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Riga, Latvia

Posted on February 28th, 2010 in Europe, Latvia by robjkentjr

The biggest reason we chose Riga to kick off our Europe tour was the crazy ticket price of $100 from Morocco.  We were actually flying to Lithuania but for kicks got off the plane in Riga and were not disappointed with this cosmopolitan city.
This is St. Peter’s Church in the heart of old Riga.  It was built in 1209 AD and has the flashy new Double Coffee right next to it.
The train track bridge across the Daugava River.  These are the actual colors of the shot: orange sky reflecting the sodium lights and blue lights along the side of the bridge.
This was the very modern mall built around the old façade of an existing building.  It enclosed about four square blocks with four floors of shops.
We call this the pork-a-ladium.  It is now a market that was built in the old zeppelin hangers.
Rasa enjoying her lasanu and garlic baked rye bread that we bought at the market.
The Russian Orthodox Cathedral across the city by the Esplanade stop.
A colorful cobblestone alleyway in old town Riga.
All together, we spent four nights here and loved every minute of it.  We hopped on a cheap EuroLines Bus to Tallinn, Estonia and after a 4-hour ride we were sampling bear meat and mead in the Christmas Market.

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Welcome to the U.S. State Department

Posted on February 24th, 2010 in Blog, work by robjkentjr

Hello Everyone,

First, the big news.  I passed the Foreign Service oral exam.  Studying for the test has been the reason for my absence this last month and now that I am done, the blog will restart this weekend with Christmas in Europe.

This test was the last hurdle before being accepted as a candidate for the US State Department.  With a decent score in the Economic Cone, I could be hired as soon as I clear security and health.  Unfortunately, both of these could take as long as a year and up to 18 months after that to get an offer.  So there is potentially a long time to wait still.

During this wait though, Rasa and I are still planning on going to Mongolia and China this June.  We had to nix the Central Asia Rally because it was looking too difficult with all the recent life changes.  After Asia, we will ship out to Morocco with the Peace Corps in October and remain there waiting for my Foreign Service position to come thorough.

Some website updates to note:

Our African Adventure book is finished.  Take a look at it on our books page.  The next one to watch for is How the Environment Shapes the African Dinner Table.

The other event is that our African Overland Route map is finished.  If you want to check it out, click here.  If you wanted to download a Google Earth file, click here.

That is all for now.

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