Digital Wanderer

We live as long as we fly

Graduation

2006-06-18

даугавпилс фото лытдыбр

Yesterday I dropped by the graduation ceremony at Primary School No. 7. This crowd consists of young people who live near my summer cottage.


Eight young people (four guys and four girls) stand indoors, posing for a photo, while several of them hold long-stemmed roses.
Here, in fact, is almost the entire crowd.

From left to right: Edgar, Kristina, Elika, Yura, Artur, Ilya, Edgar

A young man in sunglasses and light-colored clothing sits on the hood of a dark Audi. Behind him are an old multistory building and lush trees beneath a blue sky.
With his fashionable outfit and gold chain, Arturik looks like a pimp

A young man in jeans and a white sweatshirt jumps or balances on one leg with his arms spread on a sunny lakeshore. To the right, another guy in sunglasses smiles; houses can be seen on the distant horizon.
And this is his brother Edgar jumping according to my artistic vision

Five young people sit on and beside a wooden beam outdoors, with trees and old buildings in the background; one waves while another grins broadly in sunglasses.
Zhenka is sitting in the middle; he also moonlights as a maniac taxi driver

A smiling man in glasses and a blue shirt holds a smiling girl in a pink T-shirt and jeans in his arms, with a building wall and parked cars in the background.
Your humble servant and Kristina

Doing my impression of Hercules, which is not difficult. Kristina is incredibly lively and energetic, just like quicksilver. But as light as a feather. Just the thing for a seasoned party girl. Kristina, incidentally, is completely bilingual, as far as I know. And she learned both Russian and Latvian at home, which is rare in Daugavpils. Unlike Riga, where a great many Latvians speak Russian from childhood. Russians, on the other hand, generally do not properly master Latvian until their teens.

A young couple—a girl with light curly hair in a white dress with pink flowers and a young man in a dark suit and tie—stand arm in arm against a backdrop of green trees and bushes.
Jolanta and her first husband

Jolanta’s dress looks like a wedding gown, so everyone joked that she was the bride. And this is her first husband, because there will be two more later. Can you guess how children in the Russian-speaking city of Daugavpils shorten the name Jolanta?

Two girls stand together against a backdrop of green trees in a park: one in a white T-shirt and light-colored skirt, the other in a festive white dress with a pink floral pattern.
Elika and Jolanta

Elika is her full name. When I happened to see it on Jolanta’s phone, I was surprised even then. And yesterday Elika told me that her brother had invented the name himself, and that nobody else had it. However, she was not entirely sure. When I got home, I googled it. It turned out that the name is mentioned in the Bible. There are people who bear it today as well — though very few.
Jolanta, incidentally, is a common name in Latvia.

A young girl with light curly hair in an elegant white dress with pink flowers holds the arm of a young man in a classic black suit, white shirt, and blue tie. They pose against the backdrop of a park with green trees.
Jolanta and her second husband

A young blonde woman with curly hair in a white dress with pink flowers and a man in glasses, a blue shirt, and jeans stand together, looking at the camera. They are in a summer park surrounded by lush green trees and bushes.
I’m hardly husband material; the age difference is too great


A young man in a gray suit and tie and a girl with light curly hair in a white dress with a delicate pink floral pattern pose against a backdrop of wooden doors. In the background on the left stands another young man in a dark suit, looking to the side.
Jolanta and her third husband

A group of graduates and one adult woman stand on the steps in front of a building entrance. The girls wear bright ball gowns and the young men wear formal suits; some hold bouquets of flowers.
This is the entire graduating class

A modern light-colored church building with a complex, multilevel bright red roof and a tall bell tower beneath a pointed spire, enclosed by a wooden fence.
The House of God

As a bonus— the still-unfinished House of God, which I once photographed from the other side. I wonder what kind of money they used to put up this splendid mansion? I wouldn’t mind having one like it. The architecture is charming, slightly angular, and as for the little tower—well, you know what it looks like.
Incidentally, you can see where School No. 7 and the House of God are located on Wikimapia.

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