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.