Waiting for Estonia To Love It

So, the update of the last few days. It's not that my life has been riveting, it's just that not a lot has happened to make me want to post. But enough's enough. Yes.

So, I'm still in a double room. My old room will be occupied in April, so there's no point in moving. Sad day? Yes. But oh well. I'll go see about getting to the St Petersburg Law Conference. Hahahaha.

I emailed the conference, they are not mailing me an invitation. So I have to get an invitation through a travel agency. HAHAHAHAHA. No way. I have gone to 3 of 4 travel agencies and thusfar the cheapest price has been $230 for an invitation and visa. Laughable. I love St Petersburg, and the conference would be great, but I'm not going to spend $300 for 3 days in St Petersburg at a conference that may or may not adequately provide lectures in English.

So this means that I do have to present in my Law class now. I watched a presentation today. And I kicked myself in the face again, because if I hadn't missed my original presentation, I would have knocked it out of the park. I would have made the professor gleam with joy. But no. Instead, I was bored to tears and cursed myself.

In my Post Soviet class on Monday, we had ANOTHER argument from the Ukrainian girl in the class. 3rd argument in 3 classes. This last one was half an hour. Now, the reason is understandable. In the 1930s, Stalin implemented a policy to export grain and not allow the public to be able to purchase any of the grain they produced. So roughly 7 million people starved to death across the USSR. Roughly half of these deaths were in Ukraine with a great number more in Kazakhstan. Currently in Ukraine it is illegal to deny that this was genocide. My professor doesn't acknowledge this event at genocide from the legal definition of genocide. From a cultural standpoint, it is understandable why the Ukrainian girl finds this very troubling.

BUT LET IT GO. If you have argued with the professor TWICE in class with no results, why bring it up a 3rd time?! Ugh. I mean, controversy is interesting, but it also just annoying after a certain point. Oh well.

Tuesday no a lot happened that I recall... Woot. hahaha. I felt sick on Tuesday night, so I didn't do my workout with Coach Lemberg. I knew it'd be pointless to ruin a workout. So not running was unfortunately the event of the day.

Today (Wednesday) I sprinted to Law, because I was afraid I'd be late again. Then I went to a workout with Coach Lemberg. It went well, and I can start to feel myself getting into better shape. My workouts next week will be much more intense... So this was my last 'easy' week. But I will get to race the 10k here in Tartu, and there's a good chance I'll get to represent Estonia in a multinational competition in Latvia!! So I'd have like two weeks of racing in May, but it'd be awesome. I hope that pans out.

But even more incredible was the introduction after the workout. A runner came up to me while I was stretching and wanted to know who I was. I told him, and he knew me from Coach Lemberg's conversations about me. But one way or another, he's really talkative!! And we're going to go on a run together!! Yay!! I will get to run alongside someone for an hour!! And he invited me to a runner gathering at the sauna on Saturday. Score!! I get to meet all the runners!!!

And I've figured out the "details" on my time in Russia. I will not be taking language classes. In order to "save" $2000, I'm going to strictly work in the orphanage in the mornings/early afternoons. I'll still live with the host family, and it will be less stressful, I think. Not having to keep grades up or have TONS of Russian shoved down my throat, my brain will just collapse under the cultural pressure of Russian immersion. hahaha. But I'm starting to make sense of all the paperwork, and it is certainly seeming less daunting now. Yay!!!! Weee!!!

Well, I promise that I will write more often than I have as of late... My Bad. Oh, but the weather was crappy Monday morning, after I just said spring was on its way. But then it warmed up in the afternoon! And it's stayed that way for the most part. Dare I say the ice may melt in two weeks?! I probably just cursed myself to a month of blizzards, but we'll see!!

I have some fun planned for the few evenings, so I will write. I promise.