. . . 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 :)

Icefall

I had the best Chrsitmas present I could ask for, my sister, Gypsey, came over from New Zealand to spend Christmas and new year’s with me in Estonia before heading off to Norway to begin her exchange year.

We met her early on the morning of the 24^th. She wasn’t exactly prepared for the coldness of our Estonian winter. 

As it goes in Estonia presents are opened on Christmas eve, but first each person has to say a poem to get their present. Mine was a short one in Estonian about a Christmas tree which I had learnt in one of my kids classes at school. It was a good evening with everyone making jokes and laughing. At the end of the present opening, the living room was a total disaster, with paper and ribbon everywhere, the cats were happy though considering they had a lot of ribbon to play with. 

The 'icefall'

On Christmas day we all headed out to a day of ‘Estonian winter landscapes’ as my host dad put it. We woke up to the snow coming down outside, it was cool for me to see my sisters reaction to the snow because I remember how it felt the first time I saw it too. First we visited an almost completely frozen waterfall. (an icefall as Gypsey calls it)

After that we went to the sea side to find that the sea was also frozen. Waves about to crash stuck in their position, the ‘beach’ covered in snow.  We saw a lonely swan swimming through the icy waters in the distance.

To wrap up Christmas day we went to the sauna, for the first time in our house. Mari, Gypsey and I sat in the little wooden room and then after some time we ran out into the snow to cool down. 

Me and Gypsey

My host dad walking on the frozen sea

An Estonian beach at winter time 

The day after Christmas we were off to Kose to visit my host moms mother for her birthday. There we again had a Christmas meal and some presents shared with the rest of the family.

Thursday Mari, Gypsey and I went snow tubing. Where we slide down a track over the snow on tubes that look like they are for a swimming pool. After a few rounds of that we headed home for lunch then back out to show Gypsey around old town a bit.

We visited a puppet theater museum then took Gypsey around the old town. We went to some places that I remember going to do the first day I arrived, when I sleepily walked through the cobble stone streets a few months ago.  

The next evening Gypsey, Mari, Epp and I went to the outdoor ice skating rink in old town. We sat in a small café afterwards on a little hidden street of the main square where the Christmas market was going on. Sitting in the little café I once again noticed how much English there was going on around me. In the old town there are so many tourist groups constantly going through, I remember them also on my first day walking through those streets, so many people all swarming to this little country to see the beautiful buildings still standing from centuries ago. If you walk slowly past some of the tourist groups (there is always bound to be some in English) you can pick up some information about Tallinns old town. About the history and what goes on today.

After our evening in old town we headed to our youth group, taking Mari and Gypsey with us.

The Christmas market in Raekoja plats

Then on the weekend we visited the TV tower with the family which gave us a view of Tallinn from the observatory deck at 170m high. The many forests and buildings covered in a thin layer of slowly melting snow. The temperature here has been rising, we’ve been at about 5 to 7 degrees occasionally dropping to -1.

We also visited the botanical gardens. It was strange because we were in a big green house walking through a tropical forest while just outside the window there was cold snow surrounding us.

We then did sledging down a very bumpy hill outside the botanical gardens.

We went to Church too and managed to do some shopping with Gypsey for some warm winter clothes. 

Finally new years eve arrived. We spent it at home playing games and watching fireworks. We also did an Estonian tradition. Each person takes a bit of tin and melts it in a fire, then drops it into cold water, the tin freezes into a shape and this determines the persons luck for the next year. So we each melted little horse shoes and came out with different shapes. As midnight drew near we started the countdown and then went outside for fireworks. I have to say it was really cool to be standing outside in the snow with rain pouring down (strangely the weather was warm enough to have rain) and fireworks going off all around us. We had sparklers too and found that if you stick them with the fire in the snow . . . they still burn.

Head uut aastat! Happy New Year!

These are the little horse shoes we melted