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!
Sunday, March 22, 2009
Saturday, March 14, 2009
I Love the Awesome Up In Her'
Okay, so. Here we go on the catching up. But real quick, I had a really good conversation with my Hungarian flatmate, Gergo, Wednesday night that went until almost 4 AM. It was very nice, and I really understand where he's coming from on a lot of different issues, such as immigration and cultural integration. YAY!! Cultural exchange!!
Thursday
I don't have class until 6 pm. This is somewhat nice, but I really just spend the whole day waiting for class to happen. So it's kind of anti-climactic and what not.
But I got up, ran, and then met up with Genevieve and Peter for lunch at a place that supposedly was very cheap for students. We hunted in the "other" mall in town, Tasku, to try and find this place. Apparently, after looking at a map, you have to go through one of the stores to get to it, so it's very much hidden. But it's really awesomely decorated, and it was relatively cheap for students, so I may return here.
Then Genevieve made us boys help her pick out a new coat, and we actually rocked at it. I mean, I can't shop for me all too well, but telling her that coats looked ugly was easy. And we were successful. She purchased a coat that she looks wonderful in, and she looks much more European and well-dressed. Success fo' sho'.
Russian was VERY small, maybe 9 of us in class. I felt like I was back at Rhodes, and it made me quite happy, really. And it was a very pleasant class overall. Then I was walking back to Raatuse... and it finally hit me that I was home. I really do think of Tartu as home. I love it. Not just enjoy it or realize that I was in Tartu, but if you ever took me back to Tartu, I would feel like home. It's such a wonderful feeling, but I'm really excited about it. Yay!
I then went back to my old flat to have dinner with Timofey and Ada. I do love them very much, and I love talking with them. It was a wonderful dinner of soup and bread. And really good conversation about education and military service. A lot of information swapped, and it was very "cultural" in general.
Thursday was then Ibiza Night at Club Illusion. Ibiza is an island off the southern coast of Spain, and it is known as the party island for all of Europe. But they had free entrance for international students and a free drink if you showed up in shorts. So I of course went. The DJ was pretty good, but I danced with Timofey and Ada a lot and the Dutch - Niels, Auke, and Marten. It was a good night of dancing, and I actually stayed until it closed at 3 AM. This is a first, because I thought it closed so much later. I might stay til close every night now.
Friday
Slept in really late. Then I ran, and ate a pizza at Taverna. Then I did nothing except watch some clips on YouTube of people dancing. I wasted sooo much time with it. Kind of ridiculous... several hours... Wow, my life is worth emulating, yes? Ugh. But anyway.
Then we went to a bar where Jack, the Brit, was invited to DJ as a test run to see if it will become a weekly thing. I played a game of billiards... and lost twice. Ugh. Peppe (Italy) and I did the best we could, but obviously it wasn't enough. Then we danced with Jack's music, but the pub was really not well circulated with air, so I just stood outside a couple of times to keep from sweating all over the floor. A good night with good music.
Saturday (Today)
Got up late (2pm) and went for a long run. It was good, as the temperatures have really warmed up, so I wore my thinnest running pants and just my long-sleeve top. It was perfect. Absolutely wonderful. But apparently it has been snowing at night, as the trails away from town had fresh snow on them, but Tartu itself hasn't frozen over again. This is very good.
I then fashioned a lunch in my room and received a call from Rainis!! Rainis is the Estonian who introduced himself to me earlier in the week, and he was confirming my interest in going to the sauna. I said, hell yes, and left to go and get beers for the sauna. Then I met up with Mario and Marte, both of whom I had met earlier in February, but hadn't seen since. We then walked to the sauna, which was deceivingly far away... like other side of Tartu I hadn't even been yet. But the Technology Institute of Tartu (as they told me 12 times) has a small sauna in the basement, but Rainis and another runner Rahna are molecular biology students (Rainis undergrad, Rahna PhD), so we get into the building without a problem.
I was honestly very nervous about the sauna prior to it, because I didn't know how many runners would be there, and I didn't know anything about them. Running communities are very close, and it can be difficult for a newbie to establish any sort of a place to sleep. So I was nervous about sitting naked in a room full of guys I didn't know, sweating like crazy, and trying to be the American they want to know. hahaha.
Now, they teased me that I wouldn't be able to stand the heat. And in my head, I was saying, "Get out of my house. I'm from Texas. I've roofed, run, and existed in Texas in the afternoon on summer days. I may hate the heat, but I can take it."
FALSE.
When we first got in the sauna, it wasn't a problem. Yeah, it was hot, but I could take the heat, whatever. HOLY SWEET MOTHER. Once they started getting it going... 75 degrees Celsius. That's almost 170 degrees Fahrenheit. The tip of my beer bottle was slightly burning every time I put it to my lips. The very glass of my beer was hot from the temperature!! I was sweating like CRAZY. As was everyone else, and I almost made it the longest... but Mario apparently LOVES the heat, and I was not in a mood to compete as to who could survive heat strokes.
So we just sat outside on the floor and talked international politics and culture. It was kind of orgasmic for me. Talking with Estonians about being Estonian, how they see Russia, how they see themselves, how they perceive the economic crisis. Crazy awesome. But the floor was literally covered in the sweat off our bodies... Then we got into the sauna again. And it was starting at 70 degrees, so you start sweating at 158 F pretty quick. I lasted a few minutes, then got the crap out of there.
We showered and then headed for Zavood, because the international students were going to DJ there tonight. After the long walk we arrived, and there was no one there. But they were keen on drinking a little, so they stayed. Then more and more international students trickled in, and they actually met a huge number of my friends. It was really nice. I got to show of my Estonian friends. hahaha. I felt sooo cool. haha.
And I LOVE these guys. They have politically offensive senses of humor and they laugh really easily. It's a dream for me. And I'm not too much slower than them, except for the fact that they are all marathoners. Sweet mother, I would never run a marathon, but they love it. They say it's the most fun race ever. FALSE. haha.
A fantastic few days. Truly wonderful, actually. Really nice. *sigh* Yeah.
Thursday
I don't have class until 6 pm. This is somewhat nice, but I really just spend the whole day waiting for class to happen. So it's kind of anti-climactic and what not.
But I got up, ran, and then met up with Genevieve and Peter for lunch at a place that supposedly was very cheap for students. We hunted in the "other" mall in town, Tasku, to try and find this place. Apparently, after looking at a map, you have to go through one of the stores to get to it, so it's very much hidden. But it's really awesomely decorated, and it was relatively cheap for students, so I may return here.
Then Genevieve made us boys help her pick out a new coat, and we actually rocked at it. I mean, I can't shop for me all too well, but telling her that coats looked ugly was easy. And we were successful. She purchased a coat that she looks wonderful in, and she looks much more European and well-dressed. Success fo' sho'.
Russian was VERY small, maybe 9 of us in class. I felt like I was back at Rhodes, and it made me quite happy, really. And it was a very pleasant class overall. Then I was walking back to Raatuse... and it finally hit me that I was home. I really do think of Tartu as home. I love it. Not just enjoy it or realize that I was in Tartu, but if you ever took me back to Tartu, I would feel like home. It's such a wonderful feeling, but I'm really excited about it. Yay!
I then went back to my old flat to have dinner with Timofey and Ada. I do love them very much, and I love talking with them. It was a wonderful dinner of soup and bread. And really good conversation about education and military service. A lot of information swapped, and it was very "cultural" in general.
Thursday was then Ibiza Night at Club Illusion. Ibiza is an island off the southern coast of Spain, and it is known as the party island for all of Europe. But they had free entrance for international students and a free drink if you showed up in shorts. So I of course went. The DJ was pretty good, but I danced with Timofey and Ada a lot and the Dutch - Niels, Auke, and Marten. It was a good night of dancing, and I actually stayed until it closed at 3 AM. This is a first, because I thought it closed so much later. I might stay til close every night now.
Friday
Slept in really late. Then I ran, and ate a pizza at Taverna. Then I did nothing except watch some clips on YouTube of people dancing. I wasted sooo much time with it. Kind of ridiculous... several hours... Wow, my life is worth emulating, yes? Ugh. But anyway.
Then we went to a bar where Jack, the Brit, was invited to DJ as a test run to see if it will become a weekly thing. I played a game of billiards... and lost twice. Ugh. Peppe (Italy) and I did the best we could, but obviously it wasn't enough. Then we danced with Jack's music, but the pub was really not well circulated with air, so I just stood outside a couple of times to keep from sweating all over the floor. A good night with good music.
Saturday (Today)
Got up late (2pm) and went for a long run. It was good, as the temperatures have really warmed up, so I wore my thinnest running pants and just my long-sleeve top. It was perfect. Absolutely wonderful. But apparently it has been snowing at night, as the trails away from town had fresh snow on them, but Tartu itself hasn't frozen over again. This is very good.
I then fashioned a lunch in my room and received a call from Rainis!! Rainis is the Estonian who introduced himself to me earlier in the week, and he was confirming my interest in going to the sauna. I said, hell yes, and left to go and get beers for the sauna. Then I met up with Mario and Marte, both of whom I had met earlier in February, but hadn't seen since. We then walked to the sauna, which was deceivingly far away... like other side of Tartu I hadn't even been yet. But the Technology Institute of Tartu (as they told me 12 times) has a small sauna in the basement, but Rainis and another runner Rahna are molecular biology students (Rainis undergrad, Rahna PhD), so we get into the building without a problem.
I was honestly very nervous about the sauna prior to it, because I didn't know how many runners would be there, and I didn't know anything about them. Running communities are very close, and it can be difficult for a newbie to establish any sort of a place to sleep. So I was nervous about sitting naked in a room full of guys I didn't know, sweating like crazy, and trying to be the American they want to know. hahaha.
Now, they teased me that I wouldn't be able to stand the heat. And in my head, I was saying, "Get out of my house. I'm from Texas. I've roofed, run, and existed in Texas in the afternoon on summer days. I may hate the heat, but I can take it."
FALSE.
When we first got in the sauna, it wasn't a problem. Yeah, it was hot, but I could take the heat, whatever. HOLY SWEET MOTHER. Once they started getting it going... 75 degrees Celsius. That's almost 170 degrees Fahrenheit. The tip of my beer bottle was slightly burning every time I put it to my lips. The very glass of my beer was hot from the temperature!! I was sweating like CRAZY. As was everyone else, and I almost made it the longest... but Mario apparently LOVES the heat, and I was not in a mood to compete as to who could survive heat strokes.
So we just sat outside on the floor and talked international politics and culture. It was kind of orgasmic for me. Talking with Estonians about being Estonian, how they see Russia, how they see themselves, how they perceive the economic crisis. Crazy awesome. But the floor was literally covered in the sweat off our bodies... Then we got into the sauna again. And it was starting at 70 degrees, so you start sweating at 158 F pretty quick. I lasted a few minutes, then got the crap out of there.
We showered and then headed for Zavood, because the international students were going to DJ there tonight. After the long walk we arrived, and there was no one there. But they were keen on drinking a little, so they stayed. Then more and more international students trickled in, and they actually met a huge number of my friends. It was really nice. I got to show of my Estonian friends. hahaha. I felt sooo cool. haha.
And I LOVE these guys. They have politically offensive senses of humor and they laugh really easily. It's a dream for me. And I'm not too much slower than them, except for the fact that they are all marathoners. Sweet mother, I would never run a marathon, but they love it. They say it's the most fun race ever. FALSE. haha.
A fantastic few days. Truly wonderful, actually. Really nice. *sigh* Yeah.
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
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.
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.
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Warning: Warm Weather Approaching
Wow. The weather has been so warm recently. It's been almost 40F with sunshine for about 3 days going now. It's unbelievable!! I've been walking around in long-sleeve shirts so comfortably lately. Amazingness.
On Saturday, I went for my long-run through the trail along the river, and I was about to finish my last kilometer on the trail. The trail then hits a creek, and I said to myself, "Stop, take this one walking." This is the only creek that doesn't have a bridge visible through the snow, so I figured it was a good idea. As soon as I stepped on the bridge, it collapsed into the creek. Luckily, my other foot got to the other side before it collapsed. The ice bridges are melting!! And now I have to turn into a long-jumper to get across the "gorges". But it's crazy!!
But since my last post, life has officially become so exciting, I can barely stand it.
#1 Reason: I found out hours after my last post, that I'm going to Novgorod, Russia!!!!! So I get to work in an orphanage for 6 weeks!!!! I get to live with a host family!!! AND take Russian language courses!!! I'm sooo excited!! I feel bad considering I tried to "start" other programs, but if they're possibilities, I think I'll go ahead and "plan" them out, and maybe bring them back to Rhodes as other summer programs that are available. Who knows.
BUT I'M GOING TO NOVGOROD!!!! It's the "oldest" city in Russia. 1,150 years old!!! It has the oldest functional building in all of Russia - a church from 1045. 1045!!! And it's a relatively unimpressive city in terms of sights, but I love it. It's "real" Russia, and I can't wait to go there!!!
And the other ridiculously exciting development is the official announcement of my "spring break" trip. Since Genevieve, Peter, Kelsey, and I traveled together so well, despite the stress of being lost in Tallinn with a ticking clock, we wanted to travel again. So we scoured flights and created lists of ideas. And I will have to drop all modesty, as I am the ultimate trip-planner ever. Everything we were looking at was going to be $300 for transportation, but we rationalized it as our "spring break".
BUT I found an amazing trip for half the transportation costs. The focus of the trip - spending 3 days kayaking in the fjords of Norway!!!! We'll also spend two half-days in Riga, Latvia and a night in Bremen, Germany. I'm beyond excited. SOOOO EXCITED!!! I've always wanted to see the fjords, since forever!!! And we're flying into Haugersund, which is where the first Viking king consolidated his rule. CRAZY!!!! Yaaaaay!!!!
Yet with all the excitement comes the wall of work. Tomorrow I'm going to try and secure a single room. It's just come to the point where I desperately desire my own space. 3 years of sharing a room with a person without romantic interest... I'm done. hahaha. So hopefully this will work out just fine.
And I've been confused with this law conference to St Petersburg... I haven't received an invitation, which is necessary for securing the tourist visa... So if I don't get it by Wednesday, I'm going to a trip-planner here in Tartu and securing the visa through them. But it would eliminate my need to go to Tallinn personally... But it would cost more money, and I wouldn't experience the "delightful stress" of being almost incoherent in the Russian embassy. Yes!
And now I'm having to start the process of communicating with the "network" for the Novgorod program. Me being in Estonia is making this process about 25x harder than it should be. Oh well. Good experiences the whole way 'round... hopefully.
It's just crazy. I made up my mind at the beginning of sophomore year to get the Buckman to go to Estonia (or Denmark) and then get the Internship to go to Russia. And it's actually happened. All my plans, all my work, everything I've focused towards has occured. YAAY!! If only grad school would be this easy... hahaha.
On Saturday, I went for my long-run through the trail along the river, and I was about to finish my last kilometer on the trail. The trail then hits a creek, and I said to myself, "Stop, take this one walking." This is the only creek that doesn't have a bridge visible through the snow, so I figured it was a good idea. As soon as I stepped on the bridge, it collapsed into the creek. Luckily, my other foot got to the other side before it collapsed. The ice bridges are melting!! And now I have to turn into a long-jumper to get across the "gorges". But it's crazy!!
But since my last post, life has officially become so exciting, I can barely stand it.
#1 Reason: I found out hours after my last post, that I'm going to Novgorod, Russia!!!!! So I get to work in an orphanage for 6 weeks!!!! I get to live with a host family!!! AND take Russian language courses!!! I'm sooo excited!! I feel bad considering I tried to "start" other programs, but if they're possibilities, I think I'll go ahead and "plan" them out, and maybe bring them back to Rhodes as other summer programs that are available. Who knows.
BUT I'M GOING TO NOVGOROD!!!! It's the "oldest" city in Russia. 1,150 years old!!! It has the oldest functional building in all of Russia - a church from 1045. 1045!!! And it's a relatively unimpressive city in terms of sights, but I love it. It's "real" Russia, and I can't wait to go there!!!
And the other ridiculously exciting development is the official announcement of my "spring break" trip. Since Genevieve, Peter, Kelsey, and I traveled together so well, despite the stress of being lost in Tallinn with a ticking clock, we wanted to travel again. So we scoured flights and created lists of ideas. And I will have to drop all modesty, as I am the ultimate trip-planner ever. Everything we were looking at was going to be $300 for transportation, but we rationalized it as our "spring break".
BUT I found an amazing trip for half the transportation costs. The focus of the trip - spending 3 days kayaking in the fjords of Norway!!!! We'll also spend two half-days in Riga, Latvia and a night in Bremen, Germany. I'm beyond excited. SOOOO EXCITED!!! I've always wanted to see the fjords, since forever!!! And we're flying into Haugersund, which is where the first Viking king consolidated his rule. CRAZY!!!! Yaaaaay!!!!
Yet with all the excitement comes the wall of work. Tomorrow I'm going to try and secure a single room. It's just come to the point where I desperately desire my own space. 3 years of sharing a room with a person without romantic interest... I'm done. hahaha. So hopefully this will work out just fine.
And I've been confused with this law conference to St Petersburg... I haven't received an invitation, which is necessary for securing the tourist visa... So if I don't get it by Wednesday, I'm going to a trip-planner here in Tartu and securing the visa through them. But it would eliminate my need to go to Tallinn personally... But it would cost more money, and I wouldn't experience the "delightful stress" of being almost incoherent in the Russian embassy. Yes!
And now I'm having to start the process of communicating with the "network" for the Novgorod program. Me being in Estonia is making this process about 25x harder than it should be. Oh well. Good experiences the whole way 'round... hopefully.
It's just crazy. I made up my mind at the beginning of sophomore year to get the Buckman to go to Estonia (or Denmark) and then get the Internship to go to Russia. And it's actually happened. All my plans, all my work, everything I've focused towards has occured. YAAY!! If only grad school would be this easy... hahaha.
Friday, March 6, 2009
You Tell Me
Okay, so I haven’t written in a while, and this is bad. So what have I been up to?
Most importantly, a detail I forgot to mention last week, despite its importance. On Tuesday, I ran with an Estonian!! One of the guys on the team was apparently slated for a workout, and so he just hopped in with mine. It was wonderful!!! It was my first time running with another human being in over 5 weeks. But it was also a tease. It hasn’t happened again yet. And this week, I got my ass handed to me, because I was dehydrated (unbeknownst to me at the time). So a quick up and a quick DIVE for the bottom. wee.
Well, classes upon returning to Helsinki were crap. I went to class on Monday… and proceeded to learn nothing new about the USSR. Ugh. On Tuesday my group presented our case for “the international performance of Russia depends on the economic situation of Putin’s Russia”. It was a vague topic, we were not given a clear agenda, and so our grade is equally nebulous. Our professor said he would see other presentations before arriving at a final score. Ugh. Then I RACED to Law (the class I missed last week) to discover that it had been cancelled without my knowing. *GUNBLAST*
Fortunately, Russian language class was stimulating this week, as the professor realized the class’ overall level and upped the difficulty. I am pleased. It’s engaging, and it is possible to learn a little. Yay. Unfortunately, I was RACING to my Law course, because I received a package from the Migration Board rejecting my health insurance. woot. I am currently trying to work this out. Stupid heads…
I also am getting nervous because I have not heard from my internship in Novgorod, Russia to work in the orphanage. And I get very nervous when my plans don’t flesh out quickly. So I’ve been somewhat of a wreck waiting to see what happens. I won a scholarship to go on that program, but they’re taking an unnecessarily long time to do everything. This = frustrating.
So what has gone well this week?!
Well, let me tell you that as well.
Due to my angst over the Novgorod internship, I contacted an acquaintance of mine who lives in Abakan, Russia - in the Khakassia oblast (not to be confused with Abkhassia – where the Georgian crisis occurred). But this is southern Siberia and the area containing the largest array of burial sites from prehistoric times in Central Asia – it’s known as the Central Asian Archeological Mecca. So if Novgorod fails and this idea pans out, I’ll get to work in archeological digs in the morning and teach English in the afternoons/evenings. I hope this maybe works out? I’ve wanted to go to Abakan ever since I met this friend, and this would be an incredible way of doing it!!
And tonight, I rejoined with my old flatmates, Timofey and Auda, to see a movie about the Soviet occupation. It was a documentary of RIDICULOUSLY intense proportions. It was the most brutally graphic demonstration of the USSR’s repression that I’ve ever seen. What a downer… But I joined them with a colleague of theirs (a native Estonian) and we discussed the film afterwards. It was a very interesting discussion of purpose, historical identification, societal perception… *sigh* I was in heaven. It was lovely.
AAAANNNNDDD… Out of this discussion, it was revealed to me that the Estonian knows a Russian who runs a camp just east of Lake Baikal in Russia. This to the east of Khakassia, just above Mongolia. But these camps are “constantly in need of English speakers”. So she’s gonna see if her friends is organizing camps this summer, and I may be able to work there also!!! Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world (almost 2 miles deep) and has its own species of seal that inhabits it. But working in a camp where I get to be in a bilingual environment?!?! And a summer camp in southern Siberia would be rural living to the max. Definitely a more “trying” summer – although the orphanage would hardly be a “walk in the park”.
The orphanage program is still my number one pick, but if I could go do archeological digs and teach English or work a camp for Mongolian minorities in Russia… That would be awesome as well. I hope something fleshes out in these programs… Anything!
But today I went around with Kelsey and Genevieve all around Tartu. We decided that we had been tourists in Helsinki, but we hadn’t been tourists in the very town we lived in. So here are some pictures of the churches in Tartu – my main fascination when sight-seeing. Churches were just built to inspire, so I find them more interesting than government offices. Let’s face it. Hahaha.
Look at how they dress kids here!!! SOOO CUTE!!!!
Tartu Town Hall and beyond from Toome Hill
Prettiest church in Tartu - St Peter's
The entrance to St Peter's
St Peter's from a distance - it's wonderfully large
St George's - a cute Orthodox-Russian place
St Anthony's I believe.... but Russian Orthodox
Most importantly, a detail I forgot to mention last week, despite its importance. On Tuesday, I ran with an Estonian!! One of the guys on the team was apparently slated for a workout, and so he just hopped in with mine. It was wonderful!!! It was my first time running with another human being in over 5 weeks. But it was also a tease. It hasn’t happened again yet. And this week, I got my ass handed to me, because I was dehydrated (unbeknownst to me at the time). So a quick up and a quick DIVE for the bottom. wee.
Well, classes upon returning to Helsinki were crap. I went to class on Monday… and proceeded to learn nothing new about the USSR. Ugh. On Tuesday my group presented our case for “the international performance of Russia depends on the economic situation of Putin’s Russia”. It was a vague topic, we were not given a clear agenda, and so our grade is equally nebulous. Our professor said he would see other presentations before arriving at a final score. Ugh. Then I RACED to Law (the class I missed last week) to discover that it had been cancelled without my knowing. *GUNBLAST*
Fortunately, Russian language class was stimulating this week, as the professor realized the class’ overall level and upped the difficulty. I am pleased. It’s engaging, and it is possible to learn a little. Yay. Unfortunately, I was RACING to my Law course, because I received a package from the Migration Board rejecting my health insurance. woot. I am currently trying to work this out. Stupid heads…
I also am getting nervous because I have not heard from my internship in Novgorod, Russia to work in the orphanage. And I get very nervous when my plans don’t flesh out quickly. So I’ve been somewhat of a wreck waiting to see what happens. I won a scholarship to go on that program, but they’re taking an unnecessarily long time to do everything. This = frustrating.
So what has gone well this week?!
Well, let me tell you that as well.
Due to my angst over the Novgorod internship, I contacted an acquaintance of mine who lives in Abakan, Russia - in the Khakassia oblast (not to be confused with Abkhassia – where the Georgian crisis occurred). But this is southern Siberia and the area containing the largest array of burial sites from prehistoric times in Central Asia – it’s known as the Central Asian Archeological Mecca. So if Novgorod fails and this idea pans out, I’ll get to work in archeological digs in the morning and teach English in the afternoons/evenings. I hope this maybe works out? I’ve wanted to go to Abakan ever since I met this friend, and this would be an incredible way of doing it!!
And tonight, I rejoined with my old flatmates, Timofey and Auda, to see a movie about the Soviet occupation. It was a documentary of RIDICULOUSLY intense proportions. It was the most brutally graphic demonstration of the USSR’s repression that I’ve ever seen. What a downer… But I joined them with a colleague of theirs (a native Estonian) and we discussed the film afterwards. It was a very interesting discussion of purpose, historical identification, societal perception… *sigh* I was in heaven. It was lovely.
AAAANNNNDDD… Out of this discussion, it was revealed to me that the Estonian knows a Russian who runs a camp just east of Lake Baikal in Russia. This to the east of Khakassia, just above Mongolia. But these camps are “constantly in need of English speakers”. So she’s gonna see if her friends is organizing camps this summer, and I may be able to work there also!!! Lake Baikal is the deepest lake in the world (almost 2 miles deep) and has its own species of seal that inhabits it. But working in a camp where I get to be in a bilingual environment?!?! And a summer camp in southern Siberia would be rural living to the max. Definitely a more “trying” summer – although the orphanage would hardly be a “walk in the park”.
The orphanage program is still my number one pick, but if I could go do archeological digs and teach English or work a camp for Mongolian minorities in Russia… That would be awesome as well. I hope something fleshes out in these programs… Anything!
But today I went around with Kelsey and Genevieve all around Tartu. We decided that we had been tourists in Helsinki, but we hadn’t been tourists in the very town we lived in. So here are some pictures of the churches in Tartu – my main fascination when sight-seeing. Churches were just built to inspire, so I find them more interesting than government offices. Let’s face it. Hahaha.
Look at how they dress kids here!!! SOOO CUTE!!!!
Tartu Town Hall and beyond from Toome Hill
Prettiest church in Tartu - St Peter's
The entrance to St Peter's
St Peter's from a distance - it's wonderfully large
St George's - a cute Orthodox-Russian place
St Luke's - United Methodist, built in 2002
Honestly don't know the name, but it's the Catholic Church...
St Anthony's I believe.... but Russian Orthodox
St John's - adorned with the most Gothic statues on a church in all of Europe
[this statistic is unimpressive due to the small size and lack of diffierence between statues...]
Thursday, March 5, 2009
Helsinki Video
In case some of you don't have access to Facebook directly, here's a video I made of the trip to Helsinki. I'll post about the last couple of days soon.
Tuesday, March 3, 2009
SORRY SORRY SORRY SORRY!!!!
Here it is!!! Helsinki Blog Post!!!
So I am alive, and I could not be more pleased with my trip to Helsinki, if I wanted to be. So I’m going to write a semi-“brief” account of the 4 days of travel, and then leave links to some facebook albums, since they will have the most information for you. But to “re-cap” I traveled with Peter (Tennessee), Genevieve (Texas), and Kelsey (North Carolina). Yes, I traveled with Americans. But it made the trip so much more wonderful, actually.
Well, we decide to meet at 3:50AM in the lobby of our dorm… but I can’t sleep. I was too excited, and I just wanted to be traveling!!! But we met downstairs and walked to the bus stop. It was lightly snowing, and it wasn’t tooo terribly cold. We then got on the 4:30AM bus to Tallinn, the capital. I desperately wanted to sleep on the bus ride… but was unable. So I just sat there in silence for 2.5 hours. It was a true test of my Estonian emulation, and I think I passed moderately well.
But we arrived in Tallinn at 7AM, and our boat leaves at 8AM for Helsinki, and we know they stop selling tickets 15 minutes prior to departure (they didn’t let us buy online, which is quite silly). We heard it was a walk to the port, but we figured it couldn’t be that far, based on the map. So we started walking. It was really hard to get our bearings without light, and luckily Peter was an amazing map-guide-reader. But we weren’t able to go too fast, because we knew alcohol was going to be really expensive in Finland (4 euro / $6 for a beer). So we were each carrying somewhere between 4-5 liters of beer, which was under the allowed 16 liters. But we speed-walked, slipped several times on the ice, and finally arrived at the port - 13 minutes prior to sailing.
We get to the ticket counter and are told to “Hurry Up Please” with buying our tickets by the attendants. We are yelling at eachother, cuz I have Genevieve’s wallet, someone needs more kroons, etc. The girls start running up the HUGE gate/walkway to the boat, and Peter and I are not far behind them. I cannot explain to you how close we came to not going to Helsinki that day. Seriously, as Peter and I got there, they buzzers were going off, and they were pulling the gate away from the boat. It was kind of ridiculous. But we were on the boat, with maybe 15 seconds to spare. We didn’t realize until afterwards how close we came to spending the weekend in Tallinn.
We arrived in Helsinki, and started our walk to the hostel, and it seemed like it was going to be an hour walk, based on the map. But Helsinki kicks ass for tourists. The downtown/habor area of Helsinki is relatively narrow, and the city grows to the north. So it only took us maybe a half hour to get to our hostel, which navigating the city. We checked into our hostel, and headed to Iguana, a restaurant that we were told by the hostel-lady had a buffet (we’re really hungry). Buffet pizza, salad, and chips and salsa!!! It was sooo good. And the chips and salsa weren’t spicy, but they actually had spice. So it was almost cute, but did remind me of home.
But we were exhausted, 3 out of the 4 didn’t get any sleep, and it was only 2 pm. So we checked into our hostel and took a 3 hour nap. Boring? Of course. But we were freaking exhausted. Best decision we made. Haha.
So we went “exploring” and found that dinners in Helsinki normally range somewhere between 16-35 euro ($24-$50). So we found a market and planned out our dinner and breakfast. We went back to the hostel and had spaghetti and played Spades, while we tested the first of the foreign beers we purchased in Tartu. We liked the majority of the beers we brought, so some were awful. *cringes*
We then decided to hit the town, but discovered before we left that the majority of bars are off-limits to those under the age of 24. I haven’t felt young in Europe until this moment. *cries* But we then decided to pull out our only pre-planned “nightlife” experience and went to the world-famous ice bar. It’s a small room, in the “basement” of a Latin food restaurant, but everything IS in fact made of ice. The tables, the bar itself, the walls, the shelves, everything but the glasses were made of ice. And the vodka drinks you get complimentary upon entrance… holy crap, the Ice Baller was beyond awesome, and it was my drink… naturally. Hahaha.
But then we just walked around and we ran into the bar, TEXAS, and Genevieve and I (the two Texans) were very pleased with our photos outside its walls. We also saw MEMPHIS and Amarillo bars, so the Finns have weird taste in cities…
Our second day was set aside for tourism day. We walked EVERYWHERE. Like I said, Helsinki’s general shape made this possible. In less than 6 hours, we saw every sight that you are “supposed” to see, and we even found sites that aren’t on maps. Yes, we are awesome. (the photos can be seen at the links at the end) Of course, the majority of the sights were churches, but they were gorgeous.
The Helsinki Cathedral (White Cathedral) was such a beautiful building in the “center” of Helsinki. It truly dominates the skyline, and is Finland’s most photographed building. The Upsanki Cathedral, Western Europe’s largest Russian-Orthodox church, was GORGEOUS and made me fly back to the churches in St Petersburg. *sighs* We also went to the Olympic Stadium of 1952, where Emil Zatopek tripled in gold in the 5k, 10k, and the marathon. The distance runner in me was beyond happy to see that Finnish line (get it?). We even found St John’s cathedral, not on a map, and had a snowball fight outside its front doors. It was wonderful.
But the entire time in planning this trip, we knew that we wanted to eat reindeer. I had eaten reindeer before in Alaska, but I certainly wanted to have a more recent memory. So we headed to the Old Market at the harbor, on the rumor that there were Lapland foods (northern-most province in Finland). There we found our dinner… reindeer and bear meat.
We then “Americanized” the meats by putting them on a pizza. *mouth drools* It was the best pizza ever. The meat was excellent (I preferred the bear), but the red peppers we had in there were beyond amazing as well. We cooked 3 pizzas overall, and it was delightful. It was Genevieve’s and my favorite moment of the trip, actually. Just so nice to have had such a beautiful, sight-filled day ended with a delightful, “family-cooked” meal.
In the morning, we had to move out of our hostel and into a hotel. The hostel was booked, blah blah blah. But the hotel was right next to the central train station, so it wasn’t far, and it was perfectly situated. The room was “small” due to it only being a double room, but what else do you think college kids traveling on a budget would do?
The rest of the third day was devoted to museums, since Kelsey and Peter are both Museum Studies. We went to the Finnish National Museum and the Ateneum Art Museum. We spent an overwhelming amount of time in the Finnish National Museum… at first in their pre-historic and medieval exhibits… then the rest of the time in their children’s section. It was soooo coooool!!! We made a life-size log cabin with HUGE linkin’ logs (I think there’s a colloquial spelling of this that I don’t know…). And, then we learned how to saddle a horse, unsaddle a horse, and then how to attach a carriage harness and carriage to a horse. The before-mentioned horse was plastic, but it was soo much fun! Kelsey’s favorite moment of the trip.
We then went grocery shopping and got two huge loaves of bread, turkey, ham, “oven cheese”, and potato chips. But before we ate it… we went ICE SKATING!!! In the center of the train station square, they had a rink, and this had been Kelsey’s number one desire, since it would be her first time ice skating. It would also be mine… and I was AWFUL. I never really roller-bladed as a child, and I wasn’t too terribly good at it (if I remember correctly) so ice skating followed a similar route. I only fell twice, and they were gorgeous falls. My personal favorite I slowly went down on my hands, and then slipped forward slowly, so I just ended up sliding on my stomach for a few feet. But I really did enjoy the experience, as I got to ice skate for the first time in FINLAND!!!
Our final day, we checked out of the hotel, and went to the harbor to catch a ferry to Suomenlinna island, the fortress island in the bay where 650 people live permanently (their naval academy is there). But while waiting for the ferry, we decided to go the Viking pier and buy our tickets for that evening’s boat back to Tallinn. In this process, we learned that we needed to be at the pier an hour before boarding… again, we realized how we really weren’t supposed to go to Helsinki. Hahaha. We also rented a locker for our bags, which would make the island much better. BUT we missed the ferry.
Luckily, another one came 40 minutes later. And we got onto the island… Now previously, the weather had been marvelous. It was cold, but there was sun yesterday, and the sidewalks were dry, without ice!! BUT… on the island, the snow was tall, and the wind was a tad bit colder. We walked all over the island, and Peter and I walked to the north shore to see the fort’s main battle walls. SO FREAKING COLD!!! My hands nearly froze from my picture taking. Ugh. But the coffee and cinnamon rolls in the ferry-landing kiosk were AMAZING. Genevieve and Kelsey didn’t want to walk north with us, so we met them there. I mean, we had walked around for two hours in the bitter cold. Why not one more? Hahaha.
Then we went back to Helsinki, got the same sandwich groceries (except a different cheese) and then walked to the pier. We ate our dinner in the waiting area, despite the stares. And we got onto the boat with 20 minutes to spare this time. The trip across was nice, and we arrived in Tallinn. Without the beer in our bags and confusion in our heads, we got to the bus station in almost half the time, and found that our 11PM bus didn’t exist, but there was a midnight bus. We caught that… I again, didn’t sleep. We all arrived in Tartu – tired and STARVING. So I broke my traveling promise… and I ate at an American food place… McDonald’s. I try not to eat “American” food when abroad, but it is the only place open at 3AM. And the burgers were perfect for just smothering my hunger in unhealthiness. Mmm…
Then I slept, awoke, and headed to Post-Soviet class, which was immensely boring. And now I’m trying to compile all my memories into picture albums and writing. Yay!! We all enjoyed traveling with each other so much, we agreed that we are going somewhere else. We’re meeting later this week to discuss our research, but our possible city candidates are Oslo, Sweden; Budapest, Hungary; and Prague, Czech Republic. We’re keeping our eyes out for any other “exotic specials” that appear on the travel circuit, but we are wanting to stay FAR away from western Europe. Lichtenstein or Portugal are the only possibilities that far west. Hahaha. But I must go, in order to eat, and do some homework. Blah.
The photos:
The photos of people:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031205&id=33902677&l=b8168
The photos of Helsinki (2 of them):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031215&id=33902677&l=c7402
So I am alive, and I could not be more pleased with my trip to Helsinki, if I wanted to be. So I’m going to write a semi-“brief” account of the 4 days of travel, and then leave links to some facebook albums, since they will have the most information for you. But to “re-cap” I traveled with Peter (Tennessee), Genevieve (Texas), and Kelsey (North Carolina). Yes, I traveled with Americans. But it made the trip so much more wonderful, actually.
Well, we decide to meet at 3:50AM in the lobby of our dorm… but I can’t sleep. I was too excited, and I just wanted to be traveling!!! But we met downstairs and walked to the bus stop. It was lightly snowing, and it wasn’t tooo terribly cold. We then got on the 4:30AM bus to Tallinn, the capital. I desperately wanted to sleep on the bus ride… but was unable. So I just sat there in silence for 2.5 hours. It was a true test of my Estonian emulation, and I think I passed moderately well.
But we arrived in Tallinn at 7AM, and our boat leaves at 8AM for Helsinki, and we know they stop selling tickets 15 minutes prior to departure (they didn’t let us buy online, which is quite silly). We heard it was a walk to the port, but we figured it couldn’t be that far, based on the map. So we started walking. It was really hard to get our bearings without light, and luckily Peter was an amazing map-guide-reader. But we weren’t able to go too fast, because we knew alcohol was going to be really expensive in Finland (4 euro / $6 for a beer). So we were each carrying somewhere between 4-5 liters of beer, which was under the allowed 16 liters. But we speed-walked, slipped several times on the ice, and finally arrived at the port - 13 minutes prior to sailing.
We get to the ticket counter and are told to “Hurry Up Please” with buying our tickets by the attendants. We are yelling at eachother, cuz I have Genevieve’s wallet, someone needs more kroons, etc. The girls start running up the HUGE gate/walkway to the boat, and Peter and I are not far behind them. I cannot explain to you how close we came to not going to Helsinki that day. Seriously, as Peter and I got there, they buzzers were going off, and they were pulling the gate away from the boat. It was kind of ridiculous. But we were on the boat, with maybe 15 seconds to spare. We didn’t realize until afterwards how close we came to spending the weekend in Tallinn.
We arrived in Helsinki, and started our walk to the hostel, and it seemed like it was going to be an hour walk, based on the map. But Helsinki kicks ass for tourists. The downtown/habor area of Helsinki is relatively narrow, and the city grows to the north. So it only took us maybe a half hour to get to our hostel, which navigating the city. We checked into our hostel, and headed to Iguana, a restaurant that we were told by the hostel-lady had a buffet (we’re really hungry). Buffet pizza, salad, and chips and salsa!!! It was sooo good. And the chips and salsa weren’t spicy, but they actually had spice. So it was almost cute, but did remind me of home.
But we were exhausted, 3 out of the 4 didn’t get any sleep, and it was only 2 pm. So we checked into our hostel and took a 3 hour nap. Boring? Of course. But we were freaking exhausted. Best decision we made. Haha.
So we went “exploring” and found that dinners in Helsinki normally range somewhere between 16-35 euro ($24-$50). So we found a market and planned out our dinner and breakfast. We went back to the hostel and had spaghetti and played Spades, while we tested the first of the foreign beers we purchased in Tartu. We liked the majority of the beers we brought, so some were awful. *cringes*
We then decided to hit the town, but discovered before we left that the majority of bars are off-limits to those under the age of 24. I haven’t felt young in Europe until this moment. *cries* But we then decided to pull out our only pre-planned “nightlife” experience and went to the world-famous ice bar. It’s a small room, in the “basement” of a Latin food restaurant, but everything IS in fact made of ice. The tables, the bar itself, the walls, the shelves, everything but the glasses were made of ice. And the vodka drinks you get complimentary upon entrance… holy crap, the Ice Baller was beyond awesome, and it was my drink… naturally. Hahaha.
But then we just walked around and we ran into the bar, TEXAS, and Genevieve and I (the two Texans) were very pleased with our photos outside its walls. We also saw MEMPHIS and Amarillo bars, so the Finns have weird taste in cities…
Our second day was set aside for tourism day. We walked EVERYWHERE. Like I said, Helsinki’s general shape made this possible. In less than 6 hours, we saw every sight that you are “supposed” to see, and we even found sites that aren’t on maps. Yes, we are awesome. (the photos can be seen at the links at the end) Of course, the majority of the sights were churches, but they were gorgeous.
The Helsinki Cathedral (White Cathedral) was such a beautiful building in the “center” of Helsinki. It truly dominates the skyline, and is Finland’s most photographed building. The Upsanki Cathedral, Western Europe’s largest Russian-Orthodox church, was GORGEOUS and made me fly back to the churches in St Petersburg. *sighs* We also went to the Olympic Stadium of 1952, where Emil Zatopek tripled in gold in the 5k, 10k, and the marathon. The distance runner in me was beyond happy to see that Finnish line (get it?). We even found St John’s cathedral, not on a map, and had a snowball fight outside its front doors. It was wonderful.
But the entire time in planning this trip, we knew that we wanted to eat reindeer. I had eaten reindeer before in Alaska, but I certainly wanted to have a more recent memory. So we headed to the Old Market at the harbor, on the rumor that there were Lapland foods (northern-most province in Finland). There we found our dinner… reindeer and bear meat.
We then “Americanized” the meats by putting them on a pizza. *mouth drools* It was the best pizza ever. The meat was excellent (I preferred the bear), but the red peppers we had in there were beyond amazing as well. We cooked 3 pizzas overall, and it was delightful. It was Genevieve’s and my favorite moment of the trip, actually. Just so nice to have had such a beautiful, sight-filled day ended with a delightful, “family-cooked” meal.
In the morning, we had to move out of our hostel and into a hotel. The hostel was booked, blah blah blah. But the hotel was right next to the central train station, so it wasn’t far, and it was perfectly situated. The room was “small” due to it only being a double room, but what else do you think college kids traveling on a budget would do?
The rest of the third day was devoted to museums, since Kelsey and Peter are both Museum Studies. We went to the Finnish National Museum and the Ateneum Art Museum. We spent an overwhelming amount of time in the Finnish National Museum… at first in their pre-historic and medieval exhibits… then the rest of the time in their children’s section. It was soooo coooool!!! We made a life-size log cabin with HUGE linkin’ logs (I think there’s a colloquial spelling of this that I don’t know…). And, then we learned how to saddle a horse, unsaddle a horse, and then how to attach a carriage harness and carriage to a horse. The before-mentioned horse was plastic, but it was soo much fun! Kelsey’s favorite moment of the trip.
We then went grocery shopping and got two huge loaves of bread, turkey, ham, “oven cheese”, and potato chips. But before we ate it… we went ICE SKATING!!! In the center of the train station square, they had a rink, and this had been Kelsey’s number one desire, since it would be her first time ice skating. It would also be mine… and I was AWFUL. I never really roller-bladed as a child, and I wasn’t too terribly good at it (if I remember correctly) so ice skating followed a similar route. I only fell twice, and they were gorgeous falls. My personal favorite I slowly went down on my hands, and then slipped forward slowly, so I just ended up sliding on my stomach for a few feet. But I really did enjoy the experience, as I got to ice skate for the first time in FINLAND!!!
Our final day, we checked out of the hotel, and went to the harbor to catch a ferry to Suomenlinna island, the fortress island in the bay where 650 people live permanently (their naval academy is there). But while waiting for the ferry, we decided to go the Viking pier and buy our tickets for that evening’s boat back to Tallinn. In this process, we learned that we needed to be at the pier an hour before boarding… again, we realized how we really weren’t supposed to go to Helsinki. Hahaha. We also rented a locker for our bags, which would make the island much better. BUT we missed the ferry.
Luckily, another one came 40 minutes later. And we got onto the island… Now previously, the weather had been marvelous. It was cold, but there was sun yesterday, and the sidewalks were dry, without ice!! BUT… on the island, the snow was tall, and the wind was a tad bit colder. We walked all over the island, and Peter and I walked to the north shore to see the fort’s main battle walls. SO FREAKING COLD!!! My hands nearly froze from my picture taking. Ugh. But the coffee and cinnamon rolls in the ferry-landing kiosk were AMAZING. Genevieve and Kelsey didn’t want to walk north with us, so we met them there. I mean, we had walked around for two hours in the bitter cold. Why not one more? Hahaha.
Then we went back to Helsinki, got the same sandwich groceries (except a different cheese) and then walked to the pier. We ate our dinner in the waiting area, despite the stares. And we got onto the boat with 20 minutes to spare this time. The trip across was nice, and we arrived in Tallinn. Without the beer in our bags and confusion in our heads, we got to the bus station in almost half the time, and found that our 11PM bus didn’t exist, but there was a midnight bus. We caught that… I again, didn’t sleep. We all arrived in Tartu – tired and STARVING. So I broke my traveling promise… and I ate at an American food place… McDonald’s. I try not to eat “American” food when abroad, but it is the only place open at 3AM. And the burgers were perfect for just smothering my hunger in unhealthiness. Mmm…
Then I slept, awoke, and headed to Post-Soviet class, which was immensely boring. And now I’m trying to compile all my memories into picture albums and writing. Yay!! We all enjoyed traveling with each other so much, we agreed that we are going somewhere else. We’re meeting later this week to discuss our research, but our possible city candidates are Oslo, Sweden; Budapest, Hungary; and Prague, Czech Republic. We’re keeping our eyes out for any other “exotic specials” that appear on the travel circuit, but we are wanting to stay FAR away from western Europe. Lichtenstein or Portugal are the only possibilities that far west. Hahaha. But I must go, in order to eat, and do some homework. Blah.
The photos:
The photos of people:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031205&id=33902677&l=b8168
The photos of Helsinki (2 of them):
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031215&id=33902677&l=c7402
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2031216&id=33902677&l=89f3d
Loves you!!! Sorry for the delay!!!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)
