Brokeback Bus

July 5 2009

Oh what a day!!! Nothing was planned for today except moving from Tallin to Tartu. You would think this would be a quick and simple process but everything is always more exciting in a foreign country.

We were driving along through the countryside (which looks amazingly similar to Michigan), and I was pleasantly dozing while listening to my iPod, when suddenly, after 2 hours of being on the road, we pulled off to the side. The bus had broken down!! So there we were, stuck on the road, surrounded by beautiful yellow fields and an abandoned little yellow brick building with graffiti. We had to wait for at least an hour for a different bus to come rescue us. It was a pretty cold and windy day, very much like fall, and the other American group from San Diego was freezing, hahaha. One girl said she thought it was going to snow. Well, at the point, all the MTU students thought it was pretty hilarious and we all just said “Eh, feels like home.” Houghton certainly does produce character-building-cold. But we finally arrived to Tartu, which I have found to be a very lovely city. It’s a bit smaller than Tallin and I think I like it more. Our housing is better too. They’re cute little rooms with private bathrooms and mini-kitchens.

The weather is still a bit too chilly for my taste but I’m sure I’ll survive. Sometimes I wonder if Costa Rica wouldn’t have been a better choice for nothing other than a change in weather. Estonia is almost a little too similar to the UP. I like to feel like I’m escaping when I go abroad but here it’s cold, and I’m surrounded by MTU students. I guess it’s comforting at least. So here I am in a new city for the next 5 days. I think I’ll like it here.

Song Festival Day!!

July 4, 2009

 

Today was the day of the Song Festival. We walked down to the grounds where there were hundreds of thousands of people milling around, waiting for things to start. There were food stands and beer tents and lots of diversions for us. I ate some kind of interesting meat filled pastries. They were kind of like mini pasties but not quite the same filling. Maybe some cabbage in there? Anyway it was one of the best things I’ve eaten since I got here. To see the concert, we walked up to the very top of the hill and sat on the grass. We were pretty far away though so we couldn’t see very well and the sound was a bit quieter than I would have liked. Still, it was pretty amazing to get a glimpse of the thirty-some-thousand singers on stage, and hear them singing in unison. It was really beautiful to hear their unofficial anthem which we’d heard in the documentary. I felt pretty privileged to have been able to attend such an event that only happens every 4 or 5 years.

 

The Estonians have so much pride in their country but it’s not an obnoxious pride like so many Americans seem to have (USA’s #1!! Fuck yeah!!!). Their pride just seems to be more pure, more for their heritage and what they’ve been through to become an independent country. I think the States have lost that somewhere along the way. I also thought it was great how EVERYONE stood up for their national anthem. Even the punkish kids that were sitting in the grass behind us. I mean, we were at the very back of this huge crowd, nobody would have noticed if they’d stayed seated but they stood up to respect their country. I’m not sure some American teenagers would do that nowadays.

 

The only bad part of the day was the weather. Unfortunately it turned rather cold and rainy at the start of the concert so we only stayed for the first part. Then Brittany and I grabbed a cab home to avoid the long walk home with the sky spitting at us. If it had been nicer, I definitely would have loved to stay longer and enjoy the festivities.

P.S. I did not take that picture but I thought you might want to visualize that amount of people in one place.

A good day

July 3, 2009

Today was probably my favorite day so far. We started off with a tour of the parliament building, followed by a Q & A session with Taavi Rõivas who, at the age of 29, is one of the youngest members of parliament. It was really interesting to get his take on Estonian politics. Apparently much of the parliament is quite young because it’s only been running since 1991, and most of the politicians at that time had been involved in the communist party of the USSR and therefore booted out. I guess now the whole internet craze makes sense…old people would never go for that. He even said we could add him as a friend on facebook. This country is just so funny sometimes. It’s so small and everyone is so familiar with each other, going out for drinks with a parliament member or striking up a conversation with one of them on the street is totally normal. It’s very relaxed.

 

The more time I spend here, the more I am convinced by my growing idea that Estonia, although part of Europe, is VERY different from France or even Germany and the other places I’ve visited. It’s a totally different atmosphere here. At times I feel like it’s heavier and more depressing because of it’s long and dark history but at other times I can definitely sense it’s pride and happiness in being an independent country. Today we went to the dance festival which is part of the huge song festival they have every 4 years or so. It was amazing. It’s so awe-inspiring to see 7,500 people dancing all at once in front of you with choreographed movement and traditional dress. I finally feel like I got a real sense of who the Estonian people are today, and it was beautiful. Tomorrow evening we’ll be attending the actual song festival where 100,000 singers will be on one stage, all performing in beautiful harmony. I guess about 500,000 Estonians will end up being present which accounts for nearly half of their population. Can you imagine that I’ll be seeing HALF of their population?

 

Anyway, although I’m very happy with my experience here so far, I have not been entirely impressed by the local cuisine. For example, the first day I was here I had this soup called Saljanka (I think). It was this odd mix of pork, sausage, chunks of lemon, black olives, onion, pickles, and God knows what else. I’ve never had anything like it and I’m not sure I’ll ever care to again. It’s not like it was bad…it just wasn’t very good. They also seem to eat an overwhelming amount of potatoes in various forms, which have been good but sometimes they too are put into strange mixtures of beets and pickled fish which makes this odd, chunky, purple mess. But maybe I’ve just been getting the wrong things. So far the best things I’ve had have been Turkish pita’s (those Doner things which are popular in Germany), and some good Italian ravioli. It’s all right though, hopefully it won’t make me gain weight like I did in France .J

Long day...almost.

July 2, 2009

 

Today was a rather busy day. I’m not even sure I would have survived if I’d attended the whole thing (well, I probably could have but I would be REALLY tired). Anyway, we started off with a lecture at 10am about eGovernment in Estonia and how all that works, which lasted for about 2 hours (a half hour longer than planned). Then after lunch we had a 4 HOUR LECTURE on Russion Foreign Policy. Surprisingly it turned out to be pretty interesting however, after the first 2 hours my friend Brittany felt really sick (she thinks from dehydration) so I walked with her back to the dorms since it was pretty far. We also missed a city tour that immediately followed the lecture which turned out to be 5 hours from what I heard. I guess I can’t say I’m terribly sorry I missed it. Well, the tour would have been kind of nice.

 

But no worries, I’m sure I’ll attend everything else there is. Thank goodness we won’t have any more crazily scheduled days like today. Anyway, I should probably explain the whole e-government thing that Estonia has going on. Basically, Estonia does everything with the Internet. This year, 90% of the population filed tax declarations online (called edeclarations). I thought that was pretty amazing. Not to mention everyone does online banking (entirely online), the government has gone paperless, everyone gets a smart-chip ID card with ALL of your info on it, and they even have e-voting. So far all of it is working out beautifully and they haven’t had nearly as much trouble as you would think with identity theft and things like that. I think one of the major reasons people are so involved with this process is that the internet is very very accessible here and free in places like restaurants, hotels, airports, and libraries. Plus there’s something like 700 public internet access points which I believe are also free.  I think it would be great to have the internet more accessible to the general population in the US. I realize that children can get it at schools but there are so many other places that it would be great for if it were free. I couldn’t believe I had to pay for internet at the airport in Detroit…I’m pretty sure it wasn’t like that a year ago. Of course I didn’t pay for it though; why should I have to pay so much for internet in a public space that I’m only going to be at for a few hours?

 

So far at this point in the trip, it seems to me that Estonia’s got some really good ideas about things even though they haven’t been independent for very long. I really wish the US could get more inspired by other countries to change some stuff. There are great ideas in the world and the US does not always have the best ones. When will we accept a little humility and see that there are other ways to do things that might just be better?

Other than those lectures, we had a group dinner and I've also gotten to know my group members a bit more. It's an interesting mix of typical tech students except lots of girls and only two guys but we're all pretty nerdy. There's even already been a late night, highly witty discussion of various pieces of literature (which included but was not limited to Twilight, Stephen King, C.S. Lewis's works other than Narnia, and R.L. Stine). It's been entertaining. Thankfully we all get along pretty well.

Not so fun stuff I did.

A warning: The first part of this will be rather boring everyday probably. My apologies.

July 1, 2009

Today we visited the European Commission and met one of the ambassadors of Estonia, Toivo Klaar (at least I think he was an ambassador). Anyway, it seemed to me that he mostly talked about how the European Union works and what part Estonia plays in the decision making processes. I have to admit, I was pretty bored at first and a bit sleepy but it turned out to be quite interesting. What really struck me was how similar the EU and the US actually are. It’s an interesting thing that Europe has put together; somewhat like the federal government of the US but each state has much more autonomy. Of course, they’re running into some problems putting all of these nations together into a cohesive and cooperative club. It seems to me that the EU and the US could learn a lot from each other in terms of organizational methods and policies. With fresh ideas from the EU, and lots of experience in the US, I would think that we should both be able to improve how things are run. For example, students who are citizens of an EU county can go to school in any other EU country without paying additional fees. This makes sense to me. Why shouldn’t US students be able to go to school out of state without paying out-of-state tuition? I think it’s really interesting to see something like the EU growing and adapting as they figure things out.

 

We also had a lecture about the integration of Estonia into the EU (they became a member in 2004 I believe). After they regained their independence from the Soviet Union in 1991, they wanted to drastically distance themselves from the USSR and become a liberal democracy. They actually liberalized and privatized themselves so much, that they had to tone it down a little in order to join the EU. It seems to me like Estonia fits in very nicely with the rest of the EU and it’s amazing to see how much like Western Europe it really is. To think that less than 20 years ago they were under soviet rule, and now they have one of the fastest growing economies and a technologically advanced government system.

 

Then we visited the Museum of Occupation, which turned out to be SUPER boring after about 10 minutes.

 

Well, enough of the lecture stuff. Here’s what happened to me today besides that. Basically, I went to bed at 6:30pm last night because I was soooo exhausted after skipping a whole night’s sleep. This resulted in me waking up at 3:30am, wide awake. So I was pretty bored until 8:30am when we had to begin our day. Other than the lectures, I went shopping and bought a super cute leather jacket. Yay!! I think that’s about it. On a side note, I am NOT yet impressed with Estonian cuisine. They have odd combinations of things in their dishes.  I am loving the strong coffee though. Reminds me of the expresso in France (and no I did not misspell that, le français uses an x).

To Estonia!!

Well, today's the day I finally leave for Estonia. It's all feeling a little deja vu-ish as not that long ago, I was on my way to study abroad in France. However, I'll only be in Estonia for 3 weeks which is hardly any time at all. It kind of seems like no big deal after what I've already done. So I guess it kind of takes the excitement out of it. Don't get me wrong, I'm excited, just not as excited as I feel like I should be for such an event.

The thing that's most exciting for me is the fact that I'll be getting 6 credits for spending 3 weeks in a beautiful European country. Yay! It's allowed me to have the rest of my summer free for working, and hanging out with family and friends instead of taking classes from May to August. 

So some of you may be wondering, where the hell is Estonia? Well, Estonia is a small country located far north, just south Finland, and just west of Russia (quite near St. Petersburg). It's also bordered by Latvia to the South, and across the water to the west, there's Stockholm, Sweden. They have a low density population of about 1.3 million people who speak Estonian, a language closely related to Finnish. They're a country which has been occupied by many different people such as the Soviet Union and the Nazis. 

Ok, that's enough history for you. I'll be updating this thing everyday (as mandated by my program), so you'll get to hear about all my misadventures. So let's see, I should probably write about some of my expectations. I expect that Estonia will be much like the rest of Europe; picturesque cobblestone streets with historic buildings from centuries past, great bakeries and cafés around every corner, dimly lit nightclubs exuding electronica and techno, well dressed 60 year old women with oddly colored hair. Yes, I know it's far from the influence of Western Europe but they are a part of the E.U. and I think Eastern Europe is still quite similar, just with less money. However, it will be interesting to see how previous occupations by the USSR have contributed to cultural practices and ideologies. I imagine this influence will create a different atmosphere than the other European countries I've visited since their independence from the USSR was gained less than 20 years ago.

That's all the writing I'm in the mood for right now. I suppose I'd better get ready for my flight today. Miss you all!!!

p.s. I REALLY miss my Bolivian :(  

Waste of Internet Space

Well, I've decided that I should probably utilize this blog space that I've ignored so well for the past year. I suppose an update is in order as well.

I'll start at the beginningish: My sejour in France was absolutely perfect. I stayed from January through to the end of July and loved every single moment of it. A part of me (a very large part of me actually) would love to go back and live/work there someday but...leaving the people I love behind in such a seemingly permanent fashion is a bit frightening. And I can't lie, Camilo may play a role in that particular decision making process. But France will always have a piece of my heart. Words cannot begin to describe how much I miss my little village of Aix. Actually, words can describe it...I'd almost forgotten I made this list...

Things I'll miss about France:
street vendor crêpes, the abundance of Nutella, amazing fresh fruits and vegetables, small children speaking French, the boulangeries and pattiseries (tartalettes framboises!), the flower market, people saying "oo la la", everyone wearing boots, my huge window in the apartment, the way people greet each other, walking through narrow streets dodging mopeds, good Moroccan food, sitting at cafes, cheapness of wine, eXpresso, the market on Tuesdays, the blueness of the sky, the Mediterranean, real functioning shutters, people actually dancing at bars, looking nice everyday without people asking "why are you so dressed up today?", being able to walk everywhere in the city, being able to get to other cities with cheap public transportation, the centre ville, freshly rinsed cobblestone streets, the fountains, not smelling like an ashtray after a night out at the bar, tiled roofs, courtyards, Paris, the Metro, art museums, the French language, the cost of medical care without insurance, spring in Provence, sunny days and rainy nights, Les Calanques, smoking Hookah with the Frenchies, the boys of ENSAM, le bisous, Remy's place on the Corniche, 365+ different kinds of fromage (real Camembert!), Jérôme Belloche

As it turns out, the last item of that list turned out to be, at the time, the most painful thing to leave behind. But I guess time heals everything and can even make you forget. So, as hard as I tried to hold onto the beautiful memories we had together, it wasn't enough to keep us together in the long run. It was a nice dream but nothing more than that I guess. These days I'm dating my Bolivian Camilo instead, and it's nice to finally have someone who doesn't seem imaginary.

Study Abroad Program in France: $10,000
Plane ticket: $800
Side trip to Italy: $400
6 pairs of French shoes: €200

Realizing that long-distance relationships don't work out: ....$700

Lesson learned.