õ ö ü ä

I thought I should start by saying I survived the verivorst. It's not the nicest thing though, the sausage itself looks black and the inside is just brown and mushy. Not exactly the image of 'cutting open the sausage to find red blood pouring out the side' that I had in my head the first time someone spoke about it.  

 Well tt school we have this performance thing called ‘playbox’ where each class gets together some kind of performance imitating a music video. My class has chosen backstreet boys ‘backstreets back’ So on Friday we spent most of the day learning the dance moves and getting everyone parts in the video.

At youth that evening we had a special event called the GLS, Global Leadership Summit. There were a lot of people from other youth groups and Churches who had all come together to our Church. We watched two interviews, one with Marc Kielburger and the other with Bono from U2. It was a really good inspiring night. Everyone left with high spirits and smiling faces. A friend offered to drive me home which I was grateful for because taking the bus at 10 at night by myself is not much fun. I saw on her car that she had a little sign in the window. It was of a white square with a green leaf in the center. I have seen them around and thought it was just some decoration trend that was catching on. I was wrong of course as she explained, the sign had to be in your car window for two years after getting your drivers license. 

She dropped me at home and I waved goodbye and watched the little green leaf drive away.

I would just like to point out now that in my blog I talk a lot about not only the main sites and tourist attractions that I have been to in Estonia. I like to talk about the little things and the day to day life because I’m not just a tourist here. I’m living here and so I share all the other little things too. Anyway continuing . . . 

Spaghetti :)

The weekend was a good one. Saturday was spent filming our ‘cooking show’ for our youth groups talent show which is on this coming Friday. Epp made spaghetti and a chicken sauce which was great because we got to eat it afterwards.

That evening I went to a friends birthday party. She is another exchange student from France and she had a get together at her house. It was cool because there were a few of the other exchange students there too, most of who I haven’t seen since the camp. There were also some of her school friends who were all very nice and interested in all our stories about our exchange year so far. 

We got onto the topic of the Estonian language, some of the exchange students complained about these letters õ ö ü ä, saying they all sound the same and are hard to pronounce. I'm just thankful that my host sisters taught me all those in the very first weeks I was here, so I no longer have that problem.

We all spoke in English, thought I should mention that because the different languages were: Estonian, Portuguese, Spanish, French, German and then the common language, English.

The Estonians were eager to hear all the exchange students speak Estonian so we  had to introduce ourselves in Estonian. We were then all asked the same question we have been asked literally since day one, ‘Why Estonia?’

Sunday was fathers day so we gave my host dad some chocolates and a macaroni man that Mari and I had made. We had porridge mixed with whipped cream for breakfast, surprisingly good, accompanied by waffles and cream. Then after Church we went to my host dads parents for lunch.

After which we went to the theater where we watched the famous Swan Lake ballet. It was a bit cold to be wearing dresses but inside the theater was warm. It was a good show accompanied by a live orchestra. Each time the dancers stood on the tips of their toes though I cringed, the tips of the girls shoes where completely flat and I could just imagine their toes being squished down every time they were stood on. 

Overall the music was great, the performance was amazing and costumes were pretty cool too. They looked like they came straight out of a fairytale book, all bright and colourful and sparkly. The ending of the story however . . . well let’s just say it's not exactly a happy fairytale ending.