I’m very happy to say that yesterday was the first time in my entire life I saw fireflies with my very own eyes! They were so pretty. Completely magical. I will upload the videos I took soon, although I severly doubt they will show anything that might capture even 10% of the magic of the moment.
We were in the mountains for the Latvian midsummer celebration together with – you guessed it – Latvians. A bonfire, crowns of flowers, homemade cheese, copious amounts of beer – that one not Latvian, unfortunately)and brave attempts to pull an all-nighter were made, as traditionally, if you don’t stay up to see the sunrise, you will be sleepy for the rest of the year. In Latvia it’s much easier to pull an all-nighter on that day, when the night is 3-4 hours long; in Bulgaria it was a slightly different story! At least I got to sleep in a hammock. Really, if you’re ever looking for a hippie pagan nation, Latvia is it. Great people all around.
Greece tonight also got through to the second round of the World Cup. I was listening to the match from NERIT’s webradio (I still hate that name. I wonder whether people have already forgotten what happened last year), and the moment when Samaras scored the penalty kick was one of those moments when I get why football is so well-loved around the world. I don’t really know or care if they deserved it or if Ivory Coast deserved to win instead, and neither do I believe that it means much, but I’m happy, because people in my environment are happy, even just for a moment. That’s my interpretation as far as why I wanted Greece to win. It’s not that I’m proud of the team – it’s not me who is playing – or the fact that the players are Greeks. It’s nothing like that. It’s the fact that people, other Greeks, the group of people I identify most with – for better or worse -, or one of the most important things I have in common with some of the people I’m closest to, think it’s important and are influenced by it. Or maybe they don’t really think it’s important and are like me a little bit, wanting everyone to be happy. So I want us to all be happy, even if the reason is silly and inconsequential like our national team winning a stupid game.
This is getting too complicated and I don’t have the mind to think or try to explain my thoughts. I’ll stop now.