I swear. Teaching on Mondays is approximately awful. The kids think they’re tired. FALSE. MISS VIRGINIA COULDN’T SLEEP LAST NIGHT SO SHUT YOUR PIE HOLES AND READ. Not really, but I did have a very hard time falling asleep Sunday night, and I woke up still tired. Monday was a pretty good day as far as teaching… I taught a voice lesson for our IB Music student, and we had some new classes since we didn’t have Monday and Tuesday classes last week, so I got to meet the only other students I hadn’t seen yet.
Here’s the thing. There are three kids in the 3rd grade who speak virtually no English. It’s difficult, really, with one, but three was very tough. The weirdest thing is I inadvertently reverted to first trying to gesture to the students, and realized I was trying to actually sign to them, but realized they’re not deaf, they just don’t speak English. Hah. They probably don’t speak American Sign Language either as it turns out.
Anyway, we got through Monday fine, but part of the way through Monday, Karolina told me we had musical rehearsal after school, and I didn’t have any clue we were even starting to rehearse it, so it caught me very off guard, and also, did I mention, I was exhausted. It was okay, though, because they sang through one song from Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat (even though, we’re doing a musical about flappers lol) and then they did some drama exercises… it was amusing, and interesting. So I went to catch the bus, and it said the bus was coming at 17:34 and it was only like 17:15, so I decided to wait, because there was no point in walking somewhere else to catch up a different bus, because I had a massively heavy bag, and I was exhausted, so I waited. And then I waited, and waited, and waited, and the bus finally came at 17:49 and I caught my second bus right after I got off the first one, which was a small glimmer of serendipity in my day…
I got home, and to my surprise, Irina had moved a TV upstairs near my room, so that I could watch TV upstairs too, which is great, because I can just relax in my upstairs living room now and do my work, but kind of makes me feel bad, because I used to just sit downstairs with them and watch TV, and now I watch upstairs instead. But, at this point in my Monday, it was a great reprieve. I laid down on my little sofa and ended up falling asleep for a little bit, and it was really nice to get a little nap. I got up, did a few things, and then went to bed for good. Haha. Cool existence.
A note about Estonian TV: They are super behind, which is funny, because they’re reeeeeeeeeeeeally old episodes of whatever shows are on. For instance, I started watching Grey’s Anatomy yesterday…from the beginning. First episode. Awesome! Haha. I watch super old episodes of Friends, Will & Grace, ER, Everybody Loves Raymond, and even saw an episode of Family Guy yesterday that I hadn’t ever seen before! There are a few channels that have all English shows on them… including a channel that only plays TLC shows. Awkward about that is all the titles are in Estonian, so I’m learning which combination of letters means which shows, and the other day, we sat and watched a show with a decent amount of graphic material, but I didn’t know what it was initially, so I changed it halfway through because I couldn’t handle it. It would’ve been like the equivalent of watching “Talk Sex with Sue” with my grandmother, only slightly more actively in the sex and in a language she didn’t understand. Eeek.
Update: I’m watching Nip/Tuck while writing this, and Joan Rivers is on. What a crazy but hilarious old broad.
Anyway, after a nap and going to bed at a more decent hour, today was much better. I again had the 3rd graders today, and the non-speakers (I didn’t mention before, but they just moved from Israel, two twin boys that only speak Hebrew, and then one girl who only speaks Finnish) were doing much better, actually. They are familiar with the concepts of solfege, which helped them a lot overall. Classes in general were good, though. The kids are getting used to me, and it’s nice to be in front of them, and have them listen to me and respect me that way. The major problem class today, funnily enough, was one we didn’t actually have to teach. We have two periods each week that are “SSR” classes, or Suspended Silent Reading. On Tuesdays, we have the 9th grade. On Thursdays, we have the 6th grade. Today we had 4 9th graders come in and read, and it was just so frustratingly painful. We have one girl with LD problems and between her and a regular problem child boy, it was so frustrating. But, we did get out right after school today, and Karolina drove me both to and from school today, because she needed to get home right after school, so that was nice.
Not a very exciting day but satisfying. It’s 11:15 and I’m going to bed. Long day tomorrow, long Thursday (what Thursday isn’t, right?) but it is good to be a teacher.
So, let’s figure out what’s happened since the last time I wrote.
Wednesday:
School’s first official day. It went well and it was fun for me to be back at the school with the children. It was good to be in front of kids again, and good to learn the rest of the kids names for the most part and meet everyone else in the school. We stayed a long time after school, as we often do, and then I went to meet up with Maarja (YAAAAAAY!) finally, to eat dinner with her in town. It was wonderful. We ate pancakes that were thinner than American pancakes and a little thicker than crepes. We had one salty (with ham and brie inside) and one sweet (with raspberry and sweetened condensed milk inside) and they were the most fantastic creations of all time. It was so great. Maarja showed me one of the malls called Viru Center, and we went and looked at this super cool movie theater on the roof, where they have lawn chairs and bean bag chairs and such that you can sit on and watch the movies on the blow up screen. They have different classic movies every night, and I wanted to stay and watch, but the movies start at 10, and that’s not so much for me on a school night. Haha. Anyway, it was a perfect evening, and a great first day of school.
Thursday:
Got up and went to school again, and classes went well. The kids are very interesting, and we had a good time, for the most part. There are some tough cases… a kid who skipped two grades but socially is still below the grade he would’ve been in, his sister who is diagnosed with verbal learning disabilities but I strongly think also has autistic or other mental LD problems too, kids who are still struggling with the language a lot, etc. For the most part though, I’m really enjoying it. Thursday’s we have handbells, which went really well for the first day, and we are actually starting an adult handbell choir at the school too with the staff members of the school. We had a staff meeting after school, which was very interesting… we’d been given a Newsweek article that we were going to discuss about the decline of creativity in students. It’s nice to be able to talk as a group that is cohesive and gets along, not just within a few of the teachers, but as a whole group that functions together to better their students. It’s really inspiring.
On my way home from school, I made a friend. Not a friend like, “Hi-I’m-Virginia-you’re-my-new-friend” kind of way, but like “Hey-look,-you-have-a-US Bank-bag-and-that’s-American-and-while-I’m-looking-at-your-bag-you-notice-me-loooking,-and-smile-and-I-smile-back-which-means-we-both-just-acknowledged-we’re-not-Estonian-because-we-smiled-at-someone-else.” I saw him later on when I went to the Selver and it’s just nice to see logos of things like that that I recognize and not even exchange a conversation, but just a smile. It was cool.
Not cool is getting run into completely full on by this guy who was clearly on something, but I couldn’t tell if it was booze or drugs. Here’s what happened:
I’m standing on the bus, by the door, and this guy stumbles on the bus, hunched over and only has his eyes semi open. It was creepy. He bumped into me full on and just fell into a seat, and I was so creeped out, I just tried not to make eye contact or anything. It was like he couldn’t see and had no idea what was happening. He went only one stop, and when he went to get off, he had in one hand a cigarette and a box of matches, and in the other hand, he had a couple of small sealed packets of white powder. I honestly was terrified… I’ve never been so close to cocaine in my life, and I was just really creeped out. He got off the bus, again like he couldn’t see, and ran into this old lady, and literally almost knocked her over, but thankfully someone was behind her and helped push her back the other way. So creepy.
I got home, and hung out and ate, and then decided to go to Selver, because I needed to get some things for school, and was going to take the bus, but I would have had to wait for 15 minutes, and if I walked I’d be there in 15 minutes, so I walked and it was very nice. I got what I needed, and was able to just mosey around and look at things, and then went and was waiting for the bus and there was a guy at the bus stop just screaming at the top of his lungs, like a crazy drunk. It appeared that he was actually directing his yelling at two other guys that were there, but I couldn’t understand him, so I didn’t really know. I just stood in the light and stayed where I was. We got on the same bus, and I was again kind of creeped out by him, and I just was trying to stay out of his way. But, when we got off at the same stop, I decided to walk in a large circle home, just so I wouldn’t have to walk the same way as him. What was with all the creepers, Thursday!? Honestly!
Anyway, I got home safe, everything was fine, so that’s good.
Friday:
Friday we had the older kids in class, which was actually a little more intimidating than the first day of school, just because they don’t go with the flow as well, and they don’t love being there as much as the little kids, but it still went well. We were teaching the eighth grade about electrophones and teaching the tenth graders about Arab music. However, I started my day teaching fifth grade. Not fifth grade music, but actual fifth grade. Steve, the fifth grade teacher, had to stay home with his sick son, and the director of the school asked if I’d fill in for him. I said I would, and I got to teach grammar, math, and a little geography. It was interesting, because I’d had the kids in music class so I already knew about them and knew their little tricks and wiles, so I had a very good time with them. It was a good class for the most part, although I did threaten to send one little girl to her principal if I heard her continuing to be mean to her classmate. She promptly stopped.
Anyway, Karolina and I were again at school pretty late, and she and I went to the Selver because we had to make something for our party at the school on Saturday, so she showed me around and showed me what some of the things were there, and it was very nice to have someone show me around and explain some of the different things. It was a really nice afternoon. I came home, and some of Karl’s relatives from Sweden were here, so there were three drunk women in my living room when I came in (including Irina lol). She was very sweet, though, and said, “I’m sorry, my daughter is home, I must attend her.” She loves me, and I love her too. I baked a cake out of Estonian cake flour, and while it turned out a little dry, it turned out, and I was pleased. I talked to my family for an hour and a half on Skype, and turned in for the day.
Saturday:
Saturday was supposed to be my nice sleep in day, but I woke up at like 8:45-9:00, and couldn’t go back to sleep because I didn’t feel that great, so I got up and did a little bit of work, and then accidentally fell back asleep. Karolina was picking me up at 11:30, and I re-woke up at 10:50, so I was a little rushed, but I got my shower, got dressed etc. (my hair turned out really well actually!) and got off to the Back to School BBQ that the PTA was putting on for teachers and families. It was very nice to meet some parents, and I got some great food too. Afterwards, I was going to meet up with Maarja right away at the mall, but some of the teachers invited me to go see The Expendables with them, so I did, and it was quite good. I met up with Maarja afterwards, we went shopping for a while and then went to her apartment and had a FANTASTIC meal made by her man friend, Gaspar, from fresh mushrooms that they picked from the forest and potatoes. It was great. We also had a cider tasting, where we bought all the flavors of cider we wanted to try and proceeded to try them lol. They were great. We met up with her brother later and went out drinking and hanging out in Old Town, and it was really fun.
Sunday:
I literally haven’t done a damn thing today except eat, sleep, and work on some stuff for school, and fixing resumes for jobs I’m applying for back home. It’s been nice, actually, and I’m preparing to start teaching some of the classes next week on my own, and then taking over for real soon!
Thanks for keeping up, I’ll try to post more frequently.
First of all, sorry for the lack of bloggage… I’ve been so tired/busy at the end of my days that I haven’t had a chance to talk about all the amazing things I’ve been doing! This is super long, and if you want to read it in shifts, feel free. That’s how I’m writing it. Haha.
Friday:
Went shopping with Irina at the Selver and bought two cute pairs of flats, both at least half off, because it was Independence day, so there were many sales which I was thrilled about! Secondly, we bought lots of hangers and things for me to use to help unpack my room and get all settled in finally, which was great, so that was nice. I finally unpacked my stuff and got all my stuff put where I wanted it, and even got a little nap in. God knows I love a good nap.
Later, we went down to the Freedom Plaza for one of the most moving musical moments of my life. They were trying to host the world’s largest digital song festival and there were probably a thousand people in the square watching a bunch of monitors of people from all over the world who were singing along with the music festival that was happening in Tartu, and being filmed both in Tartu and in Tallinn. The people I was with in Tallinn were watching a broadcast on a different huge screen of the Tartu choirs singing and the director and the words were on the screen. It was the most amazing feeling to be standing there singing these songs with Irina who has lived through so much of the awfulness of this country and just of this world in general, and be hearing the amazing songs of the people who have fought so hard for their freedom during my lifetime, and probably yours. There was a baritone standing behind me with his impatient girlfriend, and he sang so well and between him and hearing everyone else, I got chills every time there was a new song. Of course, Independence Day is not complete without a few fireworks, and boy was I glad that Estonia was clear on this concept. We saw some fireworks (they were in Tartu, because there’s not a ton of fireworking space in Tallinn) and then went to the Pizza Americana that I’d taken a picture of before, and ate yummy deep dish pizza there. Irina’s son, Hannes, and his family knew we were going to be down there, and they were sort of looking for us and thought we might be in the pizza shop (…am I that predictable? But it was Irina’s choice!!!?) and we were, so we two became we six and we all ate together and it was fun. It also was some of the best pizza I’ve had, better than some American pizzas in fact. Take that, America.
Interesting fact about Pizza Americana. I walked in, and saw a group of 4 adults sitting together, signing to each other. Clearly intrigued, I stole multiple not-so-furtive glances at them, and discovered they were actually signing in American Sign Language. I didn’t want to be a creepy tourist who butted in and was like “HEY I KNOW SIGN LANGUAGE TOO WOW YOU’RE DEAF” but I’m just intrigued because they must have learned sign language with American signs but to Estonian words. It was very strange to wrap my head around.
Saturday:
Oh Saturday. Saturday was Irina’s birthday. She had told me the night before to sleep till whenever, that people probably wouldn’t start coming till like 10 or so, and that I could sleep in. That’s 10 in the morning, so we’re clear, folks. So, I decide I’m going to sleep in until 10, because she countered that no one would actually get here then, because she hadn’t told people when to come, but so they probably actually wouldn’t come till lunch time. Wrong. As my alarm at 10 is going off, I hear people downstairs. They actually came at ten. So, I get up and get showered and put on a dress because that’s what I’ve decided I’m wearing for the party because it’s a party, and get downstairs and the people there both predominately don’t speak English, and are mostly all arguing over a tree that they’d brought for Irina’s birthday. In Estonian. In work clothes, mostly. So. I feel seeeeeriously out of place and out of style, but I helped as much as I could in the debate that lasted about 30 minutes as to where to put the new tree, and we got it planted (I am not the “we” here, but part of the collective mass) and were onto new subjects, mainly me and why I was there. I met her daughter and her two grandchildren, Leitirin and Karlimar (both have combined names of their grandparents of each side… Leit and Irina are the grandmothers, but Irina is a Russian name so they shortened it. Same with Karl and Imar.) I gave Irina the presents I’d brought her from America, and told her I’d make margaritas with her. She’s thrilled. We can’t wait. She says she can’t read the directions though, so we’re going to make them together.
For the first bit of this party, I was mainly sitting and not speaking or being spoken to because most of the people didn’t speak English, and talked really quickly, so I couldn’t pick out much out of their conversation. Syrie and Ivar, Karl’s sister and brother-in-law, came and they were kind as well. Many people filtered in and out all day, and in true Irina fashion, each time a new guest or set of guests arrived, everyone was required to eat another full plate’s worth. I have never been so full and satisfied in my life. We had some things I loved, like wonderful fruit salad and American ribs that were so great, and grilled Estonian pork, and veggies (who knew raw zucchini was good?). We had things I didn’t love so well like pickled herring salad (includes pickled herring and pickled beets…and red onions…yum.) and celery salad and things I wouldn’t try again. But my parents will be proud, as should the rest of you be, in that I lived out my Estonian motto which is:
I will try anything and everything once. If I like it, I’ll try it more than once, and if I don’t, I won’t.
So, I tried everything there, and liked some and didn’t, but it was a good experience. I ended up playing lots of games with the grandchildren, including many rousing rounds of badminton(ish) which led to tennis(super ish) and darts and soccer and the kids were great fun, except that 3 out of 4 total grandkids didn’t speak English either, so that was interesting. They’d come up and babble to me in Estonian, and I’d sort of smile and nod. However, because me and alcohol are still not such good friends (we’re speaking again, cordially, in very formal terms like you’d talk to a priest handing you Jesus juice), I had one glass of champagne that lasted me basically through the whole 12 hour day, and since I was running around like a crazy lady with the kids, water was an acceptable choice of drink. On the other hand, two bottles of vodka were finished, I stopped counting how many bottles of wine were finished, and a bottle of cognac was opened but not finished to my knowledge. Every ten seconds (or whenever she remembered), Irina would clink her little vodka glass to have people drink which is how she ended up so “tired” hahahaha. That night, while totally stumbling drunk, she showed me many fun things in her house including pictures and drawings, and told me she was just very tired. I told her that meant drunk, and she said no it just meant going to bed. Hahaha. The two grandchildren from earlier stayed overnight with us, and I ended up going to bed around 11 or 12 because I was falling asleep with Leitirin and we both turned in for the evening because we had quite the day the next day.
Sunday:
So, I had asked (at the urging of my spiritual and Estonian guide, Sarah Cushman) to go see Karl dance, because he does the old folk dancing at the Estonian Open Air Museum, and in full Estonian National Dress which is a big deal. This happens on Sundays, but we needed to leave fairly early for having just thrown a large bash all the last day, so getting up and around Sunday was a challenge for all. But, up and around we got, and got the kids ready and all got in the car (during which time, I will add, I ripped my jeans in the thigh trying to get in because they were stiff and worn, and it was very unfortunate) and were off to the Open Air Museum. The dancing was absolutely amazing, and I was so thrilled to be able to both see it and be a part of it. Karl grabbed me for some of the dances, and told me in his broken English that I’m a good Estonian dancer. Go me!
The Open Air Museum used to be a sea village, so there are houses and places to look around, so we did that, partly by horse tour, which was totally great, and ate lunch there. We had typical Estonian soup (with meat and dumplings, and of course dill, which is in every soup here) and typical Estonian bread that was kind of the consistency of coffee cake, with the taste of cornbread. After looking around a little bit, we left, and went and saw a scenic view of one of the beaches where many people were flying kites because it was so windy, and then went to Keila Joa, which is a waterfall that’s part of a hydroelectric plant, where there is a bridge that houses one of the most romantic places I’ve been in a while.
This bridge, has locks that have been engraved and locked onto the bridge by couples who have gotten married, and then they throw their keys into the water below. It is such a simple but beautiful notion, and there are locks everywhere. The main bridge is full of them, and around the park there are more locks placed in different places, like by the gardens and on a different, smaller bridge. It was gorgeous, and I just loved it so much. It made me miss Tim quite a bit, but it was a very hopeful and romantic place and I was glad just to be there. Again, ten thousand thanks to Sarah on the suggestion. What a great place. We got ice cream (jäätis) and headed to a different port where there was a cool shipwreck in the sea that you can see from the docks. Ivar told me it was from yesterday… I laughed. We watched the ships come in, and it was just very serene and beautiful.
We went to Syrie and Ivar’s house for dinner and …bum bum bum… the sauna. For someone who is fat and consistently hot, the idea of sitting in a hot box for any amount of time is not particularly cozy like it’s meant to be. But, the mantra says… so we did. We had a FANTASTIC dinner… perhaps my favorite since being in Estonia. Marinated pork kebabs with red and yellow peppers, homemade dill pickles, and homegrown tomatoes. SO. GOOD. I could have kept eating, if not for the fact that a. I was stuffed, and b. I was about to go get naked, so there really was no point in getting that much larger.
We went down to get ready for the sauna, and I was explained that this is how the sauna-ing works.
1.Men go down. Men get naked. Men go in the sauna. Men rinse off. Men come upstairs.
2.Women go down. Women get naked. Women go in the sauna. Women rinse off. Women come upstairs.
3.Repeat step 1.
4.Repeat step 2.
5.Repeat step 1. Add a final shower to clean off entirely.
6.Repeat step 2. Add a final shower to clean off entirely.
I have never felt so instantly uncomfortable, and then so instantly comfortable, with my body. It was whatever, you know? The mantra says, so I did, and I am not sure I’d choose to do it again, but I did it. There we sat in this swelteringly hot tiny box of a room, sweating until we were wet like we’d just gotten out of the shower, and in between sittings, I’m downing water like it’s my job, while the other two ladies are sipping their Sauvignon Blanc. I’m not a full Estonian yet, clearly. In the final shower, I didn’t wash my back right away because I can’t reach so well, you know, so there I am with this lady who speaks no English (Karl’s sister Syrie, because Irina had already gone) and she says something to me in Estonian, and starts washing my back. I found it hilarious, and jokingly said, “Ooh, sauna AND a massage” and then laughed, and I think she only laughed cause I was laughing. It was funny and I did it and it’s done. Now I know what to expect.
After cleansing my body of all its toxins and walking around all day, I was one tired tiger. I went home and instantly passed out. Surprise, it was 9:15 pm.
Monday:
FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL!!!!
…for like…15 minutes. Haha. I got to the school, did a little bit of work, did a little bit of copying, went to an assembly, got on a bus, and headed to the retreat that we were taking the upper school to for the next day and a half. The roads are all being paved and I couldn’t read without feeling like I was going to puke, so I fell asleep and woke up in Käsmu, another little sailor’s village in the northwest part of Estonia. We brought the 6-12th graders here with 7 other teachers, not including me and Ms. Karolina, to bond and start the year off right. Within 20 minutes, we had a bleeding head injury, but he turned out to be fine.
I led Capture the Flag in the afternoon, which turned out to be QUITE the hit, and Triin, the PE teacher said, “You’re our favorite student teacher!” I led games again later that night, like People Bingo, and Speed Dating, little get to know you games, that once again went over very well, with both the kids and the teachers. In fact, the teachers said if I needed letters of recommendation, they’d all be happy to give me one, but they’d also be happy to sign a petition if I’d prefer. Hahah. After the evening games, Ms. Liivi and Ms. Karolina and I went on a walk around the village, and saw lots of gorgeous sights, including a beautiful moon rising over the water. It was gorgeous, no matter how many bug bites I acquired.
Screw mosquitoes.
We got back and helped get kids to bed, slowwwwwwwwwly but surely, rigged some of the windows with PE equipment to help guard against sneaking out, and then went back and passed out ourselves. Fun fact about Eastern Europe (maybe all of Europe?? I’m not experienced enough to know.): If you’re given a sheet with a hole in it, it’s for putting your blanket inside of. It keeps it clean and warmer and it’s apparently a “duh” thing that Americans don’t get. I was like…who ripped my sheet? … Well now you know, so you don’t repeat that mistake.
Tuesday:
We conned one of the cafeteria ladies into opening a little early for the teachers to get coffee so we could get a head start on our jolt for the day, before the kids were really in our faces. We had not, however, planned on having 6th graders (6th grade is consisted of 5 boys and 1 girl) out running around in loops at, quite literally, like 7:00 am. Breakfast was at 9:30. We got up slowly, and made our way to the coffee and got to sit and just chill and chat with the teachers, and it was really nice. We chatted after breakfast too for a while, and it was good to feel like I had a community to belong to also. It was great. It also was pouring today, so we had kids mostly stay inside and get ready to go back to Tallinn.
We got back to school around 1, at which point we were all officially dismissed, but Ms. Karolina and I decided to stay and work on some other things, which took us until about 3:15 or so. We both left together, went to look about some super cool rain boots I will buy, come hell or high water (pun both not and definitely intended), and then caught the busses home. Around 5, I got home, and realized I hadn’t eaten since 9:30 this morning, so I worked on that, and then have been posting pictures since. Now it’s 5 your time, and I’m aching to go to bed, and you don’t need much more to read I’m sure, so I’ll leave you with this:
I’m reading Eat, Pray, Love right now by Elizabeth Gilbert, and I have never been so inspired by an author in my life. I am trying to embody her and her spirit in everything I do, and she is totally wonderful. Pick it up, read it, embrace and love it, and then travel if you can like she does. She’s inspiring, really.
Well, it’s my second day of going to school and I’m exhausted, but let me recap the last two days before I go take the nap of the century.
Yesterday, around 5:50 am our time, I woke up and looked at my watch, and tried to go back to sleep… that happened approximately every 2 minutes for the next hour, so I got up and chatted with Marci for a little while, and took a shower and got ready for school. I couldn’t sleep cause it was the first day I was going to meet everyone, and I was nervous about taking the bus and all these new things. Anyway, Irina was worried I wasn’t going to make it to the bus on time, so she quickly gave me a TON of food, and tried to get me to call a cab, but I wanted to take the bus so she sent me off (“You must be running, running, ya?) and I made it to the bus on time. I lost one of my ear bud covers though, so I couldn’t use them, so I only had one earphone, and because it was so humid and sticky outside, I was super uncomfortable so I just decided to leave it off. Everyone on the bus was glaring, so that was also uncomfortable, and it’s part of the culture, but it’s one part I don’t totally love. Anyway, I got to my stop on my first bus and waited for the second bus, but realized while I was waiting I didn’t remember the name of my next stop. The bus finally came, but there aren’t any maps that I could see on the bus, so I just played it safe, and got off at the station that was 2 blocks from my school that I knew was close. I walked to school from there, and got there just in time. I met most of the other teachers and got some pastry and went to my meetings for the day.
Because it was so hot and humid, and I hadn’t slept well that night, I was having a hard time not following asleep, but I shook it after a while, and made it through the rest of the day. However, we also had a dinner we were required to go to, and at that point, I was both exhausted and not feeling well, so I really wanted to bail. I was really nauseous at dinner but a little better after I had some rice and this mild chicken dish (we went to an Indian restaurant, and the smell of curry was not helping me feel any better, but the one mild chicken dish was good) which was good, because I had to go after this dinner and meet Lloyd to have dinner with Tonu and his wife, Ingrid. Since I hadn’t been given a schedule of the day, I didn’t know we had this required dinner, but I went and had water with them anyway (still no drinking at all for me, no thanks to the other night). We had quite a fun time with them… Tonu and Ingrid were fantastic, and I loved hanging out with them. We walked around after dinner because Tonu wanted some other drinks, so we went to this super duper VIP club that you have to swipe a card to get into… it looks super shabby on the outside, but once you get upstairs, it’s really cool, so that was fun. We were tots VIP. I had really yummy Russian minced meat dumpling things with sour cream and green onions… quite tasty. We tried to go to Angel (the local gay bar that Dennis loved, where Stephen picked up two boys, and Eric…. Well I love you..) because they have the best margaritas in town, according to Tonu, but they were closed so we went into Déjà vu instead, to which Lloyd walked in, looking around confused saying, “I think I’ve been here before…” I thought he was kidding, but he was out of it enough to not even get the fact that he’d made a funny joke lol. Anyway, we finally got home, and I’m hoping to see Ingrid and Tonu again soon.
Unfortunately, my body is still adjusting to the time change, and I was no longer sleepy when I was home. In fact, I was wide awake. I got to talk to my parents and Clara for a while on Skype, which was nice to finally get to talk to them. I talked to Eric for a few minutes too, and tried to fall asleep but didn’t get to until like 2 am. Thankfully, today was okay waking up. Same routine this morning…shower etc., massive feeding before I left, and got to the bus earlier today. When I got to the bus stop, I FOUND MY OTHER EARBUD COVER! YAY. So I finally could listen to my iPod on my way to work. I took Our Lady of Monsters to school with me this morning on my iPod which I’m glad I got to listen to because there is like absolutely no Lady GaGa here, which infuriates me. A lot of people don’t know who she even is!!!!!!! CAN YOU BELIEVE IT?!
Anyway, so I got to my second bus stop and got off, and instead of waiting for 15 minutes for my next bus, one came right after that because my first bus was early, so I ended up getting to school 15 minutes early too so it was nice to just chill for a few minutes before getting into the swing of things. My big excitement today was getting a new email address and a staff account for the school!!! If you need me, you can feel free to contact me at virginiah@ise.edu.ee. I also got to utilize my skills in team building, by suggesting a bunch of great ideas for the retreat I’m going on on Monday and Tuesday!! We’re going away with the 6-12th graders for an overnight retreat to bond with the kids and the Upper School principal didn’t have many ideas for team building activities, but since my mom is my mom, I know approximately five thousand jillion billion, so I will be leading most of those. Look where we're going! http://www.lainela.ee/index.php?page=129
I’m also looking at perhaps coaching basketball after school, as they’re currently looking for a basketball coach, and they told me that I should stay active after school, so perhaps I’ll get into that too.
It’s been a long day, and I’m exhausted, so I’m just vegging out and watching tv and going to bed early hopefully.
So, I’m piecing together my life from the last day and a half, so bear with me if this is scattered.
Yesterday, we met with Don (the director of the International School) and Karolina, my teacher, and chatted and gave them their large things of paperwork, and toured the school. It’s SOOOOO FANTASTIC I love it so much.
My school! The International School of Estonia
The school is brightly colored, and they are all such wonderful people.
I start meetings tomorrow, so I’m excited to get started with that. Karolina is excited to get started with me, and I am very excited to start learning from her and it’ll be a really cool experience. I’m thrilled.
Cafeteria... Don said the food is good 3 days out of the week, 1 day its phenomenal, and 1 day it's like "Well I probably wouldn't choose to eat that again..."
After that, we walked around Tallinn for a while, and saw the sights of the whole area… we went to the music academy and to the US Embassy, and we poked around Tallinn looking in different shops and eating lunch. It was great. The weather was very nice, and it was a great day for walking around.
We met up with Tiina and then went to have a drink with her, while we waited for Virgo Veldi (famous Estonian sax player) and Siim (teacher at the music high school type thing, also a sax player) to come to dinner with us. We ate dinner and drank…perhaps more of the latter than we should have but… it was a good night. I had filet mignon with wild mushroom sauce, a little salad, and a baked gold potato We were in a jazz club, and there was a live performance with this great bass player named James who, as it turns out, is from Detroit and has family all over Ohio, and knew where Van Wert and Lima and all those places were. He was really awesome, and gave us a shout out so that was super cool too. Then I met these people from Finland who were sitting behind us, and literally the one girl Mari came up and asked me if I was American, and then asked me what the ____ I was doing in Estonia, because it’s so small and America is so big and why would I leave there? I ended up chatting with the Finnish people for a long time, and hanging out with them, and they want me to come visit them, so maybe I will!
In editing this story for the saving face aspect, as I know that many people from all walks of life read this, I will cut through some of the juicy details of the evening (One fun fact: I broke up with vodka this morning for how he treated me last night. We're no longer speaking, and have agreed to see other people.) and skip ahead to where we got the cab. I told the taxi where we were going, and he understood me! Success!! Not success was when he broke down about 2 blocks from our house, and we had to walk the rest of the way. We did get home safely however so that was all good.
In the morning, I decided to sleep until my head no longer hurt, which was a while, and encountered my first Estonian thunderstorm! EEEEK. But, I didn’t see any lightening, so it was less scary. It was actually kind of peaceful to have the rain falling outside my open bedroom window, and listen to it as I was sleeping. I got up, showered, found some yummy food (chicken soup with rice and potatoes and dill) and watched some weird pseudo cop show, and then a REALLY old episode of Kate: Her Story which aired in America like… 6-8 months ago lol. Aggravating fact: sites like Hulu and Bravo.com do not in fact stream to Estonia…so I can’t watch my stories. I really want to see Housewives……….boo. Oh well. As Eric pointed out to me today, I’m in Estonia and that’s better than watching Caroline destroy Danielle which I so desperately want to do. Haha. Anyway, I’m over it.
I just killed a massive 2” hornet in my room.
Tomorrow, I start meetings with the school, and I’m thrilled to bits. I can’t wait to get in there and start doing lots of super cool stuff. I’ll keep you posted on tomorrow!! I’m going to bed soon, because I’m a total slug and not doing anything today. It’s great.
I slept SO well last night... After sharing some drinks with Lloyd and Irina, which is totally customary and I wanted to try real Estonian drinks so we did, I was falling asleep on my feet. That's when I wrote the last post, so let me supplement the things I missed from last night.
I MADE MY FIRST ESTONIAN PURCHASE (of this trip). A CELL PHONE! It's tiny, smaller than any phone I've ever owned before, it has a flashlight on the top and is so European, I love it. We went to the Selver which is like Estonian WalMart, and got it there along with some groceries. I have a tasty pastry waiting for me downstairs in fact, because I wanted to try it. It's so fun being here. It's hot though, and humid... about 85 degrees yesterday, and today's looking similar.
For dinner last night, we sort of just grazed through everything that was there... I had a few tomatoes fresh from Karl's mother's garden (Karl is my host father, and he's not here right now because he's out in the "country" but his brother and some friends stopped by yesterday, and I met them, and they brought us some goodies) and a cucumber, and some freshly made pickles from Karl's mom, and some cheese called Hollandi (ESTONIAN CHEEEEEESE! So good...a combo of the tastes of Provolone and Mozzarella) and some salami and "viener" which are small sausages :) I'm learning Estonian! I can say "My name is" (Minu nimi on...) and where I live and goodbye (nagamiste) and lots of little things I can't remember right now so I guess I don't really know that much yet but I'm learning!
Interesting: My computer, whose homepage is usually Google, took me to Google Eesti today, so my Google is now in Estonian, and my Facebook yesterday made me jump through massive (creepy, almost) hoops to sign in, because it said I was signing in from an unknown location... it pulled up pictures of my friends and made me name them with 100% accuracy... if I got any wrong, I'd be blocked out of it! CRAZY. To my friends: you can thank me later for knowing you :) :)
Anyway, I'm off to Estonian breakfast now, and then to go meet Don and Karolina!! More later :)
So here we are in Tallinn. First of all may I just say that I’m so glad that Lloyd came with me and didn’t make me do this all on my own, because some of the airports are terrifying, and the many things are just very different. If I were navigating this on my own, I’d be absolutely lost and scared in a strange eastern European country.
Irina met us at the airport, and brought me a beautiful rose. We got a taxi and drove to her house, and then spent some time outside talking and eating. Lloyd wasn’t kidding when he said she liked to cook and likes for us to eat. She made the most wonderful soup that was tomato based, I think, with rice, beef, potatoes and dill and it was so good. We ate outside, and enjoyed the garden, and I nearly got stung by Estonian bees like 12 times, but either way it was nice to be outside… except for the heat… it was probably 85 degrees here today with the humidity and Irina keeps calling it “Florida” when we walk outside. She’s wonderful. I’m learning Estonian already from her (I live at Sihi Kookskomet Neeli, minus the spelling) and working on phrases. I learned how to take the bus today, how to translate the bus schedule and how to read the days on the schedule. Irina is gentle with me but firm… she’ll make me read her what is written somewhere and then tell me what it means. I am going to like it very much here.
I met Tiina today too, and she is WONDERFUL. She’s about my age, and gives Lloyd as much hell as I do. I know we’re going to be friends. She’s great, and funny, and she gets to come to America in January!! She’s going to help translate when the other Estonian musicians come to Ada.
My feet are tired, and I am stuffed, but it was a great first (half) day in Tallinn. Tomorrow, we’re meeting with Don and Karolina from the school, shopping in the afternoon if I can drag Lloyd to do that, and then meeting up with Virgo and some of his friends to have dinner so Lloyd can talk business with them. (Virgo is a saxophonist from Tallinn who is coming to play with the orchestra in the winter.)
After having problems at the Dulles Airport with the weight limit on my main bag, I ended up checking two bags and getting that taken care of. Luckily, I made it through security and got to my gate just about on time to board the plane. I rode next to a snarky Asian lady who wouldn’t move for these old Indian people, but it was only a 45 minute flight so it wasn’t bad. I waited in JFK for Lloyd to meet me, browsing shops and looking for something to eat. My gate wasn’t posted until about an hour after I got there, and by the time I went to go find my gate, I had to run around once again to pay for the extra baggage and deal with a lady who was clearly Polish and spoke very thickly Polishly accented English. After having finally figured that out, I was quite hungry and went to my gate to get something to eat. There was a Buffalo Wild Wings at the gate, so I went and ate there, still looking out for Lloyd. We finally met up and had a drink and some food, and went to board our plane.
As we were walking down the walkway (which literally was a walk way…we felt like we were walking halfway to Warsaw as it was) we saw the plane… and noticed it was really small. The plane ended up not having personal screens for each person, but only having one screen in the front for everyone… Mishap number one. Mishap number two, I show up to my seat and someone is in it. They actually ended up moving me and Lloyd to a different row where it was 3 seats but just us which was great considering the circumstances. Lloyd passed out before we even took off, due to a nice Benadryl cocktail, and I was left to my own devices. I figured I’d watch the shows/movies that were coming on, because when I’d read online, it said that the movie on the flight was supposed to be Sherlock Holmes, which I was excited for. Turns out they actually were showing Nanny McPhee, and turns out our whole seating section’s headsets weren’t working… awesome again. It was fine, though, in the long run. I stayed up past dinner, and then took some Benadryl myself and went to sleep on and off for a couple hours. After breakfast (a very strange meal: ham, tomatoes, cucumber piece, a tiny dollop of cottage cheese, and two kinds of bread) I did fall asleep quite heavily until the plane touched down here in Warsaw which is where we are waiting now for the next couple hours. It’s currently 9:22 here, and our flight (another LOT Airlines flight…. We’re thrilled about that part) isn’t till 11:10.
Also, as a side note, for those of you that I lied to about Tallinn being 6 hours ahead, it is actually 7 hours ahead… sorry about that. I’m slow.
Anyway, that’s all for now. More on this later. Ta ta from Fredrick Chopin Airport!
Well folks, this is it! In less than 12 hours, I will be on the plane and headed out to the motherland. (To be honest, I'll be on a plane to JFK where I'll sit and wait for me real plane to Poland until 6:40 pm. Whatever.)
But I'm all packed and ready to go, and excited to embark on this big adventure! I'm nervous, and sad to be leaving my friends, but I'm more excited than anything and can't wait to get there! Lloyd and I already have lots of plans to meet people and hang out and get settled, so that'll be wonderful.
Speaking of getting settled, as it turns out, I'll be staying with Irina the whole time and not moving in the middle of my trip, because my other host family ended up not being able to have me, so that'll be nice to not have to move AND I'll have consistent access to the internet that way so MANY UPDATES!!
Can't wait to get started, but for now, I'm wearing out, so I'll say goodnight (will say it in Estonian later), and talk to you all soon!
So, here it is... the final countdown before I leave for Estonia... in exactly one week, I will be in the air, on my way to the big Eesti to start my adventure... Since coming home to Virginia, I have: opened a bank account for my travels, gone downtown with my sister, worked at a camp for kids whose parents are incarcerated, gone to the spa, hung out with some friends, and tomorrow, we're leaving to go away till Tuesday to go on a quick family vacation, since we haven't been able to do much as a family this whole summer since I chose to stay in Ohio. The final week countdown has vacation, packing, dr's appointments, and more packing in it, and hopefully making some time to see a few friends before I leave.
I've started laying out things to go with me too, including my converter, clothes, some school supplies, and some other things... I'm getting excited, but nervous.
Can't wait to get there, but I wish my bags would pack themselves, that's for sure!
I'm an Elementary Music Teacher in Charlotte, trying to lose weight and eat right by using a low carb diet. When I'm not looking for new recipes, I love singing, knitting, and looking at wedding things online!
