stevenpiziks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
stevenpiziks) wrote2025-07-08 09:50 pm
stevenpiziks) wrote2025-07-08 09:50 pm
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Washington DC: Monday
I'm in Washington DC this week. Why? I was approved for Latvian citizenship. Latvia grants citizenship to children of Latvian WWII refugees, and my father was exactly that. I spent about a year working on it, doing one thing here and another thing there. And then it was done, and I was declared a citizen! I'm a dual citizen now. This means, by the way, that I can live anywhere in the European Union for as long as I want. So can Darwin, as my spouse. We're also eligible for EU health care.
Anyway, the final step is to apply for my Latvian passport. This requires an in-person visit to the Latvian embassy in Washington DC. My cousin Elaine, whose father (my uncle) was also a Latvian refugee, started applying at about the same time I did, and by sheer coincidence, we got passport appointments at the embassy during the same week! Also, our cousin Karina happens to live in Washington DC. So we decided to make a family event of it. This turned out to be a wonderful idea. I rarely see Elaine and Karina these days, and I'm pretty sure we've never done anything together, just the three of us, in this particular combination, so it was kind of cool to explore that.
On Monday, after a couple bobbles with the flight ("We're delayed by 45 minutes." "Nope! We're taking off in ten minutes!" "Sorry--we're delayed again." "Nope! We're heading out now."), I got to Washington and took a cab straight to Karina's house. I thought it was just going to be a few of us for supper, but what with one thing and another, a pile of other family was included, so it turned into a raucous family dinner party, and I got to meet a whole bunch of relatives and sort-of relatives I didn't know before, which was delightful. And the food was fantastic. No dill, either!*
After a fine evening of catching up and getting-to-know-you conversation, with cheesecake, I headed off to the little flat I'd rented. It's a really cool basement flat that I would have killed to have when I was in college. I conked out hard!
* This is an in-joke for the Latvians in the audience. Dill to Latvians is what gefilte fish is to Jews. You either love it or you hate it, but it shows up at every family gathering.
Anyway, the final step is to apply for my Latvian passport. This requires an in-person visit to the Latvian embassy in Washington DC. My cousin Elaine, whose father (my uncle) was also a Latvian refugee, started applying at about the same time I did, and by sheer coincidence, we got passport appointments at the embassy during the same week! Also, our cousin Karina happens to live in Washington DC. So we decided to make a family event of it. This turned out to be a wonderful idea. I rarely see Elaine and Karina these days, and I'm pretty sure we've never done anything together, just the three of us, in this particular combination, so it was kind of cool to explore that.
On Monday, after a couple bobbles with the flight ("We're delayed by 45 minutes." "Nope! We're taking off in ten minutes!" "Sorry--we're delayed again." "Nope! We're heading out now."), I got to Washington and took a cab straight to Karina's house. I thought it was just going to be a few of us for supper, but what with one thing and another, a pile of other family was included, so it turned into a raucous family dinner party, and I got to meet a whole bunch of relatives and sort-of relatives I didn't know before, which was delightful. And the food was fantastic. No dill, either!*
After a fine evening of catching up and getting-to-know-you conversation, with cheesecake, I headed off to the little flat I'd rented. It's a really cool basement flat that I would have killed to have when I was in college. I conked out hard!
* This is an in-joke for the Latvians in the audience. Dill to Latvians is what gefilte fish is to Jews. You either love it or you hate it, but it shows up at every family gathering.