. . . not in Estonia

This was the first week back at school. New timetable, new classes. My film lessons are done for now but will start again later on in the year. For now my main focus is to learn Estonian as much as I can. Every evening I read to one of my host sisters then get a short lesson on one of the 14 different cases and throughout the day I learn a minimum of 10 new words which I am then tested on. I try writing a bit in Estonian too but it takes a long time to formulate sentences. Once I have a sentence I need to go back and check that all the words are in the right cases and actually make sense. 

Gypsey left on the fourth and it’s strange without her here, feels like someone is missing.  Towards the end of her stay we spent time at and around home.  We decided to go for a walk through the forest so the five of us (Gypsey, Epp, Mari, Piret and I) headed off to the forest making up stories and juggling snowballs. The forest looks beautiful now with snow in the trees and on the ground. Some last minute shopping for Gypsey and then before we knew it we were at the little airport. No people, no lines, no waiting, just straight to the check in, bags through and then Gypsey through. Watching her go was sad but also exciting. To know that she is going to get to experience new things, meet new people, see new places just like I have is really exciting and I can’t wait to hear all about it. Hopefully she will decide to do her own blog too. 

While Epp and I have been back at school, Mari in the meantime has been in St Petersburg, Russia  with her circus. She left on Tuesday and was there for the week. She got back Friday evening so we met her at the train station after youth and got to hear all her stories. She had a performance and got to watch many others as well as take part in some workshops. She brought back little souvenirs for us all as well as some chocolate but it’s just good to have her home. 

So thats what has been happening here now. Christmas is over and we are settling back in school. I started in a new kids class. Did the usual introducing myself in Estonian and was rewarded with claps from the kids. This happens whenever I read or say something. They are always so excited and find it quite funny to hear me try to speak Estonian.

 I found out today that for our class trip (the one we get because we won the E1500 at the beginning of the year) will happen beginning of June. We will travel through Latvia to Lithuania by bus and see some sites in both countries. So I am already looking forward to that! 

Well my routine cup of tea before bed always takes a lot longer than it does at home. There are so many choices, black tea, green tea, white tea, berry tea, strawberry tea, peppermint tea . . . I usually end up having black tea with a bit of milk, which, as my host family recently told me, is very strange for them because no one in Estonia drinks milk in their tea. Neither do they dunk biscuits in tea which is something I have always done my whole life without even thinking about it. Even now, almost half way through, there are still some of the small everyday differences between life in Estonia and my life in New Zealand surprise me a little. When you walk past someone on the street, you say hello . . not in Estonia. You dunk bread in soup. . not in Estonia . . toast is when the bread is actually brown from being in the toaster . . not in Estonia. Well at least one simple thing is the same, when eating nutella on bread, you put a lot on and spread it thick :)