So I love this place. hahaha. It took forever to get here. I was told I couldn’t get onto my flights or enter Estonia at the DFW airport. Luckily, United is wrong and has supposedly logical restrictions on international travel. But I’m here. WEEE!!!
The weather has been in the teens and 20s, so not that cold really. I love cold weather, so this is a delight for me. The sun sets somewhat early, but the days will get longer as the year goes on, so that’s good. But over 50% of Estonia is forest, and I love forest, and it’s snow. So snow-filled forests make me sooo happy!! And Tartu is AMAZING.
I live with a guy from New York, a visiting professor from Russia and his girlfriend. It is awesome. The “professor couple” is really sweet, and they made me soup for my first two meals in Estonia. Really really nice people. But my roommate from New York is Estonian and can speak fluently thanks to his parents’ insistence. So he’s a helpful one to have around. : )
But this town rocks. It’s more pleasant than I expected honestly. And it just makes sense to me here. Except that Estonians prefer silence… all the time. So this is an issue in the day, but at night, everyone in the clubs talks, so it’s okay. But there’s Nepalese, Turkish, Balkan, Italian, Russian, French, Greek, and Estonian restaurants to name a few. It’s beyond awesome and affordable here, so I’m beyond excited.
But my kitchen doesn’t have much to cook with, so I’m eating out all the time now. Which is sad. But I think I’ll get sandwich stuff and have lunch at my apartment, but I don’t know. I have ZERO routine or schedule right now, so it’s all up in the air.
I haven’t gotten in touch with my Estonian coach yet, but I learned that there’s over 2500 athletes here, so that’s interesting. hahahaha. I am having difficulties with setting up a bank account and establishing my residency, but I got a cell phone that can call and friends’ numbers in that phone. So as long as I have my already dear friend Ania from Poland or Lucas from Lithuania, I’m fine.
I haven’t taken my camera anywhere yet, because I haven’t found much to be exciting, and I didn’t expect much to happen at Orientation. hahaha. But as this week goes on and I walk to class, I’ll take some photography and try to post it. Deal? Deal. But now I must write some emails to people I need to contact in Tartu!
I want photos.