I've realized I have very lame titles for my posts . . .

 The 24^th of February, Estonian independence day. The family all woke early and went to watch the Estonian flag rising with the sun in one of the old towers in Toompea (in oldtown). Everyone stood together with Estonian flags to celebrate the countrys 95^th year of independence.

While there I saw another one of the exchange students with his family also there for the event. We stood amongst all the people in the cold morning and after a few speeches and watching the flag rise we went home again for some breakfast. Then Epp and I left for church again, this time Mari joined us to help Epp in the Church café after the service. After Church there was a parade going through the city which we hoped to get a glimpse of, not that we saw much because of all the people though.

 

Thursday night I went with a friend to a little café for a movie night. The café is owned by an English speaking family so everything is in Estonian and English. At the movie night there was a good mix of Estonian and English buzzing around, heard a lot of English and it actually felt quite strange to hear so much English at once, to be able to fully understand what people were talking about. Usually I have to listen hard and then decipher some words before getting the topic of a conversation in Estonia, but Thursday night I didn’t have to do so much work. 

This weekend we had another YFU trip. This time the exchange students met up in Narva, an Eastern city in Estonia. This city is right on the Russian border so is mostly populated by Russians as we found out when the lady at the till in the grocery store couldn’t even speak Estonian, only Russian. We went for Friday night so we spent Friday in the only Estonian school in Narva. We watched a presentation about the history of the city and then some of us made our own presentations about our home countries.

That evening we spent playing some games and meeting some of the students from the Narva school.

Everyone laughed at me when I said I brought a pillow with for the night, but no one was laughing anymore when it was bed time and we all had to sleep on the floor in a classroom.

Saturday morning we had some breakfast and then headed off to a castle right on the Russian border. There is only a river separating Estonia from Russia at the part of the country with a little bridge jammed with a long line of cars connecting the two. Two castles stand facing each other like a bit of a stand off on each side of the river, one in Estonia and the other in Russia. We had a bit of a tour of the one in Estonia and form up in the tower we were looking over Russia. Everyone with their cameras out and clicking (mine too of course)  After our tour we had some free time, so we all went to get some lunch and then were off in little groups wondering around Narva. Most of the buildings are in the old soviet style, tall grey block houses. 

As afternoon came we started heading home in groups. My group was first, taking about a 4 hour bus ride to Tallinn where I was met by my host parents. 

The Estonian castle

the bridge connecting the two

and the Russian castle

This is one of the YFU volunteers taking a big group photo with every ones cameras

Another view of the Russian castle.

I managed to get some shots of the sunset on the bus ride home from Narva

Saturday night my host cousin, who is 5, stayed the night so early Sunday morning I was woken with a colouring book and pencils because he wanted to draw.

I went to help collect food for another food bank with a group from youth. We then spent the day in the city together. The group enjoyed mocking each other on their English speaking and sort of ‘grading’ each other but I’m still impressed that so many people speak a second language so fluently.

Well what can I say, we are defiantly heading for spring . . . or so I thought. The cold has suddenly come back, this week being the coldest in a long time, here in Tallinn getting to -17. We do have sun though, blue skies and ‘cold’ sun. It's very beautiful, the blue sky and white ground. It is also getting lighter now in the mornings and in the evenings it gets darker later, around 6pm. I can’t believe that only two months ago it was getting dark at 3.30. I have now one week left of school and then it’s school holidays for me, already planning to meet up with some of the other exchange students and friends. I actually cannot believe how quickly everything has gone. I have a little over four months left in Estonia, I’ve realized that’s how long I had to prepare before coming here and I know that went very quickly. I’m trying to get as much as I can done and do as much as I can and spend time with as many people as I can because before I know it I will be  back in NZ again.