inside Rhodes

Tuesday, March 31
So you might think, whoa. An ALL CAPS title, Colin? Could we be more sarcastic in text form? And my response would have to be yes. Because I’m not being sarcastic. Today was actually freaking great.

I got up at 9AM, but I didn’t get a lot of sleep because I was sending out some much needed correspondence via my helpful electron friends. I went to the bakery, got my breakfast, and sat down outside my classroom and just enjoyed some food. Dr. Molis came in, I sat down, and kept eating my breakfast.

Then the two groups presented… They were somewhat good. But they started great discussions, so they win in my book. hahaha. Today was actually a good day of trading ideas, and almost a debate… sort of. It was at least engaging. And the professor’s lecture afterwards (it was an extended class period) was really direct, which I find to be a lacking quality with my professors here. So I really enjoyed the simplicity and directness of his lecture. Props in the air to him.

Then I went back to my place and NAPPED!! I haven’t napped much in Estonia, which my former roommates at Rhodes (Dan and Smith) would never believe. Back at Rhodes, if I have a break between classes, I nap. I’ll lay down, even if it’s a 25 minute break. Just get me horizontal. I can’t explain it. But I really haven’t napped much here, and it felt AMAZING. So wonderful.

Then I woke up and headed to my Russian class… to meet the impending doom of my exam. And I was late getting out of my apartment, so I power-walked it and walked past my professor in the hallway. I said, “????????????.” (*zdrastvoostye* [a polite hello]), she responded in turn. So I thought, well, that’s it, no mercy. Yay. FALSE.

After I sat in class alone, the rest of the students trickled in, and she came in with our exams in hand. I breathed in and out. She informed me that I hadn’t finished the first exercise, and I should do so immediately. So I said, “??!” (*da* [yes]), and started answering the questions in Russian. She had graded everything else on the exam, so I just had to do these correctly… Oh crap, what’s the genitive of that? Ooo, that’s accusative… Oh, what’s my faculty called here? But I finished it, and gave it to her…

If possible, always write meaningful, poorly written apologetic notes in Russian to your professors. It’s apparently really cute. Because when she handed back her test, I noticed that she changed the point totals on a couple of my sections by a few points to give me exactly a 90. I got an A!! See kids. If you show up early, if you’re in every class, if you participate, if you write cute emails earnestly, they do notice. Yay!! Made my day. I owe her big time.

Then I went to my workout with Coach Lemberg. He was beaming because one of his professional runners was back from South Africa and six weeks of training there. Bahaha. I walked from across town. I mean, it’s the same thing to him, I’m sure. My workout was a speed workout, plain and simple. I haven’t done a pure speed workout in about 3 months… and I didn’t do one today either. UGH. Ate me up and spit me out. I was mangled by the end of it. We even had to cut it short. So my anaerobic capabilities are WAY beneath where they should be, but I have retained my ability to roll within my aerobic range. This means I might be good to race a 10k… but not a 1500m. And unfortunately, best as I can tell, the games in Latvia have only a 1500m race…

But I’m going to talk with coach about it. If they only have the 1500m, I’m not going to race. The competition is in 6 weeks, and I doubt I can shoot up and be in peak 1500m speed in that time. When there’s still ice on the ground, I doubt it. And I’d be representing the University of Tartu and the country of Estonia when I raced. I don’t want to go out there and just blow up in the 1500 and not do anything productive at all. But we’ll see… I just really don’t want to be that American that kind of spit on Estonia’s desire to be a serious competitor. Just my thoughts. Obviously.

But overall today was grand! Weee!

Wednesday, April 1st

Got up at 9 o’clock and had some breakfast. Mmm, it was good. Then I went walking around town trying to shop for my Estonia team gear. I wanted to get some facepaint, and I found some that might have worked at this store. When I bodypainted at Rhodes, I used water-based acrylic paint, which may not be the best, but it stands up to the sweat and weather pretty well. And I found some acryllic paint in this store, but the labeling was in Estonian. It has a word “Vesi……” and vesi is water, but that could have meant waterproof or water-based. I just didn’t try. So no face paint.

But I did end up caving in, and I bought an Estonian national team jersey at a store. It’ll go wonderfully with my St Petersburg Zenit jersey I got last year in Russia. That and I matched Auke and Maarten, the two Dutch boys in charge of putting it all together. We met at the bus station and got on the noon express bus. Now, I haven’t been on the express bus before. Damn. Alison and Katie used it when they came to Tartu and they said was like an airplane… and it was. The driver talked to us about the ride and how long it would take (although it was in Estonian). There were TVs on the ceiling displaying scenes of nature and wildlife, and there was WiFi internet access, apparently. Crazy bus. I tried to sleep on the ride, so I wasn’t very exciting…

Got to Tallinn and started walking from the bus station to Old Town in order to drop of Maarten, Auke, and Maaike’s (all Dutch) bags at the boys’ hostel (Maaike was staying with a friend). But at this point, we decided that Kelsey and I were honorary Dutch for the day, so we defected for one day to the Netherlands. Why not?

Had lunch at a nice pancake place, and ran into Asia (Poland) as she was shopping for her sister’s wedding in two weeks. Asia is in my Russian language class and was the one that informed me of my error on the last exam. So we’re not close, but we’re good friends.

But Old Town is UNBELIEVABLE. It’s wonderful. I’m going there for Easter weekend for several nights, and I can’t wait. It’s GORGEOUS. Fell in love immediately. So beautiful!! So pics of that will come eventually…

Then we headed to the game!!! Armenia vs Estonia for the World Cup Qualifying Match. This was the only World Cup match Estonia would play until August. And in August they’re going to play Brazil, so this was probably the only chance to see Estonia win. They actually played in Armenia last week, and tied 2-2. So it at least seemed to promise an entertaining game.

The stadium was small – seats about 8,000 – and it’s called A. LeCoq Stadium, sponsored by Estonia’s largest beer company. BUT they do NOT serve alcoholic beverages in the stadium. Oxymoron?! We weren’t aware of this until we purchased “beer” at the concession stand. What a jip. Total crap.

But we had FRONT ROW seats. I was on the front row at a World Cup match!! It was sooo awesome. Luckily, for the first half we had Estonia’s goal in front of us (amazing saves by the goalie), and then for the second half we were in front of Armenia’s goal.

The game was amazing play… Estonia wasn’t spreading out at all, and wasn’t really passing. It was a lot of balls in the air and “approximating” where a teammate could theoretically. Armenia I think played a cleaner game. But Estonia shot more on the goal, and they didn’t fake any injuries (#9 on Armenia sucks about that).

But Estonia WON!!!! 1-0. And the goal happened in the 2nd half, so we were RIGHT THERE!!!! It was sooo coooool!!!! The play happened maybe 50 feet from my face!!!  Yaaaay!!!

I ended buying an Estonian scarf as well, so now I have Estonian and Russian jerseys and scarfs. Woot!!! Then we headed to a bar for a little bit, and Kelsey and I left for the 11PM bus back to Tartu. We arrived in Tartu starving, so we actually went into the McDonald’s and ordered food. I know, shame on me. But I was SOOO hungry. Needless to say, I was not hungry afterwards for some time.

Thursday, April 2nd

Somewhat of a blah day. Worked a little bit, studied some Russian, and eventually went to Russian at 6PM. Ugh. Got to class… POP QUIZ. 48 Russian product words… I did not know all of them. I mean, goose berries. Really? I didn’t know carrots, and that is sad. But goose berries?! Oh well. We also had a quiz over our oral re-telling skills, and I aced it. So take that! The class was very small, but it was nice overall.

BUT afterwards, we had an International Food Festival on our floor in Raatuse. It was AMAZING. I honestly didn’t think a lot of food would be cooked… FALSE. People cooked in their flats all day, and so doors were open and every other flat had some country’s food in it. My favorites: Czech (potato dumplings were amazing), Georgian (eggplant dish – orgasmic), Turkish (due to ingredients, tasted a little like Tex-Mex), Russian (sweet pancakes with strawberry sauce… *drools*). Us Americans baked chocolate chip cookies and rice-crispy treats. And they were popular, let it be known. We made 4 batches of cookies, and not one plate lasted longer than 6 minutes.

But it was a great evening of food and mingling. Yay!!

Friday, April 3rd

While the day’s not over (approx. 8pm), it is. Nothing more is going down today. hahaha. But the WEATHER!!!

It was HEAVENLY today. The sun was so warm, I could have sun-bathed… It was HIGH 40s and maybe even 50!!!! Sooo warm. My run was sooo pleasant today because of it. And I just started running in a direction, and ended up with some really nice views of Tartu and the countryside. It was actually quite nice. But without a doubt, the nicest day in Tartu yet. People were sitting on their balconies reading papers, the cafes had all their outside furniture set up. It was wonderful. May Spring’s reign continue for many days.

Note! Men, the ground is slippery. Hold onto women's purses for balance.

Maaike, Maarten, David, David, Me, Kelsey, Auke, and Mathias