ELEVEN MONTHS IN EESTI

Head Vabariigi aastapäeva!

2012-02-24T10:08:00.000-05:00

Happy Estonian Independence Day... again!

Estonia is unique in that it has two independence days; one celebrated on February 24 (today) to commemorate the country's first independence in 1918, and the other celebrated on August 20 to commemorate independence from the USSR in 1991.

There was a military parade held in the center of Tartu today, so I went and watched a bit of that with friends.

And even some videos too...

Tartu Ski Marathon

2012-02-22T13:46:00.001-05:00

Last Sunday was the 41st Annual Tartu Ski Marathon.

No, I didn't participate... My cross country skiing skills and physical endurance aren't up to par with what this 63km marathon requires... However I did go and take pictures, which requires neither cross country skiing skills nor physical endurance.

The weather wasn't bad; it would have been fairly warm if not for the wind, and it only started snowing at the end of the day. All in all it was a good time.

The Tartu Marathon is one of the largest cross country skiing marathons in Europe.... In fact, this year it had 5111 participants take part in the 63km race and 1633 in the 31km race.

Here's a quick video of the marathon's start:

A lot of people take the marathon very seriously, while others...

...are just awesome.

...or just have awesome hats.

The whole marathon is broadcast on live TV, meaning there are cameras everywhere along the course. They are even mounted on snowmobiles and a helicopter.

And finally, at the finish line...

The ski marathon is just one of the numerous marathons that are held near Tartu. Later in the year there is a rollerblading marathon, running marathon, and two biking marathons... It's an active place!

Külm ilm? Tere tulemast Eestis!

2012-01-26T16:32:00.001-05:00

Cold weather? Welcome to Estonia!

So far this year I've been pretty lucky in terms of avoiding cold weather. In fact, the weather here in Tartu has been rather mild, considering the fact that there is usually snow by late November and that this year the first real snowfall only just appeared this month. Granted, there's not that much snow (maybe eight inches or so), but that's still enough to be a pain in the tagumik to walk home through.

Speaking of which, I moved to my second host family this month, and now I live about 10 minutes (by bus) from the center and school. After school I take a free bus from the city center to Lõunakeskus (a giant shopping mall) and then walk across a field to get to my cluster of houses. Actually, I technically live outside of Tartu now, but only by a few meters or so.

Around 2:30 p.m. and the sun is already setting...

Two paths diverged in a white field, and I-
I took the one on the left.

Living farther away from school has certainly changed my schedule though. Now that I can't walk, I have to either take a bus or drive. And since I'm not allowed to drive, I have to be driven. Oh how I miss automatic transmissions and having my driver's license actually be useful!

Taking the city bus (or public transportation in general) is something I've never really had experience with before. In Peterborough, we don't have these newfangled devices... And the first time I took the bus, I didn't have my bus legs yet, so it was a bit difficult to keep from falling over. Now, I have become a professional buswalker (Estonian = bussijalutaja) and am not even tempted to sit in open seats. Tubli.

Head uut aastat kõigile!

2012-01-03T16:07:00.001-05:00

Happy New Year to all!

I have got so much to write about, yet I can't seem to find the motivation to write about it.
So instead, here are a few random pictures to hopefully tide you over until I can muster up the energy and vocabulary to write a real entry!

My host Rotary Club: Tartu Hansa Rotary Klubi (plus some guests).

The First Lady of Estonia, Evelin Ilves, signing my copy of her book!

Rotary Club Christmas Dinner (photo by Jaanus Jagomägi - http://foto.jaanus.cc/)

My class ring and a 2011 Estonia-themed Euro.

Miina Härma Gümnaasium

Just to make sure you're awake.

My pin... RYE stands for Rotary Youth Exchange and 7870 is the number of my home district!

As I said, I have a lot to write about (too much), including a trip to the Arctic Circle and my experiences with Christmas and New Years in Estonia. Those posts will be coming in the near future!

The Hunt

2011-11-26T10:57:00.001-05:00

Although I come from a region where hunting is fairly popular, I never really thought I was going to be doing it myself until I got a phone call saying, "Tomorrow we go moose hunting."

So this morning I woke up extra early (6:00 am) and put all my warm cloths on, including my slighly-above-the-ankle-high winter boots--because winter boots are better than no boots--and was picked up by one of my host club member's husbands. Along the way, we picked up another hunter who'd be coming along too. We were headed towards an old, gigantic stretch of forest and wetland now used by the agricultural university for forestry research, where we'd meet up with about 20 more guys who are all members of this particular hunting club.

As we came nearer to where the central meeting point of the hunting club was, they began to tell me things about hunting. Things like how their club chairman was almost run down by a wild boar last weekend, or how one guy saw a mother bear and her four cubs last year, and that that means that those four cubs are probably living in the area or something. He also mentioned something about giving me an axe, "just in case". So you know, things like that. Luckily I had the sweet sounds of another guy softly humming Black Sabbath's "Iron Man" to soothe my nerves.

Wild Boar: Like Pumba, only more testosterone, 'roid rage, and daddy issues.

When we got to the meeting place, I was given the necessary supplies--a compass and a bright orange vest--and was told that I was going to be one of the "chasers" (the people who flush out the animals by walking in a sparse line and making a lot of noise; not sure what that's technically called). I was also told the plan of attack, which was to have a line a chasers start at one end of a certain area and have the hunters stand at the other side, waiting to get any moose that ran out of the bush towards them. If this failed, we would move to a new area and try again.
And thus began... The Hunt.

Round One
Weather: Clear. Blue skies.
Temperature: 43˚F/6˚C
Wind Speed: Slight breeze.
Direction of Movement: North-East
Status of Equipment: Like new.

Result: Nothing yet, but I stepped in a higher-than-slightly-above-the-ankle-deep puddle. :(

Round Two
Weather: Still clear. Blue skies.
Temperature: 46˚F/7˚C
Wind Speed: Slight breeze.
Direction of Movement: South-West
Status of Equipment: Slighty-above-the-ankle-high winter boots exchanged for slightly-above-the-knee-high rubber boots; new socks acquired.

These are the most stylish boots I have ever worn and the most stylish boots I will ever wear.

Result: Nothing, but my arm ended up in a puddle. :(

Round Three
Weather: Still clear. Blue skies.
Temperature: 46˚F/7˚C

Wind Speed: Little more than a slight breeze.
Direction of Movement: North-East
Status of Equipment: Left sleeve of jacket wet; left glove soaked. The left arm saw heavy losses. Feet are dry though. :D

Result: Nothing, but I didn't get anything wet. (It came pretty close though.)

Round Four
Weather: Slightly cloudy.
Temperature: 47˚F/8˚C
Wind Speed: Little bit breezy.
Direction of Movement: North-West with a hint of North-East.
Status of Equipment: Left sleeve more dried out; now wearing only right glove. (Feet still dry)

Result: Nothing. But I found some berries(!) and some animal scat. Didn't look edible though. I mean the berries.

Round Five
Weather: Cloudy and a bit gloomy.
Temperature: Kind of cold (and wet).
Wind Speed: Kind of breezy.
Direction of Movement: North-East... maybe.
Status of Equipment: Lots of little sticks and twigs in rubber boots; boots too tall and difficult to remove to be able to clear out twigs. Left sock somehow wet.

Result: Nothing. And my legs are tired.

Round Six (FINAL ROUND)
Weather: Rain.
Temperature: Cold, wet and thirsty˚F.
Wind Speed: Cold, wet and thirsty mph
Direction of Movement: East or something. Then some North-East, South-East, then North-East again, then West, deliberately.
Status of Equipment: Both socks wet; left sleeve also we-- actually it was raining so everything was wet. And I had to go through a trench:

Wading through knee-high water in slightly-higher-than-the-knee-high rubber boots: Priceless (unless you slip).

Result: ....Nothing! Unless you count the fact that I got a little lost, had to backtrack to where the start was, and wait to be picked up for a little bit. :(

All-in-all it was a good experience though, regardless of whether or not the only wildlife I saw was some interesting fungus and the European version of a chickadee. And getting lost was only a minor issue, since I've been lost in Estonian forests before (Flashback: The Other Day I Went Orienteering).
In fact, I might even go hunting again in a few months!
Next time though, we're hunting wild boar.

Watch out, evil Pumbas.

Various Things

2011-11-03T15:57:00.000-04:00

This post is mostly going to consist of random thoughts about experiences I've had so far... This is mostly because I don't feel like I'm able to adequately string unrelated things together without sounding too ridiculous. So prepare for slight incoherency!


Random photo of Otepää!

Money
By now I've been around town enough to realize that what they said about Estonia being a very wired country is true... The other day I ate at a café in the center of town and went to pay with a 10€ bill, but the waiter didn't have any change... I had to borrow some cents from a friend.
Recently I received my residence permit in the form of an Estonian ID card. It's got my name, picture, birth date, etc., and essentially works like a driver's license. But the cool thing is that it's got a little chip embedded in it as well... This means that I could use the ID with a card scanner and be able to sign documents digitally, sign into my online school account, and access my Estonian bank account (if I had one). See what I mean about that wired thing?

And another thing about money: Coins actually matter in the Eurozone. There are one- and two-euro coins that you can really use without getting strange looks. The U.S. does have a one-dollar coin, but I think I've used it approximately twice.

Don't give me that look, Saca... Sakajaw... Saccagewe... you.

Estonia's a digital country.... Which is weird for me because I had little to no experience with credit or debit cards before coming here. So now I basically try to avoid using them at all costs (an irrational fear).

Language

I've been making some progress in the language department. I can understand a good amount of basic structural words (it, this, here, and, because, etc.) and a lot more verbs/nouns/adjectives than I did at the start.
My two-year-old host brother can be an especially big help when I need to study my vocab. A few weeks back we were walking on some cross-country skiing trails in the woods and he picked up a tree branch and said, "SEE ON PUU!" ("THIS IS TREE!"). It's the little things....
And yesterday at dinner he pointed to a picture of a ladybug in one of his books and asked me what it was... "Lepatriinu!" I said confidently, while simultaneously hoping that the title of the book did indeed mean "ladybug" and not "ferocious face-eating monster beetle".
Luckily I was right.

Weather
It's gettin' chilly. Also, kind of dark. The sky is mostly gray nowadays, but I saw some blue last weekend.

School
I've started to take some courses in Estonian this quarter... I've got Ajalugu (History), Statistika (Statistics), and Hispaania keelt (Spanish) in Estonian. The rest of my classes are in English still.
I'm also taking an animation course at the Tartu Art School (http://www.art.tartu.ee/en/) on Tuesday afternoons... Gotta keep busy somehow!

School Vacation
Last week we had a week off from school for Fall Break, so my host family and I drove up to Jämi, Finland to an indoor cross country ski track. Before we got there, they dropped me off in Tampere, Finland, where I visited with some exchange student friends for a few days. We had to take a lot of buses in those three days... and man, they are expensive... Makes me glad I don't need buses to get around Tartu!
We walked around the city like typical foreigners, went to coffee shops (where, embarrassingly enough, I had my official first cup of coffee) and played laser tag with a bunch of 10-year-olds (who beat us horribly). It was unfair though--they just roamed around in packs of flashing lights. I could only manage to take out two or three of them before I was overrun with lasers :(
It also didn't help that I naturally aimed over their heads... Those preteens were DESIGNED for laser tag....

The best thing about laser tag, though, is that when you're playing, you think you look like this:

"I'M SOOOO COOL RIGHT NOW"

When in reality you look like this:

And since 10-year-olds already look like this, they have nothing to lose.
They literally have no weakness.

Anyway, on Tuesday I took a bus up to Jämi, where we were staying. I got to try out cross country skiing, which was pretty cool, though it was a bit difficult to do in the confined area of the track. I'm sure I'll get to try it again when there's snow in Estonia though.
Here are some photos from that...

And finally, some pictures to make up for the above pictures:

Eesti Tuur

2011-10-18T12:36:00.002-04:00

Traditionally Rotary's Eesti Tuur (Estonia Tour) has been for all of District 1420, meaning even the exchange students from the Finnish side of 1420 went, but this year they decided to change that. A few weeks ago, the five other exchange students in Estonia and I started our three-day tour.
Since we live all over Estonia, we gathered and started the trip in Tallinn. Our first official stop was at a medieval castle in Rakvere.

Inside the castle we had a guided tour. Our tour guide was dressed in period attire, meaning lots of leather, a black powder pistol, and other medieval things. Fortunately, they also had clothing available for us to wear: crusader-style smocks. So mainstream.
We had a few different medieval events in the castle too, like sword-fighting, jousting, archery, an alchemy show, and a "dungeon" tour.

Battle Royale
Those things around their waists are horses, by the way.

Soon after this I simply walked into Mordor.

The enemy horde!

Homemade gunpowder!

They had all the classic medieval animals too.

Just look at the smile on that goat.

These geese were jerks. And the one in the back hates the world.

After the castle, we went to our hotel. Coincidentally (actually, purposefully) it was also a giant spa, so we spent most of the night swimming and jacuzzi-ing. The next day we went to Viru to explore an old oil shale mine. Oil shale is one of Estonia's most important and unique resources, so there are quite a lot of mines in the northeastern part of the country. We were given the tour in broken English, so it was a bit difficult to follow, but we did get to ride on an underground train thing, which was cool.

Later that day we visited a very special community near Põlva called Maarja Küla (http://www.maarjakyla.ee/en/). It's a place for the mentally disabled to be cared for and taught in a communal setting. The village is partially funded by Rotary, so we visited and talked with the volunteers and residents. It is a very nice place... All of the residential houses are named after the country that donated the money to help build that particular house. So there's a Sweden House, Estonia House, Germany House... Sadly, no US House... yet!

And in order to break up that wall of text, here is a mushroom.

After the visit we drove to Tartu, where we stayed for the night. In the morning we attended a lunch meeting with one of the Rotary clubs in Tartu. We were able to watch a presentation given by an exchange student who had just gotten back from Colombia. Finally, we drove back to Tallinn, where we spent the night and caught a ferry the next day to Finland.

In Finland, District 1420 had it's District Conference. It was nice to spend the weekend with some friends who are staying in Finland and it was also nice to go to the conference, though all we did was stand up and introduce ourselves in our "native" languages (Estonian and Finnish). There are about 30 exchange students in my district, so it was a lot of fun.

All in all it was a good five days!

Tartu (Pildid)

2011-10-10T16:04:00.002-04:00

I fear that I'm becoming lazy with blogging... I have four draft posts started, but I just can't seem to finish them. I have Blogger's Block.

Anyway I'll try and get back on track with this post. Conveniently, I just realized that I never even made a post with pictures of my host city! I had all the pictures ready and everything... Sheesh.

Botanical Gardens

Tartu University building

My "extremely ferocious" dog

Parliament. Opera Gala. Peat Bog.

2011-09-20T09:37:00.000-04:00

Last Friday I was able to go with my host club president to Tallinn, the capital of Estonia, where we met with another member of the Tartu Hansa club. We traveled to Tallinn (a 2.5 hour bus ride from Tartu) to welcome and spend the weekend with the members of the Zandzegge Rotary club from Bilthoven, Netherlands. ("Netherlands" is a very cumbersome name to write with by the way.)
This special weekend in Tallinn was planned by both of the clubs and the Dutch Consul to Estonia. The connection between the Tartu Hansa club and the Zandzegge club is that they are both women-only Rotary clubs, which seems to be a rare thing.

After arriving in Tallinn on Friday afternoon, the 13 ladies from the Netherlands, two ladies from the Tartu Hansa club, the Dutch Consul (a man!), and I took a tour of the Tallinn Old Town. It's one of the most intact Old Towns in Europe (I believe), and it was packed with tourists. It was cloudy unfortunately; the pictures are a bit lackluster:

In the old town there were a lot of old things.

Old yellow thing.

Old clock thing.

Land Rover.

After this stroll through the Old Town, we met with the Speaker of the Parliament in the Parliament Building. We then went to the Dutch Embassy where we met with the Dutch Ambassador to Estonia and had a short reception.

The next day we started by going to two art museums. First, the Kadriorg Palace, and then KUMU (Kunst Muuseum). There was a really interesting exhibit in KUMU all about networking, and in one part, you could actually scan your I.D., passport, etc. into a machine and it would search the internet for data about you and give you an overview of your life, essentially. Unfortunately all I had with me was my driver's license and that didn't work at all.

Behold: KUMU

After the art museums I had some free time, so I met up with some other Rotary students who are currently staying in Tallinn.
That evening, the 13 ladies from the Netherlands, the two ladies from Tartu Hansa, the Dutch Consul, the Dutch Ambassador and I went to an opera gala at the National Opera House. (A description of what we saw can be found here: http://www.opera.ee/51294). It was quite a nice show.

On Sunday morning we drove about 70 km east to Lahemaa Rahvuspark (http://www.keskkonnaamet.ee/lahe-eng), the biggest national park in Estonia. There we took a walk in the peat bogs.

Unfortunately we didn't see very many animals...

And by that I mean we saw one duck.

But there were quite a few people picking cranberries!

http://tinyurl.com/6lgyqy5

Berries and mushrooms are actually very popular here in Estonia, and they are often picked fresh from forests/bogs.

In the middle of Lahemaa was a giant wooden viewing platform from which you could see 360 degrees.

Then we walked back...

And finally, we had lunch in an old German manor and took a nice drive along the seacoast back to Tallinn. The end!

Miina Härma Gümnaasium

2011-09-15T08:08:00.000-04:00

My last post was picture-heavy and text-light... This one is the opposite. It's also about school.
Proceed with caution.

September 1st is an important day in Estonia, as it's the day when all the students, all over the country, start school. Although technically it's the beginning of the new school year, you don't really have any classes on that day. At least, at Miina Härma Gümnaasium (http://mhg.tartu.ee/), they have only a welcoming ceremony, followed by a simple class meeting.

I was originally going to be placed in Class 12B (equivalent to the senior class), but instead the school decided to put me in 11C. Their reasoning was that the 12th Class has important testing during the second half of the school year, and since I am not doing that, it would be boring for me while everyone else is studying. That seems reasonable, and 11C is pretty cool anyway!

Here's my class' weekly schedule:

(Click it to zoom in)

At first, Nora (the other Rotary student in my city) and I were put into all the classes that the other students had, like Chemistry, Physics, Math, Art History, and Estonian (the equivalent of our English classes), which are all taught in Estonian. It was soon discovered that we don't speak enough of the language for any of this to be helpful... yet. Instead, we just go to English, Foreign Language (German, in my case), English Literature, British Studies, Gym, and a special Estonian Language class.
We will be attending the full Estonian classes once we get a better handle of the language, though.

Finally, I just have to say that English class is incredibly boring.

And a sunset, just because.

Gliding

2011-09-12T14:41:00.000-04:00

Yesterday I had the opportunity to ride along with my host father in a glider.
Obviously I couldn't pass it up... And naturally, I brought my camera with me.

The glider pictured isn't the exact one I flew in. We actually flew in a larger, two-person glider (see below) rather than that performance glider.

I sat in the front seat...


It was a bit cramped.

Since gliders don't have engines, they are towed by a regular plane up to a certain height and then "cut loose". They then glide safely around with help from the pilot.

Sometimes newbies get airsick, but I was alright. At one point my host father asked if I was indeed feeling OK, and I replied with "Yeah I feel fine!"
He then did a parabola.

Parabola :(

You basically do a nosedive, climb again, do a nosedive, etc., all in a couple seconds.
I wasn't exactly expecting it, so it was a bit terrifying. ...But it was also cool to see my extra camera lens float up and touch the roof of the canopy...!

Being towed.

That's the plane that brought us up, after we were cut loose.

And a smooth landing.

I realized afterwards that the only reason my flight went so well was because the glider had been blessed by a British spy.

The Other Day I Went Orienteering.

2011-08-29T14:13:00.002-04:00

"Orienteering is a family of sports that requires navigational skills and using a map and compass to navigate from point to point in diverse and usually unfamiliar terrain, and normally moving at speed."

That's Wikipedia's definition of orienteering. And I'd say I met at least four out of the five qualifications that make it orienteering, at least.
I did have a map, so that's one check. A compass? Another check. Diverse and unfamiliar terrain? Definitely. "Moving at speed"? Well, no, not really. Navigational skills? Yeah!

...Or, I had thought so, until yesterday.

Here's what happened:
I chose Route 4, which had 10 points to look for on the map and was about 3.1 km long. The goal is to begin at the starting point, find the first listed point, then the next point, and the next point, etc., until finally you end up relatively close to the beginning again. On Route 4, the first point I was supposed to find was marker number 56.

It started out well.

I found a lot of trees.

Seriously.

But I didn't find marker number 56... I did find marker 83 though, which I was pretty proud of at the time, until I discovered that marker 83 was the finishing point. I then decided to re-orient myself and find marker 56 again.
Somehow I instead found myself on the edge of a clearing and realized that I was lost and should probably turn around, so I did, and...

Salvation!

...found marker 74! Even though marker 74 wasn't supposed to be on Route 4, I still considered it an achievement. Marker 74 was kind of on the way to my next goal (marker 75), so I decided to continue.
The next obstacle was a field of waist-high ferns.

They looked so innocent.

Somehow I lost my map in the ferns, but I soon found it again.

Probs a fern conspiracy.

I then continued south, and my navigation skills followed. I decided that I had passed marker 75, so I turned and tried to go back, but I got lost again. After walking for a bit, I found a road!

SALVATION!

So, I followed the road and hoped that it led back to the bigger road.

It did. :D

After a few minutes of walking along this road, I found the starting point of the event and the safety of the car. And my orienteering was finished.

Until this Thursday when I'll do it again. :D

I'll try to add some of my macro shots at the end of each post, just to keep things interesting...

A Weekend on an Ex-Soviet-Occupied Island

2011-08-23T15:40:00.000-04:00

This past Sunday my host family and I went to Naissaar -- an island just north of Tallinn -- for my host father's company's "summer days" (basically a gathering of all of the company's employees where they party and do group activities).

The remains of one of the guns.

As hinted at in the title, Naissaar was once occupied by the Soviets. It's in a prime location, especially if you are trying to set up a line of defense in a country squished between communists and capitalists.... There were a few very large guns set up by the Russians on the island, plus a (very secret) naval mine factory. On Monday we were given a tour of the ruins of the guns and some old concrete buildings as well.

Old concrete ruins. Complete with scary military guy.

Old and rusty naval mines.

Perfectly harmless. Just don't touch them too hard.

By the way, apparently the only way to move around the island is to use giant military trucks or Land Rovers.

I should have chosen the Land Rovers.

The island is only about an hour's ferry ride away from the city and the weather was quite nice on the way there (though it poured on the way back...). Once on the island we walked about 3 km to the "hotel" since the trucks were already full of people and suitcases.

The first group activity that we did was orienteering. We were divided into groups of four and then given an hour and a half to find certain points in a small area of the island. Luckily, my teammates spoke English and because of me our team name was "Ameerika". Let's just say Ameerika didn't do so well this weekend.

Our first challenge was to try and match the shapes of Estonian counties with their names... I was no help. Then we were given a map and compass, and we tried to find the checkpoints. At some of the checkpoints we had to do certain tasks... The only one I was good at was skipping stones. In the end everyone's points were tallied and Team Ameerika ended up coming in 13th! Unfortunately there were 13 teams.

I had a lot of free time to roam around the compound -- I mean hotel -- so I just took my camera and walked...

Good taste in paint jobs. Bad taste in ideologies.

Google Translate tells me that this says "Flammable!" I thought it said "OreoNacho!" I'm disappointed.

Here are some nice pictures to make up for all that boring text and concrete:

Estonian Independence Day

2011-08-20T13:45:00.000-04:00

Happy Estonian Independence Day!

I'm watching the Vabaduse Laul (Freedom Song) on TV -- it's a national concert taking place in Tallinn right now!

Woohoo!

Tomorrow I'll be going to an island called Naissaar just north of Tallinn... If the weather's nice I'll come back with some photos!

Final Destination (Lots of Pictures)

2011-08-17T14:30:00.001-04:00

So I reached my final destination on Saturday night after about seven hours of traveling. It was about three hours by car from Karkku to Helsinki, then 2.5 hours by ferry to Tallinn, and finally another 2 hours by car to Tartu. (Click on the photos to make them bigger, by the way)

It was a big ferry.

By the time I reached Tartu on Saturday night it was quite late so I just went to bed, but the next day....

...We went to an airshow in Tartu! My host father was scheduled to do some gliding aerobatics in the afternoon, but we arrived early to see some other things too.

Almost 3500 people attended the show... 3x more than last year!

Outdoor hangars for retired planes

A demo helicopter rescue operation....

Later that day we went drove to the Ridali Lennuklubi, which is a gliding club and airfield in Southern Estonia.

The clubhouse

After that we drove a little ways to Otepää, where I took a walk around a bit of Lake Pühajärv. There was a boardwalk that went into some scrublands and then further into the forest, so naturally I followed it...

Also: ducks.

And that was the end of day one!

Karkku Language Camp

2011-08-15T00:50:00.000-04:00

I'm alive! I'm in Estonia now, but first I need to go back and tell a little about last week...

I survived my first week in Europe at a language camp in Karkku, Finland, where 60% of the time we had lessons, 25% of the time we ate, and 15% of the time we were outside. The camp is situated about three hours north of Helsinki, where I flew into. It's in what seemed like the middle of nowhere, with a huge lake and forests surrounding it. At the camp there were about 123 students plus 10 or so tutors. One hundred and seventeen of those students were headed to Finland, while six where destined for Estonia. I was one of those extra-lucky six!

An average day at Karkku went something like this:
7:45 - Breakfast
8:45 - Info about the day
9:00-11:30 - First lesson
11:45 - Lunch
13:00 - Second Lesson
14:30 - Coffee break & outdoor activities
16:00 - Lecture
17:30 - Dinner
19:00-20:30 - Sauna
20:45 - Evening snack
22:30 - Bed time

Here are some pictures of the lake...

Aftermath of one of our dorm's famous Ramen Parties. Here you can see Japanese Pocky candy, Taiwanese ramen noodles, and New Hampshirian maple candies!

More to come about my first days in Estonia in the near future!

Was für eine Update ist das?!

2011-06-21T01:56:00.002-04:00

...(That was German, by the way)

So, time for an update, I suppose.

I just graduated high school. Wicked awesome! Now I get to go to... high school... again...
BUT this time in Estonia! Equally wicked awesome.

So the countdown continues. About a month and a half until I leave (August 6th).
My itinerary is as follows:

Fly out of Logan (Boston) on Saturday evening then catch a connecting flight in Frankfurt, Germany to Helsinki, Finland on Sunday, August 7th.
At that point, I'll be bussed to Karkku, Finland, where the week-long language camp will be. I'm not sure what to expect at said camp, though I've heard mention of "saunas" and "pine trees".

I'm very excited to actually meet all of the other exchange students. I know of at least three others going to Estonia (one in Tartu, with me :D), but most people will be staying in Finland.

After the camp, I'll take a ferry across the Baltic from Helsinki to Tallinn, where my host family will pick me up.

I've also learned of a few trips that will be available to me...
One will be in the Lapland of Finland, another to St. Petersburg, Russia, and a third: EUROTOUR.

Now I just need to focus on:
a. emptying my room
b. learning more Estonian
c. enjoying my post-high school summer break

Eesti keelt...

2011-04-19T23:40:00.004-04:00

A couple of months ago I enrolled myself in an online Estonian class.

At the time, I figured that, you know, I should probably start learning some Estonian before I leave late this summer. And the course is taught through Tartu University, so I thought it would be perfect--I could actually go to the University for the final test while I'm in Tartu!

I also have a book that I've been learning from, and it has helped me so much. I've already got three out of fourteen grammatical cases down. I'm so proud.
(By the way, I am so very happy that Estonian doesn't have noun genders...)

Now, before I had enrolled myself in that course, I had done some internet scouring and was able to find a multitude of awesome links for language learners. Here are some of my favorites....

For Learning:
http://mylanguages.org/index.php - Great website with almost any language you could want. Pretty comprehensive.
http://www.livemocha.com - Chances are, you've heard of this. It's a good site with a bunch of languages. I haven't done much more than the first few lessons of Estonian, but it's given me a good vocabulary upon which to build later.
http://www.oneness.vu.lt/languageschool - This may be for Estonian learning only, but it's still got some good lessons and exercises. You should probably learn Estonian now. (DO IT.)
http://www.loecsen.com/travel/discover.php?lang=en - The basics for a few languages.

For Entertainment:
http://www.fluentin3months.com/ - An interesting blog with some good/funny articles for all you polyglots to read.

For Anything Else:
http://www.cultures-shocked.org - Anyone who is an exchange student, will be an exchange student, will be hosting an exchange student, or knows an exchange student should learn some things from this forum!
http://www.everyculture.com/ - Learn about the world's cultures, man.

Äitah ja head aega!

Host City

2011-04-03T21:15:00.000-04:00

...I've found out where I will be staying.

Usually you find out what district you will be staying in before hearing about which specific city. However, in Estonia there is only one district and it covers the whole country (...plus Southern Finland), so I already knew my district, technically.

Recently, I heard from my first host family and it looks like I will be staying in the middle of Tartu!
Tartu is the second largest city in Estonia--it has a population of about 100,000 (that's about the size of Manchester, NH). Fortunately, I've heard that the city is very "green", so there are trees and green spaces all over, which I am happy about.
I am not much of a city person (coming from rural NH...), but Tartu sounds like it's on the small side so it should be no problem and a welcome change.

It's also known for being the university city, as the University of Tartu (unsurprisingly) is spread throughout the city. I'm hoping to be able to take a look at the University more in depth and maybe I'll make a post on it specifically in the future. My host mother works at the university, so perhaps that will help me!

As you can see, Tartu is in Southwest Estonia. Tartu is actually situated between two large lakes (one on the Russian border, the other in the south-middle of Estonia), but this is not shown on the map.

In addition to finding out about Tartu, I was also told that I will be attending Miina Härma Gümnaasium. (See the website here) The "high school" is only about 200m from my house... I'm glad I'll be able to enjoy the Summer air while walking to school, although in mid-January I'm sure that air will not be as refreshing...
I should be in the twelfth grade and I will hopefully be able to go on the "Humanities" track at MHG. This will mean that I can focus on languages and the like instead of math (ugh...) or science (...meh).

Estonia

2011-03-19T22:19:00.002-04:00

...Estonia.

...I can tell by the blank stare on your face that you've probably never heard of it.

And that's ok, because now I can tell you about it!

So a quick history and geography lesson, then....

Estonia is located on the Baltic Sea. It is one of the three Baltic States, alongside Latvia and Lithuania. All three were once part of the U.S.S.R. Today, though, Estonia and its Baltic brethren are members of the European Union, but just Estonia uses the Euro (since January of this year). Estonia has only about 1.3 million people living within its borders and the official language is (You guessed it!) Estonian. Estonian is in the Finno-Ugric language group--meaning it is similar to Finnish and distantly related to Hungarian. Apparently, it is one of the most difficult languages to learn (14 grammatical cases).

It shares its terrestrial borders with Russia and Latvia, and its maritime border with Finland. It is a relatively flat country about the size of New Hampshire and Vermont combined, with numerous marshes, islands, and forests. In fact, more than 50% of Estonia is forested. It's got a large amount of wildlife due to its intact environments and it, along with Finland, is one of the most wildlife-populated places in Europe.

After regaining its independence in the early 1990s through the famous Singing Revolution, its stunted economy grew quite rapidly. So rapidly that, until recently, Estonia was known as the "Baltic Tiger" because of its fierce economic growth.

So that's Estonia, basically.