Sauna Scuffles
The first day of Lapland tour was almost like a dream, as most of us were running on inadequate amounts of sleep. I, myself, had about five hours of sleep during all twenty two hours of travel that it took to get to Lapland. I left Tartu after school at one thirty on a bus to Tallinn. We, the Tartu exchange students, took a taxi to the ferry terminal where we met the other two Estonian Rotary exchangers and a guy who travelled with us on the ferry.
We had to wait for the bus to arrive at nine in Helsinki. While we were waiting, two drunk guys came up to us and asked us something, but the guy with us shooed them away. The drunks then went over to a taxi that already had occupants and tried to convince the driver to take them. We all watched this and were laughing hysterically.
The bus ride was very long, but very fun because of all the exchange students that we could meet again.
We arrived at the hotel in Lapland at twelve noon. Out of all four busses, ours was the last to arrive. Everyone was assigned rooms and I ended up in room 160 with three others from Estonian, Michigan (state of origin that is now name), and a girl from France. Because we had a room for six, we also got a sauna in the bathroom.
After dropping stuff in our rooms, we had lunch and then dressed very warmly for skiing. We drove over to Olos to ski. When we arrived, we had to brave the crowded ski rental hut to get our equipment. Once I had mine, I put it on and immediately went straight to the top of the mountain. It was very dark, but there were rows of lights lining either side of the main trail. The lift was a T-bar lift, and was extremely hard to ride solo.
At the top off the mountain it was freezing and the wind howled all around. But as the cold bit at my face and nipped the rest of my body like a thousand pinpricks, I could see out across the rest of Lapland like a blanket spread out before me. Although Lapland is the most mountainous part of Finland, it still does not hold a candle to Vermont. Needless to say, the mountain I was standing on was the tallest for miles around and I could see others in the distance. The only mountains of similar heights were gaint piles of snow that were barely distinguishable against the sky. Those particular mountains are actually part of Sweden.
We skied for round about two hours. I did a lot of runs with Alaska and the T-bar was considerably easier to ride with two passengers.
When it was time to go my muscles were very sore and I was quite cold. Everyone was freezing, but we still had to go have dinner outside. We ate in a small cluster of huts with a fire burning in each one. Dinner was fish and potato soup with hot berry juice and pancakeish things for dessert.
Back at the hotel, we all went back to our rooms and everyone in ours tried to turn on the sauna. Eventually some boys managed to turn it on and the we were inundated with tons of people who wanted to sauna.
We only let in the three boys who turned it on and shut everyone else out. Once they had finished they left saying that they were going to cool off and then come back, but we decided not to let them in.
So, three of us girls went to sauna, leaving our clothes in the bathroom. Once we were naked the boys came back and someone let them in. They were standing outside the bathroom door and one of them said that he had left his shirt in the bathroom. Jennifer and I hid in the shower while Brittney tossed out their clothes.
Once she did that we went to sauna. It was wonderful. Then we heard a shout that there were Northern lights in the sky, so we rushed out to throw on clothes so we could go out and see them. However, when I looked for my clothes, I couldn't find them. I looked at Brittney and said, "Did you throw out my clothes?"
We all looked at each other and started laughing. Then I opened the door and there were my clothes crumpled on the ground: we laughed harder. We dressed quickly and hurried out the door, but the boys were back and they tried to get into the room. We blocked them and one, clad only in a towel, picked up Brittney and tossed her out of the way. They forced themselves inside and I gave up and ran outside to see the Northern lights, but by the time I got out there they had gone.
Wednesday, December 4, 2013
Wednesday, November 13, 2013
Sorry for the Wait
Hello everyone!
Sorry it's been so long, I've been concentrating on novel writing for NaNoWriMo and I can enthusiastically say that I am losing. I'm round about ten thousand words behind, with little hope of catching up, but that's not to say that I'm giving up. I have the story idea down solidly, but it is just so hard to write so much at once. I am very proud of myself though, as it is by far the longest story I have ever written. Usually as I write in class, classes I have little to no hope of understanding, physics, biology, etc., Clara, who has ended up next to me in quite a lot of classes (German) spends her time writing a long story for her sister with pen and paper in German. All this writing has made this blogging come easier: all this that I've written so far came in under half a minute.
In other news, the District Governor is on a round of visiting Rotary clubs and came to ours on Monday. My host mother wasn't able to attend so Kristal, a close friend of my second host mother's, picked me up and brought me home again, which was very nice as I would have otherwise had to take the bus. Fortunately for me, the District Governor did not speak Estonian, so the meeting was in English. Afterwards, I learned that I will be switching families on the 24th of November and my next host family lives about ten minutes from the school by bus. Score.
Also, I have been getting out with friends a bit more. On Halloween, Clara, Brittney, and I went to the Kiik, a gigantic wooden swing. We conversed and Clara held firm on her belief that trick-or-treating is stealing candy before us two flabbergasted Americans. After we abandoned the swing because we got too cold, we went to an Italian restraint for dinner that I recommended after having had dinner there with Peg a couple weeks before. That night we saw only a few costumes, such as a zombie and a witch, but there were apparently some small groups of small children running around in some towns. Halloween isn't really celebrated here, but that doesn't stop schools from doing lots of English, writing, and research projects on it.
The next day, however, Brittney and I were offered the opportunity to put on scary masks and scare the living day lights out of small children. We accepted with great pleasure and had even greater pleasure in actually doing it. I even managed to sneak up behind my Estonian teacher and make her jump by squeezing her shoulders.
My Estonian is progressing wonderfully, I actually am capable of a simple conversation now and I am continuing to learn the cases. Some of the ones that I have memorized are due to watching TV when it says a show is from Monday through Friday, the cases being from and through.
Also, Brittney stayed at my house for about a week quite a few weeks ago, as her host parents went to Spain and she couldn't go. We had a great time and we went to see Peg together and joined her in making apple crisp. I found out that Brittney rocks at making map outlines and she made one for a story of mine at my request. Yay!
I think that's about it. If I think of anything else, I'll just write another post. Oh yes, Aksel just had a girl over. A stranger. Girlfriend? Maybe. I might just ask him.
Anyways, I have to write about another thousand words before retiring. Talk to you all later.
Sorry it's been so long, I've been concentrating on novel writing for NaNoWriMo and I can enthusiastically say that I am losing. I'm round about ten thousand words behind, with little hope of catching up, but that's not to say that I'm giving up. I have the story idea down solidly, but it is just so hard to write so much at once. I am very proud of myself though, as it is by far the longest story I have ever written. Usually as I write in class, classes I have little to no hope of understanding, physics, biology, etc., Clara, who has ended up next to me in quite a lot of classes (German) spends her time writing a long story for her sister with pen and paper in German. All this writing has made this blogging come easier: all this that I've written so far came in under half a minute.
In other news, the District Governor is on a round of visiting Rotary clubs and came to ours on Monday. My host mother wasn't able to attend so Kristal, a close friend of my second host mother's, picked me up and brought me home again, which was very nice as I would have otherwise had to take the bus. Fortunately for me, the District Governor did not speak Estonian, so the meeting was in English. Afterwards, I learned that I will be switching families on the 24th of November and my next host family lives about ten minutes from the school by bus. Score.
Also, I have been getting out with friends a bit more. On Halloween, Clara, Brittney, and I went to the Kiik, a gigantic wooden swing. We conversed and Clara held firm on her belief that trick-or-treating is stealing candy before us two flabbergasted Americans. After we abandoned the swing because we got too cold, we went to an Italian restraint for dinner that I recommended after having had dinner there with Peg a couple weeks before. That night we saw only a few costumes, such as a zombie and a witch, but there were apparently some small groups of small children running around in some towns. Halloween isn't really celebrated here, but that doesn't stop schools from doing lots of English, writing, and research projects on it.
The next day, however, Brittney and I were offered the opportunity to put on scary masks and scare the living day lights out of small children. We accepted with great pleasure and had even greater pleasure in actually doing it. I even managed to sneak up behind my Estonian teacher and make her jump by squeezing her shoulders.
My Estonian is progressing wonderfully, I actually am capable of a simple conversation now and I am continuing to learn the cases. Some of the ones that I have memorized are due to watching TV when it says a show is from Monday through Friday, the cases being from and through.
Also, Brittney stayed at my house for about a week quite a few weeks ago, as her host parents went to Spain and she couldn't go. We had a great time and we went to see Peg together and joined her in making apple crisp. I found out that Brittney rocks at making map outlines and she made one for a story of mine at my request. Yay!
I think that's about it. If I think of anything else, I'll just write another post. Oh yes, Aksel just had a girl over. A stranger. Girlfriend? Maybe. I might just ask him.
Anyways, I have to write about another thousand words before retiring. Talk to you all later.
Sunday, October 27, 2013
Grampidence
On the Friday after my trip to Lounakeskus, I arrived back in Elva to have tea with the mother of the American guy I met at the kid's day event thing. I met her in front of the big(er) store and we walked back to her house.
Once we got there, Peg and I made had tea and made brownies. While we baked we talked about family and cooking, and I learned that it is extremely hard to find vanilla in Estonia, as it is not sold in stores. Apparently there is one company that imports foreign foods and baking supplies that has it occasionally and I heard from a friend that there is a baking shop across the river in Tartu that might have it.
After the brownies finished baking, we took our taw and went into the living room. While eating the very delicious brownies, we talked about our families and it turns out that Vermont is her favorite state and she used to go on skiing vacations to Killington, which is just up the road from where I live. It was like an experience one of my uncles had, when he started talking to some random stranger on the plane and it turned out to be someone who knew Grampa. That's what it felt like to meet someone who had gone skiing near my home halfway round the world.
We also talked a great deal about dogs, especially very large ones, for which we are both overly fond. Books were something we both enjoy immensely, and so when it was time to go, I had a book on dogs to borrow. Peg walked home with me and I told her about Grammie and her read-it list and how we shared book recommendations, then proceeded to tell her about Stormdancer which I got for her when we got to the house.
I read the dog book that night and cried my eyes out as one dog and than the other died.
The next weekend there was a workday near the lake organized by one of the political parties trying to get votes for the upcoming election. There were lots of people there and the project was to clear out the forest area by the lake. There were several guys with chainsaws and others with weedwhackers. I helped load up a trailer with pieces of trees that were dragged out of the woods. Later I helped pile branches on the fires that were lit to burn up the smaller brush. They were encouraged to burn in the same way as the fire during Lunar Quarry: i.e. Throwing copious amounts of gasoline on the fire. Peg arrived an hour or so after the event started. We worked together and talked about different things, and then she showed me where a beaver was trying to bring down a birch tree and dam up the river. After a while we walked home together.
The woods were quite nice afterwards and you could definitely see how much work was put into it.
Once we got there, Peg and I made had tea and made brownies. While we baked we talked about family and cooking, and I learned that it is extremely hard to find vanilla in Estonia, as it is not sold in stores. Apparently there is one company that imports foreign foods and baking supplies that has it occasionally and I heard from a friend that there is a baking shop across the river in Tartu that might have it.
After the brownies finished baking, we took our taw and went into the living room. While eating the very delicious brownies, we talked about our families and it turns out that Vermont is her favorite state and she used to go on skiing vacations to Killington, which is just up the road from where I live. It was like an experience one of my uncles had, when he started talking to some random stranger on the plane and it turned out to be someone who knew Grampa. That's what it felt like to meet someone who had gone skiing near my home halfway round the world.
We also talked a great deal about dogs, especially very large ones, for which we are both overly fond. Books were something we both enjoy immensely, and so when it was time to go, I had a book on dogs to borrow. Peg walked home with me and I told her about Grammie and her read-it list and how we shared book recommendations, then proceeded to tell her about Stormdancer which I got for her when we got to the house.
I read the dog book that night and cried my eyes out as one dog and than the other died.
The next weekend there was a workday near the lake organized by one of the political parties trying to get votes for the upcoming election. There were lots of people there and the project was to clear out the forest area by the lake. There were several guys with chainsaws and others with weedwhackers. I helped load up a trailer with pieces of trees that were dragged out of the woods. Later I helped pile branches on the fires that were lit to burn up the smaller brush. They were encouraged to burn in the same way as the fire during Lunar Quarry: i.e. Throwing copious amounts of gasoline on the fire. Peg arrived an hour or so after the event started. We worked together and talked about different things, and then she showed me where a beaver was trying to bring down a birch tree and dam up the river. After a while we walked home together.
The woods were quite nice afterwards and you could definitely see how much work was put into it.
Sunday, October 13, 2013
Days of Thunder
On the Sunday after Aksel's birthday, the Austrian girl who was looking for a host family came to our house. Everyone except Aksel was there to meet her. We visited and learned about her and the work that she is doing here. She is working at the orphanage in Elva, but has nothing to do for most of day because the children are in school. She is also living in the old orphanage building all by herself, which is incredibly cold because there is no central heating, so she just heats her room by building fires in the fireplace.
We all talked for a long time and eventually moved to the living room. She stayed for several hours, and I hope she ends up staying with us, but we haven't heard from her since as far as I know.
After school on Monday, I went to Lounakeskus, a mall, with two friends from school who are both exchange students. One of them had wanted to get doughnuts, so I suggested Lounakeskus and so we went and we went straight to the doughnut stand as soon as we got there. To get to the mall, we just caught the 18 intercity bus and it goes there as its first and last stop. After getting doughnuts to share, we wandered around the mall for a bit before Brittney pulled us into the pet store.
It was a big pet store and in the back were cages and pens with a variety of animals. There were parrots, songbirds, squirrels, and a kookaburra in the cages. In the pens there were hedgehogs, prairie dogs, and lizards. There were also two porcupines and an assortment of rabbits, spiders, and fish. There were only two cats and no dogs. It was just like a miniature zoo.
Afterwards, we made a beeline for the bookstore, Apollo, on the second floor. After some meandering through the movie section and aisles of Estonian novels (and books in English on sex positions) we found the foreign language fiction section. Here I struck gold with a book called Stormdancer. It was highly recommended; genre: Japanese Steampunk. On the back I found a review praising the book from my favorite author, Patrick Rothfuss. It was love at first sight.
On the trip home, I started reading. The beginning was a bit hard to follow because of the Japanese names that I found hard to follow because of there foreignness, a bit like Estonian names to me, truth be told. A day or two later, as I started to read in earnest, I found the writing wonderful and quite thunderous, just like the characters. I highly recommend it to Josh and Emily and Dad and Grammie, and all others reading this post.
Magnificent book, full of poison and thunder. The sequel came out last month. It's called Kinslayer. I don't know much about it, only that the author doesn't like happy endings and people have cursed him for it.
We all talked for a long time and eventually moved to the living room. She stayed for several hours, and I hope she ends up staying with us, but we haven't heard from her since as far as I know.
After school on Monday, I went to Lounakeskus, a mall, with two friends from school who are both exchange students. One of them had wanted to get doughnuts, so I suggested Lounakeskus and so we went and we went straight to the doughnut stand as soon as we got there. To get to the mall, we just caught the 18 intercity bus and it goes there as its first and last stop. After getting doughnuts to share, we wandered around the mall for a bit before Brittney pulled us into the pet store.
It was a big pet store and in the back were cages and pens with a variety of animals. There were parrots, songbirds, squirrels, and a kookaburra in the cages. In the pens there were hedgehogs, prairie dogs, and lizards. There were also two porcupines and an assortment of rabbits, spiders, and fish. There were only two cats and no dogs. It was just like a miniature zoo.
Afterwards, we made a beeline for the bookstore, Apollo, on the second floor. After some meandering through the movie section and aisles of Estonian novels (and books in English on sex positions) we found the foreign language fiction section. Here I struck gold with a book called Stormdancer. It was highly recommended; genre: Japanese Steampunk. On the back I found a review praising the book from my favorite author, Patrick Rothfuss. It was love at first sight.
On the trip home, I started reading. The beginning was a bit hard to follow because of the Japanese names that I found hard to follow because of there foreignness, a bit like Estonian names to me, truth be told. A day or two later, as I started to read in earnest, I found the writing wonderful and quite thunderous, just like the characters. I highly recommend it to Josh and Emily and Dad and Grammie, and all others reading this post.
Magnificent book, full of poison and thunder. The sequel came out last month. It's called Kinslayer. I don't know much about it, only that the author doesn't like happy endings and people have cursed him for it.
Saturday, September 28, 2013
Occurrences
Today is Aksel's birthday. He is turning sixteen today. As I sit here typing this up, various family members are arriving for the party at six (it's five now). As far as I can tell at the moment, birthday parties involve having a big meal with family. But more on that later.
This has been an interesting week, for sure. Sunday morning I did something that I'm sure would have happened sooner or later: I poured Keefir in my tee instead of milk. You see, the bags that they come in look exactly the same and when I went to grab a new bag of milk, I grabbed Keefir instead. I only realized my mistake when I saw that there were tube like streams of white stuff floating in my tee.
This has also been a week of weird schedule changes. On Tuesday, in addition to to taking the bus to school for the first time, our PE class also changed times to one block earlier because the rest of the classes' Estonian teacher wasn't there. We exchange students were hanging out in the library for three blocks because we had a free block, then Estonian in the library, and then another free lesson before PE. It was nearly the end of the free lesson before PE, when a girl came in and told all of us that we had missed at least half of PE. When the four of us exchange girls got to the locker room, some girls we know we're exiting and told us that we had missed all of PE. Apparently someone had asked the teacher if we had been informed and the teacher said we had, but we never were.
Then the next day the five of us got to skip the first half of drama class because it was an assembly about summer vacation.
On Thursday, it was the first day of our English teacher's absence. Apparently there are no substitute teachers, so we were told what work we had to do before she returned on Tuesday and left to our own self-discipline for English class. Pretty much everyone showed up, but all but two of us left within ten minutes. When I finally left and went to the library, I found the rest of the class there, and some were doing the work. We were also informed on Thursday that we didn't have to show up for the first two Physics classes on Friday.
Friday I had to take the bus to school on my own, and it arrived right after we pulled up to the bus stop. I had to quickly get out my wallet and get on, however I had a leaky travel mug of tee in one hand and the morning bus only takes cash, and not bus cards. Basically, I ended up dropping change everywhere, because my wallet doesn't have a coin pocket with Velcro or zipper and spilling at least half my tee over my jacket sleeve. Thankfully, a nice man in the front seat picked up the change I dropped and I managed to give the bus driver the right amount. As an extra bonus, when I walked from the bus stop to school it rained and washed off my jacket.
Friday evening, my host mother said that we might have a girl from Austria staying here as well. She is in Elva volunteering at the orphanage, but was getting lonely so she starting looking for a host family. She will be coming over tomorrow so we can all meet face to face and see how we'll get along. I hope she ends up staying, it will be great to have a teenage girl around. Who knows, I may even learn some German.
This has been an interesting week, for sure. Sunday morning I did something that I'm sure would have happened sooner or later: I poured Keefir in my tee instead of milk. You see, the bags that they come in look exactly the same and when I went to grab a new bag of milk, I grabbed Keefir instead. I only realized my mistake when I saw that there were tube like streams of white stuff floating in my tee.
This has also been a week of weird schedule changes. On Tuesday, in addition to to taking the bus to school for the first time, our PE class also changed times to one block earlier because the rest of the classes' Estonian teacher wasn't there. We exchange students were hanging out in the library for three blocks because we had a free block, then Estonian in the library, and then another free lesson before PE. It was nearly the end of the free lesson before PE, when a girl came in and told all of us that we had missed at least half of PE. When the four of us exchange girls got to the locker room, some girls we know we're exiting and told us that we had missed all of PE. Apparently someone had asked the teacher if we had been informed and the teacher said we had, but we never were.
Then the next day the five of us got to skip the first half of drama class because it was an assembly about summer vacation.
On Thursday, it was the first day of our English teacher's absence. Apparently there are no substitute teachers, so we were told what work we had to do before she returned on Tuesday and left to our own self-discipline for English class. Pretty much everyone showed up, but all but two of us left within ten minutes. When I finally left and went to the library, I found the rest of the class there, and some were doing the work. We were also informed on Thursday that we didn't have to show up for the first two Physics classes on Friday.
Friday I had to take the bus to school on my own, and it arrived right after we pulled up to the bus stop. I had to quickly get out my wallet and get on, however I had a leaky travel mug of tee in one hand and the morning bus only takes cash, and not bus cards. Basically, I ended up dropping change everywhere, because my wallet doesn't have a coin pocket with Velcro or zipper and spilling at least half my tee over my jacket sleeve. Thankfully, a nice man in the front seat picked up the change I dropped and I managed to give the bus driver the right amount. As an extra bonus, when I walked from the bus stop to school it rained and washed off my jacket.
Friday evening, my host mother said that we might have a girl from Austria staying here as well. She is in Elva volunteering at the orphanage, but was getting lonely so she starting looking for a host family. She will be coming over tomorrow so we can all meet face to face and see how we'll get along. I hope she ends up staying, it will be great to have a teenage girl around. Who knows, I may even learn some German.
Thursday, September 19, 2013
Recap
It has been a busy two weeks, and somehow I never got around to writing on my blog. I was going to to it over the weekend, but someone switched the wifi to a different network on me. To be fair, when we figured out it was him, he gave me the password.
Classes have been going very well, at least as well as can be expected. Physics is still incomprehensible, and I had to take a test in it yesterday. The test was in English, but I don't understand the underlying concepts, so it will be a terrible grade. However, according to the teacher, the test only counts for exchange students if we do well. I answered half the questions, the ones that were similar to Chemistry, and wrote "Ma ei tea.", I don't know, for the other half. I also wrote a border of sentences saying "Ma ei saa aru füüsika." which is how I thought you said I don't understand physics, but it should have been "Ma ei saa füüsikast aru." The Estonian student I was sharing the desk with kept looking over at my paper and laughing. The only good part of Physics is that it gives me the opportunity to learn some words in Estonian as I struggle to translate the questions.
Maths is likewise hard, even though the teacher has pulled out books in English for us. The explanations are in Estonian, and the math is really quite hard. It turns out that the class group we're in, 11a, is the eleventh grade group that attends the most difficult classes. I can do a lot of it up to the point where it slips beyond my comprehension.
English class is the best. I have both books I need for the class and the excercises are pretty easy, if sometimes hard to comprehend. It is the only class that gives homework so homework isn't much of a hardship. Usually in class the teacher assigns a bunch of paired exercises and some discussions in pairs. My desk mate and I usually do the first one or two before one sends us in a completely different direction and we start to ignore the class work and just speak in English about something completely unrelated. The teacher doesn't mind because it is in English, and the only thing she doesn't like taking place in her class is speech in Estonian. So yesterday, my desk mate and I spent almost the whole lesson discussing TV shows, and the two girls in front of us turned around at one point and joined in.
Today in English we had a test. I took it and found it pretty easy, except for the translating part and remembering which words we studied that she was looking for.
In drama, the teacher speaks almost no English. Fortunately, there are a bunch of people who are good enough to explain the activity or task. It has been fun so far and interesting to be sure. Yesterday we had to teach a partner a short poem, which they then had to recite before everyone. I taught my partner, Brittney, one in English, but when it was my turn to memorize, the teacher had run out of English poems, and I had to learn one in Estonian instead. Of course, the poem had to be the s card, which meant that nearly every word started with s and contained at least three per word. It sounded like a bunch of hissing, and I'm fairly sure that I butchered the pronounciation.
In Estonian we have been learning a lot of vocabulary, and helpful phrases. And some less helpful ones, such as "I'm single". We have a test in this class tomorrow. It has been a fun class so far and quite helpful, although I can't wait to move on to verbs, which I really need.
In PE we have been doing a lot of running, two laps as a warmup, and sometimes more, such as relay races and timed sprints. The rest of the time we have been doing sports, such as Estonian baseball, much like baseball that I played in hockey practice when I was little, ultimate frisbee, and football. We played football today, and I ended up as goalie. My team won two to one.
In History, we have started with the ice age and moved through to the Bronze Age. Every week one of us has to prepare a short presentation on part of our country's history. I went first and presented last week. My was on the various folk heroes of the US that appeared during the 19th century during westward expansion. The teacher loved it and gave me a five on it, which is the highest possible grade. Erick was supposed to do his today, but we spent the whole period watching the movie 10 000 BC, which is a very good movie.
Classes have been going very well, at least as well as can be expected. Physics is still incomprehensible, and I had to take a test in it yesterday. The test was in English, but I don't understand the underlying concepts, so it will be a terrible grade. However, according to the teacher, the test only counts for exchange students if we do well. I answered half the questions, the ones that were similar to Chemistry, and wrote "Ma ei tea.", I don't know, for the other half. I also wrote a border of sentences saying "Ma ei saa aru füüsika." which is how I thought you said I don't understand physics, but it should have been "Ma ei saa füüsikast aru." The Estonian student I was sharing the desk with kept looking over at my paper and laughing. The only good part of Physics is that it gives me the opportunity to learn some words in Estonian as I struggle to translate the questions.
Maths is likewise hard, even though the teacher has pulled out books in English for us. The explanations are in Estonian, and the math is really quite hard. It turns out that the class group we're in, 11a, is the eleventh grade group that attends the most difficult classes. I can do a lot of it up to the point where it slips beyond my comprehension.
English class is the best. I have both books I need for the class and the excercises are pretty easy, if sometimes hard to comprehend. It is the only class that gives homework so homework isn't much of a hardship. Usually in class the teacher assigns a bunch of paired exercises and some discussions in pairs. My desk mate and I usually do the first one or two before one sends us in a completely different direction and we start to ignore the class work and just speak in English about something completely unrelated. The teacher doesn't mind because it is in English, and the only thing she doesn't like taking place in her class is speech in Estonian. So yesterday, my desk mate and I spent almost the whole lesson discussing TV shows, and the two girls in front of us turned around at one point and joined in.
Today in English we had a test. I took it and found it pretty easy, except for the translating part and remembering which words we studied that she was looking for.
In drama, the teacher speaks almost no English. Fortunately, there are a bunch of people who are good enough to explain the activity or task. It has been fun so far and interesting to be sure. Yesterday we had to teach a partner a short poem, which they then had to recite before everyone. I taught my partner, Brittney, one in English, but when it was my turn to memorize, the teacher had run out of English poems, and I had to learn one in Estonian instead. Of course, the poem had to be the s card, which meant that nearly every word started with s and contained at least three per word. It sounded like a bunch of hissing, and I'm fairly sure that I butchered the pronounciation.
In Estonian we have been learning a lot of vocabulary, and helpful phrases. And some less helpful ones, such as "I'm single". We have a test in this class tomorrow. It has been a fun class so far and quite helpful, although I can't wait to move on to verbs, which I really need.
In PE we have been doing a lot of running, two laps as a warmup, and sometimes more, such as relay races and timed sprints. The rest of the time we have been doing sports, such as Estonian baseball, much like baseball that I played in hockey practice when I was little, ultimate frisbee, and football. We played football today, and I ended up as goalie. My team won two to one.
In History, we have started with the ice age and moved through to the Bronze Age. Every week one of us has to prepare a short presentation on part of our country's history. I went first and presented last week. My was on the various folk heroes of the US that appeared during the 19th century during westward expansion. The teacher loved it and gave me a five on it, which is the highest possible grade. Erick was supposed to do his today, but we spent the whole period watching the movie 10 000 BC, which is a very good movie.
Monday, September 9, 2013
First Day of Classes
I woke up at six o'clock Monday morning to get ready for school. We left the house at seven ten to drop off Adeele at kindergarten, and then we went to Miina Härma to drop me off. Aksel wasn't with us because it was his first day of school and he didn't have to go in until eleven.
I brought only a notebook, pen, and pencil because I didn't know what the policy was on bags. When I walked in the door, I followed the steady stream of people down into the coat room and looked for my class's. Thankfully there was someone there who I had met the day before there who told me which it was. I left my coat there and then headed upstairs to find my first class. I met up with the other exchange students in front of the classroom and we hung out for a little while until it was time to go in.
I ended up in the back of the room, next to Erick. The teacher came in and class started. The girls in front of us lent us on of their math books so we could follow along and try to do the math. I had thought that we would have an easy day of going over what we would be covering that year or reviewing what was learned last year, but instead we plunged headlong into the subject. Erick and I muddled along and the teacher came over frequently to check on our progress, or to explain the objective in her inexpert grasp of English. She is a wonderful teacher, "normal" (cool) as one girl told us. We found that she laughed a lot and were told that she laughs more and more as tests get closer.
After an hour and a half, we were finally done with Maths, and went upstairs for Physics. There was a rush to choose seats for Physics and I ended up next to Clara, the YFU exchange student from Germany. In this class too, we jumped headlong into the subject, but there was no point of familiarity for me in this one. The teacher spoke a mile a minute in rapid fire Estonian and scribbled diagrams and labels frantically across the board in the hasty scrawl that seems to be the hallmark of science teachers everywhere. I understood not a single thing.
After Physics one girl was nice enough to show us the library where we could get textbooks for math and physics, but the line was too long so we went off to English class. Each of us was in a different room. I was in room 212. The teacher was very cool and employed sarcasm in a quite humorous way. She did, however, have everyone in the room ask me a question in English, which I then had to answer.
After English I met severally other exchange students in the library and two got all their needed books and us other two just managed to get math books from the grouchy librarian. Then we met the fifth of us in room 119 for Estonian class. There were just five of us so it ended up being a rather informal class. That day all we did was drew abstract representations of things that define us and then the others had to guess what they signified. No one was particularly good at guessing, especially Erick. We also had to introduce ourselves in Estonian.
After that class it was the end of the day, so we went back to the library and those of us that needed books were able to get them. Then I had to call my mother, but it took me ten minutes, frustrated growling at the phone and competent help from Erick to get the phone to turn on. Once I called, I then got my coat and waited outside for her.
We had lunch, then went back to her office and I hung out in the basement for three hours watching crime television, before it was time for the Rotary meeting.
We went to the restaurant where it was being held and had dinner at two packed tables with the other Rotarians, before getting tea and heading upstairs to where the actual meeting part was being held. During the course of this, I noticed one lady who had my kind of dress sense. She was wearing a colorful long shirt with Chinese ties, and she was, according to my mother, an architect.
The meeting itself was very long and dull, since I couldn't understand anything at all really. There were papers constantly circling around for Rotarians to sign themselves up for things. I also entered myself into a photography competition that I still don't know the rules of. That's what I got out of the meeting really, but it was still a bit interesting, if only for the fashion.
I brought only a notebook, pen, and pencil because I didn't know what the policy was on bags. When I walked in the door, I followed the steady stream of people down into the coat room and looked for my class's. Thankfully there was someone there who I had met the day before there who told me which it was. I left my coat there and then headed upstairs to find my first class. I met up with the other exchange students in front of the classroom and we hung out for a little while until it was time to go in.
I ended up in the back of the room, next to Erick. The teacher came in and class started. The girls in front of us lent us on of their math books so we could follow along and try to do the math. I had thought that we would have an easy day of going over what we would be covering that year or reviewing what was learned last year, but instead we plunged headlong into the subject. Erick and I muddled along and the teacher came over frequently to check on our progress, or to explain the objective in her inexpert grasp of English. She is a wonderful teacher, "normal" (cool) as one girl told us. We found that she laughed a lot and were told that she laughs more and more as tests get closer.
After an hour and a half, we were finally done with Maths, and went upstairs for Physics. There was a rush to choose seats for Physics and I ended up next to Clara, the YFU exchange student from Germany. In this class too, we jumped headlong into the subject, but there was no point of familiarity for me in this one. The teacher spoke a mile a minute in rapid fire Estonian and scribbled diagrams and labels frantically across the board in the hasty scrawl that seems to be the hallmark of science teachers everywhere. I understood not a single thing.
After Physics one girl was nice enough to show us the library where we could get textbooks for math and physics, but the line was too long so we went off to English class. Each of us was in a different room. I was in room 212. The teacher was very cool and employed sarcasm in a quite humorous way. She did, however, have everyone in the room ask me a question in English, which I then had to answer.
After English I met severally other exchange students in the library and two got all their needed books and us other two just managed to get math books from the grouchy librarian. Then we met the fifth of us in room 119 for Estonian class. There were just five of us so it ended up being a rather informal class. That day all we did was drew abstract representations of things that define us and then the others had to guess what they signified. No one was particularly good at guessing, especially Erick. We also had to introduce ourselves in Estonian.
After that class it was the end of the day, so we went back to the library and those of us that needed books were able to get them. Then I had to call my mother, but it took me ten minutes, frustrated growling at the phone and competent help from Erick to get the phone to turn on. Once I called, I then got my coat and waited outside for her.
We had lunch, then went back to her office and I hung out in the basement for three hours watching crime television, before it was time for the Rotary meeting.
We went to the restaurant where it was being held and had dinner at two packed tables with the other Rotarians, before getting tea and heading upstairs to where the actual meeting part was being held. During the course of this, I noticed one lady who had my kind of dress sense. She was wearing a colorful long shirt with Chinese ties, and she was, according to my mother, an architect.
The meeting itself was very long and dull, since I couldn't understand anything at all really. There were papers constantly circling around for Rotarians to sign themselves up for things. I also entered myself into a photography competition that I still don't know the rules of. That's what I got out of the meeting really, but it was still a bit interesting, if only for the fashion.
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