Schoolbooks and Siblings

Just before noon Thursday morning, Aksel and I walked to the bus stop in Elva across from the shopping center. We waited for seven or so minutes before the bus arrived and we got on. It was a nice coach bus unlike the public transport I had seen around Tartu. It took us around forty minutes to get from Elva to our stop in Tartu. Along the way we stopped at bus stops all along the way.

As we approached our stop Aksel pointed out the bridge that would mark out the stop for future reference. We got off the bus at our stop, the one closest to our schools, and crossed the street. We walked down the road toward Miina Härma and Aksel showed me where his school is along the way. The route to my school is fairly simple, off the bus, across the street, walk straight, and it is diagonally to the left, and visible from the street.

Once there, we met up with our father and he took us with him to meet up with our mother for lunch at Cafe Shakespeare. After lunch Aksel and I walked over to his school and he got his textbooks and I tried to read the signs on the walls without much success.

After that, we took the bus home. When we got home Aksel went to the store for supplies and then packed everything he needed for two nights in the forest with friends. He left and hour or two later.

That night my next two host mothers and my future siblings came over and we had a barbecue. I found out that one of my host sisters really loves dogs, and that her family, my second, has two large dogs. Between the fourteen year old and the sixteen year old, I couldn't tell which was which.

At the end of dinner there was a big bowl of grapes that us kids were eating from, when suddenly a frenzy broke out, and my host brother and sisters each had a large bunch of grapes or the rest of the bowl. Then they proceeded to steal each others grapes, an activity which I merrily joined in.

After we were sick of grapes and my 11 year old host brother finished his frosting covered ones, from the cake we were eating, we went out to stand in the grass. Adeele started chasing me and I ended up chasing her. Soon the lot of us, except one sister (the older, I suspect), were in the grass running all about the house and I was carrying Adeele piggyback.

We had to stop for a break and then we were off again. After a while, we had to stop again and then I started caring my five year old host sister on my back. Then it turned into a game of something like tag except I was just tagging everyone, but then it became a game between my younger host brother and I. We kept it going until the moment he left out the gate. I waved them all off at the end and my host brother kept waving back until we were out of sight.

It was a wonderful evening.