Delayed, I Know

So this is for Tuesday (2/17). I'm late in writing it, I know. But oh well.

Well, I got up nice and early for my morning classes in EU/Russian Relations course. I was excited, because this would be the first lecture, and I wanted to know how it would set the tone for the course. Well, it was a boring topic, EU foreign policy institutions, but it was necessary for understanding the rest of the semester. BUT we had a wonderful explosion in class when we started talking about enlargement policy, specifically towards Turkey. An unnamed person declared that Islam was the reason Turkey wasn't being admitted into the EU, and I'm sorry, but even I got upset at that.

Now granted, some things when concerning Islam are unsettling, like the recent meeting of 200 conversative clerics in Istanbul, and the statements that a third theatre of jihad in Palestine was legitimate. And so, yes, there's some hesitation on this point, I will agree. But the student claimed it was the EU not wanting to adopt Muslim values. I think it has more to do with the average standard of living for Turkish citizens, all 70 million of them. Or the insurgency in the east with the PKK. Or the huge tension between the Kurds and the Turks on cultural, educational, linguistic, and political rights. Or we could just fall back and blame Islam. But the class exploded, and I didn't enjoy it.

But we have to do presentations during the year over lecture materials and introduce discussion. So I volunteered to be in one of the first groups (best to go first, fewer expectations). And I'm really excited because Lukas (Vilnius, Lithuania) and Sally (Georgia) are going to be in my group. Lukas is a very intelligent political science guy, and Sally is a student of law (I think in her master's program...). So it'll be a good group, and I'm excited about it all. And we have two weeks to prepare a 15 minute presentation, and that will be beyond not difficult. Yay!

Then I went to my Intermediate Russian Language course. And the first day... was easy. I mean, not a breeze, but not a significant challenge either. But I'm at the level of the majority of the students in the class, and I'd rather cover ground I already know, then jump up and discover I'm behind. So I'm gonna stay in the class, but I know I'm gonna have to sit for hours a day and practice my Russian. I just have to if I'm going to learn this language, even a little. It doesn't matter how much I'm in class or what class I'm in if I'm not studying intensely.

Then I rushed to get to the Sports Hall for my second workout with Coach Lemberg. He's very happy I'm taking Russian language, and we had a good bonding session. He was talking about his younger athletes and the times they can run, it was nice. The workout was more of a test of endurance than speed, so it was difficult, but I certainly wasn't just running into a wall. I met a couple more of his runners, and the meeting was better this time. Much more conversation. They watched me run my first 3 intervals, which is awkward, but whatever. haha. Coach said he might try to get a breakfast together on Thursday for me to meet people. And apparently, most of the guys lives in the dormitory around the corner, so there's a chance I could possibly see them once and a while. And this, I would not mind. I want a team sooo badly. It's just hard being the only person that runs, and the only person that gets that I can't drink every night cuz I have to run. hahaha. Oh well.

But then I stayed up 'til 4am talking with Jack (UK), Davide (Germany), Toomas (roommate), Ania (Poland), Davide (Italy), Niels (Netherlands) and David (US) about politics. It was nice, but I got a little annoyed when Toomas and David went on a huge rant on US politics. That's just not fair. No one else really cares in Estonia, so don't go on about it. hahaha. But this is what happens when most people are political science oriented and then go to the same international program. hahaha. But now I'm getting ready for my first Law course.... and I'm terrified. But we'll see!