our tickets and each had ideas of what we wanted to see while we were there, but...

Здравствуйте из Латвии! I find it hard to believe that three weeks have already passed since I arrived in Latvia. I find myself already adjusting to life here, from the language, to the food, and even the public transport. I flew into Riga, the capital city of Latvia, on January 10th, before driving 3 hours southeast to a small city called Daugavpils. Russian is the everyday language of communication in Daugavpils. In fact, some of the only places you won’t find Russian in Daugavpils is on...