We went to Riga, obviously. It was not my favorite place I've ever been, and it was cold and rainy and therefore sort of unwelcoming and dreary. We didn't love it, although we did have great food and fun with some of the people at the hostel. The hostel itself was phenomenal... it was clean, and well kept, and there was a lot of room to hang out in the hostel, and they had everything you could need to cook if you wanted to, and it was just really great. In Riga, most everything closes on Mondays, though, so we spent part of Monday going on a tour the hostel offers where you can go shoot AK-47 assault rifles :) We went on this tour, and part of the way there, the guy from the hostel said, "I'm really hoping we can all get into shoot today... they had a police raid last week, and they took most of their bullets, but they said they had a secret stash of them, so we should be okay, I think." Laura and I were questioning the legality of this particular operation, and he said, "It's as legal as possible..." Nice. We got into this underground Russian bunker, and there were NO women except for us, and there were quite a few massively large Russian men. But, we did it and we were brave! We shot a Glock, an AK-47, and a Pump Action rifle. I was so nervous by the end of the rounds of the Pump Action that the Russian teacher guy standing next to me who was helping us said gruffly, "Only one more." Anyway, it was really cool, and I got to keep some bullets and my target!
Proud. So that was the highlight of our time in Riga. We came back to Tallinn, and did the tourist-y Tallinn things again, which was fun, and then we had a typical Estonian Christmas dinner with Karolina and Toomas. It was so much fun to just have a great meal and company, but we also were having the typical foods, like the blood sausage and meat in a jelly. Neither of these particular things are ones I'd probably try again, but I did try them once, and that's all the mantra says. It was a great night, and I had so much fun.
After Laura left, I've been in the final throws of trying to get all these papers done for ONU classes, as well as my final lesson plans and getting things slowly packed, and it's just been a crazy time. I'm really busy, and don't have enough time for all the things I'm doing anymore!!! It's good though bittersweet... I'm not ready to leave, and I'm sadder every day that I go to bed because another day is over.
Last night, I had a great surprise... the teachers from my school threw a surprise party for me. I thought it was just going to be me and Tiiu, and then we went with Kadri to this place in town, and we sat at a really small table and weren't really in a rush or anything, and then Karolina showed up. She said she had to meet someone, but it was funny running into us, and I was just amused that we ended up in the same place. But then she told me it was actually ME she was meeting, and it was really funny. Slowly, other teachers that I've gotten really close with showed up also, and all my closest teacher friends were there, and it was just a fantastic evening. They got me lots of different presents and I was so flattered and moved, and it was wonderful. MOST ESPECIALLY, though, they all chipped in and bought me the rain boots I've been wanting all this time with the Muhu Estonian National Pattern... Muhu saar is one of the islands, and this pattern is yellow with horizontal striped patterns, and I love it... it's my favorite one. I'll post pictures soon.
Anyway, I'm off to pack a bit, and then meet one of my other teacher friends in town to see Due Date... hahah. I could use a good mindless laugh, and that looks to be promising. So, that's my brief update for now. My last day of school is this Wednesday, and I leave Thursday to go to Brussels.
Maintain,
Virginia
wow...can you believe how quickly this has gone? You've packed so much into your time there, and I know they're going to miss you even more than you're going to miss them.
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