Estonian culture introduction, snakes, rats, The Royal Wedding, Cardiff, owls

Sorry, I haven't written for a while. Life has just been too busy for me to have time to sit down and write something. But I'll try to correct my mistake now.

Firstly, I'd like to say that I finally made the presentation about Estonia in here and Gaye introduced her culture, too. We showed some videos, talked a little bit about our culture, showed some pictures. It was really nice to see most of the residents in front of me and talk to them. The audience was also different from my usual audiences, because everybody were in wheelchairs. But, it added it's own magic to the thing. After the presentation all the people had the possibility to try out some Estonian candies and chocolates and of course- Vana Tallinn. Everybody loved the chocolates! And well, Vana Tallinn went well, too, though there was half a bottle still left because the employees aren't allowed to try it during their working hours.
After our presentation the head of activities used the chance that all the residents were together in the same room and organized a meeting of activities where all the people decided about things they wanted to do this summer season and places they wanted to visit. There were so many different and fascinating places and it's quite likely that me or Gaye will be escorting on many of those trips out.

Then there was the weekend when we cycled to Weston and I got a sunburn. On Monday there was no internet the whole day and as the evening was really beautiful and sunny, I decided to cycle to Banwell and back (halfway to Weston). But when I got to Banwell I changed my mind and cycled to Weston and back instead. When I got back I found out that I had cycled about 19 miles in 1,5hrs. Pretty well, I'd say. And I wasn't shattered at all (I'm not going to use the word nakkered any more, because now I know where it comes from and it's not the situation to use the word :) )!

On Tuesday we had some visitors coming in to show us exotic animals. We saw snakes, big white rats, crabs and some more animals. We also had a possibility to touch them! I held a snake for the first time! And to my surprise, most of the people touched the snakes and rats. They weren't frightened at all! In Estonia, most of the people would scream and run away if they see those animals, I suppose. But. Again I discovered how much I love rats and all animals that most of the people consider as disgusting. I would really like to have a big, white rat. I got to hold one for a while and it felt so great. I really would like to have a rat as pet in the future. A big rat :)

As the week went on, the another bank holiday arrived. It was The Royal Wedding. In here, it was a bank holiday. I decided to work on that day. We decorated the dining room with lots of UK flags and the tablecloth was changed from blue-white combination into red-white combination. We had red-blue-white balloons on the tables and a big telly where we could watch the wedding. During all day it was turned on and the residents and workers watched the wedding altogether. After the kissing scene we had a buffet table and could eat different foods, which were really delicious. And we had huge-looking cupcakes too. For the residents and their families we had champagne, also. Everybody were dressed very politely and looked schick. Although I'm not much into The Royal Family and the wedding stuff and the way it was turned into such commercial thing, I loved the day, because everybody were so happy, doing things together, there was a different day from the usual ones and the environment was so cosy and happy.

In the evening me and our head of IT cycled to Weston. He cycled to home and I left my bike to his place to continue my journey to Cardiff. I got there earlier than I thought I would be, so me and G went to many pubs and enjoyed local ale. Visiting G is always very inspirational- he is so intelligent and always has opinion on everything. And he knows a lot about his work so every time I see him, I learn a lot about work. On Saturday I had the chance to cook pea soup and as I had not had a proper meal with proper amount of salt in it for a while, I put too much salt into the soup. Or at least G thought so. I liked the soup, so never mind. It was really nice to be lazy and do pracically nothing in G-s place. We were both very lazy. Watched telly and talked and drank some beers. On Sunday G cooked some really delicous prawn and taught me how to play one simple race game in playstation. I hadn't tried playstation since I was 5 years old. I was very much of a beginner and G was rocking the games. I can't understand how he remembers all the buttons of the more difficult games. Too complicated for me. But for him it's useful. In the evening G had to go to work so I stayed at his apartement in the evening and for the night alone. Watched some TV, cleaned the mess we had created and then went to sleep. The following morning I went to see Cardiff on my own. Again, I was acknowledged by myself that my sense of directions is awful. I managed to go to Cardiff Bay in some weird way past some canals where people were fishing and tenting. Even G didn't know which route I had taken. Brilliant! But typically to me- I reached my destination with taking the longer and more dangerous route without getting truly lost.
In the bay I enjoyed the sunshine, ate a whippy ice cream with the flake and walked around. I fell in love with the Millennium Centre, which in my opinion is very beautiful piece of architecture. From one angle it seems so massive and powerful and heavy and from the another angle it seems light and beautiful and just brilliant. And the text written above it's main entrance "In these stones horizons sing" is very ancient and lovely in my opinion. I also enjoyed the waterfront and the Roald Dahl Plass and it reminded me a lot the ceries produced by BBC Cymru- Doctor Who! The magical feeling that surrounded the plass because of tose series gives the place a witchraft and wizardry feeling. On the Bay there is also a memorial of one actor who plays in Torchwood- a series parallel to Dr. Who. It's a wall where all the fans write their messages about the actor.
During my stay in the Bay I saw also part of 5mile marathon.
After being in the bay I wandered back to the central of Cardiff where I walked around trying to figure out which way to go to get to G-s place. Me and my sense of directions! Anyway, I finally ended up in front of the Cardiff National Museum and decided to go in. It was a great decision. In it there was a police box- a proper Tardis! I was stunned when I saw it- so beautiful, tiny, blue and familiar! I took some pictures of it. Then I decided to have a look around in the museum- the exhibitions were built up mainly in two rooms- one about humans and their life from the early ages until nowadays and the other was about nature and animals. I saw the skeletons of mammoths, dinosaurs, I saw metheorites, fossiles. I now definetely want to go to the History Museum in London next week.
After my visit to the museum, I met G and we went to his place where we just talked and discussed our work and things I have learn during my stay in here and had very intelligent conversations. Oh, if he only lived closer- I would learn so much from him! I can say that he is one of my inspirations to do my work the best way possible. To educate myself and travel the world in order to improve my work. I have never met a person like him. He changes the world with everything he does.

In the evening G sent me to the train station and I catched the train back to Weston. In the beginning of the journey one extremely loud boy sat next to me and his mom behind me. The boy was fidgeting around and making loud noise all the time and his mom tried to calm him down in a very rigid way. The boy tried to communicate with me. Then I realized he had a mental disability. Although his mom told him to stop annoying me (which he actually didn't, I didn't mind) he continued. I showed him my locket and he was really fascinated by it. I tried to talk to him and calm him down a bit and he sat next to me and watched my locket. He got off in the next stop and before going away, he hugged me! I really love this kind of situations. I really do! They make me so happy! And I know I made someone happy for a small amount of time, too!
When I got back to Weston I collected my bike and cycled home. It took me a while because the find was straight to my face and was blowing my brains off.

Today we had some owls in our place and we got to touch them. I also found out how to drain the leg bags, so I feel that this day filled it's purpose 100%.

At the momen't I've got some things to organize about my trip next weekend and this weekend so I will finish my post. But..... I can tell, that my life in here is something amazing and I really love it. It's a great experience and I try to learn from this opportunity as much as possible. And I will try to make some more connections to local people starting from this week.

I'm the only one who can make this project be the best thing that has happened to me so far. It doesn't matter how much the other try- I have to accept everything offered and give the most from me to the project to make it work. It has worked well already since the beginning but I'm taking it now the next level. Hit the gas, I'd say!