As I sit here in Werner cafe, which I found out was the hot spot for Estonian intellectuals in the early 20th century (right before they won their independence from the Russian Empire after WWI, kicked the Bolsheviks out of Estonia, and experienced ten years of democracy before their first Prime Minister became a dictator and then the country fell to the USSR), I'm thinking about a lot of things that have slowly come out of the woodwork. For the last two months, it seemed and felt like any assumptions I had about the differences between my culture and this culture were wrong and that twenty years since the USSR's collapse were more than enough for Estonia to become as Western as any other country.
When I brought this up with two Estonians who came out with me to celebrate my appointment to Director of Social Justice for the Unity Coalition at St. Edward's, the immediate response from Indrek was that it was because I hadn't really gotten into Estonian society. The presence of the old Soviet state of mind is palpable in all areas of Estonian society, from the way that teachers view education to the job market. Teachers who learned how to educate while under the USSR expect the students to listen as they lecture and have no emphasis on dialogue or questioning in the classroom. Older citizens of Estonia tend to fall into two groups, according to my Estonian friends. There are those who can think for themselves and are happy in this newly independent and capitalist country, and there are those who relied on the socialist system so heavily for their life goals that the individualism required for success in the laissez-faire economy has pushed them to depression as Estonia progressed. This applies to the job market as well, where, for seventy years, Estonians were guaranteed a job and did not have to think about what their future would hold. In the current economic crisis, I will admit that I can see the attraction to such a system. Then, Indrek said something that really shook me from my fantasy of a job after college: "These things are not always bad, but there was no freedom." As an American, I can certainly understand the importance of freedom to every citizen of a country. This is the trade-off that people had to make for such security, and all subversion had to be communicated through Estonian irony, or, as Christina said, "You had to learn to read - and write - between the lines, because otherwise the censors would find the message. This is why Estonian humor is so ironic. It's something we are known for." When talking about the singing revolution and the pacifistic tone of Estonian nationalism, I commented on the difference between their revolution, focused on the ability for Estonians to gather together and endeavor towards one common goal that had not been dictated by the government, and ours, where we beat our oppressors in bloody combat, IndreK responded, "But we are only one million in Estonia. Russia could find one million soldiers in a minute. There is a saying that Estonia may be weak in numbers, but we are strong in spirit." I was almost brought to tears by this statement, because it seemed so true, and in the two months that I have lived here I have grown to love this city as my own.
It's time to meet my tutor for a group reunion, so I must be off, but expect a blog about American vs. Hungarian nationalism in the near future.
Nagemist,
moi
Sunday, March 29, 2009
Friday, March 20, 2009
Winter, it seems, is slowly leaving Estonia
As I wait for my water to boil so that I can eat my pasta, I have a lot to think about. Today I am going skiing for the first time, but it may be the last weekend when there is snow enough to ski. This is incredibly exciting, but also kind of sad, because it is a physical and ever-present indicator that time is passing. Of course, if you measure the passing of time in Estonia by the melting of the snow and ice, then you would think for the last month and a half that time had stood still.
There was a movie night a few nights ago and they showed the French movie "L'Auberge Espagnol," a movie about a guy who goes on Erasmus to Spain. I've seen it before at St. Ed's when the OIE showed it in Jones and I really enjoyed it then, but now it was a lot more poignant. Erasmus is a program that works within the the EU to allow university students to spend semesters abroad in other European countries. This guy was going through so many of the motions that I had to do, and experiencing so many emotions that I have felt while here. Some of my friends said they didn't like it, because it made them sad. At the end of the movie, he leaves Spain and goes home and finds himself on a street in his hometown, Paris, that only the tourists go to. He goes there because he feels at home, as he says, "A stranger among the strangers." I think that this will be true for me when I go home to Texas, I will be a stranger in lot of ways. I won't have been living in Austin for five months, and I will have left somewhere that I call home to get there.
My friends and I here have a habit of going on spontaneous walks so late at night that its actually early morning. We just walk without a purpose and end up on new streets where we haven't been before, and it really helps to familiarize ourselves with the city. Tartu is so small that its quite difficult to get lost no matter how little you know about the place you are. If you just keep walking in any direction you're bound to find yourself somewhere you already know. Last time, we were taking our stroll and ended up on the street beneath the soviet-era Methodist church, and there was a huge snowbank next to the sidewalk. Colin just kind of threw himself face first into the snow where the bank was long enough to support his whole body vertically. Eventually all four of ended up crunched into the snowbank looking up at the sky. I told them all to stop talking for just a moment and listen, and all there was was silence. I just listened to the silence of winter and watched the snowflakes falling softly in the streetlight, and felt completely content.
I really am starting to be completely at home here, and part of that is falling into a schedule. I have friends that I study, work out, and eat with a lot of days because we've discovered that group meals are a lot less expensive than individual meals. Speaking of meals, I've been learning a lot of new recipes that I plan to bring back to the US.
My International Cookbook:
CousCous:
-1 boullion cube
-frozen vegetables
-fresh garlic
-2 eggs
-couscous
-oil
1. Fill pot with 1 cm water and boil with boullion cube
2. when it comes to a boil, pour couscous almost level with the water. cover and set aside.
3. pour a thin layer of oil into a saucepan, turn on high heat.
4. peal and crush garlic
5. add garlic to oil and let simmer
6. when the garlic is golden brown, add the vegetables. stir constantly to ensure that all veggies get cooked thouroughly.
7. when the vegetables are almost done, crack the eggs into the pan and scramble them with the veggies.
8. add veggies and eggs to the couscous, mix and serve hot.
I probably eat this once a day. It is delicious!
Moldovan Crepes
-seven heaping tablespoons of flour
-1 liter of milk
-5 eggs
-sugar and salt to taste
-oil
1. scramble eggs until the protein is no longer visible and the eggs are completely smooth
2. add to milk and stir
3. in a large bowl, measure out the flour. add milk and egg mixture slowly until there are no lumps of flour.
4. stir the flour mixture into the rest of the milk and egg mixture in whichever bowl is bigger.
5. add approximately a tablespoon of sugar and a sprinkle of salt. taste the batter, and if it seems to taste the way you want it to, leave it for now. otherwise, add sugar and salt to taste.
6. pour a little oil into the batter and into a saucepan. cover the whole saucepan with oil and heat on high.
7. using a ladle, pour the batter onto the hot oiled saucepan and make sure that the batter forms a thin layer across the whole pan.
8. when the edges start to brown, pick up from the thinnest side and flip using your hands.
9. when the other side starts to look golden brown, pick up and lay onto a plate. continue until all the batter is gone.
serve with jam and sour cream, or ice cream for dessert.
Cigarborek (Turkish)
-Philo dough, thawed
-feta cheese
-fresh coriander (or spinach)
-milk
-egg yolks
-oil
1. flour a large flat surface and lay out the philo dough. roll until it is as thin as possible without tearing.
2. cut it into triangles about as big as your hand, or slightly smaller
3. combine feta and chopped up coriander
4. combine milk and egg yolks to fill a small bowl
5. coat triangle with the egg yolk mixture
6. place a thin line of feta mixture on the triangle and fold and roll so all sides are closed.
7. when all of the boreks have been rolled, heat half an inch of oil in a saucepan
8. fry until golden brown, serve hot.
I've also gotten quite good at the Southwestern Cornbread (skillet cornbread with jalapenos) but I can't remember the exact measurements without the recipe.
My roomate has started hanging out with me and my friends more, and we've made an effort to hang out with more international students instead of just as the four of us. We still do most of our traveling just together, though.
I went skiing for the first time in Oteppa, the highest point in Estonia (and it is basically a low hill). I fell a lot and almost didn't make it up on the ski lift, because it was one that you stand up and hold on to instead of sitting on, but once I got the hang of that I made it to the top of the hill. It was incredibly frightening looking down the slope, and I couldn't quite get the wedge movement down so I ended up speeding down the hill and falling a lot, but when you get going down the slope its incredibly exhilarating. I fully intend on getting a ski trip group together when I get back to Texas! With a lot of help from some Dutch, Turkish, British, and American friends, I made it all the way down the hill without falling! It was an incredible feeling.
Now I have to go study to make sure I get the most out of this experience, but I have this feeling that all of the out of school activities are what I'm learning the most from here.
There was a movie night a few nights ago and they showed the French movie "L'Auberge Espagnol," a movie about a guy who goes on Erasmus to Spain. I've seen it before at St. Ed's when the OIE showed it in Jones and I really enjoyed it then, but now it was a lot more poignant. Erasmus is a program that works within the the EU to allow university students to spend semesters abroad in other European countries. This guy was going through so many of the motions that I had to do, and experiencing so many emotions that I have felt while here. Some of my friends said they didn't like it, because it made them sad. At the end of the movie, he leaves Spain and goes home and finds himself on a street in his hometown, Paris, that only the tourists go to. He goes there because he feels at home, as he says, "A stranger among the strangers." I think that this will be true for me when I go home to Texas, I will be a stranger in lot of ways. I won't have been living in Austin for five months, and I will have left somewhere that I call home to get there.
My friends and I here have a habit of going on spontaneous walks so late at night that its actually early morning. We just walk without a purpose and end up on new streets where we haven't been before, and it really helps to familiarize ourselves with the city. Tartu is so small that its quite difficult to get lost no matter how little you know about the place you are. If you just keep walking in any direction you're bound to find yourself somewhere you already know. Last time, we were taking our stroll and ended up on the street beneath the soviet-era Methodist church, and there was a huge snowbank next to the sidewalk. Colin just kind of threw himself face first into the snow where the bank was long enough to support his whole body vertically. Eventually all four of ended up crunched into the snowbank looking up at the sky. I told them all to stop talking for just a moment and listen, and all there was was silence. I just listened to the silence of winter and watched the snowflakes falling softly in the streetlight, and felt completely content.
I really am starting to be completely at home here, and part of that is falling into a schedule. I have friends that I study, work out, and eat with a lot of days because we've discovered that group meals are a lot less expensive than individual meals. Speaking of meals, I've been learning a lot of new recipes that I plan to bring back to the US.
My International Cookbook:
CousCous:
-1 boullion cube
-frozen vegetables
-fresh garlic
-2 eggs
-couscous
-oil
1. Fill pot with 1 cm water and boil with boullion cube
2. when it comes to a boil, pour couscous almost level with the water. cover and set aside.
3. pour a thin layer of oil into a saucepan, turn on high heat.
4. peal and crush garlic
5. add garlic to oil and let simmer
6. when the garlic is golden brown, add the vegetables. stir constantly to ensure that all veggies get cooked thouroughly.
7. when the vegetables are almost done, crack the eggs into the pan and scramble them with the veggies.
8. add veggies and eggs to the couscous, mix and serve hot.
I probably eat this once a day. It is delicious!
Moldovan Crepes
-seven heaping tablespoons of flour
-1 liter of milk
-5 eggs
-sugar and salt to taste
-oil
1. scramble eggs until the protein is no longer visible and the eggs are completely smooth
2. add to milk and stir
3. in a large bowl, measure out the flour. add milk and egg mixture slowly until there are no lumps of flour.
4. stir the flour mixture into the rest of the milk and egg mixture in whichever bowl is bigger.
5. add approximately a tablespoon of sugar and a sprinkle of salt. taste the batter, and if it seems to taste the way you want it to, leave it for now. otherwise, add sugar and salt to taste.
6. pour a little oil into the batter and into a saucepan. cover the whole saucepan with oil and heat on high.
7. using a ladle, pour the batter onto the hot oiled saucepan and make sure that the batter forms a thin layer across the whole pan.
8. when the edges start to brown, pick up from the thinnest side and flip using your hands.
9. when the other side starts to look golden brown, pick up and lay onto a plate. continue until all the batter is gone.
serve with jam and sour cream, or ice cream for dessert.
Cigarborek (Turkish)
-Philo dough, thawed
-feta cheese
-fresh coriander (or spinach)
-milk
-egg yolks
-oil
1. flour a large flat surface and lay out the philo dough. roll until it is as thin as possible without tearing.
2. cut it into triangles about as big as your hand, or slightly smaller
3. combine feta and chopped up coriander
4. combine milk and egg yolks to fill a small bowl
5. coat triangle with the egg yolk mixture
6. place a thin line of feta mixture on the triangle and fold and roll so all sides are closed.
7. when all of the boreks have been rolled, heat half an inch of oil in a saucepan
8. fry until golden brown, serve hot.
I've also gotten quite good at the Southwestern Cornbread (skillet cornbread with jalapenos) but I can't remember the exact measurements without the recipe.
My roomate has started hanging out with me and my friends more, and we've made an effort to hang out with more international students instead of just as the four of us. We still do most of our traveling just together, though.
I went skiing for the first time in Oteppa, the highest point in Estonia (and it is basically a low hill). I fell a lot and almost didn't make it up on the ski lift, because it was one that you stand up and hold on to instead of sitting on, but once I got the hang of that I made it to the top of the hill. It was incredibly frightening looking down the slope, and I couldn't quite get the wedge movement down so I ended up speeding down the hill and falling a lot, but when you get going down the slope its incredibly exhilarating. I fully intend on getting a ski trip group together when I get back to Texas! With a lot of help from some Dutch, Turkish, British, and American friends, I made it all the way down the hill without falling! It was an incredible feeling.
Now I have to go study to make sure I get the most out of this experience, but I have this feeling that all of the out of school activities are what I'm learning the most from here.
Saturday, March 14, 2009
I'm going to try to make this a regular thing
I think I may need to have a journal of sorts when I get back from Estonia, so I'm pretty sure I need to do this basically weekly to get credit for being here.
At first I thought that, aside from the language barrier and how much more quiet Estonians are compared to people from the US, Tartu was basically a town in America. Just next to Russia. The country's complete commitment to a laissez-faire economic model and their quick capitalist expansion has left the part of town that I see every day just like any other small town's economic center. There is a quaint old town center lined with cafes and shops, three huge malls right next to each other down the street, and groceries stores in every direction. The main difference I noticed is that you can walk everywhere.
Now that I'm trying to hunker down and become focused, though, I'm starting to realize that part of the challenge is dealing with the subtle changes. I didn't even think about the fact that the only place I can truly concentrate when I study is located in the St. Edward's library. When I need to focus in on the academic task at hand, I take all of my materials with me and head to the second floor and to the very back of the study area. I push the two chairs in the nook together, turn on the lamp, plug in my laptop, and get to work. I'm not the kind of person that can focus in a loud coffee shop or restaurant, which seems to be what people do here, and I haven't been able to find a space as cozy and personal as that space back home. I hate Starbucks for multiple reasons, but yesterday I found myself just wishing I could go to Starbucks, grab one drink, and sit in a plush chair for hours just studying. I don't know the etiquette of studying in cafes here, and I haven't been around to enough of the cafes to know exactly which are cozy and which aren't. I'm thinking that now, after all of the newness of Tartu is settling down and we are all starting to focus in on becoming more studious, I am really going to start feeling the challenges of being abroad. Changing your study habits to fit a new place is quite a difficult thing.
I just finished watching the movie Miracle with Peter and Olesea, and I was, as per usual, moved by the shameless nationalism. There is just something about those sports movies that makes you all proud and stuff. When I left home, I was very, very angry at my home country. I felt like we were complete bullies, and I was afraid that Barack Obama, political love of my life, would turn out to be just another politician who used empty rhetoric to get into power and then just continued to economically colonize the rest of the world. I basically saw my country as the ultimate Marxist capitalist villainous machine, and couldn't find it in myself to be proud when I saw it as the reason for so much global suffering. Deep down inside, I truly hoped that leaving would allow me to, if not love my country as blindly and naively as I had as a child, at least appreciate it for exactly what it is. As I watched Miracle, I felt the first stirrings of that in myself. I realized that no, America is no better than any other country, but it is every bit as good. I have every right to be proud of my country, and not because it is the best, not because we are somehow the most proud, the most idealistic, with the best ethics, because we aren't. We are not the only country that believes, at least in our rhetoric, in equality and human rights and human dignity. We may disagree with other countries on what those things mean, but that doesn't mean we are any better. It simply means we are different. But it also doesn't mean that we are any worse. We are a country that needs to have uniting and inspiring ideals to bring us together despite our mixed heritage, because we do not have one American ethnicity and tradition to provide our common bond. Our bond is through our idealistic history, and that is starting to be OK with me. I can be happy to say I am American, because I don't have to believe that we are the best country in the world to do so. I can learn to see my country for its qualities and its flaws, and appreciate it all the same.
I guess I really am changing.
:)
At first I thought that, aside from the language barrier and how much more quiet Estonians are compared to people from the US, Tartu was basically a town in America. Just next to Russia. The country's complete commitment to a laissez-faire economic model and their quick capitalist expansion has left the part of town that I see every day just like any other small town's economic center. There is a quaint old town center lined with cafes and shops, three huge malls right next to each other down the street, and groceries stores in every direction. The main difference I noticed is that you can walk everywhere.
Now that I'm trying to hunker down and become focused, though, I'm starting to realize that part of the challenge is dealing with the subtle changes. I didn't even think about the fact that the only place I can truly concentrate when I study is located in the St. Edward's library. When I need to focus in on the academic task at hand, I take all of my materials with me and head to the second floor and to the very back of the study area. I push the two chairs in the nook together, turn on the lamp, plug in my laptop, and get to work. I'm not the kind of person that can focus in a loud coffee shop or restaurant, which seems to be what people do here, and I haven't been able to find a space as cozy and personal as that space back home. I hate Starbucks for multiple reasons, but yesterday I found myself just wishing I could go to Starbucks, grab one drink, and sit in a plush chair for hours just studying. I don't know the etiquette of studying in cafes here, and I haven't been around to enough of the cafes to know exactly which are cozy and which aren't. I'm thinking that now, after all of the newness of Tartu is settling down and we are all starting to focus in on becoming more studious, I am really going to start feeling the challenges of being abroad. Changing your study habits to fit a new place is quite a difficult thing.
I just finished watching the movie Miracle with Peter and Olesea, and I was, as per usual, moved by the shameless nationalism. There is just something about those sports movies that makes you all proud and stuff. When I left home, I was very, very angry at my home country. I felt like we were complete bullies, and I was afraid that Barack Obama, political love of my life, would turn out to be just another politician who used empty rhetoric to get into power and then just continued to economically colonize the rest of the world. I basically saw my country as the ultimate Marxist capitalist villainous machine, and couldn't find it in myself to be proud when I saw it as the reason for so much global suffering. Deep down inside, I truly hoped that leaving would allow me to, if not love my country as blindly and naively as I had as a child, at least appreciate it for exactly what it is. As I watched Miracle, I felt the first stirrings of that in myself. I realized that no, America is no better than any other country, but it is every bit as good. I have every right to be proud of my country, and not because it is the best, not because we are somehow the most proud, the most idealistic, with the best ethics, because we aren't. We are not the only country that believes, at least in our rhetoric, in equality and human rights and human dignity. We may disagree with other countries on what those things mean, but that doesn't mean we are any better. It simply means we are different. But it also doesn't mean that we are any worse. We are a country that needs to have uniting and inspiring ideals to bring us together despite our mixed heritage, because we do not have one American ethnicity and tradition to provide our common bond. Our bond is through our idealistic history, and that is starting to be OK with me. I can be happy to say I am American, because I don't have to believe that we are the best country in the world to do so. I can learn to see my country for its qualities and its flaws, and appreciate it all the same.
I guess I really am changing.
:)
Sunday, March 8, 2009
Tere!
So, this post has been a long time coming.
I'm in Estonia, where it is always cold. Or so it seems. And, until recently, it seemed that the sun never shone and the pavement was always covered in a layer of precariously slippery (or, at least for me) ice. I fell at least four times within the first two weeks, but now I'm pretty much amazing at fall recovery.
I am also using this blog entry to distract me from the fact that I still haven't done any research for a paper that I'm supposed to be mapping out tonight with my partner, Niels, from the Netherlands.
In the dorm, I live on the sixth floor. This is a good thing in some cases, as there aren't parties going on outside of my door all the time so if I wasn't such a hug procrastinator I could study if I wanted to without interruption. But, it is also bad, because most of the socializing between international students takes place on the fourth floor, and I can't get in unless someone opens the door for me. Not that people keep me out, its just that parties happen spontaneously, and when you aren't on the floor, you miss out.
That said, I do live with three girls from different countries. Olesea is my roomate, and she is from Moldova. We also share a kitchen with Olga, a law student from Russia, and Sofia from Sweden. I haven't had the chance to talk to Olga much, but I have learned a lot about former USSR culture, and the state of Moldova in general, from Olesea. For example, in Moldova (and in many other former USSR countries), at Christmas you don't give presents. You just go into the villages and see family, but there aren't any big celebrations like there are in the states. This is because of the Soviet government's stance on religion. They rebelled, though, in the form of new traditions for the new year. On new year's day, they give each other presents the way that we do on Christmas. I thought this was a really fascinating cultural difference. They also celebrate spring on the first of March by making little decorations of red ribbon or string and giving them to their friends. When the celebration is over, they place them in trees or around the town. These little keepsakes are never thrown away. They also celebrate International Women's Day, which is today! It is a holiday recognized by the UN and I think that it should be celebrated in the US as much as it is in Moldova. Instead of having a day that is just for mothers, this day celebrates women of all ages simply for being women and is a result of the international recognition of the past trials of women in their struggle for equality. How cool is that? And all of the people give small (or large, depending on the closeness of the relationship) gifts to the women in their lives. Husbands to wives, guy friends to girl friends, and women give each other gifts, too. Next March 8, I think it would be a great idea to use International Women's Day to raise money for a cause that uplifts women, like microlending to developing countries, by selling carnations to give to your friends for women's day on campus.
Hopefully someone other than me will remember that.
In other news, a big part of Estonian social life is going out to pubs. They have pubs with such character here! There is one called Big Ben, an english pub with big comfy chairs and old fashioned phones for calling other tables (and the bartenders), and another called the Gunpowder Cellar which was actually commissioned by Catherine the Great to be an ammunition cellar and is now the pub with the highest ceiling in the world. No lie. There is another called Maailm, which means world, and its brightly painted walls, swing seats, and constant reggae beats make it such a cool place to hang out (but the loud music can make it hard to talk). I'll admit that the first month was a blur of restaurants and pubs with classes that seemed mainly like an afterthought, but now that I've settled in I'm starting to love just walking around the city and spending quiet(er) nights in the dorm with my new friends.
I was hoping to meet tons of international people who would become my besties, but in the end it was a small (think three) group of Americans that I ended up connecting the most with. We have a lot of things in common, most excitingly our desire to travel on the cheap and be tourists all around Europe, and we get along really well. We took our first trip to Finland last weekend, and it was just incredible. I've never seen such a gorgeous place, and the europeans say that its the most ugly capitol in Europe. It is also exceedingly expensive, and the exchange rate was quite painful for those four days. One of the things that I found so amazing was how close everything in Helsinki was to everything else. You look on the map and you think, oh God, how are we ever going to walk there? But then you realize that it's only about five minutes away, and its like the whole of the city opens up to you. We visited churches and compared ideas of what a church should be, had epic snowball fights, tried to visit parliament, ate a bear and reindeer pizza (that we made ourselves), visited a bar made of ice, saw the Olympic stadium from 1952 and the famous sculpture, went to museums (and saw the first Van Gogh ever purchased for a museum collection), went ice skating outdoors next to the famous train station designed by Eliel Saarinen, and spent a day on an island holding an sea fortress older than our country. But, lots of things in Finland are older than our country, so I guess that wasn't too surprising. I stayed in my first hostel and fell in love with the spirit of student travel in Europe and had some salsa that was almost as good as home (but not quite). In the end, I was so happy to be back home in Tartu. That is when I realized that, just like how Austin became the place I'm "from," Estonia is becoming a place I can return to.
I came to Estonia thinking that I would meet a group of people completely different from myself, because of our incredibly different recent history. I thought of all of the difficulties that come with transitioning from a Soviet territory to a capitalist democracy in such a short time, and I assumed that the struggle would be more obvious, but it isn't. What I've found here in Estonia is just another example of how we really are all the same. Despite our history, all of us search for the same things in life if we have the security to do so, and the Estonians certainly do. They are one of the most successful former USSR countries and are taking the economic crisis in stride. They are, dare I say, more free-market focused than the United States. When asked what policies the government would implement to respond to the crisis, a government official replied that if construction jobs weren't what the market needed there was no sense in creating policies to protect them.
I am also fascinated by the graffiti in Estonia. Graffiti on the 1st street bridge across Town Lake is one thing, but graffiti on the Angel's bridge (finished in 1816 and renovated in 1913) is completely different. Political (and social) commentary through urban art is a lot more striking when its found on something so old and beautiful. It almost gives it more weight, because it visually shows the clash of old and new ideas and feelings in this country. I've made it my goal to document as much of it as I can and, if I have the extra time, to find someone who can help me understand the significance of the pictures I'm taking.
Well, I have to stop procrastinating and get to Security Council paper business. :)
More later...
-me
I'm in Estonia, where it is always cold. Or so it seems. And, until recently, it seemed that the sun never shone and the pavement was always covered in a layer of precariously slippery (or, at least for me) ice. I fell at least four times within the first two weeks, but now I'm pretty much amazing at fall recovery.
I am also using this blog entry to distract me from the fact that I still haven't done any research for a paper that I'm supposed to be mapping out tonight with my partner, Niels, from the Netherlands.
In the dorm, I live on the sixth floor. This is a good thing in some cases, as there aren't parties going on outside of my door all the time so if I wasn't such a hug procrastinator I could study if I wanted to without interruption. But, it is also bad, because most of the socializing between international students takes place on the fourth floor, and I can't get in unless someone opens the door for me. Not that people keep me out, its just that parties happen spontaneously, and when you aren't on the floor, you miss out.
That said, I do live with three girls from different countries. Olesea is my roomate, and she is from Moldova. We also share a kitchen with Olga, a law student from Russia, and Sofia from Sweden. I haven't had the chance to talk to Olga much, but I have learned a lot about former USSR culture, and the state of Moldova in general, from Olesea. For example, in Moldova (and in many other former USSR countries), at Christmas you don't give presents. You just go into the villages and see family, but there aren't any big celebrations like there are in the states. This is because of the Soviet government's stance on religion. They rebelled, though, in the form of new traditions for the new year. On new year's day, they give each other presents the way that we do on Christmas. I thought this was a really fascinating cultural difference. They also celebrate spring on the first of March by making little decorations of red ribbon or string and giving them to their friends. When the celebration is over, they place them in trees or around the town. These little keepsakes are never thrown away. They also celebrate International Women's Day, which is today! It is a holiday recognized by the UN and I think that it should be celebrated in the US as much as it is in Moldova. Instead of having a day that is just for mothers, this day celebrates women of all ages simply for being women and is a result of the international recognition of the past trials of women in their struggle for equality. How cool is that? And all of the people give small (or large, depending on the closeness of the relationship) gifts to the women in their lives. Husbands to wives, guy friends to girl friends, and women give each other gifts, too. Next March 8, I think it would be a great idea to use International Women's Day to raise money for a cause that uplifts women, like microlending to developing countries, by selling carnations to give to your friends for women's day on campus.
Hopefully someone other than me will remember that.
In other news, a big part of Estonian social life is going out to pubs. They have pubs with such character here! There is one called Big Ben, an english pub with big comfy chairs and old fashioned phones for calling other tables (and the bartenders), and another called the Gunpowder Cellar which was actually commissioned by Catherine the Great to be an ammunition cellar and is now the pub with the highest ceiling in the world. No lie. There is another called Maailm, which means world, and its brightly painted walls, swing seats, and constant reggae beats make it such a cool place to hang out (but the loud music can make it hard to talk). I'll admit that the first month was a blur of restaurants and pubs with classes that seemed mainly like an afterthought, but now that I've settled in I'm starting to love just walking around the city and spending quiet(er) nights in the dorm with my new friends.
I was hoping to meet tons of international people who would become my besties, but in the end it was a small (think three) group of Americans that I ended up connecting the most with. We have a lot of things in common, most excitingly our desire to travel on the cheap and be tourists all around Europe, and we get along really well. We took our first trip to Finland last weekend, and it was just incredible. I've never seen such a gorgeous place, and the europeans say that its the most ugly capitol in Europe. It is also exceedingly expensive, and the exchange rate was quite painful for those four days. One of the things that I found so amazing was how close everything in Helsinki was to everything else. You look on the map and you think, oh God, how are we ever going to walk there? But then you realize that it's only about five minutes away, and its like the whole of the city opens up to you. We visited churches and compared ideas of what a church should be, had epic snowball fights, tried to visit parliament, ate a bear and reindeer pizza (that we made ourselves), visited a bar made of ice, saw the Olympic stadium from 1952 and the famous sculpture, went to museums (and saw the first Van Gogh ever purchased for a museum collection), went ice skating outdoors next to the famous train station designed by Eliel Saarinen, and spent a day on an island holding an sea fortress older than our country. But, lots of things in Finland are older than our country, so I guess that wasn't too surprising. I stayed in my first hostel and fell in love with the spirit of student travel in Europe and had some salsa that was almost as good as home (but not quite). In the end, I was so happy to be back home in Tartu. That is when I realized that, just like how Austin became the place I'm "from," Estonia is becoming a place I can return to.
I came to Estonia thinking that I would meet a group of people completely different from myself, because of our incredibly different recent history. I thought of all of the difficulties that come with transitioning from a Soviet territory to a capitalist democracy in such a short time, and I assumed that the struggle would be more obvious, but it isn't. What I've found here in Estonia is just another example of how we really are all the same. Despite our history, all of us search for the same things in life if we have the security to do so, and the Estonians certainly do. They are one of the most successful former USSR countries and are taking the economic crisis in stride. They are, dare I say, more free-market focused than the United States. When asked what policies the government would implement to respond to the crisis, a government official replied that if construction jobs weren't what the market needed there was no sense in creating policies to protect them.
I am also fascinated by the graffiti in Estonia. Graffiti on the 1st street bridge across Town Lake is one thing, but graffiti on the Angel's bridge (finished in 1816 and renovated in 1913) is completely different. Political (and social) commentary through urban art is a lot more striking when its found on something so old and beautiful. It almost gives it more weight, because it visually shows the clash of old and new ideas and feelings in this country. I've made it my goal to document as much of it as I can and, if I have the extra time, to find someone who can help me understand the significance of the pictures I'm taking.
Well, I have to stop procrastinating and get to Security Council paper business. :)
More later...
-me
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