Estonia Evening

So last night was fun fun fun. I went to the Wilde Pub, dedicated to Oscar Wilde (pictures of the actual place will go up much later). I love that place, except that they didn't have Guinness. Sad day. But it was a great place to start the evening, because it was quiet enough that we could talk... and drink huge beers.


But then we just walked around Tartu trying to find places that didn't charge too high a fee to get inside. We ended up coming back to the Wilde, where I had a great conversation about the economy and racism. Really interesting talking to a Mexican, Brit, Pole, New Englander, and Italian about such things. Need I say that I LOVE IT HERE!!!!

Then today I slept a lot. But then my international student tutor, Elo, invited us over to her apartment. So we had traditional kama, which is a not-so-tasty traditional Estonian drink. It's supposed to start the morning right, so it consists of various crushed wheats and peas mixed into a cream with sugar. It is extremely granulated and doesn't really go down smoothly. But you could taste the healthiness, which we all needed to drink something healthy after the weekend.

But she cooked some apple cakes, an Estonian dessert, and brought us Estonian candies to sample. Then we had Siberian dumplings, which I love!!! But she baked them, rather than boiling them, and I think I prefer them baked. But it was wonderful. It was just a really nice, pleasant gathering.

And apparently Elo is essentially the only tutor that gives a crap. We had some of the roommates of our group members come, and they said that their tutor really didn't do anything for them. But Elo is so helpful and so nice. We've invited her over to our dormitory, and we're going to fix up some sort of dinner for her. But knowing us international kids... it may be a while. And that unfortunately runs against Estonian punctuality, which is almost as bad as German punctuality, apparently. But oh well, Elo doesn't mind. She says she's late to most things, so that works well for us.

But classes start tomorrow, so I have my first Soviet Experience and Post-Soviet Transformation in Russia class. And I'm really excited!! But apparently all but 1 of the courses I'm taking is taught at a Master's level. So that'll be fun... but I'm only taking 4 classes, so it shouldn't be that bad.

I hope all is well with you!