Last Anatomy Lecture and First Snow

Maybe it was the upcoming sudden change of seasons that made me feel temped to start hibernating, but I get a grip on myself and leave the house in spite of hail, snow and strong winds on Friday to join my brother in his anatomy lecture in Pardaugava (meaning the other side of the river Daugava). The sun pays us a short visit when I reach the neighborhood where Latvia’s University’s institute for anatomy resides in a villa close to a lake and park part of which is called Victory Park. A huge socialist monument honors the fallen of WWII, a lot of flowers now covered in snow are piled up in front of it. Everything is very light and clean in the fresh snow bright golden leaves on the trees all around and for a short while a white and blue sky.

When I get off the bus I am not quite sure if I understood my brother’s instructions correctly and I am actually a bit late so I ask a girl for directions to the anatomical institute. She’s going there, too, so we hurry through the snow and puddles, trying not to get our boots too wet. I am glad that now after more than one week and three days before leaving my language has obviously recovered so far that she doesn’t recognize me as a foreigner right away. When I meet my brother in the corridor and change into German and then back to Latvian to ask her if she also studies medicine and explain my visit, she is surprised. And when she tells me she just started this year I see the same expression of pride and fear that may be universal to new medical students.

As there are only 35 people on my brother’s course, their lecture is held in something looking like a huge living room with rich ceiling decoration and a big fireplace in which the furniture (except for the piano) has been replaced by a lot of chairs with writing pads attached to them. The Muslim students skip class because of ‘Aid al-Adha, the teacher makes fun of her own English, unlike in Germany the students have to wear white coats even for listening to a lecture, the information on the canalis inguinalis is familiar territory. All together I think I get a good impression of what studying in this program is like.

 

On the way back home through the wind and snow I buy my tickets to Helsinki and spend a relaxed evening with my host mother at home, my host father has a gig with his band. When I go to bed I open the window for a short while. The air smells of burning wood (everyone started heating by now) and snow. The door in the yard plays the first line of “Pūt vējiņi” the unofficial Latvian national anthem as someone pressed the correct code to enter the house. Latvian winter.