Residencies & Russian

So I will be altering my posting schedule sometime in the next few days. Because while you (in the States) may be reading this as a re-cap of what happened the day before, I am writing this when I am halfway through the next day. So it is difficult for me to keep track.

But today (Thursday) I slept in from my fun dancing at Club Illusion, which I still love. hahaha. But then I decided that I needed to get all my fancy paperwork in to file for residency in Estonia. So you know, I can stay here for many months and be a full-time student. Wee! So I ran all around town trying to get copies made of the forms (which would later be available for free at the migration office... ugh...) and walked to the other side of town where the Migration office is.

I am given a number and sit down with my migration officer.
"Tere (Estonian for hello), I'd like to-"
"I don't speak English. *Asks in German, if I speak German*
"Нет (Russian for no)." "Оо, ты говоришь по-русски?" (Oh, you speak Russian?)
"Я говору мало." (I speak a little.)
"Хорошо..." (Best translated as "Alriiiight...")

So she and I worked together for the next 40 minutes in the most broken Russian ever. She was AMAZING and making all of this bureaucratic mumbo-jumbo into the most stupid version of Russian ever spoken. hahaha. Now granted, the situation was not dire per se, but it is the first time that I have used my Russian to successfully get a very important and very necessary task completed by myself. I feel very proud. Wee! Professor Kostina would have been laughing the whole time, I'm sure, but I had the most serious face on as this kind officer took the time to explain to me what I needed to say and in what order to write a letter describing the "significant events" in my life (ridiculous, I might add).

But the information is submitted, that is all I can do. Wee! I will receive an email either telling me that some of the information is invalid and I must go back OR everything is perfect and I need to go back to pick up all my paperwork. One way or the other, I get to go back. Yay.
Then the Erasmus Student Network (ESN - Tartu) had a welcome party for all the international students. ESN is a huge social networking group across hundreds of universities over Europe, and it is a way for "students to help students" and just help facilitate trips and social functions. We like ESN a lot. And the party was good. The beer was wonderfully cheap, and I met a lot of international students. Although, I had mixed luck. Everyone my age I met seemed to be Italian, although I know there were a few people from Germany. And then I met a ton of Lithuanians in the Master's program, so I don't know if I'll be able to see them again. Sad day.

But upon walking back from the bar, it was snowing!! And it has continued to snow until about 1 pm on Friday. It was beautifully large snowflakes. *sigh* So nice... So here are some more photos of Tartu, but at night.

PS - This is a shameless plug, but read the following blog as well if you have time. It's written by my sister (alias kemawema) and my cousin (alias lindsaybobinsay).
http://ialsolikebrianjacques.wordpress.com/