A colourful year it was!

And I mean it literally. So, what happened?

January- started the new year on the Westminster Bridge, watching the biggest fireworks in Europe. Niiiice. 1st January in Notting Hill.  The last month to live in England. Was pretty nice :) 31st- flied back home.

February- the routine-life started. School and work. Heli came to work as EVS in the Swedish house. Was a pretty nice start for a life again in Estonia.

March- well, school and work

April- school and work, becoming a maniac who sleeps 4hrs per night. Got my own bicycle.

May- still the same.... and my first ever bike marathon (on highways). Though it was only 75km, it was like exceeding myself - I would have never thought that I might do a marathon in my life. And another new EVS came.

June- Hehe, Riga Good Times couchsurfing party + Baltic Pride, had rainbow coloured hair!!!!!! Lush! Plus I went flying. Some birthdays. And holiday from school started. That didn't mean a holiday for me, though.

July- My extremely lovely birthday, lots of work, really busy life. And the lovely Viljandi folk festival where I met loads of lovely people. Had great fun.  Village camp next to Peipsi lake, good times. Two more EVS volunteers. Oh, and of course, Red Hot Chili Peppers concert!

August- holiday from work, Tartuff, birthdays and my super eurotrip in Poland, Austria and Italy! The best thing that happened this year probably. Though, there were many brilliant things. Hard to actually compare which things were the best. Anyway, I found myself a brilliant boyfriend :) Hihiii!

September- back to the routine- school and work! Aaaaand, the fundraising marathon in the forests of Estonia (I organized it!), altogether 89 km in the mud. Even with the inhabitants! That's the biggest achiement in my life I've done in sports. Really!  Oh, and Hannes came to Estonia!

October- school and work. Started to burn out actually. The non-stop life started to have it's effect on me finally.

November- school, work. And Hannes here! The breaking point to get out of the black hole.

December - school, work, christmas, many great parties.

So.... in conclusion- I can say that this year has been efficient enough to bring an end to it. Done enough, seen enough. Time to move to the next number which so far seems to become a pretty good one as well. Lots of things planned already!

Starting the year with work, school and travelling. Seems promising!

Anyway, have a good one coming up!

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Zombie-parade!

As it's Halloween time and our house had to organize this year's birthday party in the village, I decided it will be Halloween-themed. So it was- it was more than 20 cm's of snow outside and we had a Halloween party with a craved pumpking, colourful muffins and dark dancehall. Of course the costumes weren't missing. All the Swedish house was turned into Zombies :)

On the following day me and Heli went to Rõuge and I showed her a little bit of the record-breaking points in Estonia- the hightest mountain and the deepest lake of course... It was cold, snowy, but it was fun!
And she had a chance to see all the guns as well that my father has.... She was happy.... Me- not so much- well, it's still guns, you know...

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A normal evening on the 25th Oct in Estonia?

It's been snowing for 2 hrs...... I think I'd like to shoot whoever is making the weather these days.... They are a bit too early- I would say a month.... It's pretty, but hey, it's October! I'm not happy.

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Auditory Hallucinations - An Audio Representation

Listen to it with the headphones and eyes closed.... That gives some idea what it feels like to have schizophrenia and to hear voices. In my opinion, it's pretty creepy.

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It's just the way it is

My life recently has been pretty busy and that hasn't allowed me to make many posts here. I still owe all my trip posts which I will hopefully do sometime this month/next month and should write about my life as well... Well,  I had Hannes here for about 10 days soon after the marathon. Which meant that I was completely occupied. I also had to study and work. I took Hannes to my parents' place. And my mum and dad liked him! That's really great news! My dad was just showing Hannes his hunting equipment which was all over the house and tried to impress him with driving in curves... We were all actually hoping that there would be no cars coming from the opposite direction because my dad was driving often in the good old English style ... I took Hannes to the Estonia's highest mountain and the deepest lake. Also to the canyon and Nightingale valley. I introduced him to the typical Estonian sauna which meant skinny dipping into the pond (which wasn't too warm for him) and beating with the dried (and then made wet) birch tree branches. That last one he couldn't stand! That was really hilarious, I was beating him in my normal way and he just couldnt stand any of it. And then he did it to me- I told to do it strong, but no, his strong was really weak for me- I felt no heat coming from the "viht". Yeah, I think that is something Hannes still has to learn... and practise....
In Tartu we went to cinema and to music quiz. Showed Zavood to him :) My friends liked him as well :)
And he came to the village with me as well...

When Hannes left, I continued my usual routine. It is still weird not having him here but he'll be coming on the 10th Nov again. (and to be honest, I've got my tickets to Austria as well for the end of January).

I don't know what's wrong with me, but I absolutely can't motivate myself to do my homework or study at all. I can do the sign language as it's very practical and we learn most of the things in the class and have nearly no homework. But my seminary work is still in the same place it was in the spring. Blimey.
I will hopefully start going to the leisure centre from this week. And I will have to motivate myself.

At work everything's still the same- lots of action, many things to do. I've been making jam for 2 weekends now and I don't want to see any more apples I think until next year. The marathon thing gave us such a nice feedback from many places and also it was in couple of newspapers, that we will do it again next year. Tomorrow is the last day that people can donate, so on Wednesday I will give the final update about the amount of donations we got. I went to the marathon centre to talk to their manager about how it went for us. I received such a nice welcome from him and got told that the whole Club loved what we did so he offered us even the possibility to do skiing marathon or something like that. We haven't decided yet. But it feels so good after all I did for it to work. All the feedback we received was just brilliant! I can even say that I am proud of myself for doing it. And I will do it again next year :)

So, basically that's my life so far. Nothing too special happening, just usual... The thing I'm looking forward to the most, is Hannes coming here, which will be in 25 days now.
I'm really happy. And I can't believe how cheesy I have become.

But who Hannes is, or how he became my boyfriend will be another story. Part of my travel story. Which I will keep on writing.

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How much of an Estonian are you? (red in my post are the things I don't do)

1. You use the word ‘normal’ if something is ok.
2. When visiting friends abroad you bring along a box of Kalev chocolate.

3. You attended a song festival at least once either as a performer or as a spectator.

4. You know that going to the sauna is 80% about networking and 20% about washing
5. You are nationalistic about Skype (it is actually an Estonian company)
6. ‘Kohuke’ belongs to your menu
7. You declare your taxes on the internet like all modern people
8. You actually believed for a while that Latvians had 6 toes per foot when you heard that as a child
9. You are convinced that Estonia is very strategically located
10. You spent at least one midsummer in Saaremaa, Hiiumaa or one of the smaller islands
11. You can quote films like “Viimne reliikvia” and “Siin me oleme”
12. You spit three times around your left shoulder for good luck
13. Words like “veoauto”, “täieõiguslik” or “jää-äär” sound perfectly pronouncable to you
14. You like bold statements, such as this one… ;-)
15. There can never be too much sarcasm
16. You can at times drink hot tea to hot food
17. You are disappointed that Jaan Kross never got the Nobel prize in literature
18. It would not be surprising for English-speakers to find your name naughty (Peep, Tiit, Andres [sounds like undress]) or hippy (Rein, Rain)
19. You have been to Finland
20. You say ‘Noh’ (sounds like NO) even when you speak English, just to confuse people
21. You know the lyrics to “Mutionu” and “Rongisõit”
22. You would never mistaken Kreisiraadio for a radio station
23. You would agree that wife-carrying is a real sport (at least as long as Estonians are winning)
24. Your best friend’s girlfriend is your English teacher’s daughter and they live next door to your grandparents, who were colleagues with your advisor, who is friends with your…
25. You think that any beverage below 20% is non-alcoholic- sort of, not completely
26. You check the thermometer before going out
27. You look in both directions before crossing the road, even if it’s a one-way street
28. You grin very mysteriously when people ask about your national food
29. Even if you find the music by Veljo Tormis and Arvo Pärt not exactly easy-listening, you think they are great messengers for the country
30. You put ketchup inside your pasta (french-cooked gourmet faire la fine manger pasta) in order to not to get the ketchup-bowl dirty
31. You cheated on your wife/husband at least ten times but you still think you’re in a good marriage.
32. When someone asks you “where is Estonia?” you quickly reply that it’s located in Northern Europe close to Finland…
33. Your grandmother’s “purse” is an old plastic bag that has been reused several times
34. Sour cream tastes good with everything
35. A foreigner speaks to you in broken horrible Estonian and you go on and on about how wonderful their Estonian is compared to “the Russians’”
36. You have ever worn or seen anyone wear “karupüksid”
37. You have heard the phrase “Estonians are slow” at least once
38. Kui sa saad aru, mis siia kirjutatud on
39. You find yourself continually ignoring the gender in other languages
40. You say ‘kurat’ as at least every second word
41. You consider running to the shop at 19.50 on Friday evening to buy some booze, a sport sometimes
42. You are a true Estonian when you come from Tallinn, because if you are from Tallinn you think Tallinn IS Estonia and that’s true of course that Tallinn is Estonia
43. When someone says “Estonians are so beautiful” you answer almost without emotions “I know”
44. You have tried to explain people that “kauboi” is actually a word in Estonian
45. You don’t think that terviSEKS is a funny word
46. You don’t find the Estonian equivalent to the expressions “twelve months”, “1002″ and “12 buses” remotely funny or rude
47. Even though you never met Toots, Teele and Kiir you know exact what they are like
48. You grin when someone you know says that they bought a BMW
49. You know how to end the sentence “Kui Arno isaga koolimajja jõudis…”
50. Verivorst tastes great (at least once a year at Christmas time)
51. You want truth and justice (tõde ja õigus) to rule the world
52. You think that the combination blue-black-white is cheerful
53. You know that love for 3 oranges is not a weird sex thing and the phrase “x 6 me” makes absolutely sense
54. For you it is totally normal to eat food gone sour (hapukurk, hapukoor)
55. A language should have at least 14 cases
56. You know the moves to the song “Põdra maja”
57. You consider “Õllepruulija” an unofficial national anthem
58. Everyone in your family has pictures from funerals
59. You are so proud of every Estonian that you correct foreigners who say that the population is 1 million, not 1.3 million as it actually is
60. You know the moves to ‘kaerajaan’
61. “Ühesõnaga” means that a really long explanation is coming
62. A mention of a town with a population of a million or more causes you to panic slightly
63. The phrase “go south, get some sun” can feasibly mean Latvia or Lithuania. The phrase “go north” is semantically null
64. It’s been years since you’ve seen your paper passport and paper bus pass
65. And weeks since you’ve seen cash money. nearly
66. And you barely remember that there are other forms of payment except electronic ones.
67. When you come to a city that has a subway, you are prepared to spend a day just riding it. sometimes
68. You presume that all other countries also have ubiquitous Internet access.
69. Four-digit bus route numbers cause your brain to shut down.
70. You feel that the University of Tartu is among the top 5 best/largest/oldest universities in the world, and if you’ve graduated from it, all paths in life are open for you.
71. Swimming in +18C water is a perfectly normal summer activity for you.
72. Although when summer does come around, you tend to be working that day.
73. You will die before finding out if anyone actually does buy all those black&white hand-knit sweaters in the Old Town.
74. You can name from memory all the really big musical acts that have performed in Estonia.
75. Walking down Viru street, you can accurately name all the cruise ships in Tallinn harbour on that day.
76. You know the names of all three black people living in Estonia.
77. You remember the 1-kroon bill and the 5-sent coin.
78. A person that speaks three languages isn’t the slightest bit impressive.
79. Your biological clock senses with perfect accuracy the 15 minutes since you’ve parked your car in the center of town.
80. You have already been to Olde Hansa.
81. You know what the EURIBOR rate is right now.
82. If it takes more than 10 minutes to drive somewhere within the city, you are mildly annoyed because it is too far.
83. You are beginning to have a glimmer of hope for ever learning how to correctly pronounce Jüriöö Ülestõus.
84. Your doctor prescribes a visit to a tanning salon.
85. You take it as inevitable that you will need to go abroad for some things: clothes, footwear, books, theme parks…
86. First-graders with mobile phones no longer surprise you.
87. People who type slowly and carefully using only their index fingers are subconsciously considered to be foreigners.
88. The most difficult subjects you learned at school were Estonian history, Estonian geography and Estonian literature. And Russian.
89. You can speak with pride of Estonia’s highest mountain.
90. Buildings taller than 20 floors are sightseeing items where you bring visitors.
91. You are beginning to find Eino Baskin’s jokes funny.
92. On June 23rd, you feel the irresistible urge to drink beer and eat barbeque meat.
93. When you hear “Kristina”, you think of Shmigun, not Aguilera.
94. Every year you believe, deep in your heart, that Estonia will once again win the Eurovision Song Contest. Don’t care about the contest but if we win, I will be proud
95. Potato to you is the same as rice to a Japanese.
96. You consider summer to consist of three weeks of bad skiing weather.
97. You can’t imagine your life without “Kalev” and “Vana Tallinn”, :) especially while having a deep look at the Tall Hermann and Oleviste sitting in the cafe inside the Old Town…
98. You’re proud that Ernst Hemingway wrote that you can find at least one Estonian in every harbour in the world.

99. Ten months of the year it is too dark to be up and two months it is too light to go to bed.

100. You believe that Kalev will return because Kreutzwald wrote so.
101. You find nothing special about singing a super-state to collapse.
102. You look down on people who ask if Estonia along with the rest of Eastern Europe is civilized by now / if Estonia belongs to the EU.
103. You know what or where “Valli baar” is but you would not try “Millimallikas” they serve twice, unless someone else pays for it.
104. You wait for a green light at a pedestrian crossing even when there is no traffic to be seen.
105. You are obsessed with your mobile phone’s ringtones and you can’t wait to get a new mobile.
106. You have an account on rate.ee or used to have one until you realised there is also myspace, facebook and orkut which are way better.
107. a Southern European friend of yours is excited that it’s miraculously snowing in their country and they tell you about it with enthusiasm but it doesn’t move you at all.. at least not emotionally.
108. You know what “spikerdama” means and have good memories of it.
109. You don’t understand the physics or chemistry your textbooks and teachers try to teach you because it’s too complicated.
110. You are too lazy to walk.. so instead you take the tram, the bus or the trolley-bus and if you do that without a ticket you know why people call you a bunny.
111. You know what a “läbu” is.
112. You know that the word “aita” and “Tarapiita” possibly comes from the word “Taara, avita” and you know who Taara is.
113. You are crazy about tanning at Pärnu Beach.
114. You eat too many dairy products.
115. You have lived in flats more than houses.
116. You are proud that an Estonian day still continues even with metres of fat snow covering the streets because other countries like the US would call it a “snowday” which basically means they have no work or school.
117. You also know that if there is going to be another Ice Age the Estonian people will more likely survive better than the South or Western Europeans
118. And you like the global warming but you can’t imagine a Christmas without snow.
119. You’d love to get your 12th grade exam results texted to you.
120. You have joined the “pohhuist” club or know people who are members of it.
121. You have porridge for breakfast.
122. You have had borsch or selyanka soup in your school.
123. You eat everything with sidrunipipar. not any more
124. You notice summer has come because “Reporter” changes name to “Suvereporter”
125. You consider saying “Thank you” for someone’s light for a cigarette rude.  Before England,yes
126. You consider constantly smiling and friendly people high on drugs or just annoying.
127. Seeing baltic people abroad (anywhere except the Baltics and Poland) you feel great blood kinship.
128. You don’t even expect a victory from the Estonian football team, but you still follow the game with great emotions.
129. You aren’t surprised over news like “someone (age 18-25) rolled over with a BMW”, “someone (age 18-25) was speeding (speed +30-… over the limit) with a BMW” anymore.
130. You can relate to the lyrics of “Depressiivsed Eesti väikelinnad”.
131. You eat pea soup and a bun with whipped cream on Vastlapäev every year.
132. You prefer Pirita and Pärnu beach to Miami and Hollywood club (Tallinn) to Pacha (Ibiza).
133. You feel butterflies in your belly when you hear Tõnis Mägi’s song “Koit”.
134. You know that between two legs there is Rataskaevu street

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"I am Jack Sparrow!"

I just can't stop laughing about the things that people do.... There was a woman in the UK, who drank for two days and ate some hallucinogenic stuff as well and then decided she's Jack Sparrow. And she went and hijacked a ferry in Darthmouth. She started driving it, crashed it into some other boats. Police had quite a problem with cathing her..... I just can't believe the world. It's is such a colourful place. Kaie said to me as a reply that she would've wanted to be a superman instead and would have gone flying....
I think I would have wanted to be a Jesus and would have loved to walk on the water or be Harry Potter and fly with a broomstick and play Quidditch :)

Click here to read more

At least it's something good for today (I was told in my mimic language course that all the people who arent studying on the mimic translator curriculum will be taken off from the class.... that is just so unfair- I had been waiting for that course for three years....)

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The marathon

For the past 1,5 weeks I've been extremely busy with all the stuff related to the marathon. But by now.... most of it is over!
Yes,we did it! So I'm gonna tell how it went, because it was so great!

Firstly, we had a very early start from the village- started driving there already at 8. I hadn't slept properly for couple of nights before the marathon so I was a bit tired. We loaded the bikes into the vans and took off. The weather seemed to be perfect on that day which made us a lot happier. As we got to Otepää, it took us a little bit of time to find a parking place, but we managed to get a quite good spot not too far from the starting point. So we unloaded our bikes, changed our clothes and got all ready and went to the starting point where some more of us were waiting. We chatted and laughed a bit nervously, we were all exited. Took some pictures as well. Then came the time to go to our starting point. We passed the gates and started counting the minutes 'til start. 5,4,3,2,1 minute. 30 seconds, 10 seconds, 5 seconds, and the pistol shot and the theme song of the marathon. Off we went! I love the theme song of the marathon- it's really inspiring and makes me feel proud I'm participating. It feels so great to be part of thousands of cyclists who just take off to a long journey of 89km. There was mud, a lot. Sometimes we had to cross hill with the angle of 60 degrees, completely covered with mud so we went 2 steps up, 1 slide down. We had to push our bike through long mud ponds, we had to push it up some harder hills. I had to wash my bike once because I didn't stay up with it any more- it was just covered with mud so much. After we had cycled about half of the distance, the village leader - Ly was in the food point with one of my co-workers and the ihhabitants to cheer us. It felt so good. I struggled with tears after we had passed that point because it felt so good that our leaders care about such event so much. I felt so proud. Then came the part which was again really muddy. That made me wanna cry because it seemed to be endless... Then, after cycling about 60km, I felt I really needed some glycose- I was waiting for the food point to get some raisins and bananas. Ahhh, after getting some of those, me and Marge (one of my team-mates and co-workers) went on to get to the food point where we were supposed to meet the inhabitants. As we got there, everybody were already cheering on us. At this point we had a bit more than 10km lef to go. We ate a bit more and then took off with the inhabitants. The last 10km were extremely easy as our speed wasn't that fast any more and we were laughing our heads off because Taavi was wishing everybody (even random cyclists that went past us) lots of love and was just really funny. Then, right before the finish line, we all gathered together (some more people from our team had managed to catch us so we had almost the whole team together) to cross the finish line together. Some people told, including my family, that we were shown in the TV when we finished. It felt unbelievably good to cross that final line. It was like exceeding yourself...Right after getting our medals, we had a picture taken of us and then Lõunaleht (one South-Estonian) newspaper took an interview from me about the marathon and our tiny project. After that we got big chocolates from our leader, got out diplomas from the race centre and had ate some good soup. And then we went home, all really happy, a bit tired, but proud of ourselves.
And after the marathon, I've given some more interviews (I think about 4 altogether) and we've managed to raise 145 euros (last checked on Monday).
It's great that it's over. Maybe we'll do it again next year. At least my team-mates were enthusiastic about it!

Great experience for all of us!

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Poland- Auschwitz, Wieliczka

So....
When I got to Krakow, it was 5 am. I was supposed to stay there at a CS'ers place, so he promised to pick me up as I get there. I waited for 5 minutes in the Krakow bus station and was then greeted by a tall lad who was very enthusiastic- I was his first courchsurfer. So... we went to his place by public transport- he lived quite far away from the central. In his place I finally managed to have a shower. As he had to go to work and I had to go to my Auschwitz-Salt Mine tour, we returned to the central quite early. I was supposed to be picked up from the bus station at 9. So my host sent me there and then I waited for my shuttle bus to come.
As it came, I found out that on the same tour were 4 more people. Tiny group... Two Australians ladies and two Irish lads. Our driver didn't speak good English so we started to have a chat between ourselves.
As we got Auschwitz, we had some time, 'til the tour started. So we just chatted and waited. It was a lovely sunny day and our mood was quite up (you wouldn't expect that when you go to Auschwitz, would you?). Auschwitz was not that creepy as I thought it would be. I mean, it was depressive, but I think the huge amount of tourists and the bright shiny sun made things a lot less real. So it felt a bit like in every other museum. Maybe I was also expecting it to be too bad and that's why I wasn't shocked so much. We went around the area with a guide who told us loads and loads of stories about things that happened in the concentration camps. Auscwitz wasn't originally supposed to be a death camp- it was supposed to be for the people who were too smart or sth like that for the Nazis at the time of the war and it was supposed to be a work camp. No jews were originally planned to be placed there... But then they started to bring jews into the camp as well, and had to build many more camps into the area, e.g. Birkenau, which were death camps, so their purpose was to exterminate people. Also, Nazis tried to make Auscwitz look like a really good place to be in, by making bands play there. But what actually happened in Auschwitz and Birkenau, was just too horrible- executions, experiments (even the psychologists made experiments on people over there), torturing... We were shown the houses where the prisoners lived, where they were signed into the camp. We were showed their personal belongings, pictures, even their hair (that was cut off before they went to gas chambers and crematorium). We were told loads of terrible stories about things that happened there. We also went in to the gas chambers where millions of jews were executed. Although we went through the place fast, it still felt really creepy and scary and I just had goosebumps on my skin and the feel of depression and misery in my heart when I just walked through the place. The place where so many souls lost their lives.
I was really satisfied (I think I could say it that way) that I decided to visit the place - as it's a place you just have to see. To understand things better.
Birkenau was about 5km away from Auschwitz and after a tiny lunch break we went there. Birkenau is mostly in ruins as the Nazis blew up all the gas chambers to hide the evidence on things that happened there. We saw the scary railroad that went through the entrance to Birkenau and took jews into the camp to be executed couple of hours later.... We were shown the ruins of the gas chambers, places where they slept- wooden platforms and 5 people had to fit into one platform. We were described how dirty, cold and smelly it all had been. We were shown their toilets and washing area. It all looked extremely miserable. But what gave me the worst goosebumps in the place, was the fact that some of the areas we walked on, had human ash in the soil. We couldn't hear any birds singing in the place. Although it was a lovely sunny day. I would say Birkenau was a lot more depressive than Auschwitz- mainly because of what happened there. Even when I think of it now, my mood just goes really low and I feel depressed.


But after the concentration and extermination camps we went to Wielizca Salt Mine. Had a tiny supper in a local cafe and then entered the Mine. Well, that was just unbelievably beautiful place! Firstly, we went down under the ground about 135m, only on the stairs. All the walls were made out of salt rocks, you could smell the salt. It was a bit chilly but not too bad. Our guide showed us many chambers with statues in them, altars, lakes in the Salt mine that were about 9m deep. All the statues, big halls and cravings were made out of salt. It was incredible! There were pictures, like The Last Supper craved into the stone in 3D. It was really beautiful! That's definetely a place you have to go! I was really happy and amazed by that place. We ended up 180m under the ground, walked only about 3km under the ground but didn't see even 10% of the Salt Mine. Unbelievable, that place is huge! Magnificient!

After the tour in the Salt Mine finished, we went back to Krakow with our tour bus, and we were dropped off to wherever we wanted to go to. I got dropped off next to the Main Market Square and met my host over there and then we headed to his place where he cooked some Chinese. It was lovely. We talked 'til about 1 at night and then went to sleep. My host in Krakow was really cool- complete gentleman, really helpful, and cheerful. And when we talked it seemed like we had known each other for years...

But what I did and saw in Krakow, will be another post as this one is already long enough....

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