St. Petersburg, Russia

The Russia Tour was last week (March 22-25), and it... was a lot of fun.

For the five exchange students who went on the tour from Estonia, however, the tour started on the 21st. We took a ferry on Wednesday night, stayed in a hostel in Helsinki, and caught the bus to St. Petersburg with the rest of the exchangers from Finland on Thursday morning.
There are quite a few differences between Finland and Estonia, and one of those is the cost of taking a taxi. In Helsinki, our taxi cost €14.00, while in Tallinn, our taxi cost only around €6.00. Gotta love Estonia!

Anyway, on Thursday morning we got on the tour bus at the Helsinki railway station and got to see all of our fellow exchangers once again. We then drove about 2.5 hours to Vaalimaa, on the Finnish-Russian border, to have lunch. Then, we flooded both the Finnish and Russian customs buildings with about 100 exchange students (three buses worth)! That took about two hours total, if I recall correctly. The difference between the Finnish and Russian border checkpoints was quite obvious... The Finnish side was much cleaner and modern, with high-tech cameras and such, while the Russian side was less so.

In all honesty, it was easier to get through the Russian border than I expected. Being American, and thinking back on my country's interesting history with Russia, I thought the process would be a lot more difficult and painful. Actually, throughout the whole trip this held true--there wasn't a single instance where I felt like being seen as an American would due me harm. In the hotel we stayed in there was a group of Russian teenagers who must have been on Spring break in St. Petersburg (not sure exactly; they didn't speak English and we didn't speak Russian) who were actually very friendly to all of us. And, later, while a group of friends and I were walking on the main street in St. Petersburg, one of those friendly Russian teens ran up and said hello to us again with a cordial fist bump.

So, after crossing the border, we drove another 2.5 hours to our hotel in St. Petersburg. It was pretty late at this point, so we all slept until morning.

The next day, we started with a tour of the Hermitage Museum, which was pretty cool.

After the Hermitage, we had a light lunch and continued to the next museum, the Kunstkammer ("Cabinet of Curiosities"). This museum was full on anthropological displays about different cultures of the world, plus a large collection of anatomically deformed creatures... So, no pictures from this place!
Later that afternoon we went to see a cultural show complete with tradition Russian dances, songs, and costumes. This was probably one of my favorite parts of the trip!

The next day we had a tour of the city on our buses. We stopped at a few of the main tourist attractions to take pictures and such...

And of course, I had to take a picture with a Russian police car.

After the bus tour of the city, we had some free time to walk around on Nevski Prospekt, the main shopping street in St. Petersburg. That night, we went to a ballet in the Mikhailovsky Theatre about the life of Bach.

Here are just some random photos of the city:

The ice on one of the main rivers was so thick that we could actually go out and stand on it!

On Sunday, we departed in the morning and got to Helsinki around 5:00 p.m. The Estonian group then took a ferry back to Tallinn a bit later and, after a long bus ride, I got home around 2:30 a.m.!

In other news...
I'll be changing host families this weekend. This will be my last family, and they live across the city from where I am now. I think it will be nice to see a part of Tartu I haven't really been in before!

I also found out this week that I was accepted to McGill University in Montreal, Canada! This means that I'll be spending next year (and hopefully three more years after that) in another foreign city! Granted, this one is only about a six hour drive away from my hometown, but it is in the French-speaking part of Canada... Maybe I'll have another language to tackle next year?

Head Vabariigi aastapäeva!

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

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!

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!

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!