When I woke up yesterday, it was quite late. It was a little bit hard to open my eyes, because I still wanted to sleep. Yet, when my eyes finally opened, they bulged in surprise: snow!? Now!? My goodness, how happy I was, seeing those big, fluffy, white snowflakes either whirling in the air or falling down calmly. And all this impression on such a special occasion!

However, I have mixed feelings regarding yesterday. First of all, I went to the centre of Riga with my girlfriend to see the parade. I must say, we both liked it, especially the soldiers in parade forms, who looked like from the thirties of previous century. It somehow linked in our minds with the army of the first republic of Latvia, making us feel proud. All those people, standing in hail, and all those flags really impressed me, and I finally felt that the day of 18th November is a holiday. When the NATO fighters flew over the whole parade, it seemed to me that finally we are not alone when celebrating our day of proclamation.

Then we went to listen to the president’s speech at the Monument of Freedom. I must say, that this was not one of her best speeches, still I liked it. However, I had mixed feelings on this occasion, because two matters disturbed me: first of all there were two guys talking too loud, making it hard to listen to what Vīķe-Freiberga was speaking, yet this was not the worst. What really annoyed me were some damned drunken, loud Russians trying to penetrate the crowd with words: comrades, give a pass to citizens of the Soviet Union! Unfortunately, there were so many drunken members of our Eastern neighbour nation, that first even I, a guy usually who is so calm, started to get angry. Still, finally I just felt a tinge of pity towards them, people with no culture and sense.

Nevertheless, no one could disturb my feelings of patriotism while singing our Anthem together with many, many people who had gathered at the foot of the Monument of Freedom.