In Estonia Time Gets Away

So I realize it’s been FOREVER since I wrote, and I apologize. I haven’t been busy really, just not updating. Oh well.

Sunday (3/15)

We went to the ballet to see Tchaikovsky’s interpretation of Pushkin’s “Eugene Onegin”. It was actually a surprisingly good production, considering Tartu is only a city of 100,000. It supports three theatres, a concert hall, and a lot of other stuff. So for a city this size with such a varied art scene, I was actually pretty impressed overall. It wasn’t amazing, but it wasn’t nearly as bad as I was expecting, honestly. And we had free dessert at Café Shakespeare, so it worked out really well. Ballet and dessert for $5? I love student activity stuff… hahaha.

Monday/Tuesday

Monday, I honestly don’t remember at all. Tuesday I had a workout with Coach Lemberg that I thought was going to kill me. It was twice as long as our previous workouts, but I didn’t really notice. It went really well, and I enjoyed it overall. He thinks that I’ll be able to race well in May in the Tartu 10k, and I may be able to race the 5k (and possibly steeplechase!) in Latvia, while representing Estonia. I hope that works out, cuz it’d be a lot of fun. I’d get my ass kicked, but according to the 2006 results, I’d be in the top 20 across four countries in the 5k and 1500m times. So I’d be proud to get one of those. And maybe I can get a top 3 finish in the Tartu 10k, and maybe get a medal? I hope so!!

Wednesday

Today marked the first really interesting class I’ve had thus far in Tartu. So kind of a sad day, considering how late it is in the semester. But at the same time, a happy day!! It was in my International/Human Rights Law in Russia course. Wee!!! The reading was somewhat interesting, but we just had a class discussion in which we totally rationalized Russia’s attitude towards the international stage and human rights law. Using EU and US law as examples, we actually found a way to empathize with Russia. So I found it interesting. I don’t condone Russia’s position, and I didn’t walk away from the class with a new attitude or awareness of Russia, but it was nice to have an entire class of international students from all over Europe see Russia as a rational actor and capable of being dealt with. Really interesting!

Thursday

Found my new favorite place in Tartu. Now, I’m not the one who discovered it, but Genevieve and Kelsey told me about this café were you can get coffee for cheap, and I was excited. But the Werner Café is just a wonderful café. You can get really good quiche and coffee there, and the place is HUGE!! So there’s always students/professors there. So I almost feel like a normal student in Tartu, going to the “coffee place”. Almost reminds me of Middle Ground at Rhodes. But of course, it’s much more civilized in Werner. Hahaha.

But I had to debate as to whether to go to my Russian language class or not, and my sensibilities prevailed, and I went to the class. Terrible idea. Hahaha. We spent two hours reviewing and learning Russian words for foods and dishes. For a class from 6pm-8pm, it added a new dimension of talking about food in class. I was sooo hungry!! And I love Russian food, so it made it ever worse. But the class is really enjoyable now, and I do like my professor quite a bit.

Friday

I got up early and went to the ERGO insurance company headquarters to start the process of buying insurance that the Migration Board will accept. Woot. It’ll cost money (no duh) and it’s whatever. But it should be done before my residency limit expires.

Then we went to Otepää!! If you remember from earlier posts, we went sledding for Valentine’s Day. But this trip was organized by Niels (Netherlands), and he organized a second trip to Otepää. The first was directly through the international student ground (ESN), and I didn’t go cuz I was in Helsinki. But Niels wanted to arrange just a few hours of skiing in order to say “Farewell to Winter”. Thusfar, everything Niels has planned has turned into awesomeness.

Otepää is Estonia’s only downhill skiing resort... and it’s barely a hill to go down. It’s Estonia’s tallest point at 318 meters. So it’s not what you might think in terms of downhill skiing, but it was wonderful!! I got to teach Kelsey how to ski, and she did really well!! And I fell back in love with skiing like CRAZY!! I love it soo much!! It had been 3 years since I had skied, but it came back to me immediately. And I didn’t fall once – heck yes. But they had numerous runs – 3 reds and 1 green. And the reds were really really fun, but very short. But I got to do a lot of night skiing (that’s how we got the discounted rate), and I really enjoyed it. *sigh* I loved it. I wish my picture of the rooftop of Estonia was good, but it isn’t. But it was a really nice view out over the trees of Estonia. Yay! Hahaha. A good night indeed!

Saturday/Sunday

Just hung out a lot around Tartu, didn’t really do anything special.... Although Saturday I cooked a lot with Genevieve, Peter, and Kelsey but had a REALLY good conversation with my friend Olesea from Transniestria, the breakaway republic within Moldova. She’s amazing, and we’re becoming good friends, and it makes me beyond excited.

Today (Sunday) I was interviewed by an Estonian girl, Diana, for her Cross-Cultural Psychology course. It was a long interview, but I enjoyed it. I hope she enjoyed my American perspective? I don’t know, I’m not really shocked with Estonian culture or mystified by it. I think my first real period abroad in Russia really took that aspect out of this Estonian experience. I’ve been around “European” ideas of transportation, spending, etc. So I don’t know if I was that interesting of a subject. But whatever. She wants to meet more international students, so we’re going to try to arrange something for us to meet Estonians and for her to meet some internationals. We’ll see how that pans out…

And I’ve officially started planning my “European tour” after my classes end and right before I go to Russia, and I’m really excited!! I’m going to travel with Kelsey, one of the Americans I went to Helsinki with, and we’re going to go to Vilnius, Lithuania; Krakow, Poland; Budapest, Hungary; and London. But we’re not really going to London. Instead, we’re going to do the World Naked Bike Ride to protest the use of cars and negative body image. Last year 1,000 people biked the 10 kilometer path naked in London. I can’t wait!! That’ll be quite the way to end the trip. Then I’ll meet up (hopefully) with my mother and sister in Stockholm, and we’ll travel to Copenhagen, and maybe somewhere else. But I’m really excited!! *giggle*

Overall Trends:

I’m cooking in my room a lot more now. It’s basically boiled eggs and cereal for breakfast, a loaf of bread turned into many sandwiches for lunch, and spaghetti at night. But it’s really helping to turn my apartment into home. Yay! Not quite, but maybe.

I cursed running this week. It dumped snow on my halfway through the week, and it made running impossible. Freaking ridiculous. I couldn’t get traction, it was hurting my hamstrings, I hated it. It was awful. Capital “F” for snow. Ugh, so angry. But within the last 48 hours, a battle has been raging between spring and winter, and hopefully spring is winning. Today running wasn’t too bad, but it certainly wasn’t as good as last week. I just want to run on the actual soil. Is that too much to ask?! I’m tired of ice and snow for running… But I do feel I’m in shape and getting better. This week I’m also going to start going to the gym once a day and working out with the internationals, particularly Paul (China) who is everybody’s trainer. I hope he can help me with my core and upper body. But basically anything would improve me. Hahaha.

I will actually try and post daily again. I apologize for my earlier lapses. Please forgive me.

Loves you all!