Estonia: The Low Down

So, considering I'm not going to a familiar place at all... I thought I'd write a post to give a general idea of what things will be like and to entertain myself on this Sunday morning.



Estonia is a small country, halfway between the sizes of Maryland and West Virginia, located south of Finland and in between Russia and Latvia. The population is approximately 1.4 million, so imagine the greater Memphis area spread out across half of Maine. The economy is pretty diversified, but their greatest exports are usually in telecommunications and along Internet-based services along with a strong wood and wood products. They have strong trading ties with Finland, Sweden, and Germany. So Estonia made good trading partners after the USSR collapse, which has improved their economic outlook. They have been growing at 8% pretty regularly, but that has led to high inflation (hence their difficulty in adopting the euro).



The biggest political issues facing Estonia are maintaining and gaining greater prominence in NATO and EU. Estonia wishes to adopt the euro as soon as possible, so the global recession may be the testing ground for Estonia's economy to prove itself capable of maintaining the euro. They've been playing a large role, along with Sweden and Finland, in assisting Latvia in its economic fallout. Sadly for Estonia's NATO reputation, the Iraqi government did not recognize their troops, forcing all 34 to be removed. Yes, 34 troops. But at least they sent what they could (only have 1.4 million but a border with Russia, who they disagree with often).

Unfortunately, as previously mentioned, Estonia has had bid disagreements with its neighbor, Russia, since the break-up of the USSR. Estonia was among the first states to declare independence and has since attempted to de-Russify the country. Biggest problem is that approximately a third of its population is ethnically Russian, who were not recognized for citizenship automatically by the Estonian state. So there still exists ethnic tension within the country in many aspects of the state's affairs. Another recent episode has been Estonia's removal of a monument to the lives of Russian troops sacrificed in the liberation of Estonia from the Nazis. Estonia claims it was removing a monument of Soviet oppression, while Russia thought it was blatant disrespect for the service paid by Russian troops. So, they're not too friendly right now...

The city I'm living in is Tartu, a population of 100,000. One-fifth of that are college students, so it's a large university in a college town. It's gonna be a different environment, but I'm very excited. I don't know what classes I'm taking until registration is complete, so I just have to wait until then.... I share a bedroom with a roommate, but share my kitchen, living room, and bathroom with 4 other "suite-mates". So I live in apartments built for 6 people, and I have no idea who I'm living with. I hope some of them are Russian so I can practice. hahaha.

My absolute greatest apprehension is the training I will be doing in Estonia. Running has gone surprisingly well here in Aledo, but I'm incredibly anxious about training in Estonia, because I'll be training with Coach Lemberg. He is the coach of Estonia's 2008 Olympic 1500m and marathon runners, and I'm pretty sure I'll get to train with elements of their entire national team. This means I will get my butt kicked every day, but I need that. And I want that. I just have no idea how to train in snow (never done it). haha. But I'll get to compete a few times, and on February 15th there's a cross-country skiing marathon in town, so I might just do that... Why not? Oh, maybe because I've never done anything like it it, and it's 31 kilometers (just over 19 miles) on the shortest course... Unless I compete with the 11+ age category on the 6k. Yes... attack the younger ones... that's how I'll do it. hahaha.

Well, I'll try to update you on Orientation as it goes along, but I'm going to be busy on the upfront, so bear with me!